"picking up rent"  is a foreign concept to me. either snail mail, or electronic! 

This thinking is a bit foreign to me because it seems to assume that the property will always appreciate.

I was unaware of how the visas work with foreign students.

IE the need for an abstractor  which of course we don't have on the west coast.It was frustrating when I first started on the East coast I would open and order and want title commitment by next day.. and of course having to deal with an attorney was foreign as well.

@Dawn Anastasi  is very correct.. you get into those areas and folks live life so foreign to what you probably do that its really quite astounding..

The property I sold was to a foreign investor for cash.

When I rented to foreigners, they came either as international students or for a techie job in Silicon Valley.  

But now I have a vacancy and an applicant who is a foreign student at a local college.

In this conversation, as foreign as you think it to be, there are places where you {still} are not permitted to apportion the cost of a utility to your tenant if you sub-meter.  

As a small investor managing from afar maybe foreign at first, but get easier as you gain experience.