This concept aims at addressing the challenges of what to do with defunct suburban malls and maybe even empty big-box retail store spaces that are in desirable and affordable neighborhoods.

Good neighborhoods, excellent schools, and literally--where does the house I want sit in the actual neighborhood...I say does it look like a $650K house area when I'm done?

The last few years we've just been nickel and dime-ing it--  picking up small value add add-ons near existing properties and recently did a "trade-up" 1031 exchange sale/purchase for a newer/better neighborhood property with one less but larger higher rent units.

But if you’re looking for a more stable, family-friendly environment with lower costs and a focus on LTRs, Texas could be a better fit.Since you have young kids, I’d dig deeper into school districts and neighborhoods in both states—family life can really shape where you’ll feel at home.

Based on the rents, I would guess the $1350 house is in a C+ or maybe B- area, and the $950 is in a C- area.What neighborhoods or zip codes are these in?

On paper some of these buildings had amazing metrics, excellent cash on cash returns, cap rates, etc, but when I looked at the buildings I found the neighborhoods were rough, there was poor management in place, there was lots of deferred maintenance to address.

I have actually been thinkin about cutting losses honestly, I am not sure this is the best investment I could have made as my first but worried about how much of a loss I would have to take.It is meant for S8 for sure, I would have a stringent application process, and give the neighborhood a C from my research.I invested there because it was the first deal that basically fell on my lap where the mentor works with agents that Seller Finance deals, it was only $3k down and had thought the proximity to St.Louis would be attractive to tenants also.I effed up on waiting to post for rent until after all repairs and the COO for sure.  

You sound very organized for a first-time flipper so it looks like finding that mentor is paying off.

or should I just wait for the reviews to come in organically from outside bookings?  

How do you know if a neighborhood is C class as an out of state investor?