As a CA landlord, (NorthernCalif. rural) I don't think of CA as "renter friendly", (and yes, I'm currently in the middle of an"eviction /unlawful detainer" process ) compared to much of the east coast; that is- unless you're in a CA "rent controlled" area, where the laws are VERY STRICT, and can vary wildly in each area, even inside city/county lines.  

The apartment is in a hip/historical area and prices have gone wild over the past few years, especially if the unit is knocked out- like on the level we renovate our flips to.

HOWEVER when I was 30 years old wild horses couldn't keep me from trying it.

You may be thinking purely of the property-finding aspect, but there's a lot more to consider.First off, as an unrepresented buyer, the only sellers who will take you seriously are usually going to be FSBO's, who may not know any better, or scumbags who know they can take wild advantage of you - any listing agent worth their salt is going to see an unrepresented buyer as a tremendous liability and amount of work for themselves and their seller. 

Be swift, polite, firm and fair in enforcing the terms of the rental agreement before it mushrooms out of control.

Currently all we do is a 2 hour session from 6pm to 8pm at a buffalo wild wings party room that is mostly networking and some meetups we have a 20-30 minute presentation on something REI related from a local investor or service professional. 

Then he went off on some wild tangent trying to "appraise" his property.

Finding an apartment is a wild ride there, I have never seen places come and go so quickly in CT!  

It's wildly inappropriate - or at least highly unconventional - for the realtor to have asked for it.

And if it is legal, still, check into splitting them because that added cost is a big turn off, namely because it can fluctuate wildly based upon tenant usage, and if it is free tenants will use it freely.