Open houses and door knocking ( farming an area ) will lead to more traditional real estate transactions.

Each open house can generate buyer leads and seller leads. 

The level of service you will most likely get using "flat fee" services will be best described as "half-assed", you probably already know that, and the lackadaisical approach may lead your property to have negative exposure instead of the positive exposure it needs.

I’ve already found some leads to follow up but figuring out whether deals are good or not has me a bit stumped for now.

We forget how easy it is to be lead astray in this world that is RE investing, and even with the help of forums like BP there are no guarantees that we know what we're getting ourselves into. 

I am looking to connect with wholesalers, agents and anyone who might have leads.

@Emily Refi checking back in with the post, I've gotten in contact with local lenders and they are all telling me the same things which leads me to believe finding the right lender with good financials as @Ned Carey mentioned will be most important.

What about some of the other leading indicators in your local markets?

One of the Atlanta area gurus  always preached borrowing as much as possible in the years leading up to 2007 crash.

It depends on what you want, if you want to be almost 100% independent and earn the max commission a cloud broker might be best if you need guidance and/ or leads and are willing to give on commission for it a more traditional option may be a better fit.