@Drew Sygit The verbiage in our management agreement is as follows: make, contract, and/or supervise repairs, alterations, and/or decorations to Property; to purchase supplies and pay billstherefore; Broker agrees to secure the prior approval of Owner for all expenditures estimated to be in excess of $500.00 forany one item, except monthly or recurring operating expenses and/or emergency repairs in excess of the maximum, if inthe opinion of the Broker such repairs are necessary to protect the property from damage or to maintain services to thetenants as called for in their leases; in the event that Owner is unreachable after multiple contact attempts for more thanforty-eight (48) hours to approve a repair in excess of the above amount, Broker shall be considered authorized to makesuch repair.I've been contacted about high ticket items in the past but these "make readys" are done without approval. 

The TL does not have any personal information about those leads, except the fact that I have been talking to them.- The TL states that those are technically the team's leads and I will owe the 20% if they convert within the year since I was given training (which I was not), lender referal (which was forced on me by the TL even though I work with my own lenders for my clients).Is the above statement true/legal/valid?

With the exception of a few cities and areas, Italy is one of the rare places where tan estate prices have been going down over the last 15 - 20 years.

With actual cash, you just transfer it. yes, but you can still bid with lender approval - without appraisal contingency - you send in deal (app), it gets approved by lender its functionally the same as cash (except in true lightning speed situations where there is a quick auction with little time to prep but thats generally pretty rare I'd think)Right, but that's not cash or functionally the same as cash because the lender can change the terms at the last minute, as often happens with less experienced hard money lenders.

The Seller has little leverage except to bluff at you to settle.

Your new tenant is like any other tenant, with two exceptions:1. 

So, yes, you'll get a lower percentage of the cash flow (which isn't that high anyway for long-term rentals like pretty much anywhere in the world, including the US) but you'll get appreciation and loan amortization.b) You successfully invest in STRs and make enough money that you don't care that much about the higher taxes.To conclusion, as a foreigner investing in Spain, with a few exceptions of specialized niches, I focus on areas that have (high) capital appreciation and short-term rental potential.Hope this helps.

Period, full-stop, no exceptions. 

I have never had to wait two months to participate in any real estate or webinar, or any other class for that matter, except registering for my undergraduate degree, and felt right away that something was amiss!

@Allen Masry you stated you want to invest passively, so real estate is out, except for REITs, which are part of the stock market.You might be tempted to invest in a syndication, but those are high risk and you really need to research and then monitor them.