I think they contain solid information and will help lay a good foundation as a beginner (Haha, I'm completely new to real estate as well, btw)I'm also going to be reading the following books, and hopefully I can finish all by the end of this month:1) The ABCs of Property Management2) The Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing3) Long-Distance Real Estate Investing How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties (this might be the most important one to me personally)4) The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money DownIn addition to reading, I'm consuming crazy amounts of youtube videos, and I'recommend you do this as well.

You really should never leverage the home you live in.

Short term rentals are legal when the host is living in the same apartment as the guests and there are no more than 2 guests staying with the host."

Do you live locally?

I have attached a video from our CEO on the Basics of Investing.

I wouldn't start investing in the US if you have no plans on coming back from living in China.

Quote from @Andrew Lawlor: I've been actively investing in short-term rental properties for the past three years, managing one live property and another that will go live in two months.

Hey @Chi Lo - I actually have a video on my YouTube page about this (lookup ClosedByMo on YouTube).Regarding walls being damp and waterproofed, it means there needs to be waterproofing on the basement retainer walls (this is something you can do post-construction and the contractors would need to dig around the house exposing the basement/foundation to apply the waterproofing). 

I have owned 3 homes in the past that I lived in.

But if they were living there, then the problem wasn't so bad that they had to move out or incur additional costs.