Know what projects are happening, new bridges, new traffic patterns, towns approving public water to certain areas. 

I am not interested in the idea of my traffic on the commute on 90, but it might have to be that way.

You can find them on my YouTube channel and podcast in my profile page or website.Once you have an idea of what you want to do you need to then check with the city or county to determine what is required for all approvals and the time frame to receive approvals.Ask if you have to install curb, gutter, sidewalks, street signs, street lighting or any other special requirements.Are there any specific street design requirements, DOT requirements, permits or traffic studies.DWQ, Army Corp or any other environmental requirements or permits.General permit fees, proffers, water/sewer tap fees and the process of setting taps and connecting.

I have been interested in expanding my long term portfolio as of late (I live in Nashville, and had been looking in this area, where I have 2 LTR's), and after some research found that there is an serious shortage of long term rentals in the Smoky Mountains BECAUSE of all the short term rental traffic. 

I.E. what is it missingto make an informed decision about the traffic of retail.  

Would focus on the following:Zoning, special/conditional use variance process, planned zoning, Engineering- building, traffic, soil compaction, water flow, Permitting, fire suppression, fire hydrants, storm pounds, storm sewers, ADA,     Governmental- soil erosion, floodplain, wetlands,Leasing, NNN, CAM,     Valuation approaches.  

@Dawn Young - Sorry for all the posts but I wanted to add to your list of possible expenses:Engineering Fees, survey, local entity's application fees for development, building permits, parking lot paving (some areas require pavement rather than gravel), stormwater permit fees, stormwater ponds (the design is included in the engineering fees), underlying soil corrections if your property is on peat-y soils or poorly drained land, wetland delineation, building structure engineering, worker's comp insurance if you hire someone (probably not in this scenario), legal fees for an attorney to write/review your lease, legal fees for attorney to guide you through the process of eviction (often called a 'lien sale' in SS circles), landscaping buffers (yes, I've had to install trees to buffer vehicular traffic - that reminds me, one of those trees are dead and I need to replace it. 

I'm currently 15 minutes from work but the property I'm closing on is outside of Bridgewater, which is about 45 minutes without factoring in traffic.

Hopefully we can drive some traffic this way momentarily! 

My day job is a SQL/database programmer at a small IT company in Germantown, MD (about an hour each way, in good traffic).