There seems to be less competition as most small time investors don't have the cash to put 20% down for bigger building and they can cash flow really well.

Reading and learning all I can; without challenge growth is not accomplished.Very encouraged by the obvious close knit community you all have here in such a competitive line of work.  

Might not be easy as someone would be teaching you to be their competition. 

Varying your anchor text also helped.While it isn't hard to rank #1 for something like "Anchor Reply Noah Boat" (you'll have zero competition), it is getting increasingly difficult to rank for commercialized terms (such as "buy my house").

Mill Hill, Coppin Heights, other West Baltimore neigborhoods, I have clients that invest around 28th St. up towards Morgan State and this is where the prices begin to increase, but still section 8 heavy like Northwood, Waverly, etc.

Investor activity is lower too, which means you don't have as much competition securing good deals when they pop up, though there are some bigger active investor groups/family offices that have been running the show for generations. 

Is there any other way to get a jump on the competition?

However, if you have space to lease out the story potentially gets more complicated.In my area there is still a ton of open lite industrial commercial space so competition is pretty tight to find new tenants.

You want to be right at or slightly below the market.Second is to be comparable to the competition.  

I am exploring rural locations but not sure about vacancy and rent rate compare to more active but competitive areas around Houston.