A few years ago, our company helped one of the large real estate portals hire agents for teams on the West Coast. It was a big project that involved conducting more than 70 interviews/month and connecting pre-qualified prospects with team leaders who were hiring buyers’ agents. Early in the project, I had the responsibility of interviewing team leaders and other high-performing agents who were being considered for the program. After about a dozen interviews, I started noticing a pattern. Most of these team leaders (who were now very high performers) started their real estate careers between 2008 and 2011. After noticing the pattern, I started asking the follow-on team leaders: Why did you get into real estate during a downturn? The answers were surprisingly consistent: I wanted to start a business, and I knew that if I could learn this business during a difficult time, I would be well positioned to grow and thrive when things bounced back. A different type of person is attracted to real estate when the market is declining. It’s the individual who sees opportunity in adversity and knows they can win big in the long run.