A good healthy forrest nearby will also be a necessity as you can actually survive by eating nothing but leaves and plants (polk salad anybody?).

I want to replace my husbands truck driving income because his health is getting really bad and he may not be able to work at driving much longer.I want to be able to hire good tutors for my children.I want to be able to give generously to help other people.

If you purchase a rental property with 20% downpayment, your tenants will pay for the other 80% ... sure the mortgagee makes a healthy return [ :-D ], but in the end, you own 100% of the property are all but guaranteed to get your downpayment - plus much more - back when you sell.

Australia) we had a young woman buy an old run down building with us in the old market district.She opened an artsy 'healthy' low cal sandwich shop on the ground floor & we figured in a 'meat & potatoes, beer gut' place like Australia she would fold within the year.Believe it or not she paid off her share of the building in less than 2 years.

You are right that growth in many sectors is very strong and the rental market is quite healthy.

She deals with everyone with a big smile in a very likable way, it's gotten her a lot of business to simply have a great personality and be good at what she does. 

., if the property cash flows with a healthy return, why worry if its retail or not?

Make sure you maintain a desirable property and keep healthy reserves.

Sacramento as a whole has done well, but East Sac (as a whole) has seen healthy appreciation, and investors continue to close on deals with renovation plans to force appreciation.

everyone who lives in CA should start there and get a CA property under there belt because history has shown if U own it 20 plus years your going to be smiling even if that's the ONLY property you ever buy.then look else where ..