I find it a bit smarmy the realtors who imply they can get your property attention from these out of the country investors. It reminds me of the old trick of the realtor showing you a picture of the buyers to enable discrimination without actually bringing it into the conversation.
That said, for a number of foreign nationals buying real estate is a more durable way of expatriating wealth because it is hard to 'freeze' and it can be difficult to claw back. During the Iranian crisis there was a student at USC in my dorm whose parents were sending him money by first buying a number of houses in west LA and then funneling the rent money to him as his monthly allowance. It seemed very creative.
Wait - so they could freely send money from Iran to the US to purchase houses worth millions, but they couldn't send thousands as allowance but instead had to rely on said houses' rent? That seems weird.
It was possible to move money but difficult. Doing so once in a lump sum meant you wouldn't have to worry about the reliability of regular bank transfers across borders or fear your accounts being frozen once you were successful a single time. Seizing a house is much more difficult than freezing a bank account.
That said, for a number of foreign nationals buying real estate is a more durable way of expatriating wealth because it is hard to 'freeze' and it can be difficult to claw back. During the Iranian crisis there was a student at USC in my dorm whose parents were sending him money by first buying a number of houses in west LA and then funneling the rent money to him as his monthly allowance. It seemed very creative.