This means that investors can freely visit and immerse themselves in the ranch environment, truly connecting with its essence and reaping the rewards of their ownership. 

This will be a very rewarding journey! 

And if you wouldn't take that deal, you probably don't like money as much as you should.Using leverage for real estate holdings is obviously a bit different (more risk, more potential reward), but the underlying mechanisms for generating higher returns than what you can get with your own cash are exactly the same.Based on that, it's hard to argue that leverage itself is "bad".

Each LLC must past the sniff test as a real business operation.Finally, I would say there is a cost / benefit and risk / reward to any decision.   

the house has a ton of charm and potential i"m sure you will crush it!

Overall I view SFH investing as much higher risk, all your eggs in one basket, and therefor the "potential" reward less attractive. 

Whereas getting residential loan on a place out of state may just be easier, in some cases.Out of state, can be great, though cat's out of the bag on Bozeman, MT/Asheville, NC/Burlington, VT charming destination places so you would have to be creative there anyway.

What sort of income will other buildings produce and are there alternative investments that provide superior returns when weighted in terms of risk vs. rewards?

But so is the reward. 

They rent their house, and they keep all of their money in the United States, transferring small sums to their account in Ecuador when they need it.I'm not opposed to high risk, high reward investing, but you should know what you're getting into.