Question: how to evaluate comm real estate investments?

[Jin Nguyen]

I want to purchase commercial real estate, but have zero experience in this space.   Also with an expenditure cap of 500K I am limited on what I can purchase.  Most of listings I've seen have been retail spaces.  What's the step by step process that one utilizes to evaluate a commercial real estate investment opportunity?  How do I determine whether this is a good or bad investment opportunity?  Beyond the subjective, are there objective tools that can be used to determine whether a retail space is in a good location that will yield future tenants?  Thanks