Generally how it works is if commission is 100k and 3 people on a team then 50k goes to brokerage, about 27k goes to senior broker,15k goes to middle broker,  then 8k to junior broker.As you can see they have to do a lot of volume to equal what I make in one transaction so they tend not to want to deal with unknown buyers but feel more comfortable working with a broker on the other end.

It all depends on your goals and your comfort level.

And the answer is always the same :-) There is no way to accurately do this...too many variables and moving parts, plus it varies too much from one locale to another.You need to find a really good General Contractor and pay him to walk the property with you....over and over....until you feel really comfortable estimating yourself, and that should take years.Alternatively there are online calculators (even one here in the tools section) but I would not rely on them for the reasons listed above.

See if you feel comfortable there.

Obviously the most important thing is that you feel comfortable with the situation 

None of this gave me a $125,000 comfort level.  

Comfort? 

But find a rental model that feels comfortable to you (house-hacking, it seems?)

A few string lights and some comfortable patio furniture can go a long way.

As an appraiser I can get a more accurate market value than the Z-Estimate and I'm comfortable researching County Records.