If most of your potential renters renters view the area as a crime area, desirability will be lower and they may move a mile and a half in the other direction from where they are now with less crime.

We are getting about 500 views each month right now.

Really the super zoomed out view should be where there is strong job growth, population growth, and a good price-to-rent ratio. 

This is a more macro view, and I am not an economist.

The new rules say the buyer has to be under representation to see the house, so how is s/he viewing the house without signing some kind of contract with the agent?

The easiest way to view it with Househacking is; the more uncomfortable you are willing to be, the more you can potentially cashflow RIGHT NOW.  

So my view changed.

I have already seen the new forms/addendums that will be used here in Arizona, the common one for this will be the Seller Compensation Addendum.The one thing that might happen in your discount buyer agent scenario is you might get a buyers agent who agrees to a lower commission and then the listing agent is offering a co-broke that is higher than he agreed to, well now that buyers agent will only be able to get paid the lower amount he agreed to and the listing agent will keep the remainder, so listing agents could end up getting paid more.As far as your question on what to pay an agent, I view it similarly to hiring an attorney, there are discount attorney's and they might be okay for some people in some circumstances, or if you know the proper procedures and deadlines then maybe you do it on your own without an attorney.

- How are you tracking weekly ad views?

This is the generalized view of investors among contractors.