One thing to take into consideration would be the overhead costs of being a cross-border investor, such as entity setup, property management, higher lending rates and tax filing should you choose to have a CPA.

In Berlin, rental arbitrage has been very profitable, with average annual margins of 25-40% after all costs but before taxes, so shifting to a market where arbitrage is barely breaking even is definitely a reality check.Given your experience, would you say the best way to enter the market now is through purchasing properties with financing?

That and continuing the current tax cuts.

If you have siblings on the deed, that starting number from an appraisal is one you will need for tax purposes going forward.

A mortgage lender can help determine if refinancing or tapping into equity might allow you to acquire additional properties.Consider a 1031 Exchange: If you're open to selling a current property, a 1031 exchange can defer capital gains taxes while enabling you to upgrade to a larger or more profitable asset.

Just a heads up this will not be tax free, it will be a pro-rated exclusion.

Focus on absentee owners and start with the ones who live the farthest away and only own one property in the area since they have the least use for the property.You can also drive for dollars, looking for anomalies of disrepair and then look them up in the tax records and use a site like Spokeo to do cheap skip tracing.

In non-community property states a husband/wife LLC is supposed to be treated as a partnership  And transferring from a revocable trust (reported on your 1031) to a partnership LLC (that files it's own tax return) is changing the tax payer. 

.; and capital to pay for options, marketing, legal counsel, accounting, tax advise, etc.  

If you need financial help, ask under the "Finance, Tax, and Legal" forum.