I am a web developer living in San Diego, California area and have a long time interest in real estate, but have not jumped in as of yet.

I do think the OTA's are a threat to our businesses and I also like controlling my own destiny, but is it worth the time, effort, maintenance and cost to drive my own brand on the web? 

. - You must have a good clean web site, a lead magnet (a form to get info from people in exchange for something cool), Facebook pixel and Google analytics at minimum. 

Amazon Web Services had a 15 hour outage last year.

Also completely web-based, I find it to be a much easier platform for someone with little/no bookkeeping or accounting knowledge. 

Have you ever heard the saying "oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive"? 

@Gloria Sheridan,You are correct, ETC has lots of negative feedback not only here on BP but also on the web if you just google the name.

I have a rehab analysis spreadsheet uploaded in my file place which includes a Repair Estimator & Rehab Calculator to help you estimate repair costs and analyze the Max Purchase Price you should offer for a rehab.https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/drobertso...There are other good spreadsheets in the fileplace, or BP has their own web-based calculators.

You will never factor out all risk and the web will only prepare you so much. 

Web sites that you use to gather information and understand trends etc.