They probably got the Golden Visa where you only have to spend 500k on real estate to qualify and you get citizenship in addition you only have to spend 2 weeks a year in country. 

Investor qualifies for REPS2.

The ability to use leverage and reduce taxes in your highest earning years without having to put money into qualified retirement accounts is a great way to build wealth.So - If you own an STR:1.

IF you cannot qualify for a full doc loan then a DSCR loan does NOT look at your returns.

At a high level, this is generally the path people take - we see a lot of people have success in this route - start building the portfolio with banks, low down payments, and then **generally** when you hit around 5 or so properties - it starts to make sense to switch over to LLCs, its too hard to qualify/deal with paperwork of banks and switch towards private lenders like DSCR Loans - (LLC friendly, easier) to scale past 5 or so.

Depreciation can create paper losses to offset rental income or passive income, and qualifying as a Real Estate Professional (REPS) or STR loophole can allow losses to offset W-2 income.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

After literally years of looking (since 2022) I bought my first property a few months ago, so I feel extremely qualified to give advice (many people earned lots of equity during the pandemic appreciation-boom if they bought before 2022, but out-of-state investors getting started AFTER the 2022 interest rate hikes are few and far between). 

I am not qualified to say how it should be done.

There are so many misleading "gurus" and advice from others online - that don't make logical sense.Who do you think qualifies for an S8 voucher?

You can compare both options and see which makes more sense with the rate you'd qualify for.