Where to find industry-specific advice on retail property

[Scott L.]

Hello, I've gotten my feet 'reasonably wet' on home flips and now have gotten my first request to serve as investor on a commercial property. The opportunity happens to be a building of local bank that closed - small brick building on a busy commercial st.. My question is more general, however:

With any commercial project, it seems that knowledge of the type of business that will lease, the lease rate and other terms, the neighborhood and estimated customer density, stablity of the renter, all make a difference. The developer approaching me has ideas about this but I need independent validation. So, who do you ask?

Would a broker or undewriter involved in this type of property talk to me, out of the blue?

Would I need a specialist lawyer to negotiate the investment and lease?

Does the extra pre-deal advise get to be very pricey?

Are the online courses in commercial RE licenses worth much?

I plan to proceed cautiously with any commercial deals, but would greatly appreciate advice on how people switched to commercial.

Thank you,

Scott