Because Puerto Rico is a territory, the U.S. has vested interest in helping the island recover.

Couple that with the lack of home building post GR and that's made a 1+1 combo equal 5.also in last 60 days, there're bunch of SFR funds liquidating their houses unsure why, but this month the top secret narrative that everyone already know is we are in GFC 2008 situation in CRE fantasy-land ; so it seems lot of funds in trouble and there're lot of redemption request from investors, maybe it's forced selling of the good performance asset to help recover the bad asset. 2024 is extremely interesting Jason, there're lot of factors that keep driving the dynamic of single family, and it's not employment per-se.  

Often times the individual has long since recovered from what caused the derogatory in the first place--i.e. job loss, divorce etc.

Is there a process in RI that allows for a wage garnishment to recover those funds?

Today, I've been taken advantage of, and I'm now fighting hard to recover my money.

yeah get out of that when it recovers and self directed IRA conversion to buy more houses :)

It won't be quick, but you can always recover in second cause.

Sounds like you went over and above what was needed to confirm she was out - good for you.I believe you can go after her for the rent on the property, but if I'm not mistaken, you have a good chance of recovering 2 months worth, and not a great chance of getting any more than that. 

Consequently, I find myself in a predicament where I cannot recover the funds already spent to proceed with the project.

If you wanted to be more aggressive about growth, you could look into DSR renovation loans to buy beat-up properties under market value, rehab them and then do cashout refinance to recover as much as your invested cash as possible, to repeat the process.A LOT of risk in that process if you don't know what you're doing.