Weathering the 2007/2008 Bust and Comparing It to Today

[Kaye Rae]

Hello All,

This is my very first post, so thanks in advance for your patience! I looked around on the forum but didn't quite find an answer to my question.

Back in the 07/08 housing bust, I was in my early 20's and owned a condo, but ended up doing a short sale. I got out mostly unscathed, but that was the last time I messed around with RE. Years later, here I am ready to get back into it and tend to gravitate more toward the BRRRR model. However, that would mean that I would end up with a mortgage on each property. So my question is this...

One thing I never understood during the 07/08 housing collapse was what happened to RE investors who had a bunch of mortgages. Can anyone weigh in on what it was like and what happened? 

Back then, if you owned (for example) 15 different properties and therefore had 15 different mortgages, what was it like?  As long as the mortgages were current, did the bank leave you alone? Did they try to klepto properties and sell them to get the money back for the loans (is that a thing)? Did renters instantly stop paying or was it a slow roll? How did investors weather that storm?

Everyone seems to be preparing for a new wave of foreclosures as a result of COVID, etc, but I just wonder what it was like back then and how it compares to today. One day, I will be in the position of having a lot of rentals and I'm just wondering how people made it out without being financially devastated. I wasn't even involved in RE investing back then and it took me nearly 10 years to recover - and now here we are again approaching (what seems to me) a very similar situation.

Thanks!

Kaye