You'll gain valuable experience by observing habits of a top producer that you can mimic when you take the plunge into being an agent yourself. 

In summer, the solar panels produce well and they pay nothing.

Currently I am trying to crunch the numbers of what cashflow I would produce if I decided to rent out my own SFH.

For example, $200,000 over 3 years would produce roughly $5555/mo in income that can be used to qualify. 

After property taxes, insurance, and 13% for repairs and capital expenditures, the property produced a substantial cash flow.

Like most things in life, the more time and effort you put into something, the more it will produce for you.

The fuel was hard to produce, and could only be produced in small quantities in a batch process. 

Example:  I have a property that is likely worth $550K FMV today that produces about $60K a year in top line rents. 

If the work has not been completed by closing, the buyer can walk with the earnest money.You could negotiate a five digit escrow at closing to mitigate this risk ( unlikely the seller will agree I'm sure)You could gamble buy it and hope there is no contaminationYou could require the seller to produce a recent Phase 2 environmental showing no spillage or ground contamination and with that buy it and remediate the tank yourselfIf the seller balks at options 1 or 2 or 4, then all you can do is watch the listing age out and test the seller for motivation every month or so.

The inspector could likely just produce a “similar” report and charge a fee to additional people interested in the property.