I hope you continued success.

My plan is to continue to save for a down payment and in approx. ten months purchase my first home.

The market in the US is more transparent and open here than anywhere else in the world, and there are many services and online tools that will help you operate efficiently from oversea.

If I don't get anywhere with the tax collector I am going to just continue to mail the property and hopefully get in touch with the person picking up the mail and paying the taxes. 

Seems like the best option is to work toward a nicely operating well.  

I think that investing that time and money will motivate me to continue pursuing my goals and to not give up.  

To determine the cap rate 1) Calculate the yearly gross income which in your case is $68,520.00 check the books make sure rent roll shows the rents are as stated.2) Subtract the operating Expenses not to include mortgage and interest =$28,936.803) Net Income = $68,520-28,936.80 = $39,583.204) Cap rate = Net Income divided by purchase price $39,583.20/400,000= 9.8958%Investors usually will use cap rates to compare properties in a neighborhood.

You will find so much great info and education here on BP, definitely tune into the weekly podcasts as well as the webinars.I operate mostly in sussex & Morris county but would be happy to help in anyway I can.

The vacancy rate in San Diego is somewhere around 3%, the city is growing like crazy, there are already massive developments planned on the east end of east village which will just continue to expand east.

Our local go to lender would give us the loan- however when we know there are better options to help our operational cash flow we would prefer not to settle.