Philadelphia - Going back to school coming from London - clueless

[JP Larcheveque]

Good afternoon all,

So I am just doing a bit of research here (well starting). I live in London and will go to Phili to do an MBA. I am no longer employed and I am about to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity until the start of the MBA in August.

I will be tenanting my home as well as keep my other properties (all in London) tenanted and will have a small income as a result when I move to Phili in August (we are not talking much here $5K of revenues, netting $1K of profit after mortgage + everything else). 

I will borrow $200K at 7-8% as I don't want to take the equity from my flats given the rubbish GBP/USD rate at the moment.

Now I also want to do some RE investing while studying, what would you recommend I do in terms of financing, bearing in mind I will have $200K of student loans, and how relaxed are brokers with lending to someone with no job and no real income (remember all my small income is from abroad). I am happy to put down 20% (i'll take the GBP to USD hit on my savings for this, as I intend to hold only for 2 years and don't expect the GBP to come back versus the USD in that time. I was thinking of picking up an absolute run down house, live there, fix it up and sell at the end of the MBA not to pay taxes on the capital gain (main residence). If the above is impossible - how relaxed would they be if my investment is for a rental property where I do not intend on living in?

How feasible is that project? I know I should talk to a broker etc... I will do it at some point, but this is all very early stage for me. I am a US citizen.

Thank you all in advance,

- JP

(PS: I know $200k for an MBA seems outrageous, but I am pretty set on this. I used to head a small team at an investment bank, but I am still young at 29 and I want to reconvert into real estate private equity - the MBA is the only way to do this it seems)