Retail commercial properties seem to be the best. It is considered retail b/c it is in a good area with a lot of traffic. If you can find a retail property for cheap, you might as well buy it, since it's in a good area if a business can survive in it.

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Retail spaces are nice. I am looking to purchase some. They are expensive though.

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Retail is typically the most supreme commercial property you can buy.
Then comes office.
Then warehouse.

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I think is over-rated. While you often will get NNN leases, the downside of managing tenants (non compete clauses, expansion, TIs, percent rent) is harder than office. Also, retail at least right now is at really low cap rates- very hard to get a decent spread off the lending rate. The biggest retailers (Lowes, Nordstroms etc) get outrageous lease terms- I call them the big box bullies. you'll pay dearly for them to anchor your mall, and if you end up with a small strip center, you may end up negotiating percent rent and other concessions. Also, mall and strip design goes out of style faster than office does- you'll end up renovating more often. None of which you have to do with the other asset classes such as office, industrial, self storage.

As an investment, multi tenant office and medical office offer much higher cap rates. You can sometimes get single credit-tenant (S&P BBB+ or better) offices with 10+ years on a NNN lease (government, large corps). I just saw one yesterday with SSA (social security admin) on a 10 year lease. full service of course, but a sold tenant

Big box retail is different animal compared to non-anchored strip retail. Base your decision on yield and risk when comparing investments. Leave the high-risk and low-return anchored centers to other investors. Non-anchored strip retail can often be a better investment than office - the cap-rate-sensitive market often does not factor in below NOI expenses sufficiently. Thus, low TI strip retail is often better priced.

And that's where the problem arises for most people, the price is usually just too high for retail spaces.

yes you are right...I looked that...