E.g. owner is being foreclosed on, you come along with little to no money available to buy the house from him traditionally so you offer to buy the distressed owner's house subject to his existing mortgage. 

My places are very busy and my monthly income is greater than 3x what I'd get if they were traditional long-term rentals.

Depending upon what you find, and other factors, it might be cheaper and easier to just replace the slab area with a traditional wood floor joist system and plywood.

To refinance into a traditional mortgage you will most likely need 12 months of seasoning on the rents being generated. 

I have a full-time job and my employer offers traditional 401k.

Traditional "wood" laminate works well on reasonably uneven floors, and it's easier to install and generally looks better than click vinyl plank.

That said, I can't speak for other brokerages but I can say I started out at a ""big box" traditional firm and they did not understand my investment business AT ALL.

In my experience, real estate and the stock market are traditionally a breeding ground for greed, selfishness, and just plain unsavory behavior.

Ask about the commission split structure, desk fees, buying and selling for yourself/family, is phone duty required, are there monthly minimums (sales, cold calls, etc), bonus structure, the type of real estate they focus on (investment, retail, high-end, leasing, foreclosures, commercial), how is the in-house training, what kind of on-boarding process, lead disbursement and generation, advertising associated with your franchise, corporate franchise fees, web & social media, and a ton of other items.  

Putting 18-year-olds living away from home for the first time together for 4 years is a relatively new tradition.