But while on craigslist one day I found adds for hosting foreign high school students.

Hello,             I am a foreign investor and don't have any knowledge about Detroit.

Having been involved with a number of domestic cases (without peculiar foreign laws) I'm betting there's a high chance that you'll be feeding this horse and cleaning up the inevitable byproduct.

It took awhile to sink in as this idea is foreign to me. 

I am not sure what the laws are if you move from one state to another and an LLC is operating as a foreign LLC in a different state. 

@Marius DobreWe work with a couple lenders and professionals that work with foreign investors..

Depending on where your located, Private Money Lenders can loan to Self Employed, Green Card/ Foreign Nationals as a primary residence or Owner Occupied without dealing with coaching issues. 

I agree with J Scott,I often find companies who come to Toronto and pitch their great deals to foreign investors and to the uneducated person with the local market the deals look great!

From a distance communicate with people going to the meetings you will gather local referrals.Florida is very popular with foreign investors in fact 6 of the top 10 areas are in Florida.

When I first came to BP I had no real estate experience (or even business experience for that matter), so sometimes it was like reading a foreign language at times, but things make more sense as you continue to learn.