I assume this would be a vacation rental you would occasionally use yourself.Be sure to include currency exchange rate risk in your evaluation of the deal.

I still haven’t met a person that likes to pay taxes.20% in gold: investing in gold is betting governments will keep borrowing at elevated levels, and hence depreciate their currencies, causing investors to lose trust.

But, even if you take it into account, most of the huge currency discount will remain.Moreover, while inflation has been pretty much inexistant in North America and Europe over time, their real estate price inflation has been very high during those years.

I'll just add on a couple1) Christopher is correct - you will be required to include the rental income into your US tax return.If you are paid in a currency other than US dollars - you will need to convert the rental income/expenses into US dollars.2) if you hold the rental property in a corporation/partnership.

That capital needs somewhere to go, preferably risk free, positive yield government debt denominated in a stable currency......AKA 10 and 30 year US treasuries. 

Ask the broker or agent on the phone what is the sellers currency for accepting an offer?

Its value rises and falls relative to other currencies.

But a note is "currency" and you can spend it in a lot of ways.Hi Gail - Could you expand on this further?

Again, run the numbers specific to your situation, but also ask yourself if you are OK with a small negative after understanding the effect on your taxes and the amount of principal reduction on your loan that is occurring.On my comment on appreciation in my last paragraph, I believe that the idea of appreciation based on price increases in real estate assets over time is commonly misunderstood in the sense that many think in terms of our currency as a fixed medium against which all other assets are measured.

It is robust, can use a real database back end and, at the time, had better multi-currency and international support than QuickBooks or Simply Accounting.