Need advice on locking up money for $43,000/yr in rental income.

[Caleb Stone]

Hello BP community. Long time listener here, first time poster. Just wanted to get your thoughts on whether this is a good use of my free cash I have saved up.

I currently live overseas. I want to start investing in real estate in America when I move back in two years. For now, the money I have set aside for that purpose is sitting earning ~2.5% - pretty much not a good use of free money.

My job pays for my rent, which is $43,000/year, use it or lose it. The only way for me to pocket this money is if I buy a place. There is a property I can purchase for $450,000. After two years if I choose to keep the property I could rent it out for the same price, but I would have to pay their utilities of about $1000/month, netting about $30k per year. I have the cash to fully purchase the property. Financing is a better option to grow, however, since I will only want to be here for two years I think buying the property in cash would have the highest profit. Because of the laws and different currencies I don’t think Refinancing my money out will work. The area I am looking at is not expected to appreciate. Would you guys risk locking up your money like this?