I have a little chicken or the egg issue though - part of the resource I was going to use to look for deals was the MLS, however, I can't get access to it until I work with an agent.  

While there are a lot of factors, there are a couple sites that give you at least an estimate to make some projections.

In that case your MIL's savings would be needed for legal advice, progress inspections, and other vendor resources.

Are there any good reads or other resources that would provide some sample road maps?   

I'm filling out a TAR lease for a tenant to sign and some things are simply not relevant to my property.

I will look into all these resources..

So don’t spend too much time on it until your offer has been accepted.It’s okay to start with sites like Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Redfin.com, Realtor.com, etc., to get a vague idea of a house’s features, photos, and value.

Is there any commercial sites, that I can use to find multifamily properties? 

Especially on this site, you'd be hard pressed to find users of true big data and supported applications. 

For the few properties I've considered on those sites, I have called the agents and found them to be very helpful.