Normally I am able to lock in a fairly reasonable offer with a seller, but then somehow someone comes in and puts in an offer almost 85% of retail on a property that clearly needs a full remodel, which makes no sense on the numbers.

Think about retail stores.

Decided to get into it so I can do all the rehab myself at a slow pace. 

Sure but retail owner occupants typically pay the highest prices for properties.

In my opinion, 10k actually seems around the ballpark for the area for "retail" quotes.

You don't need your interest rate subsidizing some retail lender's middle management. 

https://www.har.com/content/newsroom/Houston Real Estate Highlights in April: Single-family home sales rose 7.8 percent year-over-year, with 7,586 units sold, marking the third consecutive month of positive sales and the biggest volume increase of 2019;On a year-to-date basis, single-family home sales are 2.2 percent ahead of 2018’s record pace;Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes edged up from 56 to 57 days;Total property sales increased 7.8 percent, with 9,063 units sold;Total dollar volume jumped 9.6 percent to about $2.7 billion;The single-family home median price rose 2.1 percent to $245,000, achieving an April high;The single-family home average price was up 1.9 percent to an April high of $310,676 – the second highest average of all time;Single-family homes months of inventory reached a 4.0-months supply, up from 3.5 months last April and the most plentiful level since September 2018.

Interesting read, curious what you all think about this.https://getpocket.com/explore/item/after-the-retai...TLDR - dark store theory is a tax strategy used by big box retail stores like Lowe's, Target, Walmart, and Menards to lower their property tax value.

If you have a section that has a ton of old manufacturing or old retail ( Kmart or sears) then I would stay away. 

You'll likely run into a lot of apartment syndicators, which is a great core for your syndication holdings, but I would urge you to also look into self-storage, mobile home parks, office space, retail, etc.