How to profit with mortgage delinquency?

[Angelo Pompeo]

A lot of people hunt for properties that are being short sale or foreclosed on. How do you typically profit on that? More, what if you knew they were delinquent before they went into foreclosure? I don't' mean "how could you ever," I mean literally, what do you offer to beat the alternative: foreclosure. 

I imagine you'd mail them directly, but I'm at a loss for what to say. "Hey I see you're delinquent, let's make .. a deal?" I don't know how to help them in a way that helps us both. Can anyone help me with maybe a podcast episode to listen to or keywords to google or just flat out explain it to me step by step? 

Especially with the moratorium on foreclosures coming to an end, it seems like this is more pertinent now than ever, and yet I don't know what my options are as an investor to being active in that environment. I could offer to buy the place? I could offer to make their payments non-delinquent, but then what?