Interest reserve and lender private mortgage insurance are always secured before closing.

Then again, I guess no one is ever really “ready” to jump into real estate, but I would definitely feel more comfortable with reserves in place

No reserves.

A portion of it to reserve for refinancing and most of it to pay off credit cards and prior debt.

You can go to 80% on a commercial transaction assuming credit is strong and reserve requirements are met.  

I’ve been floating the mortgage/hoa payments with the reserves stashed away from the previous tenants.

I will have access to ~1M in cash for down payment and closing costs (I would also have reserves, separate from this capital).

Not as much as multifamily but still more than STNL single tenant or 2 to 4 tenant type retail center properties.The larger centers they live or die by the anchor tenant so really have to know if that tenant owns or lease the space, when it was last re-imaged inside and out, and what sales they do per sq ft year over year and how they have been trending.Larger retail centers have defaults from smaller tenants with covid right now to work through so offering should have reserves built in for some not making it so buy in cap rate on existing NOI might go down in the short term as tenants are lost and tenant replaced.

You're the fix and flip lender that covers 80% of budget needing 6 months reserves and 20% liquidity of a budget .

That is -$300 without including cap ex reserves or maintenance.