While I live in the US at the moment, both my spouse and daughter hold UK passports and I like the idea of having some type of 'presence' in somewhere other than the US.

Account Closed, your forgot the folks with substance abuse problems and gambling addictions, and of course those who are really terrible landlords. 

Its your gamble on the rate direction.. 

Trying to weigh out if the potential upside would be worth it, but that's a calculated gamble.

Stocks are a gamble- real estate- if you know what you're doing- is an investment.

I can't afford to gamble. 

So it’s a little gamble that’s taking here as it cost extra as 700 per month around 8.4K per year from my pocket .

I make about ~$60-75K/year (bonus dependent) as a market research analyst focused primarily on the regulated US online gambling industry. 

I live within the UK currently, but cannot find a forum similar to this that provides such helpful content.

That is a great way to start learning.Secondly, if you don’t know what you are doing in real estate, it is kind of like gambling and your returns will likely be low or you may even lose money.One of the biggest benefits that the content that BiggerPockets has to offer is it teaches people how to identify good deals or properties where equity can be created in a relatively quick timeframe.