Hey Nathan,There are plenty of brokers with minimal monthly fees but not all of them would fit your needs.

If they've listed it for auction, it's a waste of time to try to contact them directly.

Giant waste of opportunity.

If I have trouble renting it, want to get something else, or just get sick of owning it, I can offload it with minimal aggravation.

In the great recession there was minimal impact on MF as a whole, with a majority of effects happening on ground up development or in the lower class properties and areas. 

High maintenance is not usually a problem for me, but it went too far with other issues and my time was being wasted.

Not going to lie, I'm not a huge fan of agents, but I won't waste their time when I know I don't have financing lined up. 

Not liking the whole upfront fee scenario as this will be the my first opportunity to open the doors and minimize out of pocket expenses.

I think from my experience it is a little farfetched to get into this game without minimally $30000 of capital in a mildly decent market even with the KNOWLEDGE AND HUSTLE even when my expenses are very low and my income is moderately high.

Waste of money.