@Adam Bartomeo
I think there are multiple answers for your question.
1) The internet allows the exchange of information to be much more prevalent than it was a decade ago and the word about investing in real estate is getting out. The dialogue has become that everyone wants to invest in real estate. When I started in 2008 the talk about investing wasn't as high as it was today. More word of mouth equals more action.
2) People do not want the 9-5 job anymore where they are working for someone else, and they want to have something for themselves. Real estate seems like an easy option for those that read a couple of blogs and become "experts" in real estate. I know people who don't own real estate who try to offer me advice and I just smh.
3) The real estate marketing machine is much bigger than it was before. The crash of 2008 put real estate investing on the map in a way that it never was before. People want to know what happened, why, and how to avoid that. Donald Trump being in real estate and talking about it gets people hyped about real estate, Robert Kiyosaki's success with books, Warren Buffet, Dolf De Roos, etc. Banks putting out commercials on acquiring loans easily, and the late night infomercials about how to be a real estate millionaire gets people excited and want to start as well.
The cream will always rise to the top and those who know what they're doing will always make it no matter what happens. Those that go after deals without knowledge increase their risk for failure. So to sum it up, there's a ton of people with low knowledge and no mentor attempting to make deals and they wonder why it's so hard to maintain and or to get started.
