But the good news is that the market is healthier and financing is easier to come by (HML are generally cheaper than back in 2009, conventional is way easier to work with these days) and many of us have a little extra money to invest. 

More importantly is will your lender allow you to sell 1 or two of the properties off later...if they are all tied together....Can you get deed releases written in to the loan so when you sell one you get it releases....and keep the rest.Would it be cheaper to get 10 smaller loans....1 for each property --with same closing costs...Question for you...How were you able to get those good credit scores built up with no Social Security Number...for consumer accounts??

Much cheaper than a reverse.

So Miami might be the answer, the homes are newer and cheaper and the weather is great!

My wife is also Japanese and if you are looking to find cheaper markets with a Japanese presence, they do exist.

I would renovate but do it a bit cheaper.

The rougher and cheaper, the better!!

Its cheaper then rent so they come out ahead.

She's thinking that its cheaper for you to do that the fight it all the way through. 

I had my cores drilled through foundation early this morning and ended up buying my 6 300' of 1" poly @ irrigation supply store (all the local plumbing stores were sold out and it was actually $50 cheaper per roll).