Real estate investing and real estate careers are topics that have seemingly fallen out of favor due to the instability of real estate markets during the past decade. Despite this current pessimism, both career and investment opportunities involving real estate should not be overlooked. In part this is because a "contrarian" view of investing has historically meant that the best opportunities are often available when popular sentiment is at the most pessimistic level. With such a viewpoint, a contrarian perspective would hold that either real estate investment or career possibilities could be especially viable when the prevailing sentiment is "don't do it."
Whether you subscribe to a pessimistic or optimistic view about real estate alternatives, this is a business area that represents a big chunk of the overall economy in virtually every country. With this in mind, it is certainly prudent and practical to explore whether there are real estate career and investing choices that are deserving of your time and money.
What Could Go Wrong?
The past 10-15 years have given us one illustration after another that should serve to remind us that things can and do go wrong. The banking industry continues to surprise us every day with unexpected actions impacting both individual borrowers and small businesses. Before we make any observations about real estate investing and careers, it seems appropriate to provide a timely reminder:
Always Have a Plan B
Whether you are already deeply involved in real estate or are seriously contemplating when and if to pursue a real estate career or investment strategies, please remember to always be thinking about Plan B (and C and D).
Start with a Few Hard Real Estate Questions
Whenever there is as much uncertainty as currently exists with real estate and the economy, asking questions is an excellent starting point. The most honest answers will be found in a number of places. Some of the most cost effective advice will come from books — but eventually more individualized advice will be needed in order to answer questions like these:
- How does Plan B apply to real estate investing and careers?
- Do I want to help others invest in real estate or do the investing myself?
- What about the availability of financing for real estate investment?
- What are Zombie Banks?
- What are some realistic career paths for real estate?
Career Planning — Small Business Finance Consultant Career Path
For those interested in real estate career choices beyond real estate sales positions, small business finance consulting is a specialized career path that involves helping small business owners solve a variety of business and financial problems such as commercial mortgage financing and business lender negotiating. As the CEO and Founder of AEX Commercial Financing Group, I consider myself to be ideally suited to provide hands-on training from an expert’s perspective. Please contact me directly regarding any questions you might have.
I prepared the following SlideShare presentation to illustrate a variety of expert viewpoints about choices, risks and being different — it should be relevant to anyone thinking about career choices.
