I have been in real estate for 8 years.  I started as a loan officer for five years, then open my own insurance agency.  I decided that in order to grow my insurance business I would become a Realtor.  After my first 6 months as a Realtor I had more business than I expected and sold my insurance agency to my partner and focused all my attention on Real Estate.  I called every loan officer I knew in the busniess and came across some that had moved into being asset managers and began to market properties for their companies.  About half of my busniess is REO