The first international route from Houston to our local airport opens in April of next year, so we're going to heavily target US buyers.

(I'm not trying to talk you out of it!)

So, for items #1 and #3, I would talk to them directly first because I like to treat people like people and communicate directly about anything.

Depending on the size of your PM company they may or may not have an internal maintenance position to handle these.

Probably the most popular person who talks about it is Clint coons and Toby Mathis on their YouTube channel.

I know some mentioned about developing banking relationships and I totally agree with that, so here is what you do. 1) Open a business checking account in the name of your LLC to hold the assets. 2) Deposit your cash into that account to fund the real estate purchases3) After owning for 60-90 days, talk with a local lender about a line of credit against the 2 properties at 60% LTV. 4) After about 30-45 days, have the line open to use if you need that liquidity that you used, but until then you are not paying 7% interest on nothing. 

I would talk to a CPA because even if you could write it off, it's not like you are getting 100% back, so make sure it actually makes sense to do so.

. :-/ I'm waiting for word back from underwriter now as to whether or not this is a real requirement, but of course I'm not allowed to talk directly to anyone that matters or has answers because Chase. 

Everybody I have talked to says there is a 6-12 month season period before I can refinance and get my money from the heloc back out.

And if you only talking $1-200k it is not a massive initial reduction depending on their basis.