Waiting for a listing to expire is an option, but you'll also need to wait beyond the "waiting period" from the expiration date, the Realtor who is the procuring cause of any sale within 60/90 days after a listing expires can be due commissions. :)

As used in this chapter: (A) "Real estate broker" includes any person, partnership, association, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or corporation, foreign or domestic, who for another, whether pursuant to a power of attorney or otherwise, and who for a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration, or with the intention, or in the expectation, or upon the promise of receiving or collecting a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration does any of the following: (1) Sells, exchanges, purchases, rents, or leases, or negotiates the sale, exchange, purchase, rental, or leasing of any real estate; (2) Offers, attempts, or agrees to negotiate the sale, exchange, purchase, rental, or leasing of any real estate; (3) Lists, or offers, attempts, or agrees to list, or auctions, or offers, attempts, or agrees to auction, any real estate; (4) Buys or offers to buy, sells or offers to sell, or otherwise deals in options on real estate; (5) Operates, manages, or rents, or offers or attempts to operate, manage, or rent, other than as custodian, caretaker, or janitor, any building or portions of buildings to the public as tenants; (6) Advertises or holds self out as engaged in the business of selling, exchanging, purchasing, renting, or leasing real estate; (7) Directs or assists in the procuring of prospects or the negotiation of any transaction, other than mortgage financing, which does or is calculated to result in the sale, exchange, leasing, or renting of any real estate; (8) Is engaged in the business of charging an advance fee or contracting for collection of a fee in connection with any contract whereby the broker undertakes primarily to promote the sale, exchange, purchase, rental, or leasing of real estate through its listing in a publication issued primarily for such purpose, or for referral of information concerning such real estate to brokers, or both, except that this division does not apply to a publisher of listings or compilations of sales of real estate by their owners; (9) Collects rental information for purposes of referring prospective tenants to rental units or locations of such units and charges the prospective tenants a fee.

This is no different than any wholesaler or retailer -- you have to know what your buyers are willing to pay and then you have to procure inventory for less than that amount to generate net income.4.

Even the most innovative and complicated deals are explained with a great ease.It will blow your mind away for sure and will open up floodgates of the possibilities that you may have never think of while procuring a real estate deal.  

My role is mostly to organize the deals, source them, do high-level deal structure, procure team members, raise money (equity and debt), etc.

It should be a group effort and the developer should procure investors as well as the portal.

My realtor who also owns rental properties will work for me for tenant procurement, but I am still looking for good references of local handymen & contractors. 

I wouldn't be surprised if real estate "consultants" remained -- people paid on an hourly basis to help with transactional details and paperwork -- and I wouldn't be surprised if real estate attorneys took a more prominent role in the complicated transactions, but I don't think the value of real estate agents is there.Ultimately, agents do the following:- Help procure buyers for sellers and help procure housing prospects for buyers;- Help with negotiation;- Fill out forms and deal with procedural details of the transaction;- Coordinate closings.The first bullet above is by-far the most important, and eventually the Internet will provide the ability for buyers and sellers to find each other without a middleman.All that said, real estate agents have a very strong lobby, so they probably won't go away as quickly as they should.And full disclosure, I'm a licensed agent.

Has anyone set up a partnership that raises money with a real estate broker where there was a conflict of interest about how to price investor money to procure property?

They may even be able to help you procure counter parties for properties too.They are in the business of real estate just like you.