However, I see a lot of industry people (from Reddit and on BiggerPockets) advocating for commercial property management as opposed to residential due to the possibility of an early career burnout since residential management is demanding and apparently toxic.

To me over leveraged means you have big car notes  your CC are close to or are maxed out and your only making minimum payments you go buy furniture and you finance it.. you buy real estate with the least amount possible down at market prices.And your cash reserves would only last you a few months to service all the debt.So no retail debt pay cash for anything you consume or use  OTHER Than a vehicle and decent amount of TRUE equity in your real estate no FO equity IE refi appraisal but you know the home would never ever sell for that on the open market. bascially follow Dave Ramsy and @Steve Vaughan  over the years on BP has written some really good comments on how to build an empire while balancing family life and fiscal safety..  

@Scott Calafiore that's where the market currently is on the retail side.

One thing you could do that might really benefit you, is to find a small business coach (preferably one that knows the food/drink industry). 

For those not in the industry the reason lenders wont go that low is  really simply a math problem.. if they have to stick to their pricing sale 2 and 12 or so and its a 30k loan.. thats a whopping 600 in points and very small amount of interest payments which are always shared with teh investor or credit line or wall st guidance line they have to   HML make money on the delta between what their capital costs and what they can put it out for.. then you have defaults the cost in many of these Eastern states and time lines to foreclosure is hugely expensive and time lines are forever.. so if your only making 1k or 1500 on a file and have to foreclosure you just lost a bunch of dough. it takes no more time or effort to do a 500k HML at 2 points  10k of revenue to lender and the delta on interest of course is much nicer.

I am not sure what other property classes you are typically investing in, but particularly for me, with experience and exposure in retail and multifamily, I have to remind myself that MF cap rates are the lowest due to extremely low interest rates.  

The reason is that there is a huge diversity of jobs by industry that is a huge advantage over any other areas of Texas and other parts of the country for that matter.

Obviously, you could go back further to the downfall of heavy industry, but with plans in place for redevelopment along the riverfront (https://www.norristown.org/424...) there is a ton of money being thrown at the area.

I’m definitely willing to seek out motivated sellers and buying at a (somewhat) discount, as I never pay retail prices for anything.  

I have a retail job and a warehouse job  i have been working for a while.