Do you remember that tacky commercial where Sally Struthers asks, in that annoying whine...

Do you wanna make more money?

Sales are slowing down, equity is tight and loan programs are dissapearing faster than a box of donuts at an Association of Realtors meeting.

At the same time, popular culture is obsessed with magical thinking.  (Let me share with you a "Secret" of my own...there's a difference between positive thinking and wishful thinking.)

The difficulties of a market slowdown and the rise of pop-psychology hokum can mean only one thing...

Attack of the Network Marketers!

I get hit up probably once per week to join someone's 'downline' selling vacations, greeting cards, health products, tangerine launchers....okay, I made up the tangerine launchers.  If anyone knows about a company that sells tangering launchers, I would actually sign up for that.

The businesses are always promising that you'll be adding value to your clients.  That is a possibility...a faint one.

It seems more likely to me that the peddlers of multi-level marketing, home-based businesses, etc. smell the fear of those that just know that they're not going to survive the market correction and sense an opportunity to pad their pockets.

I'm planting my flag.  I'm a mortgage loan professional. 

I see nothing wrong with network marketing per se.  Disclosure: I actually am a distributor for a certain MLM product (no, I won't mention it here) in order to get a good discount on things I use for my business. 

However, my network is not for sale and I will not dilute my focus or integrity.

And when the winter snows of real estate start to thaw and spring time returns, who will be the go-to real estate professional...the person who stayed focused or the person who started selling vitamins?

Not that there's anything wrong with selling vitamins.  Especially the ones shaped like cartoon characters and that taste like fruity chalk dust.