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.

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

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'm not going to create a weak generation.

but, it's not going to be "profitable" for several years, depending on how you define profit.you'll have a down payment, then closing costs - which new investors always seem to be shocked by - then potentially some costs to get a property rent ready, then you'll pay a month's rent to get it listed and rented out, then you'll likely have some repairs after the tenant moves in.  

If this property won't cash flow as a long term rental, you might want to sell and 1031 exchange into a more profitable property.

Section 8 can be very profitable if done the right way, at scale, by an experienced operator, but I think it's one of the hardest strategies to start doing because of tenancies and government involvement.Most new people just think it's an easy government check and there is nothing that could be further from the truth.

Typically, if they can make it work as an STR they go that route because it almost always generates the most revenue.

Are they profitable?