Never going to fly.My wife is European so I know them well.

You should look at credit unions for loans, they are super helpful ... places like PNC, BNY Melon, and other giant banks aren't hungry for your business.Portfolio lenders aren't going to give you a 'good' loan ... as long as you have a decent income and your ratios make sense, you shouldn't have any issues getting an FHA loan.

Are these European investors or USA?

If you have a giant, old, wooden house you will need to budget for a lot of ongoing maintenance that will be painstaking to do yourself and expensive to pay for. 

While that street has comparable bungalows, Cleveland is a “land of giants”.

The reason I'm a fan of Columbus is because it's been experiencing impressive growth, thanks in part to tech giants like Intel, Meta, Amazon, and Google setting up shop there.

Have a giant embassy, like maybe the Russian or Chinese embassy and they may have one person that helps coordinate.   

I think that we've all overlooked a giant obstacle that makes this whole discussion nearly moot: The Safe Mortgage Lending Act.If you invest in real estate, you'd better read up on it, because it COMPLETELY changes the rules if you seller finance.Because of the whole mortgage mess, the government is going to step in and pile on a whole bunch of regulations.

Wood will require maintenance and a tenant may mistake it for a giant chopping block.Depending on the size of the counter, look at laminate or stone. 

It was a 2bd/2ba but we did a giant renovation in the basement last year to give it another large bedroom, large full bath and a living room.