I think the people making some of the most reliable money these days are the agents. Sales are happening very quickly and with little effort in a lot of markets. The agents usually have several of these deals going simultaneously, so the earnings can add up very quickly. As prices climb, so do their commissions.

Some get wiped out by investing their earnings poorly though. I know of several agents that this happened with in San Diego in the mid '00s. One woman bought a one bed condo by the beach for $700k. Place was tiny. The whole floor plan was the size of my current living room. Housing prices crashed and the next year she was foreclosed on and the bank sold it for $230k to a friend of mine. She got wiped out by that deal.

Housing crash happened right after I moved out there and I remember falling asleep with the TV on a few months before I moved. I had this dream that I was buying and selling houses and making millions. I woke up to find out that my dream was just an infomercial on the TV about some service to get you into the real estate game. It was so disappointing to wake up to that realization because the dream was so pleasant and exciting. 😂 But that was the mania of that time. You know when they have infomercials, all the good has been wrung out of that pyramid scheme and they're just looking for suckers to unload their bags on.