When you say a "safe" home does that mean safe neighborhood or safe as in code or physical status safe (hazards, etc.)?

Short of physically picking up a 10 unit apartment complex and moving it to another market, you can NOT change the CAP rate ... if you improve the NOI of a commercial property (5+ units), then you do NOT increase the CAP rate (which is set by the market), you instead increase the value of the property (Value = NOI/CAP).

Is the retail element physically separated from the residential element?

Secondly, although tax lien investing may be more “hands-off” than other strategies, it’s my understanding that one should still get to know the market and areas they’re planning to invest in – so I figure I would start out (physically) close to home before considering out-of-state (or far away) tax sales in markets I know nothing about.

I would like to turn my reading/video watching knowledge into physical experience knowledge.

As others have said, you need to put a $$-value on your commute time AND on the physical & mental stress of 2.5 hours of commute.

After considering REIT for some time, I felt investing in physical properties has a better upside potential even with risks involved.

Morgan Private Bank.The first is inflation among physical goods.Consumer prices began rising rapidly in early 2021 as the U.S. economy reopened after its Covid-induced shutdown.

So, if we have 8 vacant units in a year with 1.5 months turn time, plus a month's lease up fee, we really have 8 X 2.5 = 20 total vacancy months.  20 vacancy months/240 rentable months = 8.33%.So, in a market with a 5% physical vacancy rate and a 1 month lease up fee, the actual vacancy rate we expect is 8.33%.  

The apartment complexes that I thought were yield plays and I wanted more safety turned out to be more risky, due to overpaying for them, the owners' lying on financials having physical, not financial occupancy, etc...