My RE agent thinks the same and offers to help (for free) so I can skip the lawyer and save money.  

If the place is substantially clean and only needs a quick re-sweep, and maybe there's one dead bulb or something, I generally skip it because it's not substantial.

On the plus side, assuming your regulations allow you to take quick action, you can be far more flexable about who you rent to and skip some research.

Most people scale only after they have the business, which is too late.On the flip side, there are so many inexperienced new investors that are so desperate to get into the business, that they skip due diligence.

You'll get a number of agents in the list, then at the bottom it lists "home owner" with a phone number, there's no picture for them so it is easy to skip over.

(No skips or bumps in the road?) 

Or can I just go out on my own and do appraisals when I feel like it or just skip the job part of it if I'm more interested in my own investing activities?

I see all the time people just skip steps to keep the price down and get the job .

If you don't have their number, you can try a skip tracing service to find them.Go knock on their doors.

Another mistake I don't know how I happened to skip mentioning....