I couldn't find the money to buy a $30,000 in Mesa, Arizona.

I had dinner with a buddy of mine this past weekend while we attending the Limitless Expo (which is one of the year's best conferences by the way). He told me about his investing journey and losing everything in the crash in 2008.  He also told me that house prices had plummeted and there was one point in 2010 or 2011 where he could have bought a house in Mesa, Arizona for $30,000 but that he wasn't able to find the money. That same house has a value over $300,000 today. Probably over $400,000 if it is fixed up nice. I told him that he had lame friends. He agreed and then he said that he has better friends now. 

My point is not just to reminisce about the "good ol' days" when you could buy a house for $30,000 after the crash. My purpose in sharing this is to say that even when houses were $30,000 it still wasn't easy to buy them then. Everyone wants an easier or better market. The truth is every market has its difficulties. When home prices are low the market is difficult mostly because lending isn't happening and that is why the home prices are low. They are priced at what people are willing to pay cash for them. When home prices are high the market is difficult because you can't cash flow with a loan on the property.  Well, you know what? In 2015, you couldn't cash flow if you bought a house on the market in Mesa, Arizona when the home prices were $250,000 and the rents were $1200 a month.  Now that rents are $2200 a month and home prices in the same city are $400,000 and interest rates are at 6.5% and taxes and insurance are higher, you still can't cash flow. 

It makes me think of Jim Rohn's saying, "Don't ask for things to be easier, ask for you to be better!" Ask yourself, how do I make this work in today's market rather than saying, man I wish I was investing back when houses were $30,000.  Because if you were investing then, you may not have been able to buy a house at that point in time either.  

Don't wish for better days, wish for you to be better in your present day. And then go and make things happen, regardless of how "good" or how "bad" the market is.