I have been selling Real Estate for over 11 yrs. My career started in NewYork back in 1996.

I had a pretty good life at the time and was having lots of fun. I was in the textile business and I helped my father-in-law run a textile mill in Manhattan. It was a regular 9-5 job and I did a bit of traveling to the West Coast to meet with long time clients and was learning different parts about the textile industry. Every 2 months I would travel to the mill located in Beavertown Pennsylvania. Life was good and I was recently married in 1989 so I thought it was a secure position to be in.

All the glamour was nice and the travel took my mind off of the regular grind back in the city. But truthfully I was becoming bored so I decided to resign. I took a long time away and went to work in my friends video store managing it and working 11 hours a day 6 days a week. It was more a release from the burn out working at the previous position. Then in 1995 I decided to research new things and was looking for a career change. I found out about taking classes in Real estate and then took the test and passed it. While all this was going on I worked a part time job and then one day during the Jewish holidays I went looking in the phone book and started to call real estate companies. At this point I was pretty depressed. I received one call back from a small company that interviewed me the next day and asked if I would be interested in coming on board. I did and stayed with them until I decided in 1999 to relocate to Pembroke Pines Florida. I got on the plane went down to see relatives and came back with a binder on a home. We moved into our home and I started to study for the class and the exam. I eventually passed it and the rest is history.

Today I live in Weston Florida and I can tell you that it took about 1 yr in the business to figure out the difference of selling real estate in Florida versus New York. Once I figured out the program then I was able to picture myself as being successful in this business. All of a sudden I was turning deals and making a good living....while I was doing all this I met my future partner and he and I decided that since we became good friends and we had the same interest that we would start looking into buying property.I took most of my earnings and transformed it into additional income. We then became partners in both our acquisitions of Real Estate as well as working with buyers and sellers as Realtors. We started to find property together whether it was rental property... flipping property or holding it. We could do no wrong. In the last 3 yrs besides our regular client base we have acquired about 15 properties for a total of about 30 transactions. We made a profit on all of them accept the one property we are currently holding.

We also were successful in the rental market and our rate of return was about 27% until last year when we liquidated most of the properties we had. To this day when my family and friends come visit they always tell me how I used to live in a cardboard box and now seem very proud of my accomplishments in Real Estate. If I can give anyone some advice it would be to look at everything and be patient. Rewards come from hard work and not just waiting by the phone. Before you make a decision you really need to look at the whole picture when venturing into this business. We were able to continue to live the lifestyle we want to lead and we continue to move forward even though it is a difficult market for some. Be grateful for what you have.

"Not too bad for two Jewish guys from New York?"

Another Localism post writien by Neal "The Real Deal" Bloom