If you can attracts tenants based on location and amenities, your worst case scenario in lean years would be lower income or break even, but not in risk of expenses overcoming your income and default.  

How have you overcome any financing issues as a non US citizen or resident?

I think having a down payment of 20% or more is one barrier I will have to overcome.

He likes the area b/c there are tons of service jobs, plus a number of colleges in the vicinity whose employees would have a hard time purchasing in Fairfield County, so the rental market is a vibrant one.I can't speak to flips in Bridgeport specifically, but as a general rule I figure if you price it right and make sure the monthly payment appeals to most buyers, that's how you overcome the high tax issue.

We use that as a baseline and any other items can be added on, and then agreed.Contractor Network: A never ending process of finding competent plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers, siders, etc… Hurdles we continue to overcome are finding contractors who actually do the work not just a GC where we are paying overhead and they hire a crew to perform the work needed.

You want to be getting the best ROI possible and doing it yourself can lead to a lot of testing and wasted ad spend that a professional has already gone through a problem & knows how to overcome the issue.Achieve Results FasterFrankly, you truly don't know, what you don't know and there's going to be a lot of guesswork you're going to have to do.

Don't despair, this is a problem you can definitely overcome with a little legwork.

Conventional financing overcomes most of these issues but also present several other challenges for many flippers.That 10% down can be great, depending on the exit strategy, or risky. 

You have a number of hurtles to overcome.

The biggest challenge I had to overcome was myself.