During the height of the mortgage housing crisis, banks really did not have systems in place to deal with short sales and were making it up as they went alone; often pulling the carpet out from under the seller at the last minute.They are a lot of work; the seller has to be willing to cooperate by providing info and follow instructions, the buyer needs to be patient and have cash, and the realtor needs to have experience.I would be happy to take a few questions.Bob

The Dominican Republic and Panama have been growing at more than 5% every single year over the last 20 years, including during the Global Financial Crisis.

Rents, job growth, interest rates, affordability etc.Everything is up in the air and in 10 years pricing might be up but the negative cash flow to get there is rough.https://wolfstreet.com/2019/04/17/house-prices-fall-year-over-year-in-12-of-the-16-most-expensive-california-coastal-counties/https://www.recode.net/2019/3/19/18256378/tech-worker-afford-buy-homes-san-francisco-facebook-google-uber-lyft-housing-crisis-programmers

Donald Cressey is The Fraud Triangle: 1- A perceived unshareable financial need. 2- Perceived opportunity. 3- Rationalization.Financial pressures change in life, medical care for aging parents, a family member becomes ill, college costs, mid-life crisis, substance addictions and gambling, jealousy/feeling "owed" or wronged, social pressures to "get ahead"...The biggest losses are always where there are no checks & balances, no separation of duties, no policies and procedures in place. 

He had a personal crisis a few months ago and was really late with payments, although he did tell me ahead of time.

My mother had a health crisis and I became involved in making decisions on her investment as a result.

Two other very important factors not mentioned or given short shrift are the 1) high unemployment/underemployment rates and 2) the dampening effect that the housing crisis has on people's propensity to buy.  

Watching the interview of @Brandon Turner with Brian Burke who comments he survived to the crisis in 2008 because he just a flipper made me think about the risky side of REI.Lets say someone is good at REI and buy 8 properties  which generates 400$ dollars per month after all expenses.

A lot of these tenants are people who got messed up in the crisis, and are out of the game.

That way she doesn't become overleveraged and thus struggle when the next housing crisis hits.