You can look up local cap rates online, I believe irr.org or something, and you can get area cap rates based on LARGE commercial multi family apartments. 

-What are some good online architect companies to get plans from at a reasonable rates?

AirDNA and All the rooms are on-line data collection companies that also follow residential hospitality trends.Demand - Depends :)  I always like to talk about "Portfolio Diversification." 

After a few months searching online (part time) for my first new deal, I believe I have found it near the Riverside area.

For a variety of reasons, I was considering purchasing a small, mixed-use (residential over retail) property out of state.

I put in an inquiry on Lending Tree and before I could hit send I was inundated with phone calls and emails from online entities that I've never heard of. 

For an mls listed property:—95% of agents/owners will require you to show a legit PIF or orespotoval to consider your offer—the offer will be the Reaktor purchase agreement —-there will be a substantial EM required—you would unlikely get it st s price you could wholesale, it’s already being exposed to full retail market 

I put in an inquiry on Lending Tree and before I could hit send I was inundated with phone calls and emails from online entities that I've never heard of.

 $100 and an on-line form is all you need to register, and you can use whatever boilerplate set of documents you like for organization.

I’ll say in my region: the commercial retail market is taking a massive nose dive, that I can be certain of.