There's also a public version of the MLS, realtracs.com, but it's not nearly as robust as the actual MLS. 

Real estate commission will be reduced due to my wife being a realtor.I am trying to figure out a fair deal for the owner of the lots whether it be a flat % return, a partnership split, or another type of agreement. 

If you after Cash Flow with your rental by simply paying down the mortgage will not reduce the mortgage payment the only way to achieve that is to refi those properties probably at a higher interest rate which is paying the bank more.

 You need to:  A) Know thyself  B) Develop an understanding of what REIT's are and factors that effect their pricing  C) Develop an understanding of where you're going to invest if you buy physical propertyFor this comment Ill be talking about publicly traded REIT's as they're available to everyone through a brokerage account.

Preparation is going to help you reduce some of the fear and anxiety.    

I have seen many posts suggesting finding an “investor savvy realtor” and stating that there is a difference between realtors who service the general public and those who service investors.

Personally I wouldn't choose it as that's less than half my ROR (even before reducing the return by the amount of rent paid) and I don't trust any govt systems to be there as promised by the time I'm old enough to collect.To consider the property potential, it's possible even without rent and depreciation, that you could beat 6.5%/yr over 9 years. 

This reduces the chance for significant sweat equity.Are you prepared for years of hundreds of dollars of negative cash flow?

It is best to just look the info you want to know the answers to up on a public info site though.

We could have made 300k more and reduced our holding costs.