If you are patient and now what to find the correct property, you can buy residential properties and resell them as being commercial properties if you understand the zoning rules. With a lot of research and pre-planning it is possible to locate residential property, and with risk of course, sell it as commercial. You can become familiar with a certain community and find out the areas that will be rezoned in the near future and take advantage of that information. A great real estate investing strategy is one that can spot the trend of rural properties that will soon become zoned as commercial, and then you scoop them up and make a bundle.
You really want to start by noticing which communities are showing growth because growth brings new business and the building for this will happen somewhere. Know when rezoning will take place is a good piece of information because it give you a leg up for future changes.