My two cents - I have worked with a few agents doing marketing - mainly worked with dentists - doctors etc. - we have done mainly stuff like doing Facebook and Adwords ads where we are able to customize their strategy a bit more than some of the "big" national providers - we have set up follow up email funnels - retargeting etc. - and I think the real estate agent market as a whole is one of the tougher ones I have ever worked in.It seems to me you have a small group of agents who are spending a LOT of money on marketing (ie $10-20k or more a month) and then the vast majority of the rest are spending very little to nothing on marketing programs (+/-$500-$1000/month) - typically waiting on referrals or leads generated by the agency they are associated with . . . . so a lot of feast or famine . . . 

@Rick Doctor- Great points.

Doctors do the same thing. 

Doctors built new offices offices went up all over the place.Who is really going to get hosed tho in this whole deal of course is those with no insurance.. and worse yet investors with no flood insurance as they don't even qualify for any fema bene's...

Push yourself beyond your level of comfort and take risks when you are young and have nothing to lose.As for education if it is your intent to have a career (doctor, lawyer, accountant) as opposed to a job go to school otherwise get a trade.Your only purpose in working is to trade your time for money.

(For reference I’m a 6’8” Army vet who made it through the doctor process)

Still trying to sell the other as we have hard money payments and has fallen out of escrow twice alreadyLook for a private lender, a friend, a family member, your doctor, barber or dentist, etc who has a self directed IRA that can buy out the Hard Money Lender at a much more favorable rate and then you have options.

Your average investor is a successful doctor or engineer or business owner or other high income earner who is putting away a lot of cash and trying to earn a solid safe return on it in a low interest rate environment.

When I was a kid, I was asking a relative of mine who is a doctor, how much money he made or had in the bank.

@James Wise  Jim I had a contact that this happened to in your fair city.. busy doctor paid cash for home.. sat vacant over 90 days..