Do you ever become discouraged with real estate? Hopefully the answer is no but the reality is probaby yes. It has happened to me. No doubt it has happened to you.
It is easy to believe, when on a roll, that it will continue forever and ever. It doesn't always. In fact, it really does. Real estate is a business of peaks and valleys. It is easy to become overly confident when you are peaking. It seems it will last as long as you continue to do the things you have been doing. That is not always the case.
When transactions are falling apart, one after the other, it is equally possible to think that it will never change. And for some it never does. Generally that is because they give up. That doesn't always mean that they are quitters. It could be because the entire market has taken a downturn and they do not have the funds to keep in the game waiting for a turn around. They may have too many family responsibilities that make it impossible to stay with a career that is not fruitful.
For those of us that have been in the business for a number of years most, if not all, of us have experienced our share of peaks and valleys. Some of us are fortunate to have way more peaks than valleys. That enables us to hang in even when it you hit a time when it would be easy to become too discouraged to continue.
Real estate is like a game*. 
It is fun and full of rewards when you are winning. On the other hand, it is exhausting and down right frustrating when you are on the losing end.
If the later is where you find yourself, step back and ask yourself why.
One reason may be because the industry as a whole is suffering. The other reason might have more to do with you. This is what I discovered soon after becoming a REALTOR®.
When the whole industry is struggling all I can do is continue to struggle along with it pretty much doing what I have been doing although working a bit harder.
When others are doing great and I seem to be slipping behind I have to do a bit more soul searching. What am I doing that isn't working compared to what others are doing. Sometimes it is not that easy to figure out. They may not be so willing to share where and how they are getting their leads. They may not be telling you where their advertising dollars are being the most effective or whether most of their leads are coming from doing floor duty and if so what days/times are the most beneficial. Others in your office may not talk about the farming that they are doing for listings. If that's the case where can you go for this kind of advice?
Active Rain.
Active Rain is where any REALTOR® can go to get the best advice out there. If you need help with your web site, with blogging (or to even discover what that is all about), farming, advertising, marketing, etc. you will find the answers here. This is not a static web site. It is ever evolving. Changing with the times. Constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve. How is that possible?
Active Rain staff and Active Rain members make it happen. Teamed together they are able to provide up to date information, advice, examples, and plenty of pep talks. It's as though you have a whole team behind you with coaches galore. Who would not like having that as you play hard at this game known as Real Estate. You find you have a terrific number of cheerleaders rooting for you to succeed. It really, really helps.
*Early TV photo of the 2013 Rose Bowl (Stanford vs. Wisconsin) only because one of my sons (a Stanford alum) flew out from Virginia to California for the game.
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