The extra networking, guidance, tools available far outweigh any perceived cons. 

Such as business cards and tools and mileage (I travel 3 hours to the town where my flips are mostly located)?

This sure is one of your best tools!

The more astute of us realize that real-world conditions are not as the market says they are.When it comes to the interest rate arbitrage of 5- and 6-cap investments -- those truly big players have tools in their toolbox that we don't have access to.

I feel this will give me some great tools and contacts to help us get started in our REI ventures. 

most people use gross rent as a quick scanning tool to see if the property meets search criteria

@David Echeverria  Hope you'er ready for a great ride to the top by using all the free tools and more.

My model has been to refinance the property that I have, use that to buy another property with cash, which is a good tool to get a better deal, also use that refi money to do the renovation, which I buy pretty distressed property most of the time.

I think you might not be ready yet, add some additional information to your tool belt and you will be able to ask more pointed questions for better responses!

We're willing to tackle what others might consider scary, but tools like Loopnet/Craigslist are either not effective in finding what we're after or what we're after simply doesn't exist anymore.