What Does it Say When the Good Ones Go Bad?

Before the crash, I sold a house FSBO on owner financing to a wonderful couple who always paid their mortgage on time.  Never missed a payment or were even late.  Then one day in October of last year, I got an e-mail asking, “What would happen if we gave you the house back?”  In response, I counseled them on the best way to market it for sale and offered to help them.  They told me they were moving out of state in a week.  I barely had time to grab a quitclaim deed from them before they drove off.

Meanwhile, I had a fully renovated home for sale that I would not take a bottom of the market price for, so I decided to rent it.  I rented on a one year lease it to a lovely woman and her brother who always paid their rent on time.  Never missed a payment or were even late.  She was a graduate student who was so in love with the house she gushed in her e-mails about how much she adored living there, and about the wonderful neighbors who brought her cookies.  Six months later I got an e-mail.  “We both lost our jobs.  What would happen if we moved out?”  In response, I offered to work with them until they could secure new employment.  In fact, the woman had moved in with her boyfriend and left me to deal with the brother, who turned from the charming individual I met six months ago into a surly jerk who threatened to sue me.  In spite of him, I found a new tenant and released them from the remainder of their lease obligation.

I sold another house FSBO on owner financing around the same timeframe to a hardworking contractor and his cousin who always paid their mortgage on time.  Never missed a payment or were even late.  Then in January of this year, I got a phone call.  “What would happen if we gave you the house back?”  I counseled him on how to sell it, even offered to reduce my equity interest to make the sale happen in the tough market.  The contractor quitclaimed his share of the house to his cousin, then moved out of the country.  The cousin never lived there and had helped the contractor purchase the property as a favor.  The house was essentially abandoned.  So I agreed to let the cousin quitclaim the house to me, and I rented it out.

I expect to have turnover in improving neighborhoods, especially since those are the first to go soft in a market like this.  But there is something especially difficult when you get blindsided by buyers/tenants with perfect track records. 

Times must be tough if the good ones are going bad.  For some reason it seems worse.  Is it because it raises deeper implications about the market?

Any thoughts?