{"id":83869,"date":"2019-05-18T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=83869"},"modified":"2024-02-13T18:50:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T01:50:16","slug":"investing-real-estate-easy-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/investing-real-estate-easy-way","title":{"rendered":"Am I Missing Something, or Is Real Estate Investing Really Not That Hard?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody has their reasons for investing. Some folks invest because they just want a little bit of side income. Others are investing to attain financial freedom early in life. Still others invest simply because they love it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then there are those folks who\u00a0invest because they have to. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a guy who\u00a0writes for this blog named Ben Leybovich<\/a>. He got started in real estate because he had to. He was unable to pursue his former trade (violinist) due to a medical condition and was forced to find another way to provide for his family in a hurry. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a guy who\u00a0writes for this blog named Brandon Turner<\/a>. He got started in real estate because he had no money, a job in a retail bank, and way too much ambition to allow himself to stagnate in that set of circumstances. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a guy that writes for this blog named Jered Sturm<\/a>. He got started working on properties when he was a teenager and has never really known another way of earning income or building wealth. <\/span><\/p>\n

These guys are really impressive. They are very smart. They are guys whose writing\u00a0you should read. They are, unequivocally, <\/span>entrepreneurs<\/span><\/i>. Their stories are <\/span>exciting<\/span><\/i>. They are <\/span>cool<\/span><\/i>. They\u2019ve <\/span>made it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

These guys I just mentioned started with nothing\u2014and in some cases, less than nothing. They have built incredible businesses for which they fought and scratched and clawed their way through to success. They found incredible deals, added value to their properties in creative new ways, and systematized their businesses to the point where they have all three become millionaires through real estate investing with tremendous monthly free cash flow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"succeed-vs-fail\"<\/p>\n

I’m No Entrepreneur<\/h2>\n

I, on the other hand, am not an entrepreneur. I have no desire to be an entrepreneur. In fact, I believe that I would be fairly<\/span> foolish<\/span> to want to become a real estate entrepreneur. I am a white-collared income earner sitting solidly in the upper-middle-class range. I work a job that I enjoy very much and am investing because I would like to steadily move towards financial freedom consistently and sustainably over a 5-7 year period. <\/span><\/p>\n

While I have the utmost respect for the successes that the folks I mentioned above have achieved<\/span>, their path makes no sense for me and millions of others like me. And the reason is simple:<\/span><\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> The Unsugar-Coated True Story of What it Takes to Succeed as an Entrepreneur<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We already have good jobs<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, let me cav<\/span>eat this by stating a major assumption here. I assume that most people reading this have the goal of trying to accumulate enough real estate to cover their lifestyle expenses through their real estate cash flow alone so as to achieve financial freedom. Notice that I am not saying that folks need to necessarily \u201cbuy\u201d real estate\u00a0or \u201cacquire\u201d it\u00a0for free. There are many viable ways to \u201caccumulate\u201d real estate. I am merely going to state the path that I think is <\/span>highly efficient<\/span><\/i> for full-time workers earning good wages.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can save a significant percentage of a high five-figure, low six-figure household income, then there is <\/span>no reason<\/span><\/i> that you shouldn\u2019t be a financially independent millionaire or very close to one in about (or under) a decade. Of course, that\u2019s assuming that you invest around half your income in real estate and other appreciable investments like stocks in index funds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I understand that W2 income is, dollar for dollar, a relatively inefficient way to accumulate wealth. But if you can make $100,000 per year and bring home $70,000 of that after tax, that is still more efficient than bringing home $35,000 after tax if you are putting in huge hours to get your business off the ground. Make no mistake about it\u2014if you are going to pursue real estate with the extreme leverage of no money down investing or are going to otherwise bring very little cash to the table, you are going to need to be willing put in immense efforts\u2014like the folks above were willing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

And my question for you is, why on earth would you, as a high wage earner, want to throw out a well-paying job for entrepreneurship when financial freedom is going to be so nearly automatic for you to attain? Even if you kind of wanted to become an entrepreneur, you could do so with much lower risk AFTER achieving financial freedom. The only way that full-time real estate entrepreneurship would make sense for you is: <\/span><\/p>\n