Don't solely look at gross rents but get a feel for what units in varying conditions command in rent.   

I want to use real estate commissions to spring board my investment capital.

Depends on where you put the money.If you can lock it up, even at $600k, put in the paint and tile work needed, you could get $670k to be safe and still have a decent gross profit.You should use the BP calculators or a spreadsheet and look at where your max offer price might be.Also, just a BiggerPockets user interface tip, when you reply using the "quote" feature, you want to type your response below the quote.

Hey guys first time user glad to join hopefully many smart minds i can get help from.

Don't know if it's any better or more user friendly. 

The only 3 or 4 stars we have gotten have been from new users. 

estimate conservative when you're new, use real figures as you acquire.

Your best bet  is the county assessor so I'd try again, some counties are more user friendly than others. 

{Plays the most current podcast - which is 299 - four episodes have elapsed since the ‘play’ command stopped working.}Is anyone else having the same issue?

Yellow cells = user inputs.