My wife has been in the mortgage industry for almost 15 years and she can't predict what the guidelines will be tomorrow!

For the past month I have been educating my self on the industry and I want to begin taking action in the new year.

I understand that unemployment is a major one and understanding what industry employees the workforce in your target area bur what are the metrics used during your "litmus test" of an area prior to going to work on getting it under contract?

It's great to have any industry professional that is also an investor join our ranks.

Anyways, I'm really thinking about getting a real estate license for further education, making some contacts, getting my feet wet in the industry, & possibly get a real estate investing career going.

I am looking forward to retirement from the telecommunications industry where I have spent the last 35 years.

I have compiled numerous contacts in these industries, whether by word of mouth or hiring them for a job.

I have a full time job in high tech industry here and started investing in 2008 when I saw rent to price ratio (even in bay area) to cash flow easily.

RE is an economic factor that is under the scope of the finance industry, if you deal in RE you are working in the finance industry, RE is a sub-set of finance.

Layoffs have already started in the oil industry but I've heard that the oil companies are expecting prices to bounce later this year so layoffs may not be as heavy as they could be if prices continue to stay low for a while.