I am also in the process of getting my real estate licence.

Got my RE agent licence in 2010 and quickly realized that I much preferred property/deal analysis to marketing myself and sales.

Question 1: Do you need a licence ?

I assume you mean to say that you registered yourself with your state comptroller (or Sec of State) for Doing Business As (DBA) some fictitious name.For your DBA activity, use Schedule C (1040) on your personal tax return to report your business income and expenses. 

When that investor went inside to view the property, I had to make a decision on whether to get in a bidding contest there, and chose to reiterate to the owner that I could provide a Wells Fargo bank statement with funds necessary to purchase the property (not fictitious) and that I would give a call back in the morning.

If you don't know anything about real estate than getting your licence isn't a bad idea but one has nothing to do with the other. 

So, it seems real estate licence seems good enough to do estimate. 

My partner has no interest in obtaining a real estate licence.  

My son decided to come be a real estate investor and the first thing we had him do was to get a real estate licence and here's why.1.  

Cap rates come from closed sales that are analyzed by an independent professional third party.Crap rates are fictitious numbers made up by clueless individuals trying to scam newbie investors.There is no reason for you to be trying to calculate either.