Foreclosure auctions are strange little gatherings. There may be fifteen minutes of frantic bidding, followed by an hour in which absolutely nothing happens. Since human beings are not especially good at standing silently on courthouse steps, conversations naturally begin.

Even though we were competitors, I developed friendships with many of the regulars over the years. One of them was a man named Don. He was somewhat older than I was, a leader in his church, and one of those genuinely good men whose opinions carried weight because he did not seem terribly impressed with himself.

Years ago, Don and I were standing on the courthouse steps in Clayton County, Georgia, on a bright, crisp Tuesday morning in March. We were waiting for the foreclosure auction to begin when a woman walked up the steps, apparently there on other business.

She stopped, looked at the small crowd, and asked, “What’s going on here?”

Someone explained that the foreclosure auction was about to begin.

“Oh,” she said. “You all are just vultures, preying on the misfortunes of others.”

Then she continued into the courthouse, having performed the civic service of condemning a group of strangers before breakfast.

Her comment bothered me. I did not want it to be true, but I could understand how she had reached that conclusion. People were losing their homes. We were standing there hoping to buy those homes cheaply. The optics, as they say, were not ideal.

So I asked Don what he thought.

He did not launch into a speech about capitalism, property rights, or the importance of functioning credit markets. Don was not auditioning for cable news. He simply said, “I didn’t cause their problems. I just bought the house. Someone is going to buy that house today, and the people in the houses I buy will end up better off than the ones sold back to the bank or to some of these other guys.”

I have never forgotten that answer.

It did not absolve us of responsibility. It gave us one.

Someone was going to buy each property that day. The sale was already happening. The question was not whether the previous owner would avoid foreclosure because I nobly declined to bid. The question was what would happen after the sale, and whether the person who bought the house would treat the former owner as a human being or merely as an obstacle between himself and the profit.

From that principle, we developed a practice of visiting former owners after buying a property. We offered them time to move and, when appropriate, cash for keys. We tried to help them leave with some dignity, a little money, and at least a fighting chance of beginning the next chapter of their lives.

We were not required to do that. The law gave us more aggressive options. But Don’s point stayed with me: if I was going to benefit from someone else’s difficult situation, I had some responsibility for how I conducted myself in the process.

That does not mean I stopped trying to make money. I was running a business, not an unusually complicated charity.

This is where the distinction between an opportunist and a problem solver becomes uncomfortable, because they often possess many of the same skills. Both notice what is missing. Both recognize inefficiency, distress, delay, confusion, and unmet needs. Both move quickly. Both use available resources to change the situation.

The difference is not always visible from the outside. Sometimes it exists primarily in the question being asked on the inside.

The opportunist asks, “What can I get from this?”

The problem solver asks, “What can I fix here?”

Those questions can lead to the same transaction. They may even produce the same purchase price. But over time, they produce very different businesses, reputations, and people.

An opportunist sees the homeowner’s distress as leverage. A problem solver sees the distress as the reason a solution is needed. The opportunist hopes the other person is confused, isolated, or desperate enough to accept almost anything. The problem solver may still negotiate firmly, but wants the other person to understand the tradeoffs and make a decision that actually addresses the problem.

In pre-foreclosure work, I gradually adopted a particular mindset: “I am here to help you solve your big problem right now, which is this house and these payments.”

That framing mattered. It reminded me that the foreclosure itself was usually only the visible part of a larger story. A lost job, divorce, illness, business failure, family conflict, bad decisions, bad luck, or some combination of all six had led to this moment. I could not repair every part of the person’s life, but I might be able to solve the property problem.

I also had to remember what I was not.

I was not a savior. I was not there to rescue someone from the accumulated consequences of years of decisions. I was not there to reform character, heal a marriage, restore employment, or provide indefinite emotional and financial support. Investors who forget those limits sometimes discover that a rescue mission is merely a bad deal wearing a halo.

The challenge was to occupy the narrow ground between exploitation and self-deception. I wanted to help in every reasonable way I could, while still buying the property on terms that made sense. My desire for profit did not disappear. It simply came behind the intention to provide a legitimate solution.

That order matters.

Profit is not evidence of wrongdoing. In a healthy transaction, profit is evidence that value was created, risk was accepted, capital was committed, or a difficult problem was solved. The plumber who stops water from pouring through your ceiling does not become immoral when he sends an invoice. You may question the size of the invoice, especially at two in the morning, but you do not question his right to earn one.

The same is true in real estate. A seller may need speed, certainty, debt relief, a property sold as-is, an inherited house emptied, tenants handled, title problems resolved, or a closing date tailored around the rest of life. Solving those problems requires knowledge, effort, capital, risk, and often more patience than anyone admits during the seminar.

The fact that the investor profits does not prove the seller was harmed. The fact that the seller is distressed does not excuse the investor from behaving honorably. Both statements can be true, which is inconvenient for people who prefer their moral reasoning prepackaged.

This principle has shaped more than my investing. It has influenced the way I think about teaching and training as well.

We have never charged people $50,000 to teach them real estate investing, and we actively discourage people from paying that kind of money. Is the knowledge worth more than $50,000? Properly applied, certainly. But that is not the same as saying a classroom, online course, or three-day event can deliver $50,000 worth of transformation.

Real estate investing is not especially difficult to explain. It is difficult to do well.

No course can fully teach someone how it feels when the contractor stops answering, the lender changes the requirements, the inspection finds three new problems, and the seller announces that his cousin has offered more money. That education arrives in the field, usually on a day when you had other plans.

Training should shorten the learning curve, prevent avoidable mistakes, provide useful frameworks, and help people make better decisions. It cannot substitute for experience, and the person selling the training should not pretend otherwise merely because the payment processor is working.

Here again, the questions matter. Am I trying to help this person become capable, or am I trying to keep this person dependent? Am I selling a useful solution, or am I selling hope at a price that requires financing? Am I being fairly compensated for experience, or am I exploiting someone’s fear of missing out?

These are not questions we answer once. They follow us around.

Any businessperson who says profit never influences a decision is either lying or has not yet reviewed the financial statements. Any businessperson who says profit is the only consideration eventually leaves behind a trail of former partners, employees, customers, and vendors who have learned to stop returning calls.

The goal is not purity. The goal is alignment.

The seller should be better off because the problem was solved. The buyer should be better off because he was compensated for solving it. The transaction should be clear enough that neither party must invent a different version of the conversation later.

I am still aware of the balance I am trying to maintain: serve people, solve real problems, make a profit, and do not undersell the value of hard-earned experience. It is like trying to stand a nickel on its edge. It can be done, but it requires attention, and any bump in the table reveals which direction you were leaning.

The woman on the courthouse steps saw only one side of the coin. Perhaps some of the investors standing there did too. Don helped me understand that the opportunity and the problem were not separate things. They were the same event viewed from different directions.

The investor’s character determines which side he chooses to face.

You ghost your own socials by Wednesday. SureThing learns your voice and ships native posts to LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and TikTok, without you writing a thing.

Post in Your Voice

When you sell an investment property, the IRS gives you 180 days to reinvest the proceeds or pay capital gains taxes. A 1031 exchange lets you defer those taxes indefinitely — but only if you use a qualified intermediary to hold the funds. Most intermediaries charge fees and quietly pocket all the interest your money earns while it sits in their account. Deferred does neither. No fees, and they share the interest with you. Their team has over 100 years of collective 1031 experience and has served thousands of investors. If you're selling a property, call them before you close. Check it out for yourself.

🛡️ Hiscox Small Business Insurance — Professional liability, general liability, and business insurance tailored for independent operators and small businesses. Coverage starts at $22.50/month. Best for agents, investors, and service providers who need real business coverage without the complexity of a commercial broker. Get a Free Quote

🏖️ Hostfully — Run your entire short-term rental business across multiple platforms from one place. Digital guidebooks, automated messaging, and clean property management. Book a Free Demo

🏖️ Guesty — STR property management across 200+ booking channels. One dashboard, every platform. Get Started

🏖️ iGMS — Automate your STR operations — guest messaging, reviews, pricing, and team management. Use promo code BONUS30_ROGER for $30 bonus and 30 days free. Get Started

🏖️ Tokeet — Channel management and automation for STR hosts who are serious about scaling. Sync across Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and more. Start Free Trial

🏖️ Smoobu — STR channel manager and property management software. Your readers get 10% off. Get Started

🧹 Breezeway — Property operations and guest experience platform for STR hosts and managers. Automate cleaning schedules, maintenance workflows, and AI-powered guest messaging. Get a Demo

🏖️ OwnerRez — Channel management, booking, and CRM for serious STR operators. Sync everywhere from one platform. Get Started

🏖️ AirDNA — STR market data for 10 million+ properties across 120,000 markets. Know before you buy. Create Your Free Account

💲 Wheelhouse — Automatically optimizes your short-term rental rates using real market data from 21M listings analyzed every night. Users average 20.6% more revenue. Try Wheelhouse Free

📶 StayFi — Turn your STR's WiFi into a guest marketing machine that drives direct bookings. Get Started

💲 PriceLabs — Dynamic pricing for short-term rentals that adjusts your rates automatically based on demand, seasonality, and local market data. Get Started

📖 Touch Stay — Digital guidebooks that answer guest questions before they ask them. Start Free Trial

🧹 Turno — Automate your STR cleaning and turnover. Syncs with Airbnb and VRBO automatically. Get Started for Free

🏠 Coliving.com — List your furnished coliving property free and reach residents in 400+ cities across 70 countries. No contract, no upfront fees — pay only when a resident books. List Your Property Free