Last year in my first RE deal I bought a small multi-unit mixed residential/commercial building. the ground floor has been occupied by an antiques store for the past 18 years.

Do you have rare antiques, collectible statues that will break because of the building sway?

This particular location has primarily salons, restaurants, antique shops surrounding it all within walking distance.

Beyond that I'm curious if this strategy for real estate investing is antiquated. 

You never know, someone may 'love' the antique windows (nostalgia-effect).

I thought about moving our antique temporarily for some concrete work, but the cost of removing and replacing the freon (4 to 6 pounds at $30 per plus labor) was out of the question.

Succesfully investing in real estate is a job that takes work.Succesfully investing in equities is a job that takes work.Succesfully investing in foreign currencies, antiques, an ice cream parlor or whatever -- is a job that takes work.

If the property has some antique or reproduction characteristics, such as is common in the northest, painted with reproduction hardware is appropriate.

'here' if there was that valuable stuff in the units the valuable, pawnable,sellable stuff would be gone and all the junk left behind.Why would there be ONE antique very valuable antique six barrel pistol in one box of clothes and junk and nothing else in it.Those shows are all loaded for TV effect and the WOW is put there on purpose.The guy standing there buying cardboard boxes without opening them,,,for $1-1500 is gonna be broke before he hits a home run.I like the show however,,,and will attend some local storage wars and see how they go,,,'locally'.

I come from a Buying and Selling business where I bought and sold antiques and collectibles so the basics are very similar and from what I have learned alot of the real estate deals seem to be common sense...