I am wanting to get into fix and flips and eventually long term rentals. 

I love the dedication of not giving up and eventually received a second chance. truly remarkable.

Their rates are good but boy, they looked at my financials and ask some funny questions such as asking for proof that I could withdraw funds from my SEP IRA account, and that I need to provide documentation to verify that  this employer sponsored retirement account allows for funds to be withdrawn, or if withdrawals could only be made in connection with the borrowers employment termination, retirement or death etc. everyday they sent me something new to answer.

We are looking to eventually relocate to the States"--that's great, a lot of people want to invest remotely in a totally random market and never go to it.  

Again, if you learn some of the basics, you won't be so nervous about the problems you will eventually face.Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

Quote from @Alex Messner: Hello,My wife and I are looking into buying our first home with hopes to eventually accrue multiple properties for renting. 

The house is a new construction in a Class C neighborhood.The tenants pay late rate ~50% of time, they damaged part of the garage, they have people not of the lease living there, and they leave trash in the yard.Part of me wants to keep these tenants because:-They do pay eventually-I don't want vacancy-The turnover costs could/will be high-How much more damage could they do?

I’m looking to start in DFW since I live in Arlington but eventually I’ll be open to other markets to diversify my portfolio.  

Eventually I realize that when I think about living on post-expense rental income, I’m treating the income as the “withdrawal rate”, in Boglehead parlance.

I currently broker LIHTC multi-family for a large firm coast to coast and am also interested in MF in the Arizona submarkets as well, and will eventually invest on that scale - I just figure breaking into the state through SFH flips may be a more risk adverse way to understand the pros and cons to phoenix submarkets.