It clearly depends on your planned use for the property (ie. personal use vs commercial use, etc) but from one investor to another I would urge you to only invest in a country in which you fully understand all of the potential challenges, including the various laws, and how you might be able to overcome them.

I remember the exam to be challenging.

My biggest gain in this whole thing is do the numbers and look at 100's of properties a week to get a feel for the markets and property's in the areas your interested in.

Managing from out of state can be a challenge...I've done it as well.

i think the biggest lesson is to never quit, when times are tough and nothing is happening re-group and find out where your going wrong, its like in think and grow rich, a man bought all this gold mining equipment and moved to Cali and he dug for what seemed like forever with out hitting the gold vain, so he sold his stuff to a local junk man for pennies on the dollar and the junk man hired a survey guy and he said dig 3 feet from where the man stopped digging and when the junk man did that he hit the biggest gold vain in history, so any new wholesaler out there reading this, never give up cause you could have stopped 3 feet from gold, NEVER GIVE UP punch through those obstacles and win.

As far as your $25k rehab estimate, if you haven't seen the inside, you have no idea if its $10k or $80k,,,Just go see the house, get a contractor to give you real bids, don't just think "plumbing, $x, electrical $y,,unless you are an expert.Just slow down, don't "try to make something a deal", just see if it is a deal.If it is a deal and the numbers work, great, but the biggest mistake you can make on your first deal is trying to make something work,,,look at a lot of properties, you will know it when you find the right one (and this could be it)I'd rather see someone have your energy than someone that is looking for reasons a deal can't work,,your going in the right direction,,just slow down a little bit

I think my biggest obstacle right now finding more money and/or financing with credit that is not so great.

My biggest obstacle now is finding a home in the Rosharon or surrounding areas that my family can live in for 1-2 years and then become a rental property.

Be sure to note that you are happy to cooperate with agents, and will pay X% to the selling office (if in fact you plan to) The biggest thing you need to address is how you will handle the finish work, and come up with a set plan, as it's one of the areas that can turn into a nightmare.

I'm also here to try and gain whatever knowledge I can to help make my wife be successful in her sales career - which has shown to be quite challenging in the incredibly competitive LA-area.