If you're just buying 1-2-3 a year to me way too much of a time waster, to save you and your agent time.I'm guessing by what you mean is the access to the Seller's disclosure and any info posted online by the listing agent? 

Its a more saturated market now due to low barrier to entry and all of the "guru's" selling Arbitrage online to folks.

They actually are licensed which is shocking as everything I've read about them online is very very negative. 

Buyers see a sign, look online, call an agent and see houses.

I've heard that you can make them custom online and save a bunch. 

There is valuable information, however it is all available for free online with YouTube and google.

You can also check their reviews online at Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

Spending 15 seconds online and I see that older homes sell for about $100K less.

You will learn a lot more talking to people in a room that you will on a forum because good or bad, a lot of people will not say thing online that they might tell you in person.That's why I would look for a local REIA group or SEVERAL, fly to that city and attend these events and talk to people, get the lay of the land and ask about what you are being told and see if it vibes.Back in 2008, 9, 10 I was getting calls from a lot of out of state investors who had scooped up houses at great steals here in KC for 100k $150k and their cash flowing tenants had vanished, or stopped paying and been evicted, the property had been vandalized and they wanted to sell  . . . back then the most I would offer them was $5 to $10k. 

But here I am, trying to put a really strong offer in on a home and I’m not sure if I should go in with the mindset that it’s a 3b/2ba 1,895 sq ft or a 4b/2ba 2,055 sq ft… Seeing as I’m going to rent this one day, if I myself decide to get it assessed/permitted as square footage (which I don’t know how much of a pain it truly is), I ran some rent estimators online (RentCast.io) and the rental comp differences between those two scenarios is about $2,275/monthly vs. $2,600/monthly, which is huge!