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.

@Dimitri PaspalarisIf you do sell the stocks, be aware that you may have to pay tax as a result.You may be subject to favorable capital gains tax rate if the stocks are long-term.To avoid the tax hit, you may want to also consider selling stocks that have decreased in value.

Also any pitfalls to avoid / additional advice?

I suppose if you just give a friendly wave as you come and go and otherwise avoid them maybe you could pull it off.I think self-managing for a while at least is good experience.I guess if you do hire a PM then the tenant may not find out you're the owner but the PM would also have to be aware and not tell.  

Try to avoid the big banks as they often have overlays/restrictions in addition to the true fha requirements.

Putting down 5% to avoid some of the funding fees.

New investor with General question for veteran investors -You can structure deals to avoid bank using the due on sale clause to call the loan.

@James Heacock Here are the key things to look for in a turn key company and what to avoid.If you're going to go the turn key route, in general, the ones to avoid are the ones that: Don't allow financing or a finance contingency (it can be a good indication they are selling above market value)Don't allow for your own independent property inspectionAre not realistic with their pro forma's (i.e. they don't include vacancy or maintenance projections or use unrealistically low vacancy factors)Require you to pay for any renovation upfrontSell only in cheap. low end neighborhoodsDon't accurately represent the neighborhood/property classificationDon't have consistent rehab standards for all propertiesDon't provide a scope of work for the propertyCan't provide references of repeat investorsRequire you to close before a tenant is in place

Account Closed Good point, but you can get around that restriction by simply buying the properties in your own name then putting them into land trust(which avoids due on sale issues) and then assigning those trusts to the individual cells of the Series.

The best way to avoid this type of problems is to have a better screening system as Nathan details them.