In my mind small 20,000 square foot shopping centers would be ideal as far as investment goes but my retail stores need no more than 2000 Sq/Ft.

PLUG numbers IE 600 foot of 8 inch sewer at 80 bucks a foot installed.. that kind of thing.there fee and then survey construction sign offs then post pre and post plat monumentation.. 5 to 10k up front can save you 100's of thousands on the back end..

Are we better off leveraging these funds to start our real estate venture immediately on a solid footing, assuming that in the long run (10, 15, 25 years) we will be able to compound and leverage our gains to build wealth far faster than we would waiting 5 years to save for an adequate down payment for our first property? 

A 4000 square foot home in the Mission Area of Fremont is worth more than 2 million so I think they did just fine.

And the foot print has to be relatively small (650 sqft) for the printer. 

You could always just give a rebate to the buyer yourself to keep your foot in the door if that's something that you're worried about.If the borrower felt comfortable based off first impression, than you should be fine.You take a chance of losing the deal but you also have an opportunity to have a new referral partner through the realtor. 

Go for: that Beautiful 200 gal Saltwater fish tank in the foyer, as is, ALL fish staythat 1968 396 SS Camaro sitting in the garage that the seller never drivesthat Harley Davison motorcycle in the garage that the seller's wife hatesthat 25 foot Key West bay boat  those 2 new Kayaks on the dockthose 2 new Jet Skies on the liftsthe new John Deer tractor in the barn   that awesome TV and surround sound systemthe leather furniturethe dinning room table, chairs and chandelierthe office furniture the master bedroom set  the pool furniture etc. 

So if you need less than that done then you'll spend less per square foot obviously.Now again I think this is highly dependent on what you know and who you have relationships with.

Best to nip it in the bud now and put your foot down because if she can't make her payments now then she isn't going to be ale pay you either.

If you have trouble flipping it quickly, which, you very well may depending on your area it could become a money pit and you would essentially be shooting yourself in the foot at the start line.