I also come from a project management background, so was well aware of the amazing feats that can be accomplished with a competent team.When it was time to invest, I scanned all markets I had any sort of access to, evaluated which other ones I could enter with reasonable safety by utilizing unfamiliar teams on the ground, then crossed that over with potential returns.I'm a pure cashflow investor, never like to speculate, so reliable monthly cashflow was criteria no. 1, followed closely by no. 2 - ease of management and low maintenance, then finally no. 3 - Affordability (which equals hedge and diversity), and last but not least, no. 4 - would I like to visit once or twice a year, at worst case, if things require my hands-on attendance.A combination of the four pointed at Japan, which is where I'm primarily invested (with smaller portions of our family portfolio in the US, Europe and Australia), although I'm only living there half the year at this point, thanks to good team utilization which means I don't need to go there unless I want to - this may change now that the yen's down and our son's nearing primary school age - which is the whole point of renting where you live and investing where the money and the environment works for you - to retain the flexibility and lifestyle benefits of being able to work and live anywhere we want at any given time.This is, of course, a long process of rationalization and calculation summarized in a nutshell - if I haven't bored you to death yet, and you want to hear more about the hows and whys of investing overseas, feel free to contact me. :)Best of luck in your chosen path, you seem to be considering all the right factors before embarking on it - I'm sure you'll enjoy the ride.

The comedy of absurd hypocritical rationalizations is, sadly, completely lost on junkies. 

Renting out rooms has helped us rationalize staying in a home that is oversized for our present situation.

The realness of it is, we can provide built in equity in almost all of our sales to clients because we cut out the middle man and cut out the agent. 

But it always seemed intuitive to me that in a recession, people would get squeezed out of the A Class apartments into more affordable units, as well as people getting squeezed out of owning into renting.I asked John more about this during a break and if he had any data on not just vacancy, but NOI, because I wonder if A class just hides their losses with concessions instead of lowering rent.Anyway, what you say @John Warren and @Christopher Lombardi seems totally rational and what I would expect.  

AllCash highlights a very valid math rationalization.

I feel like we were pretty much in the same boat - I would be able to house hack, commute was shorter, I had been looking for months and there was nothing that was "as good of a deal", and I was anxious to get my first property despite my gut feeling that it wasn't a good deal (I was doing everything to rationalize the deal rather than listening to wise advice and trusting the numbers).

Lender is the "middleman" who has to charge you points to meet their loan officer compensation plan.  

I personally would never give 50k to a middle man, especially before any work is in place.

Sure, it will take time but why pay a middle man if you have the time to do it on your own.