Although I would say Zillow helped me get a good foot in the game, but was a just a piece to the puzzle. 

I wa told that i should reach out to the local contractors , investors and real estate agents.I understand why i would need to do this...but i am quite puzzled as to what type of questions to ask so i can properly get an idea of what type of market it Id be dealing with if I decided to invested there. any ideas?

I'd love to develop a better understanding of that piece of the puzzle as well and if you found something you think looks good, let me know!

I am always puzzled why people allot 10% of rent for maintenance... 

I do have some knowledge of the process of developing land as I work for a commercial general contractor in the area and I’m also a residential real estate agent so I feel like I have many pieces of the overall puzzle but can see the full picture yet.

But does these numbers work or is it one portion of the puzzle?

Also, screening tenants is the most important piece of the puzzle to landlording. 

I'm pretty happy with the property manager I met with this morning, and she's also a realtor, so that's two puzzle pieces down.

We don't have the time to do exploratory "surgery" to see what we're dealing with so we'll often "pad" our estimates just in case.

I’m a little puzzled because the store has a ten year lease with the current owners, and it pays monthly rent that is about $300 lower than what other similar stores on the block pay.