But I can tell you Dallas and Austin are highly competitive, and from what I've heard about Austin, if you don't have a team and system in place already it's hard to get a foothold.

It's not even a competition, unless you can't get Spectrum.

I started with wholesaling and closed 3 deals but this seems to be way more stable with way less competition.

“Normal” we are a brand new property so we had what we thought were competitive prices and had no yet made a drop for said virus

I think what it comes down to is getting the property to be competitive in the nature of the features like I mentioned earlier.

My layman's understanding of NAR's long standing anti-Trust argument is that broker cooperation via the MLS increases competition, and thus good for the consumer. 

Currently the city is an absolute seller's market -- most decently priced homes are selling within 24 hours of being listed, to where it's hard for me to be competitive without going excessively over (I'd be putting only 3% down).

For Philly, I found Safeco typically has the most competitive premiums for landlord policies. 

We’re in the same boat, trying SO HARD to buy a primary residence but competition is stiff.  

@Anthony Phillips It is a little bit complicated, but that weeds out a good bit of competition.