Even if tenants pay base plus cam to landlord they generally do not have the funds to cover parking lot or roof right away and landlord has to pay upfront and collect cam over the years to make it up.If you want to fully update the center for new roof,re-coat and stripe parking lot, new paint and facade etc. it could run into the 6 figures for that or more depending on building size.There are companies that buy shares but they want a discount. 

I figured I could safely sell the house for 80k when all said and done.

I wouldn't over think it about studying your market to figure out what will get you the best rates of turn.

Yet, after listening to you it almost seems like we should be searching out other deals and getting money from private people as early as possible.Much like you I have a little experience in construction from my college days (working for a contractor on my days off from school and over summers but I'm not a craftsmen), so there is a small advantage there, but ultimately it sounds like if I want to get to that "freedom number" faster, or at least earlier, I'm going to have to figure out how to scale.I'm under no delusions that I am an expert after one deal, but I thought that after doing 2-3 deals and making them successful we would then have the creditably to get loans from others to really acquire some volume. 

Where (roughly) is this property and how did you find it? 

This may be in an old thread somewhere, but I figured asking directly would be easier than digging. 

Just trying to figure the app out.

This is more likely to work in midwest and even then you're probably going to have to either get lucky or get rough properties or both.

It was getting big st the time and I figured there must be something to it and I always like to know options.

I'm not interested in turning them into this but the ability to absorb them into a single rental property has me a little curious if this could bring down the taxes from a multi town house to a more manageable figure.