Would this not reduce the number of potential buyers brought to the table when the realtor can't use the largest marketing platform to its full advantage (aka the MLS)?

Are you going to fly out to view the property you buy or trust your agent and inspector have them video record a tour?

There are software platforms available now.

My guidance is always to first determine your exit strategy and then reverse engineer into the resources you need, and the platform that provides them, in order to achieve your goal. 

National Park is the most visited park in all of the US. likely due to the large east coast population, but there's some knock-out views  for 500k  and a decent  2bed 2bath.  

I viewed it as similar to real estate investing in that if I didn't like I could sell and exit, just with a smaller entry price. 

Once we figured that out, we then found the best platform given our goals, to build our business on top of. 

There are lots of places but I only have to make the following manual inputs and the platforms will list them for me on all platforms:Must have:Zillow.

There are some of the new online lending platforms that might work, but again I think probably what they will charge you vs what you might make is not a good option. 

There are probably 10 experts here on BP that work different states with different rules and procedures, I think every one of them agree that you want to see every property you bid on in PERSON, not on google street view, not on sat view, not on some website.