You can PM people and make your presence more personal in that type of platform. 

What's is a decent rate of return?

She seems to lay things out pretty straight forward and I like the turn-key simplicity of her investment platform.

Using a professional solution for online applications would eliminate the risk from those items, so I'd seriously consider using Cozy.co if you're just looking to start as I believe that's free to you, while AppFolio or Buildium are much more comprehensive property management platforms with screening features built-in.

the owners haven't had a strong platform to grieve their assessment (or are unaware that they have this option).  

It will be tempting to designate those occasions for leisure time / letting friends stay, but can also be the more profitable days of the year if you are doing short term stays through platforms like Airbnb.

I was wondering if anyone used a crowd funding platform to buy commercial multi-family properties? 

We can debate which platform, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, are better; at the end of the day they give us easy to search data base of past and current sales, rent, crime, schools, like you and @Christopher Blanco pointed out.

Social media is great because other like-minded investors and REI professionals will have a platform to organically connect with you, and you never know, you could be doing business with them one day. 

Since my debt to income ratio is very high (student loans), I am unable to purchase a property at a decent rate, and cosigner's option is a risky option (still trying to acquire one though).