this works well if the tenant is a national user or multi unit operator who has built these buildings many times. 

Find a stable job, attend college, or work part-time and do both.

-Legal Protection: A real estate attorney should draft the seller financing agreement to make sure your interests are protected.Final ThoughtsThis might be a pretty awesome first project if you can work out some sort of low-down, seller-financed deal with sweet terms.

This will increase the return above what can be obtained on a passive investment.The flipside of having the power to control everything is that it can be alot of work (and a full-time job if a person is putting in sweat equity).

I currently manage a long term rental and working on a single family home fixer (will probably convert to rental in the future) in Cali.

I haven't seen the City crack down on unpermitted work with regards to a LTR rental license but that doesn't mean it won't be an issue some day.

I use AirDNA for the cottages, but don't believe it would work for motel rooms. 

We need to learn more about how taxes work as foreign nationals investing in the USA, and what entities are best for tax/legal purposes. 

It will just be a lot of work to find experienced flippers playing in that price point

I'm a local real estate agent and would love to help you out on making this deal work.