My best friend from high school who I still communicate with on a weekly basis goes to school in Dallas currently, so I am beginning to voice my interest in the area and accumulate knowledge of the general status of Dallas as a city.

I have been scouring my area of the Twin Cities, MN, which is really hot right now!

Depending on the town/city and the property use, you might have to have things like certifications for smoke detectors, CO2 detectors, and fire extinguishers.

I have tried to do research, I can't find any permits were pulled for the electrical through the county at least, but will call the city on Monday.

The area a lot of folks look at is Tech Terrace (just South of campus), but it's the most overpriced and competitive section in the city.  

Ground rents are common in the City and County, have existed for 200+ years, and are accepted in the market.

Even by just telling people what your interest are in real estate you will be amazed by how many people you'll meet who invest in real estate because you can never tell and in a city like NY you gotta be connected so even look on BP to see if you can find any local investors and talk about what you look forward to doing because you can possibly make partnerships through those conversations just by discussing your interests.

If you have never been there, you should learn the city/maps/economics of the area/look at hundreds of listings to understand what the market is like.

It's in the National City area.

All other things you mentioned are very important as well as the market/sub-market we are in, demographics, vacancy rates, city/county governance, etc.