Most of the short sales that I've known of that have lead to foreclosure have been due mostly to it not getting done fast enough - most common example being where the owner has a garbage realtor that has no idea how to handle the short, doesn't do due diligence to handle paperwork with the bank, commonly misprices property, never gets a buyer and too much time passes.

I think those books are garbage because they are using fairly legitimate self improvement advice to sell real estate hype/lies.It's great that you value goals, willpower, planning, etc.  

I've just finished the routine inspections for all of our units, and I can honestly say this one is by far the worst.I sent the tenant an email after the inspection letting him know the apartment was not up to our standards and according to the lease they are required to keep the unit clean and free of garbage.

Here are the deal stats:Units: 7Purchase Price: 165,000(All Numbers Monthly)Gross rents (when full): 3,690Gross rents (as is): 2,760Mortgage: ~735.00Taxes: 146.57Insurance: 150Water/Sewer/Garbage: 375Electricity: 500Vacancy (10%) 369PM (10%) 369CapEx (7%) 258Maintenance (5%) 184Total Expenses: 1,983Expenses + Debt Service: 2,717Cash Flow: 972.33NOI: 1707Cap Rate: 12.41%Cash-on-Cash: 35.38%Rent to Price: 2.24% I got financing from Wells fargo and in my opinion the terms are great. 20% down, 15 year loan amortized over 25 years with a balloon at the 15 year mark.

For what this guy spent on garbage he could have paid off the house.

@Devin Hedgepeth Dont sell yourself short, working for free is garbage, for lack of a better term. 

Property Management: 4560 {the discount on Unit #1}Garbage:   ????

Also he seemed to be missing may smaller items that can add up (primarily garbage disposals and ceiling fans). 

I dropped several thousand dollars on an education with that program - I learned that guru courses are garbage and are not a true reflection of how real estate transactions are done.  

Sewer and Garbage are billed with the water, for a total of $200/mo for each address or $600/mo total.