With 4 or 5 years of RE investment by 2025, do you believe that I should stay with single and multifamily (retail) houses or move into the commercial RE space?

My guess would be DFW due to availability of office space or development space that was pitched to Amazon a year ago or so. 

Scope of work includes:• Excavation of dirt crawl space in basement (roughly 350 sqft)• Foundation reinforce• New/level flooring• Rough in Framing/drywallWould anyone be willing to share names of general contractors in the area?

Commercial space in this area of town is very hard to find- for sale or for rent.

I successfully converted a 2400 sq ft single family 3 bed/2 bath into a 2800 sq ft, two separate 3 bed/2 bath ADU, by converting a two car garage into livable space in Santa Barbara. 

Bought it for $95k off market, planning to put in about $43k and sell for $190k.We walked through twice and the seller told us there was no basement and no crawl space. 

I can't imagine this taking less than 10 years now that the Covid has slowed everything to a crawl.

I have a retail/office space that is the first floor of aMulti use facility I own.

I would suggest trying to find Single Family homes where you can have separate living spaces (walkout basements, separate entrance) that way you get the comfort of a duplex without the price. 

Between the rental units I own and the ones I manage through my property management company, there are almost always some things that pop up for the first month or two as tenants settle into a new space.