small commercial space on ground floor, 2 vacant apartments upstairs, crumbling barn in the back.

Start going out into the space you want to invest.

Suppliers will also be moving into the area and need industrial / warehouse space and will relocate or hire locally. 

I'm looking to do something with the space but have been quite indecisive, hence I'd like to ask our community :)The space is around 24' x 14'.

I told them I wanted to put my rentals in an llcthis person does happen to be an agent, they just seemed like they didn't really know what I was talking about I just want to make sure I'm doing things the right way I don't hear people talking about having physical office spaces.. my llc is created already and in the process of transferring property 

If its a B to C and there are dark spaces people like me are buying then I can offer them similar location with much lower rent and make a bunch of profit still.

@Kevin Jennings If you're able to spot a small multifamily or a house with a casita or space to build a casita that might be the best way to househack with a family - having someone else pay that mortgage is a huge benefit and might be worth the sacrifice of some privacy for the long term financial gains.

when you are renting out part of the regular living space of your primary residence you will have to either declare some part of it as strictly investment (like a home office). 

I focus on the short term rental space.  

We finished the basement adding 1000 sqft of finished space to the house. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.