Financial professionals and, all too often, government leaders explain that we are doing things better than before, we are smarter, and we have learned from past mistakes.

Become a thought leader.

Just like most people, most dogs don't really want the responsibility of having to be the leader, but they have to do it, if noone else does. 

There are a zillion other things to consider as well:  30 yr mortgage, 15 yr mortgage, how far into the mortgage you are, do you like the house, is this a 'leader' or 'laggard' area, etc.  

I changed properties to a much nicer neighborhood (A-) - right behind a kids religious school/church, state maintained park, and all houses on in the vicinity are well-kept and sell for 105k+It definitely was not worth investing in a C neighborhood with my significant other.  

Listen to the podcasts religiously, analyze at least one deal a day at least.

I went to a REIA group and the leader of the group told me to go find a deal and he would help me do it and they would split the deal based on how much work you do.

We co-taught a rehab bus tour for the REIA, along with my husband and a couple other REIA leaders - that was probably 5 or 6 years ago, at least. 

Listen to the podcast religiously every morning.

Sometimes the persistence has to rise to the level of becoming a community reform leader (New Worry for Home Buyers: A Party House Next Door), but the end outcome can be positive.In my case, a carpet was installed after my noisy neighbor moved out, which provided half the solution, and subsequent neighbors were reminded about the quiet hours at the time they signed the lease, which provided the other half (these people also had the attitude of wanting to get along with their neighbors and kept their noise down as a result).