BiggerPockets

In either case, the time committment is bursty. I'm not full time, so when I'm looking for a property, its a weekend/evening gig. I'll spend one day every weekend for 6-8 weeks looking at houses and writing offers. Some time at other times reviewing properties.

When an offer is accepted, there's a flurry of work in due diligence and then closing.

After that, it gets very intense for a few weeks to do the work I do myself and supervise contractors. For that time, its several hours after work most nights and all day on the weekends. I've learned to take off one night a week and not worry about the project and that day's payment on the hard money, or else I get really burned out.

When you're trying to fill a vacancy, its a lot of work. You take a lot of phone calls, do the showings, and screen the tenants.

Once the place is filled, the work is minimal. Stop by once a month to collect rent. Occasionally you have to fix something or get it fixed.

When a tenant moves out there's a flurry of activity with making the unit ready for the next one.

On my last vacancy, I did hire a listing agent to fill the vacancy. That was an experiment and I'm still not convinced it was worth the cost. I certainly wouldn't pay someone 10% of the rent to stop by once a month and pick up the rent.

Rehabbing doesn't have to be a full time job. You need to find a good qualified contractor who can rehab your house and essentailly work as the project manager, this will limit the amount of time you need to spend at the property. I run 6-7 rehabs at a time and visit the houses maybe once or twice a week. I have a very good contractor who knows exactly what I want and is able to handle any issues that come up.

If you are doing one house at a time and hire the right contractor, you can minize the amount of time you need to spend at the project.

If you hold a full time job, you are unlikely to be rehabbing 6-7 houses all at the same time. That means no full time crew, and that means a lot more of your hours, either to work or to supervise.

Doing a rehab on weekends takes me a couple of months, depending on what needs doing. I try to stick to cosmetic rehabs, so not much structural work to do except for new roofing and some plumbing and minor electrical work.

The time it takes for tenants is in direct proportion to how carefully you screen. You don't have to chase good tenants for your rent, and they do minimal damage.

Turn-overs in rentals are starting to take a lot of time. Lots of phone calls, lots of showings, lots of really unqualified applicants to screen out.

We are just finishing up the repairs on a turn-over that belongs to my son. A couple thousand in materials, and 6 days, about 8 hours per day, to get 'er ready to rent again.

That house had some tenant damage, but mostly just getting tired and needed freshing up.

I just took a deposit, but the house has been advertised for 6 weeks now. If someone wants to look, I get right over there to show it. Tenants have short attention spans and if you ask them to wait until the weekend, they either forget or find something else to rent.

With the type of tenants the property managers put into rentals in my area, I would never allow them to pick tenants for me.