Kinda like people bash/make fun of Wal-Mart but at the same time shop their.

Only way you know is to shop it and see!

Each county/title company might have different information available.LA County has the following from a list I got: COM,STORE COM,STORE/OFFICE COMBINATION COM,OFFICE BUILDINGS COM,STORE/RES COMBINATION COM,MEDICAL,DENTAL BUILDING COM,MEDICAL,DENTAL BUILDING,2 STY COM,BANK,SAVINGS AND LOAN COM,AUTO SVC SHOP COM,PROFESSIONAL BUILDING COM,OFFICE BUILDING,W\RES COM,VETERINARY HOSPITAL,CLINIC COM,AUTO SVC SHOP,NO GAS COM,SVC STN,FULL COM,STORE/RES,2 STY COM,OFFICE BUILDINGS,2 STY COM,SERVICE/REPAIR SHOP,LAUNDRY COM,MOTEL,UNDER 50 ROOMS COM,SMALL FOOD STORE COM,SHOPPING CTR,REGIONAL COM,SHOPPING CTR,NEIGHBORHOOD COM,MISC COM,PROFESSIONAL BUILDING,2 STY COM,WHOLESALE,MFG OUTLET COM,SUPERMARKET,12000+ SQ FT COM,OFFICE BUILDINGS,CONDO COM,SHOPPING CTR,NEIGHBRHD,CONDO COM,CAR WASH,SELF SVC COM,REC EQUIP SALES & SVC COM,NURSERY,GREENHOUSE COM,USED CAR SALES COM,PROFESSIONAL BUILDING,CONDO COM,NEW CAR SALES,SVC COM,SVC STN,SELF COM,SHOPPING CTR,NEIGHBRHD COM,STORE,2 STY COM,SVC STN,FULL,LIFT COM,ANIMAL KENNELS COM,MOTEL,50+ ROOMS COM,CAR WASH

Small shops are great!

However, we overbuilt during boom times and there are some half-vacant shopping centers, but the school district is a huge draw for anyone with children.

There is agentsonline.net but that is for more residential agents.Many times commercial brokers and agents converse over the phone looking for deals, doing deals together, attending conferences together to make connections.When I say asset classes and specialize I belong to ICSC ( International Council of Shopping Centers).

I grew up going to the Hulen mall and these days do my shopping at Trader Joe's on Hulen.  

I'm excited to be in a local market when it appears that prices aren't crazily high and, judging by the new place I've rented the rental prices are quite high compared to the buying price (when comparing to London or Australia of course) so there should be some decent yields out there.I'm new to property in general also so have been blitzing through some podcasts and books and hope to have better knowledge by the time my credit rating has a chance to build over a year or so.In addition to the above education it would great to get some Houston specific information so if anyone can share some good links for reading up, any charts/graphs of historic house prices, area guide links, work out if prices/yields here are currently perceived to be high/low or anything in general you feel would be a help.Differences for me coming from the UK would be that public transport links are very important when deciding where to invest, where as here it doesn't seem to have much relevance as everyone drives but I imagine other fundamentals like Jobs, schools, shops, non-flood areas are still as important.

However I can not imagine it takes that kind of money to open for example a local sandwich or ice cream shop in a city where rent would be say $2500 - $4000 on average for prime locations, in my size requiremnts. 

I recently shopped local banks and they asked for 2 year tax returns and bank statements in lieu of W2s.