But here's the problem: they all concern historical buildings (I invest in Europe, ancient cities like Maastricht and Liège).These will require a lot of renovations to get them up to speed with the new EU energy-efficient requirements and such.

The Japanese have already shown us that a country can carry in excess of 200% debt to GDP and the Greeks have shown us that 170% is unsustainable.

.*: Styx - from ancient Greek mythology, the river running along the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead ("the underworld", Hades, etc.).

Both heating units were ancient; in fact, the first floor unit was being heated by the original boiler, which belonged in a museum.

(If OP took fancy financing classes they don't need to, but dear lurker: if that was Doric Greek to you, just google search "what is fractional reserve banking," but avoid the conspiracy theory websites, the truth is sufficiently crazy that they aren't necessary anyways)

Keeping in mind it is not fully rehabbed either but built 1980 so not too ancient with new windows, newer roof.

By the time you have signed all the title docs you will probably have indemnified the insurance folks of all liability except for the most obscure and rare clauses i.e. someone has some ancient mineral rights to the land.

Your rate of return should ... no, *must* exceed your debt service costs unless you want to be a Greek tragedy.BTW: your rate of return is the CAP rate if you purchased the property w/o leverage (read: all cash) ... which means there would be no debt service (interest expense), so your CAP exceeding your interest rate would be a certainty.

It's amazing how much of our legal system still uses that ancient language.

I put in swag guesses using public data on a property I plan to inquire about - 2500 sqft 4 bedroom (relatively ancient) townhome - and got a quote of about 1500 for a year of standard 1 mil/2 mil coverage.