The economic situation caused many people to lose their homes throughout the United States because they purchased them with little or nothing down using an interest only loan. 

You can hedge the low rates now against 30 years of future economic unknowns.

. - TD Economics report the current Philadelphia vacancy rate at 3.7% and projected it'll increase to 4.4% in 2017.

At this point uncertainty in overall macro economic conditions makes me a little hesitant unless I can find something in a relatively stable market that produces a double digit cap rate. 

My reason for doing a 5-7 year hold is because it allows me to get the return I'm looking for while giving me flexibility to exit if sale prices increase in a certain submarket (whether due to lack of availability or other economic factors such as large employer coming to the area). 

The process of getting a flooring company to come out and provide a quote to repair the floors in the most economical way possible ended up pushing my return of deposit letter and check to 32 days from the lease termination date.  

The recent economic crash forced me to close my business and I lost just about everything.

Beat up the seller on price and fix it up economically.

It seems like it is a waste of economic capital to have these houses sitting vacant and deteriorating. 

The best of my understanding is that the loan may be discharged off Chapter 7 but the lien on the property doesn't go  Unless it is judicially stripped the lien is always valid on the property and you can foreclose if it economically makes sense.