Relationships gone bad

Unfortunately in real estate investing, sometimes you find that you have the opportunity to make a profit from someone else's misfortune.  Sometimes this is due to a foreclosure, or a loss of job, or a medical issue, or even a relationship gone bad.  The upside is that you get to help that person out of a bad situation, so that the bad situation is not even more horrible than it already is.

One of these situations that has come up a couple times lately, for people I have met, is relationships gone bad.

In the first scenario, it was with the neighbor to a rental property I just purchased in December.  He was married, but his wife cheated on him and left him for another guy, and they were going through a divorce.  He was going to get the house, but he said it had "too many memories" of their time together and he really wanted to get out of there.  He wasn't sure if the house would sell and if he could pay down the balance on the mortgage with the proceeds.  He didn't want to rent it out because he didn't want to be a landlord, as well as saying it would be hard to see someone living in the house he owns.

In the second example, it was with a guy who bought a house with his girlfriend, and she cheated on him and he kicked her out.  However, she's still on the title and on the mortgage.  He's paying 100% on the mortgage and it's taxing him to do so.  I told him that's NOT a good situation for him to be in.  He knows he needs to get that taken care of, but doesn't want to stay in the house because of too many bad memories.

(See, men can be sentimental too!)

In the end, the best thing to do is take care of the people you come across, but find a solution that will take care of their PAIN and something that will benefit you in the end as well.  If you get an investor into the mix, that can earn a percentage of the profit, then you are just turning more lemons into lemonade!

Now, where do I find all those cheating women out there to find out if they own real estate?  :)