I am currently employed in retail sales and am very excited to start my real estate investment portfolio!  

If you're looking to sell as-as and a quick sale, just be prepared to get less than it's retail value. 

Agree with @JD Martin, off market investor groups are likely going to offer you less than retail even if you pay a commission, if they even have the money to begin with. 

RE will keep appreciating so if your buying retail it takes a little longer but will get there. 

So with retail sales ( unlike if your building something were your relying on rent) we did just fine market absorbed it..

Being able to build without the retail cost sounds like its a great option. 

We have one right now finishing up, high end small custom> 95% return cash on cash, bought land retail 2.5yrs ago (peak). $1.7M costs, $2.25M completed value.

Typically, you see full-service (gross) leases being used for CBD office buildings, but most of the retail centers in my market are on a NNN lease.

I am looking for a property manager for a small retail strip in Fort Worth.

For me the biggest issue I learned was that after owning rentals if you do want to exit and you want to say sell to a retail client ( owner occ) which generally will pay the most for a SFR asset if its in a decent school district.