Thanks In my market I'd say there are more retail buyers who are looking for "move-in ready", but definitely not all.

They were all small deals, but I could turn $15K into $30-40K by the end of 1 year.I see no upside in owning a stick built house with a retail value of less than $100K.

Do they only focus on NNN properties and are a retail specialist?

This is a big project that will exceed 45,000 retail square feet and it will help improve the area and create jobs.

I was trying to achieve the "live off my rental income in 3 to 5 years" and there's no way mathematically I can do this unless I scale to commercial RE (apartment buildings, not retail or office space).

I have never used, but the retail landlord I used to work for uses DashComm to allow their tenants to pay rent and report sales.https://www.phillipsedison.com/neighbors/dashcommAgain, this was not rolled out when I worked there many years ago, but I know a vast majority of their tenants have escalation clauses, NNN's, some properties have utility pass throughs that vary each month, etc.I will also say, for what it is worth, they had a full AR department that would mail out statements every month to every tenant.  

This influx of residents fuels demand for retail, office, and multifamily properties.

Started with a $60K rowhome and now I'm buying multi family, office, retail and developing a townhouse subdivision. 

A more retail oriented user will have different requirements than industrial vs warehouse vs trades contractor etc.

The bigger sales at Costco and furniture retailers are where I found success though.