@Saul Vargas, to piggyback off others, sourcing a traditional SFH rental that meets your underwriting criteria will be complex due to interest rates and market conditions.

The intent of getting a sales agent license is to educate myself in Real Estate and create some additional income.If your relationship is such that you need to hide your license, you’d be better off with a different working relationship.  

Paid platforms often offer additional features like market analytics, off-market property leads, and filters for investor-specific criteria, giving them a leg up over free options.Exactly, most platforms have to offset cost somewhere because of how expensive it is to keep the data up to date.

A quick internet search led to quite a few complaints by people claiming to be ripped off, had deals fall through, or simply getting the run around each time. 

Sees a lot of off market stuff because he is a property manager as well.The toughest part about investing outside of your locality is finding boots on the ground that you can trust.

Now taht real estate has gone back to the good ole days of not being an appreciation machine and a good investor needs sound fundamentals in managing and overseeing the properties - now you are given the wave of "creative finance" which comes off as its easy to get a home but it will be interesting to see how these people are fairing in a few years of mismanagement of these assets. 

That group is made to help first time investors build systems to get off the ground.

Do I only draft a cash-for-keys agreement after they've accepted the notion of it or just drop-off the proposal/demand?

Is it better to sell, pay off mortgage and capital gains and take the cash to invest in another property or is it better to refi/ETO and take the cash to invest in another property?

That loan is being paid off by someone who checks the box on the conventional loan application that they will be occupying the property.