The law says that no unlicensed entity can receive 'any' considerations due to the purchase/sale of real estate.That means gift cards, credit points, discounts, cash, etc at closing.Like @Dev Horn says if you pay a flat fee for each lead then that isn't a consideration for closing any transactions and it would be strictly lead generation.If somebody brought me a deal and I closed on it before paying them If I was fearful of paying them for it bc they were unlicensed then I think I would simply give them the option to have money out into a marketing campaign for them to manage.Like buying 1000 direct mail letters with their information on it bc that would be you putting money into marketing vs giving a consideration.

Can I  use a property information from a MLS or put a MLS link on my website  to advertise  a property I'm interested in to buyers , before I get a contract on it?

I've actually gotten 3 calls out of the handwritten ones so far which is showing a better response rate at this point than the bigger campaign.

I ask this because I recently started my first letter campaign (FINALLY!!)

I've only bought flippers in Hayward but my client-investor seems to be pretty active in Fremont area from his direct mail campaign (he didn't tell me how but I kinda make an educated guess from the way he talks).Good luck and see you around the site. 

For example, you advertise a house with stainless gourmet steel appliances.

I have read to get some good deals off market to flip/ wholesale would be to advertise "we buy houses for cash". 

I estimated at least $70k of work so I offered $30k and they rejected it, so I walkedHere is where I am at with the four I am hoping to get (2 under contract and 2 pending)I have identified some more properties but the cap rates are nothing too exciting so I have decided to do a Direct Mail campaign first to see if I get any good leads.

I didn't think that it would be so many for our first advertised meetup.  

Putting an entity in place and advertising is not necessary, but it makes you feel like you're in business, often a false sense of reality.