Plus for its high cash flow potential, utilizing a 1031 exchange to reinvest gains effectively made this experiment a relatively low risk for me.

The entity you select can impact everything from how you're taxed to how you protect your personal assets.LLCs are often the go-to for real estate investors because of their simplicity and flexibility.

I haven't seen any statistics to this effect and I don't think any has necessarily been compiled but I bet I wouldn't exaggerate if I state that 95% of the value of real estate in Southern Spain or at least the province of Andalucia is in the Costa del Sol.

You don’t need a judgement, but not sure how effective it would be:   https://www.rentrecoveryservic...

What are the metrics for determining site selection?

Being abroad adds risk to your file and terms will be effected in some way or another.  

My suggestion would be to select someone with the most forum posts or most reviews.

But ultimately, any cost to the syndicator is ultimately a cost to the deal, which means that at the end of the day it costs the investor.Investors that can find quality sponsors, and do proper due diligence on them, can save an entire layer of cost by investing directly with those carefully selected sponsors versus investing through crowdfunding portals.Good luck!

They're often high quality and cost-effective.

Whatever I do, I would need to do with a HELOC—effectively financing 100% of the property (down payment and closing financed with HELOC, rest of purchase financed with a mortgage).