Hard money is usually the most expensive option, but it fills a void when other types of financing are unavailable. 

But people flock to places they consider hot and overpay greatly and are too far away to avoid PMs.

Net gain.All the stuff you read/hear about avoiding credit pulls, avoiding new accounts, etc, is 100% true.... for credit cards.

It will need to be our primary residence for several years to avoid capital gains tax.2.

We've found its acutally better to avoid people looking for permits to be sealed. 

What if we kept track of hours but took it as contributions to avoid the double taxation?

We make in the mid 6 figures (W2 income).Advice we are looking for:- 401k, avoid 401k, or contribute what my employer matches- Ira’s- very knowledgeable in Real Estate strategies- minimize our taxes in Retirement- minimize our taxes now.- I’m not interested in anyone selling insurance - I know everyone says not to count on my pension, there is no guarantee, but if there was a measure of likelihood that a company would be able to honor their pension commitments then the conservative private company I work for would be rated the highest.- not really interested in savings advice on our 529 plan.- Nothing against Dave Ramsey, I really like most of his advice, but I think some of it is very basic and geared towards low income earners and people who have been very irresponsible with their money and are trying to dig out.- we have a about $70k to invest from our SDIRA, less if we convert a portion of that to a Roth.- we also will have about $250k to invest from the sale of our home.

So many avoidable house fires are caused by this. 

My goal is to minimize the tampering of the thermostat and avoid having to repair the A/C.  

I'd personally avoid Nicaragua and Ecuador.However, the multifamily investment model as we know it in the US and Canada doesn't exist anywhere else, with the exception of maybe Europe.