Your market is more suited for cash-only investors who can jump into a $120k property with $150k, and they aren't bothered by the $20k return because to them, it's all cream (i mean you pay maintenance, repairs, and taxes, but you know what I mean).Please don't use 50% analysis to actually look at the viability of a property.  

When leaving the old and applying over it, thats kinda like putting whipped cream on dog #$it.

Key is to buy a home in top end neighborhood not get sucked into low end inner city Ghetto type environments... this gives you the worse tenant base in the country basically and your issues will be magnified.. buy in an area were your rents are in the TOP 20% or so of the average rent and your creaming the top 20% of renter pool... if buy were the rents are in the BOTTOM 20% of price point your dealing with the least stable.. the tenant is what makes and breaks you.BAd PM of course and there are crooks in the PM business as well as some very good operators.. just need to make sure you vette them well.  

Based upon how the neighborhood is trending and the city is developing the area, we would love to pull in some boutique shop, small restaurant, ice cream parlor, etc... that vibes with the millennials taking over the city.My problem, or pickle, is that there are only 11 parking spots on the property--6 in the rear to service the apartments, and 5 out front of the main street by the entrances to the retail space. 

Wholesalers have their buyers that they are comfortable with, and they get the cream of the crop.

The windows are an older wood in a cream color and most are hard to open.

And finally, eat two scoops of double chocolate fudge ice cream, book a flight to " . . . . . wherever" and take a sheet of paper and a pen and write down every idea that comes to mind.

Good work and as long as you didn't get totally creamed on this, move on to the next and make a killing with your new knowledge.

This is kind of like asking "Should I eat a chocolate or vanilla ice cream cone, or a piece of pie, or should I skip dessert altogether?" 

Our children know nothing else but being able to walk just a few feet from our door to buy dim sum, a burrito or an ice cream.