My interest in becoming a lender stems from enjoying analysis and problem solving. 

I feel like I decline a loan a day due to six figure student loan balances appearing on credit reports that are not compensated for by income (to any 18-21 year old reading this, please ignore your parents when they tell you to take out a bunch of student loan debt and "study what you find interesting," unless what you find interesting is STEM -- college was dirt cheap when mom/dad went to school, they do not understand your reality, and are living in lala land).

A lot of calls are stemmed from people going through divorce, in pre-foreclosure, etc, and many won't have the equity you're probably looking for, so you'll need to have other options to offer like sub2 or lease option to really benefit from the calls. 

The "scary" part about it for me stems from the fact that I have yet to do much research on the wholesaling process.

All of this stems around good experience in putting the trade together, which is always a fair amount of work and takes a decent amount of trade experience.

A bank may hold bonds as an investment, but not the loans they created, except for portfolio type loans.PMI is for conventional loans, FHA has MIP, guidelines stem from securitization requirements for the entire pool.

I would pay attention to enrollment numbers, employment rate outside the university (is there a hospital system, research facilities, law school, STEM/computer programs, technical schools, or anything else to draw people in during a downturn), and the vacancy rate in the area.Colleges have been flooded with an avalanche of cheap student loan money over the last 10-15 years and many have overbuilt their own student housing (dorms) as well as seen a lot of large apartment complexes built in town for student rentals.

@Joseph Hennis,I think it stems ultimately from the 2005-2007 era (I wasn't doing mortgages then, but I hear things). 

I thought the title of your post suggested cannabis cultivation!

My interest in real estate stems from my family owning multiple apartment complexes, so I've been on the scene and got my hands dirty to experience the landlord life.