@Sean Durham Hi Sean, I can't speak for Long Beach because I'm not in that area as much, but pasadena is still having large growth but mainly in apartments, condos and rentals.

Many,many others factors go into this.Retail is a great asset and my clients do well with it but it's not something to mess around with on your own without the knowledge. 3 to 4 years ago investors without knowledge could just buy at a high cap rate coming off the bottom with low rents and let the market do it's thing with cap rate compression and rent growth.

My question is, if you were to go back and make a choice from day 1, would you recommend the stock market or property for capital growth?

They seem to be growing at a fairly rapid rate so I suspect much of this is related to growth pains. they do generally have solid deals and are easy to work with during the purchase process. 

I'm in the international development consulting industry, mostly working in private sector development/economic growth arena, and fortunate to be living overseas...at the moment, in Istanbul, Turkey.

I lean towards the sides of safety and slow growth as opposed to high risk high growth.

Considering that Newark is 25 minutes from Manhattan and close to an International Airport Hub, the City has seen a lot of redevelopment in the past 10 years.Two particular locations that have seen tons of action, high equity appreciation, and are poised for continued growth over the next ten years are the Ironbound Section, Downtown University Heights, and North Newark near Branch Brook Park in Forest Hill. 

Grow the money actively until hitting (it may take years of work) a few million dollars mark, and then think about passive investment.

Jordan,There are single,double,and triple net leases.The ability to re-purpose the building fast and cheaply is key.Certain corporate tenants with the building design if they go out you have massive costs to get it to a rentable state for another tenant type.Case in point I know a Sonic building that has sat as a foreclosure for a year.To re-purpose it you would have to take out the drive thru stalls and the building itself is so small you can't do much with it.One key area I didn't see touched on is that YES with a TRUE triple net you do not pay for anything.With other single or doubles you might get a little more but pay for expenses so it's almost a wash in the end.The lease is guaranteed and you get mailbox money.The down side is these tenants have rents stay the same amount for long periods of time before any increases and when it does increase the rate is marginal.So when inflation kicks in year after year the returns are diminishing.If you are trying to protect your money they can be an excellent investment.Tell us more about your situation which will help.I like corner locations or right next to the corner as they hold value and are easier to re-purpose and re-rent.Even though the rent doesn't increase as much the land should be way more valuable in time unless the area dies off and growth migrates elsewhere.You can also assume loans at sometimes 90 ltv putting down just 10%.The reason is lenders see these loans as having little risk and low chance of default.I specialize in multi-family and also triple net so contact me with any questions you have.

So, I prefer to know my costs for each rehab task and have a quality contractor that can execute them within that budget.