In some state, you must have a real estate licensee for management.

a bird dog is in no way hurting someone with a license, that has to be one of the sickest excuses i have ever heard, as a desperate attempt to throw someone off.tell me how a bird dog is hurting a licensee.

Off the top of my head, here are the things I can think of that I use regularly in my brokerage: *Disclose all defects up front, *Follow escrow deposit rules to the letter, *Disclose I'm a licensee at initial contact with a seller I'm buying from, *there are 43,560 square feet in an acre.

I'm less sympathetic to professional PMs or licensees/employees of a brokerage like Keller Williams.  

Should I try and find an agent within my broker who could also benefit from a partner or search outside of the company (maybe a new licensee looking for guidance?)

I would also say just going to the real estate license classes and learning the vocabulary and basic RE laws of your state will help, whether you become a licensee or not.

A sponsored licensee then could be compensated directly for those services.

That's their job--to protect licensees and the public.

But to say that ONLY licenseed contractors can flip property sounds downright ridiculous to me.  

Additional note - was led to the following contained within Indiana State Code Title 25-34.1-10-12(a) A licensee may act as a limited agent only with the written consent of all parties to a real estate transaction.