Even in Mexico, so much (luxury) real estate is outside of gated communities.Finally, to illustrate how It'd be dangerous to invest in Central and South America - outside of Belize of course ;-), you take the example of the only country that has turn really badly, Venezuela, where no foreigner invests anyway.

We did this last year when the started charging in MI and found for us, locally, they generate a lot of leads but few applications and fewer actual tenants. 

@Jon Schwartz I think your comment about thinking appreciation in Santa Monica is a given is very dangerous and is a very bad plan.

I've heard mixed reactions ranging from old houses to dangerous areas.

But if you visited a new country with, say, a bunch of friends who are locals, they probably speak the language, know the vendors, can show you all the hot spots to have fun, the dangerous alleys to avoid, and soon you know all of that too.

The only reason I'm looking at multi-family is so I can house-hack and live in one of the units, which means that I will have one fewer unit to collect rent from.

And you must adhere to each 45/180 day timeline.There can be a lot of reasons logistically to go from more to fewer properties. 

I also buy nicer properties with higher cost points which I think helps get better tenants and fewer maintenance issues.  

Your maintenance calls will be fewer, your turnovers will be less expensive, and your property is more likely to see greater appreciation over time.

The result is terribly sub-par and even dangerous renos that do nothing to increase the value of the property.