There are property management companies that will cost less than 1 month's rent and have access to the MLS but you have to look at the demographic of your area and see if it's likely most renters are working with a realtor (where I am, that's absolutely the case because of the high number of relocations).  

The mortgage brokers will likely have access to more funding sources and can probably get more creative with the financing than a local bank or credit union.Can you provide more details on your situation? 

Here is a recent example of a flip we acquired for less than $50k.Granted, you'd need access to additional funds for the renovation, but if you can work out a deal with a hard money lender or partner, why make $1k on a wholesale deal when you can make $20k by flipping the same property?

I'd never buy a property without mineral rights, if there was the slightest chance they could grant access to someone else.

I'm going to get my Real Estate license just to gain knowledge and possibly access and benefits for property searching etc, but mostly for knowledge.I've also owned my own contractor business in the past, so that might help in finding a deal or not so much of a deal (lemon), but do not want to get into rehabs, etc...just investing.If there are any meetings/groups in the area I'd love to come out and become part of the network.  

You wouldn't happen to have access to the neighborhood list serve?

@Mayour Patel The Connecticut MLS is still the dominant player for listed deals around here and is where most of my clients find their buy and hold multi-families or even the multi-families they rehab.There are some auction sites as well that provide some access to potentially good deals as well.Feel free to reach out with any specific questions as I am very familiar with the market around the area that you live.

Right now houses are cheap, money is cheap, and there are tons of assistance programs so we are likely to not see any major increase in home purchases as primary residences in the near term, and in fact if the market becomes tighter in terms of inventory, lending restrictions become tighter, or interest rates rise then most people would expect a decline in the number of home purchases as a primary residence. 

A JV would depend on the prospective partner and there no regulatory restrictions as far as I understand.

You don’t know who has access to this information.