I'm sure that, somewhere, there is some kind of service that can act like a middle man protecting both parties. A holding company of sorts that won't release money until product arrives, but ensures a cashier's check is being held in confidence for the seller. If not, maybe I just threw out a million dollar idea...

No, of course not. We've seen some great deals happen from overseas. Anytime large amounts of money are on the table where it's difficult to actually physically go and see the property in question, people have to be careful. Here in the US we get scams all the time through email, craigslist, etc. so it's conditioned in our culture to be cautious, but by no means paranoid or discriminatory.

Yes, definitely wish there was a safer way. If you were in continental US, I'd book a Uhaul and be headed your way now with a reasonable cash offer in hand. But, unfortunately, having $50k+ tied up on a lot of variables is a huge risk most are going to be scared to gamble on.

That being said, if any of you deep pocketed guys do want to take the gamble, there's a few on here I wouldn't mind having