So I'm doing tons of research and gathering different lists of properties I'm going to target during my Marketing Campaign. 

(Is the trick with that to keep following up via a drip email campaign or automated texts or something, thus building and maintaining a relationship without investing time until they’re ready?)

But it seems like there may be a lot of restrictions.

Too much work and responsibility for a small landlord and restrict ability to scale up. 

And, some countries are currently excluded from bank financing due to their currency trading restrictions placed on financial institutions. 

Here is an example:https://www.paslc.org/RECard/#/propCard/40248Now you have the basis for a (very small - size of 1) direct mail marketing campaign. 

But they usually don't restrict a property so much that you couldn't use one legally as an investment property. 

I tried looking into alternatives like self-directed IRA's to avoid the penalty & taxes but it's extremely restricted, and it seems that the only purpose is to make money for the IRA.

There is no restriction against being employed or having multiple jobs in addition to the business or self-employment activity.

If there is a mailing address listed, you could try to do a direct mail marketing campaign saying who you are and what you do.