I have a few e-mail addresses of new Aussie friends and gave the BP site to many.

I would say our government’s a little more friendly and hands off but the Californians a certainly changing that. 

I have a good developer friend in the area who has a similar type property I should connect you with if you don't know him.

Finding the private money seemed to be the biggest challenge my friend has had while doing this. 

For example, we have a friend with an LLC with four beneficial owners.  

This was a few years ago, but at that time as I recall they were looking to do more long-term property leases over owning properties and doing pretty landlord friendly leases where they would do repairs and even pay property taxes. 

An ATX friendly STR realtor that I reccomend is CRIBS Consulting.

@Dmitriy Fomichenko not sure if you were aware, but depending on your income and circumstances, you can convert that money into a Roth IRA, tax free.A friend of mine lives in Washington state (no state income tax) and his taxable income is about $50k a year.

Friends with rentals have generally indicated that the cosigner is either nowhere to be found or ignores all communication when needed.

You may be able to bypass some of those hurtles based on your country of origin/where you have friends and family but in most cases investing in the U.S. will be way easier and will yield a better ROI.