Hi, Karen and Steven here...

I, Karen, had my first experience last night of talking to someone in foreclosure. The lead came through an online resources, so I was not 100 % sure before making the call that she was in foreclosure, but we suspected it since the online resource showed she had downloaded a report on stopping foreclosure.

Anyway, the gist of it was that her sale date is Oct. 17 (and this was Oct. 5!) and she thought we would buy the house full price and she could still live in it. I patiently and nicely explained that if she could not pay the mortgage now, that she most likely could not pay what the new owner would charge in rent, either, since it would be comparable.

She was not interested in a short sale even when I explained the benefits of it to her, and hung up.

I can see what other investors mean now when they say people in foreclosure have their heads in the sand.

This was a good experience. I think in the future, when working with people in foreclosure, we need not only knowledge and expertise in short sales, but the ability to really, really look at the situation from the other person's perspective.

This is one of the things that makes real estate investing an interesting career!