I have a local bank that will look at lending to foreign national on local properties, so it's hard  but not impossible.

Even then, you're likely to find that it may be more trouble than it's worth.If you aren't experienced estimating costs, putting together an SOW, managing contractors, handling issues, picking materials, analyzing a market, determining ARV, etc. in your own market, you're going to find it next to impossible to do in another market.

The further I got into it, the more I realized that (at least locally) it was near impossible to achieve that income with rentals and my current investment limit.

I feel like it's impossible!

Look for a super deal that is near impossible to screw up.

While correct imo, I would image a ruling such as this would be impossible to maintain through any jury verdict.Obtaining a license actually is detrimental for wholesalers as it may create an agency relationship with sellers and or buyers.

I would say coming up with an ARV with 1% variance is virtually impossible and that sends up warning flags to me.  

The pundits will tell you it's impossible to earn 15% annually continually on all  the earnings and that may be possible however even at a lower return like 9-12% the earnings  will still be exponentially higher than the cost.So at the end of the day  you can pick whether you'd like to use finance to plan  your investing strategy or emotionally make decisions.

It seems once a bank is involved it would be impossible to assign a contract.

I asked about the bank paying the taxes, and he stated that basically, the owner does not pay the taxes, but the bank pays the taxes so the property does not become delinquent (That state tax lien trumps 1st mortgage), and then the owner pays BoA on the back end for the taxes, which makes the owner impossible to locate.