One glaring clue is that the e:mail correspondence will be disjointed and feel awkward to read -- spelling will be accurate, but phrasing and sentence structure will not be of the caliber you would expect from a highly-educated professional.Variations on this scam can be very sophisticated: Some operations have "mules" on the ground here in the states, and most of the time these people will not know they are pawns in the scam.

And I don’t love hiring a property manager for those types of areas because it takes the effort of someone invested in the success of the property to succeed there, typically the owner or an owner with a staff on payroll. 

If a flipper uses unskilled labor who pays payroll taxes, FICO, SSDI, unemployment insurance and most importantly workers comp.

Payroll, bookkeeping, etc can mostly be done remotely.

Payroll, bookkeeping, etc can mostly be done remotely.Here is a great list of questions to ask a potential accountant:http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/70447-questions-to-ask-a-cpaAlso check out the www.NAEA.org page in your search.

Here is another option we use in one community:We are set up with a major area employer for payroll deduction so the money is electronically transferred to our designated account which we have special reporting requirements arranged with the depository.

He wants a payroll tax cut added.

If you try to explain to them that no one has generated a 20% IRR in those areas for years (at least not without taking enormous risk and timing the markets exactly right), and that they should invest somewhere else, they usually go and find someone who will lie to them and tell them that they can get those returns in the markets they want.At this point, I only deal with foreign investors who are more sophisticated and have experience investing here, particularly outside the Big Six markets.

Without some conduit there is really no way to put your investors on equal footing to participate in the manner you described.I suggest too that you check on your State's applicable laws regarding securities and offerings,it sounds like you may be dealing with sophisticated investors under SEC requirements, you certainly want to avoid SEC requirements.

Fundamentally, the SEC established (in 1934) three classifications of investors: Accredited Investors, Non-Accredited Investors and Sophisticated Investors.