I started out strong with mine in high school then quit in college and never started again and now I’m 45 trying to play catch up and hoping real estate can fix my retirement account.

I'm seeing that there is a strong resistance in certain neighborhoods (maybe rightfully so if there have been poorly overseen party houses in the neighborhood). 

A few months ago I invested $850 for a 1000 strong mailing list with careful demographic targeting for years in residence, SFH home type, amount of equity in the home, and correlated with an increase of crime in the area (as crime is usually a major factor in getting people ready to sell and move). 

In this active market no seller will wait for you he sells to the first strong buyer making an solid offer. 

They close faster and have local relationships so problems are solved easier. 3) Be strong with your offer.

I would strongly look at tenant mix and their ability to pay more?   

If it's a couple hundred dollars and you're in a strong rental appreciation market then it wouldn't be a big issue.

If your regular income is strong enough, maybe you don't even need that rental income at all.

Retail tenant numbers not strong enough to consider.Purchase price was $350k.Here are the options I'm considering:OPTION 1.

Regarding your other questions, you can see in my post history, I'm a strong proponent of investing outside of the 485 loop.