Brokers spend their days selling and promoting a product that it seems no one has a positive take on.  Each time I meet a new person that hears what I do it is immediately followed the the standard sarcastic question, “So how’s that going?” and it kind of gets old.  What we would do to have a string of real positive news and even a little drawn out successes to bank on.  In the last year business has been slow and for a large portion of Realtors, calling it quits just made sense.  Who can blame people for walking away from a product that is not working.  You don’t hear of anyone selling Beta tapes anymore or pushing the latest typewriter because they are things that don’t work and don’t make sense.  So when can we expect the world of Real Estate to come back and make people smile like it did a few years back while people were flipping, refinancing and funding a lifestyle with real estate.  My answer is never.  I think we are in the new world of marketing and selling property whether its a house or an office space, we have taken a product and made it extinct.  But in the meantime it has evolved into an animal that most consumers are experts in.  I have no problem having to re-invent myself constantly and trying to find the new niche or marketable product, and I do not expect people to make happy comments about real estate.  In turn I feel like it is my job to make people happy about their real estate and ensure them that it is still a great place to be as a long term investment.  Flipping to me was false riches and borrowing equity to buy a car was many times foolish.  I do not think we should see real estate as a quick answer to negative cash flow in other parts of our lives and that’s a good thing.  Because at the end of the day and when we realize this, it makes our properties look a lot better.  The cost to own your own space is at rock bottom.  The interest rates for qualified buyers couldn’t be better and when interest rates go up or inflation rises your property will be a gem.  The game has changed and the positive people that see Real Estate for what it should be are doing pretty good.  It’s really the people that are unable to easily capitalize on this opportunity who are doing poorly.  Where are you?