If you plan on holding forever, just buy right (cash flow now, long term financing, don't max out LTV, cash reserves) and don't try to predict the market, you'll go crazy trying to.Areas with 8 caps can be found all over.

If you do end up with the smaller local tenants like you're predicting, I wouldn't recommend going much beyond new carpet and paint, but would be open to giving a couple of months free rent for them to handle the rest. 

The "experts" are predicting an eviction apocalypse.

Predicting future cap rates is an art and one of the driving forces behind syndication deals, funds, and new construction going on in this market.

Syndicators are probably more accurate with their return predictions because some of their investors have a ton of money and a team of attorneys to hold them accountable. 

He has all the current data and future predictions with graphs. 

It has a pretty predictable long term appreciation rate. 

It avoids predictable problems.

As a business person, these ratios help you to:A) Build a predictable business.B) Plan your finances.C) Determine which marketing methods are effective.D) Determine if what you're saying to the sellers are effective.Be honest!

But do keep in mind that even expert economists have difficulty predicting the future.