Newbie to real estate in Rockford, IL but living in China

[Charlotte Edwards]

I'm from the Rockford, IL area but have lived in mainland China (just south of Beijing...where pollution levels are off the charts at the moment) for over a decade. My husband (Chinese) and I are considering buying a rental property that we can use to provide income now and possibly a place to live when our kids go there for school (in about 4-5 years) and/or retirement.

We've been having this debate for years and for about the last year I've been listening to the BP podcasts, as well as a number of other real estate/financial podcasts. I'm a teacher/freelance writer and he's a doctor (Chinese doctors are NOT well paid like their American counterparts! :) ) so we don't have a lot of cash.  Ideally we'll find a cheaper place that needs a good deal of TLC that we can pay for outright. We'd pay cash because that's what Chinese do (we paid for our house here in cash) and it would be hard to get a loan since we don't make much when compared to American jobs of the same kind, nor do we want to deal with that extra paperwork of translating our work documents, etc.

My sister loves a good fixer upper and is willing to help us with repairs/landlord stuff. I know she'd be great, but I'm hesitant to work with family and risk something harming our relationship. So that's not top of mind right now, but something I'm interested in learning about; making a good contract with property managers.

We're still a bit hesitant; my husband knows we can get a guaranteed 4% gain on money saved here, but I am confident we can do better...perhaps not on the first deal, be we'll learn from our mistakes...over time. But I also think we need to be pushed out of our comfort zone and take a bit of risk. I want more "security" for the future. All my years of working here give me nothing towards government social security/pension (nor would I count on it anyway, as I won't with my own from the USA nor my husband's here), so I need to take control of the money and explore more than what I put in my Roth IRA or our savings accounts here.

I'd really love to connect with people in the greater Rockford/Loves Park/Beloit/Janesville area.

My other goals in the coming month, posted mostly for my own accountability: learning if I can buy without being present; what documents I need to do so (like getting a power of attorney); finding a house that fits our criteria; figuring out how to structure an agreement with my sister.