Until i ran into it all, faced it, worked through it and got good at turning problems into profits. 

How about the simple obvious that the inputs to deliver the service/product have a base-line and market prices have, OBVIOUSLY, been at about as lean of operating profit margins as can be. 

Ownership and profit-sharing can be split based on contributions, with you possibly earning equity through sweat equity.

If you are very conservative purchase a fixer upper so you can force equity and hopefully have a low enough payment so that you can LTR the property or even sell for profit should the STR avenue not work. 

But if you were to use it as an air bnb or ir it is raw land that you can generate income from by farming or renting out to farmers or grazing that would certainly work.

A friend of my wife’s brother in Maui has a 5th generation cork and cattle farm near Gibraltar, Spain.  

Quote from @Roy Gottesdiener: I own a rental portfolio that generates around $1,600 in monthly cash flow and has $400,000 in equity.

And following this convoluted rabbit hole calculate what kind of property you would need to exceed the profit level you have right now. 

Well it looks like non-profits are exempt....So I suppose Dope Traffickers will just buy an ongoing concern non profit and operate that with ownership as an IBC (International Business Corporation) in some privacy haven, or Russia, or Yemin or somewhere (if those places have privacy laws???)

I believe many believe they can assemble a team of realtor, contractor, property manager and lender and become profitable.