My wife tells me that houses are built much differently in Brazil so what I usually expect for expenses could be much different from what you've seen if things break more or less often- What other expenses should we factor in? 

So does owning, yes higher but the tax savings you get plus appreciation FAR OUTWEIGH the extra upfront cost.

One bright point is usually in any arena, the more difficulty middlemen create, the fewer investors you’ll have to compete against.

What is to stop Local and / or State Boards from leaving NAR and continuing on with business as usual?

During this waiting period, consider house hacking, where you live in a multi-unit property and rent out the extra space for additional income.

All the PM's I use have a dollar limit in the contract (usually $500).

My property will be destroyed.Again, with the extra layer of protection, it helps if your tenant does damage to the property.

Usually, the electric and gas are sub-metered and are always paid by the tenants as well as water and sewer if it's sub-metered.

Truly private money could simply be one person lending money while hard money is usually an institution or similar.

@Edward Burns - While your concern has not been proven out in court, to address your concern, people that do not want to rent to these types add an extra layer of protection.