I would think this is especially true in lower price point areas. 

I am about to submit to the IRS my log of 500+ hours working in the STR business, most of which come from communicating with guests, cleaners, maintenance people, Airbnb, VRBO, and managing supplies, shopping, bill paying, pricing, calendars, all the daily and weekly tasks. 

In retrospect this $200 was never mentioned in the original pitch but I later discovered that even the idea of one time payment and forever help until you make the $1M profit and split with them is not true.

What @Jonathan Greene said about the MLS can be true, BUT make sure the market is large enough and that there are enough listings going through realtors.

They say it's easier after that milestone (I have no idea how true that is)

They should only call or knock on your door if there's a true emergency (life, flood, or blood type stuff).

You get what you pay for in all cases: while shopping for food, clothes, attorneys, CPAs, Doctors and Realtors. 

A true Investor friendly agent will have all of the contacts and likely use them on their own projects.

That's when I became a true believer!

True cash flow needs to be 50% net of your PITI, but we can use banking measures of 75%.