We typically are looking for the non-hood neighborhoods within 30-40 minutes of the city center.

I’m looking into buying a 28k Sq ft shopping center that have 5k Sq vacancy, How would you value a space that haven’t been rented in a year?

Hi,My parents own a shopping center.

Go with either duplex or tri especially if you are within the 5-mile radius of the major shopping center. 

A couple of things I do that are not immediate walk away scenarios but helpful are:I start at the wall and walk the floor to the center of the room to check for foundation concerns to have my contractor look at. 

Louis has great universities and med centers, plus family weddings and baseball. 

@Lee Ripma Totally agree about El Sereno, it's right by USC's medical school and has had a solid increase in activity over the past 4 months, with CBRE purchasing a couple acres right in the center.

Lending is a little more passive, but you do miss out on some of the benefits of owning real estate (i.e. appreciation, favorable tax treatment, etc) as you pointed out. 

There's city after city of high population and extremely high economic activity centered between Tampa up to Daytona with Orlando sitting in between. 

In order to make it in today's market you'd definititely need to "buy some cashflow" (higher downpayment) targetting  the right SFH that sits dead center in the sweet spot that families are looking for.