I have heard of people getting sucked into drugs or gambling and destroying a successful business.

You're already making a great profit, I would gamble and take the percentage instead of the $20k.

So you are taking pretty big gamble with this.

The mortgage servicer will remit investor distributions from your payments to what ever entity they choose, which can simply be a private bank account held personally.Your relative should seek accounting advice from a UK professional on how to structure that interest income best for the taxation that may come from the US income and the UK income.

So you choose to gamble on losing $2k by "chancing it" as opposed to spending $200 times 10 homes or so?

In a couple years it may pan out so I'd say its a bit of a gamble, I don't think the area will deteriorate/depreciate so you're safe in that regard.

Yep, I'm aware it's a gamble (as a bead of sweat drips down my forehead) but I do have some reserves, I'm still doing a little consulting for my old company, and I have a very supportive gf (who btw is from Chicago).

Real estate is gambling.

Population started dying about the time they made illegal gambling illegal.What's going on with the projects? 

I will bet you $1,000,000 that it will not and I DO NOT GAMBLE.