Watch out for “deal guys”—people who buy lots of real estate but lack the experience to back it up (meaning having survived an adverse cycle or two in their career).

. - Break-Even Point.We've all seen a downturn, and it's important to survive the cold winter.

Loving what you do basically means you have the freedom of choice to live the life you want to live without the burden of earning a living to survive.

As long as you use low leverage and cash flow net with a built in cushion to survive a drop in rent of up to 50%, the chance of survival (aka keeping the rentals) is very high.Wish you all the best.

Sometimes survival is the best one can hope for, but if opportunity comes up I won't hesitate to take advantage of it.

According to the NAR the average income is about $33k and half of the agents make under 10k a year - lots of part timers.It is survival of the fittest.

In fact, That is the same statistics for normal business or Retail business. 97% fail, breaking it down from 100%. 84% fail in the first year or 2, 13% end up surviving for 5 to 10 years ( breaking even or barely making it) and 3% succeed. 

My wife and I both have decent paying jobs at this point, so this is really a long term plan that I expect to start slow, and I don't plan on surviving off the cash flow in the near future, just reinvesting it.

@Ryan Rush, l meant to say that you read Napoleon Hill’s book titled Think and Grow Rich to learn more about how to survive when everything seems hopeless.

Our duplex survived both without needing to be relocated but in both cases suffered heavy damage.