I am so incredibly happy and thankful for BP and all the help from people like YOU - because without it I may have found myself with a property with unfavorable returns or settling to understand things I heard like "1% is old school, can't find it anymore" and "that price will be hard to find in this area." 

While you are correct that excess proceeds are supposed to be return to the Mortgagor those proceeds tend to "disappear" with lawyer fees and any other "created" chargeAgain, you might be right but making assumptions like these looks just as unfavorable on you

Even 3X is putting a lot of people close to the brink, so if someone was just barely at that level but had other unfavorables I would probably decline their application.

That said, my parents did lose a lot of money in the Swiss RE market (although they attribute most of it to Swiss laws being unfavorable to foreign owners).As you are already aware, there's a glut of information on BP for how to invest in the US market.

@Jim Piper  - The Washington State Landlord-Tenant law is unfavorable to landlords. 

My business partner has a master in finance and will no allow me to roll 5 houses into a portfolio loan because of the unfavorable terms.

As far as the taxes or other unfavorable criteria- factor that into your numbers.

This is how people find themselves in a very unfavorable position.

One day, the naysayers will be right, and my cash flow will have to help me ride out an unfavorable cycle.

That rate of return made it unfavorable compared to other markets where you can achieve greater returns for less cash out-of-pocket.As my trademark saying goes, "Live where you want.