Real estate investing and trading has become a hot topic on TV and in the media these days, but before you get caught up in the investing fervor, you need to provide honest answers to some serious questions.

First, are you willing to start spending much of your life involved in acquiring, repairing, and then selling the properties you buy? Much more than passive investments like stocks and bonds, real estate is a hands-on experience. You have to search for potential properties, sometimes many of them, before you find the one you are looking for. After you find a profitable house, you will need to pay for the property. Do you have arranged financing? Then you have to repair it, which will involve doing it yourself if you want maximum profit. Then you have to turn it around, which involves showing the property and dealing with potential buyers.

Next, do you really enjoy the real estate game? That’s important, because instead of just buying Wall Street paper investments, you’ll embark on what is essentially a second job when you start buying real estate. If you don’t enjoy it, eventually it will be like working at a job you hate, but you won’t be able to quit and walk away. Once you have started the process, you must complete it or face potentially disastrous results.

If you are married, are you absolutely sure that your spouse has bought into your real estate investment dreams? This is a crucial question, because if you haven’t, moving house can be very difficult on a relationship. Make sure your communication channels are strong, because there will be a lot to talk about during the investment process, and no matter how well you think the two of you communicate, I can promise there will be disagreements. You can avoid many of these problems by having a serious discussion about the strategy you are about to undertake, BEFORE you start!

If you answered all of these difficult but essential questions with an honest yes, you can safely begin the process of becoming a home pinballer. He will have ups and downs, but there is also great satisfaction in profiting from a project in which he was personally involved. It’s certainly not for everyone, but moving home can be both profitable and really enjoyable, if you approach the process in the right spirit.