that's all I have done my entire adult life since I was first licensed at 18.. there is a difference in being a retail real estate sales person and using a license to further your investing goals.Its not an easy business by any means to be a retail agent and there is a high burn out rate.. not as high as wholesalers but its at least 50%...If your an ACTIVE investor I cant see how you can do without it.. if your fix and flipping in my mind its mandatory.its about 2k a year to keep sometimes less and If your business does not allow that or like some say the cost is to high then in my mind your not really in the business its a pittance to spend to have access to all the info and be in the club.if your goal is to be a lifelong landlord then work for a commercial brokerage that specializes in cash flow real estate just being there will open up doors.if by chance your very good at sales and have a very large warm market you may shock yourself in how much money you can make just in transactional real estate.. 

I agree with @Russell Brazil - "How many years have you maintained an active real estate license?"

A private lender is a person and you vet in person by assessing your relationship with them and common friendships. 

I noticed a trend of people bidding about a third to half the tax assessed value which was way above the taxes owed. 

Quite honestly, all this will do is complicate things for you (as it did for me)...essentially, since they are both single member LLCs, you'll basically have to report the separate activities on two separate Schedule Cs for income tax purposes...

Is it permissible to use the allocation of building to land from the county property tax assessment instead of an appraisal? 

Their is definitely a lot of activity with owner occupants purchasing.

In my state of SC the way property tax is assessed for rentals is (assessed value x .06 and that times .1 but that does not include additional taxes that businesses are hit with that owner occupied isn't.

I have an RE agent license even though I don’t work actively as an agent, hence I know what overall prices are in the neighborhood.

If you and your wife file a joint return then from the federal perspective you and she (or rather the tax return that reports the activity of the properties - all of them both from during your marriage and before your marriage) are one and the same tax payer.