The goal ends up being quite personal, and unique to your situation.

Hey Bill, you have the unique perspective of being both a govermental bureacrat and an enterpreneur.

Landlords are having to find different and unique uses to lease their space, and a lot of the time these retailers can't pay significant rents.

We have a unique culture like all communities.

Ultimately, you need to move people down the funnel towards whatever your conversion/sale/objective is.

Although each deal is unique, I've been starting to demand a personal guarantees tied to costs that go above and beyond "value adders"

It turns out, their objective is very similar to a used car salesman.

you just have to offer enough so that it pays off the mortgages..not saying these deals are impossible to find, but they are few and far between...most leads that call you will be overleveraged and underwater (shortsale situations)...there will be some where you will have to be creative, as in sub2, owner finance, etc...then finally, there will be a few hopefully that don't owe a lot, but have a ton of equity, and don't want the hassle of fixing up the property to cash in on the equity, or listing with a realtor...again, it will take a lot of leads to find this unique seller..good luck!

You are right, the objective is long term wealth through equity pay down.

The look for any unique features of the home or location that would justify a price over the average.