Lastly, I don't know what your long term plans are, but having a house to return to in the States if your international adventures don't work as planned can be a good safety net for you!

I would also say that markets like Manhattan are not super representative of most markets in the US - a lot of foreign investment I'd imagine in NYC, Miami etc - I'd guess a lot of these cash purchases are more about exchanging unstable or risky foreign assets/currencies for perceived stability/safety of US top metro residential real estateI think in a lot of other markets where this isn't relevant - I think most are cash offers being "king" as not having appraisal or other contingencies that might sabotage the sale after 30 days or so and make people re-list (sellers will take less to avoid this risk and downside)

-The niche, boutique brokerage is a great target because they are generally slammed with more business than they know what to do with, they generally are still using fax machines and rotary dialers, (i'm only half joking I still see @aol emails all over costar to this day) so it leaves ample opportunity with anyone that can use an crm a chance to add real value and grow the business in a measurable way.- These tend to be "assassin" type shops who are small teams of pretty elite operators, and they aren't bloated down with BS like the big CRBE's etc of the world, so you'll get exposed to more, you'll get exposed sooner, and they will generally be ideally with a niche industry or product type but will often have a ton of satellite deals they get which will get you cross industry exposure. 

Many investors use a general rule of thumb for midterm rentals that they should earn about 50% more in rents than an equivalent long-term rental (whereas short-term rentals should earn double or 100% more than if the property was utilized as a long-term rental).However, for DSCR lenders, change can be slow and challenging, and many lenders prefer and require more precise qualification measures than rules of thumb.

So, by that measure, their projections might have been off... but just they probably didn't assume a 25% increase.

Families want safety and a big house, so they are willing to pay top dollar. 

Just for good measure, I called the Kansas legal service, pretended to be a tenant that was being discriminated against.

It also took me down the rabbit hole of the safety of escrow deposits which seems quite frightening.

Meanwhile,  its not unfathomable for the bank who is approving your loans to wonder why this particular borrower feels it's necessary to take such extreme steps to protect themselves...what is it about them or their operation that is leading them to take such extreme measures?

The primary benefit of a smaller  renovation is you'll have a larger safety net if the renovation gets out of hand, the property won't sell, or if it takes longer than expected to rent.