Some of the materials we choose and asked him to pick up (such as flooring) he replaced with low quality materials, I assume to keep more of our money for himself. 

It would be ridiculous not to pick up guests from other platforms.  

We can only do the best we can trying to beat the fraudsters by leveraging tools.Regarding fake SSN the screening services picks up on mismatches.

Quote from @Drew Sygit: We give our tenants as many options as possible - EXCEPT picking up their rent.Exactly.

You have to take your pick between charity and business.

I'm out West at the moment, but will probably be returning to Tokyo before too much longer.At the risk of being contrarian, after picking up a couple of investment properties in Japan (one Tokyo, one outskirts), I shifted to a strategy of only investing in the US. 

And they need to be tailored to what you can pick up about the recipient regarding their culture and all.

My permits are ready for pick up and it’s been 13 months since giving 5 percent deposit.

these investors were all chasing easy OOS cash flow:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/963/topics/1195280-expe...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1160450-run-i...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1137397-balti...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/1010977-12-00...if you're serious on investing in an OOS market i'd pick one, get to know it, go to it in person, and build a team, and then determine what would you need to do to get a good return in that market. 

I thought it would be fun to start a thread where we can share our craziest fix-and-flip stories, biggest "oops" moments, and the golden nuggets of wisdom we've picked up along the way.