That's actually a good thing, as the ones who do get past step one are probably the cream of the crop

For example, as a newbie I'd probably have files named "due diligence" "flipping" "buy and hold" "multi", "oh shi* avoidance" "systems" "inspiration" "read daily" (the cream of the inspiration posts).

I own face cream that costs more than that house. 

And finally, eat two scoops of double chocolate fudge ice cream, book a flight to " . . . . . wherever" and take a sheet of paper and a pen and write down every idea that comes to mind.

I like to ask what their favorite ice cream flavor is.

One school of thought is, as the article states, the hedge funds, private equity firms, etc. buy these notes in bulk, skim the cream off the top, and sell them to the firms "downstream".

And since most people prefer to do less effort for more money, you can expect the number of applicants to be small - and with that, you can expect that the chosen one is very unlikely to be the cream of the tenant crop ...

Chances they aren't the cream of the crop of people in terms of the grand scheme of things, which means they have no money.  

I hear Ice cream cures emotional distress quickly. 

But because you pay based on the loan balance (not because The Joker is sitting behind the scenes selling you poison shaving cream) your first payment includes $618 worth of interest and slowly decreases from there.