However, I am very surprised by the amount of BP content in podcasts, books, and online that uses the word "equity" when talking about "sweat equity" partners and capital partners.

You probably wont have enough funds to Skiptrace, so you will need to manually search numbers (searchpeoplefree.com).Find potential sellers on Popstream -> search their numbers for free-> call -> follow up -> Close a deal -> Find a buyer using Propstream and online groups.  

Some have them on line, others give them away during the auctions they run.  

I've decided to go for my agent license, and have been plugging away at my study guide, the guide tests, and a few other resources online.

Usually this can be done online.

Even though retiring by 40 is an exceptionally early goal (or so I thought), we have realized that we can move that up WAY quicker by leveraging the fact that we have so much more disposable income than we need.After attending a BiggerPockets webinar, watching hours of YouTube videos and researching online, I have decided to take the plunge and buy my first rental property.

I ran the numbers on a calculator online and I was curious if the numbers looks accurate.

Or you could use a personal loan lender (search online), SoFi is one that comes to mind although I've never used them myself.

whenever I fill out a form online I get inundated by a bunch of spam with nothing tangible. 

Commercial brokers, particularly the larger ones (CBRE, Cushman, Jones Lang LaSalle) will typically only take clients that disclose these upfront and make them available in a war room through online portals.