Sharon, I'm not based in Iowa City but I am based in Des Moines and just from a pure macroeconomic model, in order to get appreciation in your home I would look to invest along the I-380 corridor and perhaps look into North Liberty as a possible town to invest in or look to the West and the town of Tiffin which is seeing a lot of economic development. 

To get a deal from 100 post cards would be pure luck, not a sustainable business model. 

But I think a good baseline if cashflow is your most important factor (vs appreciation), 7-10% COC and $100-$150 a door in pure cashflow.

Beware that there are some STR regulations in Medellin, one of the most popular cities and they are enforced; there are ways to go around them.As a pure investor, I'd forget the other countries in the region you mentioned.

@Paul Shannon re: the HOA, it will be up to you to decide if this is purely an investment, or is it a trophy?

They are taking a pure estimate approach with a survey and don't even ask very detailed questions (such as what appliances you have in the building).

With so much marketing smoke a mirrors... the only way to determine who is legit is to build organic relationships with real accredited pure passive investors.

Thanks for the input, but...Sussing someone out purely (or even largely) based on a credit report?

I have always been interested in Real Estate, dreamt the Monopoly dreams and started to work my strategy without any guidance but on pure desire and gut instinct.

By chance I met the owner at the building during the viewing and in a short chat managed to find out that he was a property developer, he owned 3 units in the particular building and he was selling off all his rental units to focus purely on property development, which was his core business.