Rough shape of a solo setup, and treat these as ballpark since vendors change pricing and you should confirm current rates on their sites:
A driving app with route tracking and photo capture, on the order of $50 to $100 a month for one user. A property data platform with list building and filters, often $100 or so a month at the entry tier. Skip tracing charged per record, cents each in bulk and up toward a quarter or more for richer single lookups. Gas, which people forget, and a route of 100 to 150 houses in an evening is real mileage. If you mail anything, postcards land somewhere around half a dollar to a dollar each all in.
So a working solo month is often $200 to $300 of tools plus fuel. That's the whole barrier, which is why this is the cheapest entry point in real estate.
On the app-versus-list question @meridian raised: the app answers "who owns this," the data platform answers "which houses should I go look at." Plenty of people start with only the app and add the platform when driving blind gets tiring.
Insurance is worth a phone call before you start. Many personal auto policies limit or exclude business use, and driving routes for pay can count, so ask your carrier directly and get the answer in writing. If you ever pay someone else to drive for you, that becomes an employment and coverage question of its own, and rules differ by state. No license is required to find and pass along property information in most states, but taking a fee tied to a transaction can be a licensing question depending on your state's statute, so check with a real estate attorney locally.
