Buying commercial strip shopping centers

[Richard Florestan]

Hi, 

This is my first post on here and im excited to be apart of the group. I have been working all my life to get into commercial real estate as my mentor has done it for a long time now. He has a ton of small strip centers that he owns and rents out to stores. I just put my first deal under contract for 2 buildings on an acre lot for 5,600 sq ft. 2 of the 3 stores in the buildings are rented at 63 cents not triple net. I believe if we go in and put a nice sign by the road, pave good parking, and remodel inside each building I could get closer to a dollar per sq ft.

My goal for this post is- Im sure a lot of you guys have done this or thought about doing this. What is your CAP rate goal? Im in Liberty Hill, TX, a little north of Austin. Im also interested to get some insight on how you determine a great deal from an ok deal. What do you look at and what are your red flags?

 Thanks in advanced