I’ve had a love ~ MEH relationship with real estate most of my adult life. As a 24-year-old, I bought my first home by assuming the mortgage of an existing FHA home-owner ~ the year was 1992 and I found my 100-year-old farmhouse in the classified section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Luckily, we navigated that situation and it all worked out. It worked out so well, that I made 30k from the sale of it three years later and then was immediately bitten by the investor bug. Those are the highs! The days when you’re paid a lump sum whether from a transaction or from an investment you’ve improved. Those days are filled with POSSIBILITY! What should I do? Pay down debt? Buy a new car? Buy more real estate? I’ve owned 13 doors (still have 3) and the highs and lows have flattened due to the shifting market. Real estate is how I’ve made a living. As an agent, as an investor, and as a coach. Yet, the MEH comes from the ever-shifting sands of the ‘rules’ of lending, of housing trends, and of generational attitudes. Real estate can be fatiguing. Sometimes its hard to stave off the feelings of low self worth when you are unable to generate business and its equally scary when you know you might not be able to pay your bills next month. Those of us who have lived through other shifts know how to save and how to cut expenses to the bone. The rest who cannot, well, they fade off into the horizon and are absorbed back into 9-5 careers. I like to say I’m Living Real Estate. I live it every day. I train, I coach, I lead generate, I write contracts, I negotiate, I’m a landlord and I’m always dreaming of that next great idea that may or may not come true. Real estate has blessed me and made me develop grit I never knew I could find. Real estate has made me feel small and helpless too. Buying property is one of the biggest tests of a person’s will. The will to save, the will to invest, the will to be stable, the will to improve, the will to jump through hoops just to be in a position to be considered for this life-changing opportunity. Homeownership is not for the weak, it is for the determined ones. You can say the same about agents, not all are going to figure it out, it’s not for the weak of constitution. Because the lows, well, they’re really low. It’s for the ones who dare to create (by hook or crook) a life by design.