If you're not wedded to the idea of Section 8 or straight rentals, you could consider buying the property and selling it to a local buyer, carrying the financing yourself.

Just work hard wooing the wife to sell and hopefully you can find a way for everybody to win and for you to gain 12 new properties in the process.As Vince Vaughn says in Wedding Crashers,....

You know those new TSA Advanced Imaging Scanners that let you see women without their clothes on?

Among other things, I can communicate very effectively with a photo sent to me that I can sketch over or photo shop in order to either give an owner/contractor ideas for fixes/improvements or to provide an image useful for marketing what a place will look like after construction is complete. 

From the image they look bolted down but the image is a little dark. 

The Monthly Bigger Pockets meetup is this Wed, 7p at Johnny's Irish Pub.

@William Travis WallYou can add pictures on your ad by clicking the Image button as shown below

But I don't think many you don't know are just going to give you cash for any deal you might want to do, at your discretion..Thanks for the shoutout Account Closed 's fixer next Wed in W Oakland.

Location will be critical.Older shopping centers or strip centers in great locations are being refaced and the parking lots redone to make them pop again.National tenants have a rep to uphold and have to get a certain look and feel for their image going in versus a mom and pop just looking at cost per sq ft more in a good location.If your strip is in a non premium location or where a part of the town is getting older and newer development is moving away you will be more in trouble as your cost per sq ft will go down and your tenant clientele will change.During the boom times retailers grew everywhere and new development was expanding.Now retailers see this is an excellent time to negotiate existing leases or sign new leases to get great terms before the next up cycle.Now national retailers are in a "smart and controlled growth" mode.They do not want to go somewhere just because it is 4 per sq ft less.Ultimately if they pay more but get a more central and profitable location that is key to their success.Many companies that branched out into different growth strategies have reeled back to their core values and strategies.Retail is getting the crap kicked out of it right now and is expected to continue through 2012.A lot of it depends on how much the local market is saturated.For instance clothing stores even with the closures have too many in the marketplace now unless they are filling an untapped niche."

I guess I have a mental image of drunken frat parties that destroy the property - just wondering if that should dissuade me or not...Best regards,Charles