A friend of mine invested in one last year—apartments upstairs, a small coffee shop downstairs - and the combination of income streams made it a steady performer.Scaling with a 1031 Exchange:While not applicable unless you sell a property, planning for a 1031 exchange could help you scale quickly while avoiding capital gains taxes.

I think Civic closed up shop or sold or something like that I could be wrong but seem to remember hearing that.

- Do you want an ocean view, or is proximity to the water or to resort amenities like fine dining or shops most important?

So, if you are shopping around, trust your numbers and don’t be aggressive on price, you may be only bidding against yourself.

This will give you more time to shop rates/fees than to be under the gun with a purchase loan. 

Class C transitioning to Class B: more renovated homes, higher income tenants and homeowners moving in, nice cafes, shops, restaurants, coffee shops opening up.An extreme example of Class C to B is in San Francisco - when I was a kid, what was not a safe neighborhood and had lower income people, is now in high demand and tech workers making $200,000+ are living there and people walking around at night going to restaurants and shop. 

I currently have a pre approval and am shopping properties and am stuck on the deal analysis side of things.

When you can communicate both your strategy and criteria (and are financially credible), you can leverage your network and get meetings with brokers who are willing to shop for you.

If at another shop, let's say the grocery shop, the employee would leave the place instead of serving you that would be very quickly unacceptable.

Pick one that is improving, homes being renovated and flipped, vacant storefronts being turned into cool coffee shops etc.Good luck.