I think all of us were caught off guard, at least to some extent, by the economic downturn.

Even people who saw it coming were shocked by how quickly the housing market went south and the financial system crumbled.

But Laura and her husband face a situation more dire than most. Laura sent me an e-mail to say her husband spent the last eight years as a real estate investor after selling a successful business.

"He had cash at the time to invest," Laura wrote. "Well, you know what has happened."

They own eight properties that have not sold. Her husband has not had an income for about a year, and her salary barely covers their own home payment and living expenses.

"We have been making all of the property, insurance and utility payments … so far," she wrote. "Two are being rented for an amount that is about $1,000 short of our payments for them, and the other properties (including our primary residence) are all for sale, but none of the offers have gone through. We are coming to the end of our savings and in fact have charged a couple of our credit cards almost to the max.

"Where do we go from here? There is a lot of equity in each of the properties — more than enough to pay the mortgages and our debts — but no sale in sight. Do we use everything up hoping that something will sell and keep us in business for a while longer, or do we let it all go now, so that there will be a few thousand dollars left for my husband to invest in starting over in a new career? … What are the options besides bankruptcy or foreclosure? We have never been in a situation like this before — always paid our debts, had money and had great credit scores."

Wow, what a difficult situation. For some ideas on how to respond, I talked to Mike Peterson, spokesman for American Credit Foundation in Midvale.

Mike says he would first advise Laura's husband to find a job as quickly as possible making as much as he can, "even if he needs to start over again and start at the bottom and start working his way up … If he has not been doing anything but waiting and hoping for these homes to sell, let's go to work and bring some income that can help."

Next, Mike says, he would examine the equity situation of the homes.

"Are we talking about equity in the market of a year ago, and they're trying to get the prices at that level? I guess I would ask, is there equity if they blew these out at fire-sale prices? … If so, that would probably be my next recommendation, is not trying to get what they think the market may be bearing today, but put it out there under a fire-sale situation and try to get out from under them," Mike says.