Why does every seller quote me UPB like I should care about the original loan amount

You've already identified the core issue: UPB (unpaid principal balance, the original loan amount still owed on paper) is almost irrelevant when the collateral, meaning the property that secures the loan, is worth less than what's owed. Sellers lead with it because a 60% discount sounds exciting. Your job is to ignore the framing and work backward from what you can actually recover.

Your instinct to model the foreclosure path is exactly right, and the strategy guide flags this directly: recovery depends on collateral value relative to your purchase price, and on realistic underwriting of each resolution path.

Here is a rough version of your numbers. If the property is worth $55k after repairs, and you spend $15k fixing it, your gross recovery is around $55k. Subtract the $29,500 purchase price, attorney fees (Ohio judicial foreclosure in Cuyahoga can run $4,000 to $8,000 or more for a contested case, though you'd want a current quote from a local foreclosure attorney), holding costs over 16 months, and whatever it takes to close a sale. That math gets tight fast, and you haven't priced in the chance the borrower files bankruptcy and adds another six months.

The one thing you may not have asked: what does a workout look like if the borrower wants to stay? If you can get them performing again at a modified payment, you avoid the whole foreclosure timeline. That path only works if they can actually pay something, and you'd need to assess that early.

I can't tell you whether $29,500 works because that depends on condition details and attorney costs I don't have. A local Ohio foreclosure attorney is the right call for current Cuyahoga fee ranges.

What does your model show as the minimum property value at REO (real estate owned, meaning you have the deed) to break even at that purchase price?

Cuyahoga is genuinely one of the slower judicial counties in Ohio right now. I was looking at a non-performer there in late 2023 and the attorney I spoke to in Cleveland quoted me $4,500 to $6,000 in legal fees alone assuming no contested motions, and said 18 to 24 months was more realistic than 12 to 18 for that county specifically because their foreclosure docket got backed up post-COVID and never fully cleared. So your timeline assumption is probably optimistic by at least a few months, which changes the carry cost math meaningfully even if the note itself is sitting there not accruing anything for you.

On that $29,500 ask, the number that's bothering me isn't the discount percentage, it's your exit basis if foreclosure goes the distance. Say 22 months, $5,500 in legal, $15k rehab, any taxes or insurance you're advancing, you're probably sitting at $52k to $55k all-in to own a property that comps at $55k in decent condition. That's not a note deal, that's a break-even REO flip with 22 months of uncertainty baked in front of it. The only math that works at that ask price is a borrower who reperforms or does a short payoff early, and if they're 19 months behind with no contact, I wouldn't price that in as the base case. I'd want to be at $18k to $20k on that note before the foreclosure scenario looks like a real return.