- LOL good luck saving up a down payment when the above describes vast swaths of Americans). 

This topic comes up for discussion a LOT here on BiggerPockets, as it seems there are many reasons that folks that otherwise save just a few hundred dollars per month suddenly come into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars (inheritance, sale of a house, divorce, stock options, or good old fashioned luck). 

The issue trying to get ahead is many Americans make just enough to pay the bills and then have a little jingle in their pocket.

Because eager China and hungry India are not just catching up, they're kicking our complacent American/European butts.Yes, you will need a WiFi set up to control your lock at your location and a (cheap) subscription to control the locks remotely, but you don't have to.I wish I could help you out more and do some business with all you passionate travelers and hosts, but I am a distributor for European countries at the time, not the USA.

For the remote managing we relied on our broker in FL, as well as facebook postings looking for a handyman and cleaners, and of course good old fashion Google search for the contractors.

Hi, I have been using a service called American Tracers.  

For couches, we usually find the best deals at American Furniture Warehouse in Denver (Mora, I'm not sure if there is a similar store in Boston, but it's a warehouse store that has cheaper options than other name brand furniture stores in town).

If you don't, you may qualify for EB5 pathway using ½ million dollars to invest in a US based company generating 10 American jobs or more.You should talk to an immigration lawyer before anything else.Do not come in a tourist visa if you plan on staying.And it will take at least 2-3 years to build credit.

And not just any city but a city known to be the city where investors get the biggest bang for their buck and the American dollar gets stretched the furthest.

@NIc Green is also correct, if you add her as an authorized user on your oldest credit card accounts, it will definitely help but make sure that the credit card company will report the date opened as your original opening date and not the day you put her on the card because I know American Express does not back-date AU's anymore, I learned that the hard way.