I'm extremely grateful that 14 of those years were spent living (in Germany, Okinawa, and England) and exploring as many foreign countries as possible. 

In border states, such as in the Rust Belt and New England, we have found smaller local banks and credit unions who are willing to lend to Canadians (and are familiar with Canadian credit histories, NOAs, etc).

I know locally Brady Sullivan has a large renovated mill portfolio throughout New England, they're headquartered just over the border in NH. 

@Jeremy England A couple of things you should consider... 1) When doing rehabs, don't take the short cut.

I've just started the process of searching for a multi-family somewhere in New England.

I know what your thinking,  why would anyone from  good old England, ever decide to invest in the US Real estate market?

Matt England Home Inspection also has a good rep.

Since then we bought two free hold houses outside London (one in south wells and one in NE of England).

Here is another article from BBC World News (yeah, I know, we have to look to England for breaking news in America):Washington diary: Trust lostI will post more if I run across them.

Of course as the power of COAL rose;England's power rose accordingly, at one point almost every city of more than 50,000 population in the British Isles was a coal mining center.