American Investing from Overseas

[Ryan Strother]

I am an American citizen on a long-term work assignment in Europe.  My wife and I have come to the conclusion that we'll never be able to afford to purchase a home here, so we are looking to get started with real estate back in America.  We're looking to build long term wealth and passive income.

We have US bank accts and are actually paid in US$, so it's not like we're actually a foreign borrower with currency risks.  We're in the process of finding out how much we'll be able to borrow. We've got a decent downpayment saved up ($45k).

I've been doing quite a bit of research over the last couple months and have gotten comfortable finding details and running the numbers to see whether the rental will cash flow and figuring the ROI.

We're trying to decide where will be a good area to invest; we're not terribly picky about what region of the USA.  I've seen people write about looking at employment statistics, median incomes, etc.  Any advice on a good site to find and collate this data, or how to screen different cities/towns?  Any advice on a good region of the USA to invest in? 

Also, any advice on trying to find a good realtor, contractor, or even partner from halfway around the world?  We can't go to any local real estate investor meetings to make contacts, network, etc.