Just became a landlord, yet I'm a tenant myself

My wife and I were out shopping for apartments today.  Not as an investment, I mean we are looking for a place to live.  We got back, she looked at me and said, "It's funny, we just bought our first two rentals, yet we're renters ourselves."  In fact, the bank made me write a letter explaining why I was purchasing an investment before owning my own home.  Kind of funny.

The fact is, sometimes it just doesn't make sense to buy!  We just bought two houses in Memphis.  Total out of pocket is going to be $12-15K and we're going to get a decent return in my opinion.  But, we live in Korea, just outside of Seoul and housing in the area is crazy expensive.  To get a place that's just a basic 2 bedroom condo, we're looking in the $200-300K range.  (I'm from Indiana, that's a mansion in my town) Worst part is, you have to put 30% down for a loan here.  Let's say we went cheap and got a place for $200K.  The down payment would be about $66K.  That money could be put to WAY better use if I invested in American real estate I think.  I'd rather pay the $700-800/month rent and invest the $66K instead (if I had that much in the first place).  If we did that, the rentals would nearly pay my rent here.  

All that to say, I'm okay being a renter.  After our lease is up in two years, we might be in a place where we could just buy our own home here.  And we might, just for the peace of mind in living in our own place.  But financially, it actually just makes more sense to rent our home, then use the money that would have gone to a down payment to invest in the American market.  That's my thought for now at least.  We'll see what I'm thinking in two years when this lease is up.