Once you determine if you need a license and are sure you are DF compliant, your other concern will be the quality of collateral and how much you are willing to lend against it.

Market the property effectively: High quality photos; video; competitive buyer agent compensation; marketing to agents via email, social media, broker Open houses; etc.You and your agent may already have this covered!

Not too low either, you don't want to go with someone who is just focused on price as this is a quality of a not-so-great accountant.

The reason they can give free skip trace data is because it's such dated and poor quality they are getting it at little to no cost.  

Passive real estate investing comes with its own challenges of course, most notably finding quality syndicators and the high minimum investment (typically $50-100K if you invest by yourself).

@Allen Berrebbi I use FreedomSkips.com same high quality data as Batch, NeedtoSkip, and SkipGenie without the high prices.

Being a builder, my first thought goes to the construction type items: Tile or wood floors, vinyl shower kits, high quality wall paint like Behr Marquis, solid wood furniture, good appliances not cheap rental ones, easy to maintain yard outside like DG, artificial turf and gravel. 

Of course if you buy a less than good quality property, capex will exceed cash flow.

The highest form, a 'quality cost segregation study' must be performed by someone with experience.

My suggestion is invest in quality education that helps you build your skill set then go all in.