I hate to be cliche but to quote Warren Buffett - “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”Time and time again some investment gets hot and the experienced investors sell off to the inexperienced investors somewhere near the top.You don't buy into a hot market you sell into a hot market.It is tough to find cash flow in a hot market.

I fear being screwed over, loosing money, or not succeeding.

Reading this thread and the online news coverage, I have concluded that, as with most economic stories, we have only a partial picture.Nonetheless, that partial picture creates what investors fear the most ... uncertainty.

. - Warren Buffett "Fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful" - Warren Buffet The Best time to buy real estate is NOW..

Why do I have fear about commercial Mf.  

I found this thread after, of all people, my landscape guy told me about his fear of losing his Cape Coral investment home (it survived OK).  

You do have some leverage because the tenant fears loosing their voucher if they don't comply with the lease.

The title company we’re using on this deal is fearful of 12 years of back billing once we install a new meter and is therefore requesting the seller to escrow $30,000 to for any potential back billing of water, which makes sense because the title company doesn’t want to eat that cost after closing if that were the case. 

The only way to overcome that fear was to take a shot and dive right in.

My fear given what you described is so far... everything is verbal, you "discussed a number" but once that renovation is complete the expectation changes.