It's vitally important to know who you are working with, and have the history of the players involved.  

I am a person who is driven by competition (I was a college baseball player until I hurt my arm two years ago) and as I keep doing more and more research about real estate investing I can tell this is the industry I needed to learn as much as I could about.

Buildium, Property Ware, and Appfolio are the "Big Three" players in this space, and they are very sticky - Meaning once you invest the time and energy into setting up a system, you are very unlikely to change over to another one. 

Most of the main players do a good job at providing guidance & assistance in purchases.  

A big player is the Intel plant coming to central Ohio.

Is he a retired hockey player ?

I wouldn't get the license unless you want to spend significant energy as an agent to learn your market and the players in your market. 

Isn't there something akin to a player's union in professional sports in the investment world?

The basketball player Antoine Walker for one.

However, for many newbies the need to be perceived upfront as a "player" is just too irresistible to avoid getting sucked in.