This is not the same as a traditional rental property.

Here are two of my favorite lease clauses that should help you. a.Landlord informs the Tenant that the sewer system of the Premises is not designed to accept many types of items, included but not limited to, paper diapers, sanitary napkins, tampons, and children’s toys, balls of hair, grease, oil, table scraps, clothing, rags, sand, dirt, rocks or newspaper.

It is different from a purchase title policy or TSG which are for title recorded items and exceptions.

If there are any shared utilities or other items (example, a shared driveway, lawn, septic tank or well that needs maintenance, plowing or other upkeep), this creates another set of issues that could be perceived as self-dealing.  

Under the circumstances that they have tried to list their house themselves with no success or they have listed their house through the traditional method without any success.

Those are big ticket Items to do a rehab on so depending on your neighborhood it may not be worth it.I do not know your area but I am guessing you could find a better deal and possibly go up to 4 units.Do all of you need to be on the FHA loan?

As you've discovered, many traditional lenders won't work with US borrowers who have only foreign earned income.

If you qualify for a traditional loan I would go for it!

Why speculate on what the grapevine tells you about such an important recurring expense item?

Traditional financing is not an option for these houses, so you are down to investors with vision and there are not a lot of us out there.