I was wondering if active investors in the area can guide me where should I be focusing on as a newbie in the market of today that would be fruitful.

I won't get paid for the other activities, but they can be much more fruitful for the buyer without stepping on toes.

May all of your investments be fruitful as well!

@John Thedford is correct on two items, one is that @Dave Foster is the local 1031 expert and he has earned that respect as I have had the pleasure of meeting him in person with our wives and he is simply a basket full of knowledge.Having said that, the second thing that @John Thedford is correct on is the interpretation of like kind exchange, it is really very broad when deal with real property. 

People hord away secrets beleiving that if you keep them to yourselve others will not take your opportunities creating more for yourself.I beleive in free knowledge as their is plenty of business to go around and we can all be successful together so we may sit at the same dinner table at that particular expensive restaurant no one else has access to and enjoy the fruits of our labor an discuss how beautiful life is at the top!

The 2nd grade sang us a song, another class read us something, the FFA read us their creed, the local Police Chief gave us a special coin for partnering with the community and then there was the gift baskets and 100's of Thank You cards from the different classes for the donation of the land.  

I think that could be quite fruitful for you.

Personally if I had $2.5 million I would separate it and not put all my eggs in one basket.

I strongly believe in the "all your eggs in one basket" philosophy - it is best to spread it around.

That being said, based on Daniel's comments, this may not be a low hanging fruit, but I suspect that for the experienced property manager there would be money to be made here.