Hi all,I have read that the biggest RE developers (particularly commercial) have developed a skill to kind of "forecast" a location and / or a "sense" to know what can potentially be done with a building, my question is how am I developing that sense?

The structure itself has no issues, but there is no source of heat, and the water has not be turn on for a few years.

there are several options, you could do a Non owner occupied Cash Out, on the Secondary Market like Fannie or Freddie, you could take a Line of Credit, some banks may do a HELOC most will not because its a HOME Equity Line of Credit, and because its not your Home most will not, but you could do a Commercial Line of Credit, I have a couple, one is for 3 years the other is 2 years, but dont be surprised if they only offer you a 1 year term to start. you could also cash out on a commercial note, 3 or 5 year term, 20 or 25 year amm, these are pretty easy to get if you or the property have decent income, your biggest struggle will be that you are out of state, so may want to look to banks that are in both your home market and where your property is, like BMO for example, still a smallish bank so somewhat flexible,  yet large enough to be in both markets, good luck

I'd slap a wood one up on 'my side'.My biggest issue is what @Matthew Paul mentions, too. 

Biggest challenge is trying to keep from getting attached to the property.

The biggest hurdle is getting the capital upfront for deals.

My biggest concern is a 6 month vacancy during the summer.

If yes, what is your primary source for this information?

So my biggest question, for a guy that has very limited experience in the real estate, is where should I go from here?

A lot of commercial loan products don't source the funds, you just need to put them into a bank account so they can verify it's in there.