Having an LLC for active work (wholesaling, flipping) is a great tool.

A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.If you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

I know BP has calculators, which I’m considering PRO, but also want to know if there are other tools for managing and organizing flips easier?

Once I get some interest or some engagement I move them to my CRM.

So you would want to call your E&O insurance providers, showingtime or showing service vendors, CRM vendors, training vendors, lead generation vendors, compliance officer,sign vendors, print vendors, etc.   

Helocs are a great tool to leverage your home and get into more real estate. 

As a new RE investor, I don't really have the proper tools to analyze this decision, other than thinking that the potential upside of renting is small compared to the potential downsides of a RE crash, future vacancy between tenants, falling rental prices, falling home prices, etc.

Try to understand what tools they can provide you (marketing, software, legal, lead generation) What the commission split is and how it changes based on time there or performance. 

I then used my county's property information search tool to find the taxpayer for the property and did a google search of their name which returned a recent obituary. 

This would be a great marketing tool to make this investing option more appealing than traditional investing.