How do people invest in real estate while working a full time job?

Tampa, Florida
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How do people invest in real estate while working a full time job?

Ben Stanley
FL · Member since 2024 · 12 posts · 11 votes

I'm still in the learning phases, but trying to both stabalize my income and also figfure out how I could invest in real estate while working fulltime 40-50 hours a week. I imagine there is a lot of work and things that need to be sorted during the day and cant wait for the weekend. 

So how does one balance a ton of work with starting out buying real estate?

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Jonathan GreeneBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Madison, NJ · Member since 2016 · 6k+ posts · 7k+ votes
2y

There are 168 hours in a week. You are sleeping 56 of those, maybe, so that leaves 112 hours. You are working 40 hours. So, you have 72 hours left to work with. Math says you have a lot more time than you think, but you have to figure out how to balance it.

I agree with others that your best start is at real estate investing meetups. They are always after work and you will start to learn, face-to-face, how others do it. There are a lot in the Tampa area.

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  • Simon W.Business Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 675 votes
    2y

    One of the best way to invest in real estate is to find a group of investors that pool money together to buy. You might be getting a piece of a pie but you are sharing the risk with other investors. If there are 10 investors, you best believe some of them, if not, all of them will be on top of it to make sure that all the money put together is working for everyone.

    Once you do that, you will be open up to more opportunities that you might end up buying the properties yourself.

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  • Bill B.
    Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 10k+ votes
    2y

    Hire a property manager. With a dozen properties I work less than an hour a month. And 30-45 minutes of that is bookkeeping. Don't have a spare hour, pay a bookkeeper $50-100/mo and you should be working less than 15 minutes a month on real estate. Ps. More than 1/2 of that is HOA issues, so if you don't have them you should be spending 15 -30 minutes a year with a bookkeeper, a few hours without.

    You don’t count the property searching time as little as it is. Unless you want to say people who have jobs don’t have time to find a new home to live in. 

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  • Theresa HarrisPro Member
    Member since 2019 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
    2y

    Working full time and investing in real estate is pretty normal.  I think it also depends on how you are investing-rental vs flip. Generally speaking long term rentals are the least amount of work while flips are the most.  Long terms rentals will have repairs from time to time, but if it is a true emergency, you are going to be calling someone (eg plumber) to come in and fix something, so that is no different than your own home (minus the clean up).  For vacancies, you deal with them as they come up...or as Bill mentioned, hire a good property manager.

    2Reply
  • Chris SeveneyBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Investor · VA · Member since 2015 · 21k+ posts · 19k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ben Stanley:

    I'm still in the learning phases, but trying to both stabalize my income and also figfure out how I could invest in real estate while working fulltime 40-50 hours a week. I imagine there is a lot of work and things that need to be sorted during the day and cant wait for the weekend. 

    So how does one balance a ton of work with starting out buying real estate?


     Ironically we just did a webinar yesterday on passive vs. active investing. It depends on many things, including your market. I am in DC area and wanted to be active but found there was no way I could compete with people chasing off market deals who did it for a living when I was working 50 hours per week. So I went to be more passive for that period of time. Passive for me meant investing with others (through syndications etc). I did acquire some rentals as well but had property managers handle all aspects of that. Yes I paid for it and it cost me more than having to manage but I put a lot of value to time and family.

    You are also correct, depending on the type of property if investing in rentals, there are things that happen during the day that cannot wait until the weekend.

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  • Bob S.
    Real Estate Consultant · Cleveland · Member since 2020 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ben Stanley:

    I'm still in the learning phases, but trying to both stabalize my income and also figfure out how I could invest in real estate while working fulltime 40-50 hours a week. I imagine there is a lot of work and things that need to be sorted during the day and cant wait for the weekend. 

    So how does one balance a ton of work with starting out buying real estate?

     Simple, connect with those that " handle it all" YES that simple :) I know many from around the world that do absolutely nothing but close, everything handled for them 

    Good luck 

    1Reply
  • Jonathan GreeneBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Madison, NJ · Member since 2016 · 6k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    2y

    There are 168 hours in a week. You are sleeping 56 of those, maybe, so that leaves 112 hours. You are working 40 hours. So, you have 72 hours left to work with. Math says you have a lot more time than you think, but you have to figure out how to balance it.

    I agree with others that your best start is at real estate investing meetups. They are always after work and you will start to learn, face-to-face, how others do it. There are a lot in the Tampa area.

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  • Samuel DioufBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Columbus & Cleveland, OH · Member since 2023 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y

    It depends on what you're trying to do with your investments. Do you want to be hands on or passive? 

    50 hours a week isn't that extensive though. You still have a lot of time you could spend on building your portfolio.

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  • Nick HarringtonBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2019 · 31 posts · 28 votes
    2y

    Hey Ben - welcome to the joy of investing! 

    Unfortunately- there is no silver bullet to your answer, and it really comes down to how much do you want it and how important is it for you? If it's important, you fill find / make time for it. If it's not, then you won't. 

    My recommendation would be to tell yourself you are going to do 1 real estate investment related task a day / every two days / every three days (whatever that cadence looks like for you). It could be reading for 10 minutes, it could be analyzing deals, etc. 

    once you actually have a property- it comes down to what sort of strategy are you doing. If you are flipping a home, and you are the one doing the owrk, then yea, that is going to be cahllenging. If you are getting a long term rental, you may have some upfront work, and then whenever a tenant move in / out have some work, but typically for long term rentals you aren't touching / doing things to it every day. 

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  • Nick Velez
    Lender · Member since 2019 · 250 posts · 219 votes
    2y

    I love this question! The beauty of real estate is that you can spend as much or as little time on it as you want, it really just depends on the strategy you want to utilize and how active you want to be. 

    Long term rentals are relatively easy to manage when you are just starting off. If any issues were to come up, you can easily call a vendor you trust to remedy the solution.

    Short term rentals are obviously more time intensive but even then they can be easy to manage. I have 3 performing STR's in Central Florida and spend less than 3 hours week managing them.


    Now if you were to be an underwater welder with zero access to your phone for several hours a day, the solution is simple, you hire a manager! You have to bake the management fee into your deals to make sure they still pencil out (which you should likely do anyway), and you let them handle a majority of the work. I have had first time investors purchase short term rentals from out of state while working full time, and they either elect to run it all by themselves after developing a boots on the ground team, or they hire it out to a competent manager and let them do a bulk of the work. In both scenario's, they tend to be very successful :)

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  • Henry ClarkPro Member
    Developer · Member since 2020 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ben Stanley:

    I'm still in the learning phases, but trying to both stabalize my income and also figfure out how I could invest in real estate while working fulltime 40-50 hours a week. I imagine there is a lot of work and things that need to be sorted during the day and cant wait for the weekend. 

    So how does one balance a ton of work with starting out buying real estate?


     Be more specific.  Are you talking operating a property, looking for a property, or what??

    40 to 50 hours per week is nothing. I started investing while working 50 to 70 hours per week. If it's the hours per week that is your question, then it's what you are doing on your nonwork time versus REI time. If you want to get ahead, you have to be different than other people.

    If its "Operation" time, then "Buy" your way out.  Identify the key issues and buy new or do preventive maintenance.  HVAC, Plumbing, Sewer, Roof leaks, etc.  If your HVAC is 15 years old, buy a new one.  If you're on Septic have it pumped. If sewer have it scoped and fixed as needed.  etc etc.  Most of these are your "Can't wait till the weekend" issues. 

    If oven, washer, dryer go out, I would pay them some money for during the week for food to eat out or laundromat, and then fix on the weekend.

    As you said you're in the learning phase. You could buy newer properties. Could invest in Syndications which are having issues if proper due diligence wasn't performed. Or you could do a personal BRRRR, so you are the customer and control the customer response. Just have to look at your resources and desires versus REI strategy.

    1Reply
  • Todd AndersonPro Member
    Real Estate Agent · Cape Coral, FL · Member since 2023 · 392 posts · 175 votes
    2y

    Ben,  I work with investors all the time that are looking for the same thing.  

    We have put together a turnkey way to invest in Real Estate that solves for all the problems that normally hinder an investment.  We have an inventory of off market New Construction investment properties in a number of growing markets that will cashflow day one.  We have set up preferred venders with Lenders, Insurance, Property Management and we are Boots On The Ground.  As brought up above in the Forum we have many investors that " just close".  I have Benn investing in Real Estate for 30 years and consult with all the clients that I work with about the property and strategy that best fits their investing goals.  

    This is done every day to build wealth for busy business owners and W2 employees.  I am citron you can do it to.  You are in the right place!!

    Best of luck and reach please connect if you need any help with any questions.  

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  • Jorge VazquezBusiness Member
    Real Estate Broker · Tampa, FL · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 693 votes
    2y

    Man, I totally get where you're coming from. Starting out in real estate while working a full-time job can feel like a mountain to climb. But here's the thing—everyone starts somewhere. I’ve been in real estate for over 20 years, I own 30+ properties now, and run 5 real estate businesses, but let me tell you, I didn’t know a thing when I started. I was just like you—working a regular job and trying to figure out how to break into this game.

    The key is finding what part of real estate excites you. There are so many branches: rentals, flips, wholesaling—you name it. Take some time to explore and see what feels right for you. Once you find something you can actually enjoy (and even love), it won’t feel like work anymore. Trust me, once real estate becomes your passion, it’s hard to let it go until you're successful.

    I started out with very little money, but I had time and I made connections. So, look at your own situation—do you have money to invest, some valuable skills, or a network you can tap into? Even if you don’t have much, you can start small. Little by little, things will grow.

    The best part? You don’t need to quit your full-time job right away. I started working on my real estate side hustle with just a few hours a week. Sure, it was tough juggling everything, but once you get going, you’ll figure out how to make it work. Start small, put in the time when you can, and as you grow, you’ll find your balance.

    Bottom line: I started with zero experience, worked full-time, and now here I am. If I can do it, you definitely can too. Just take it step by step, and don’t rush the process! And hey, if you ever need advice or want to chat, feel free to reach out anytime!

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  • Joe DerobertisPro Member
    Altadena, CA · Member since 2014 · 70 posts · 42 votes
    2y

    Lots of great advice here. As someone who just pulled the trigger a few months ago I decided to go with turnkey to mitigate my risk. For me it was worth giving up some money to acquire a team. Of course there’s no guarantee but I wasn’t quite ready to do it all on my own while working full time. So far it’s been a great experience and I’ve learned a ton and now have a little more courage and knowledge. The important thing is to take action and don’t try to knock it out of the park right out of the gate. Assume you’ll get some things wrong so just don’t overextend yourself. 

    Good luck!

    1Reply
  • Alecia LovelessPro Member
    Member since 2019 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    2y

    @Ben Stanley For the first 4.5 years I was investing I worked 40-45 hours per week plus as much OT as I could get. I self managed out of necessity because my area has no fully operational property managers. At the time I was having about 10 hours/month of property management I was doing but most of this was 2 hours per week driving around to visit my properties and make sure they were all in good shape and didn’t need any external maintenance.

    For the last 1/2 year I have been full time on the real estate and working part time as supplemental income. I now spend a lot of time on things I wasn’t doing previously like looking for more deals, and building my brand.

    If you want to own your own portfolio (which I highly recommend and think is the best way to do it) I’d recommend finding a solid property management company to handle day to day operations for you. Unless your job is one that you can answer calls, or look at the message frequently to take care of any potential issues that come up quickly.

    While starting off you should be able to handle your own bookkeeping initially until you start to scale. I was up to 25 units before my accountant told me to get a bookkeeper. If you understand and know how to use software like Quickbooks you can do your bookkeeping forever on your own if you want to. I was very bad at it so now am cruising with a bookkeeper for about $200/month.

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  • Mary L.
    Rental Property Investor · Member since 2020 · 41 posts · 54 votes
    2y

    I work 40 hours full time, spend another 50 to 70 hours on real estate, working about 10 to 15 hours everyday, 7 days a week, no rest, no social life, no vacation, just work work and work, it turns out to be good after many years of 100 hours weekly hard working. It’s not a joke, it’s my real life example

    2Reply
  • John MorganPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Grand Prairie, TX · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    2y

    @Ben Stanley

    I have 29 SFR and self manage them while working full time. It's not that hard. Almost all my communication is through texts. I've done 8 or 9 rehabs which gets a little busier. But I still communicate through texts to my contractor. Not a big deal.

    4Reply
  • Min ZhangBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y

    If you want to make time for yourself while juggling a full-time job, hiring a property manager can really help. They’ll handle the day-to-day stuff so you can focus on your work, personal stuff and  still invest in real estate. Best of luck on your investing journey. Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything!

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  • Joseph Guzzardi Jr
    Rental Property Investor · Member since 2019 · 411 posts · 148 votes
    2y

    @Ben Stanley

    Blood

    Sweat

    Tears......

    Some sarcasm here ......

    Leverage, partnerships and busting your tail.

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  • Drew SygitBusiness Member
    Property Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
    2y

    @Ben Stanley I stayed up late after dinner & spent weekends on my computer, scouting neighborhoods and attend RE investing events.

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  • River SavaPro Member
    Lender · USA · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y

    Hey Ben - 

    I’m also in Tampa and would love to connect. It really depends on a number of factors as others mentioned. Many start with just one rental or a house hack and find ways to streamline the management or rely on a property manager to handle the day-to-day. Also, if you go in with partners is disperses time, costs, etc. Happy to chat more and hear your thoughts!

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  • V.G JasonPro Member
    Investor · Member since 2022 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Simon W.:

    One of the best way to invest in real estate is to find a group of investors that pool money together to buy. You might be getting a piece of a pie but you are sharing the risk with other investors. If there are 10 investors, you best believe some of them, if not, all of them will be on top of it to make sure that all the money put together is working for everyone.

    Once you do that, you will be open up to more opportunities that you might end up buying the properties yourself.

     That's one of the riskiest ways, and definitely not one of the best ways. I digress though.

    @Ben Stanley. It's not about time, it's about priorities. You always have enough time. Once you get to scale, you'll learn how to manage your time better to suit your priorities. That's having certain folks handle certain tasks, and placing yourself less in the process and more in the decision making strictly area. For now though, if you made it a real priority you wouldn't worry about making the time for it.

    40-50 hours is not a ton of work, too. If that's stopping you from entering REI, then you really need to analyze what your priorities are.

    1Reply
  • Jeremiah Dunakin
    Member since 2022 · 186 posts · 192 votes
    2y

    I would say prioritize your life. Flipping channels on TV and Social media scrolling are thee absolute biggest time killers. People wake up and diddle around on phone instead of being proactive. Dont waste but redeem the time. My first rental was a gut  job on a 750 sq foot house. I was working 76-84 hours per week. I went in at 3am left at 3pm 7 days a week for years. At 3pm I went to rental property to drywall trim or whatever. It can be done. Gotta ask yourself how bad do u want it. Make a list of all the things that hinder you and set those weights down beside and take off. You can do it. 

    3Reply
  • Nathan GesnerBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ben Stanley:

    The wealthiest people in the world have no problem with this. Why? Because they hire a professional to handle the day-to-day work for them. David Greene isn't plunging toilets or showing property to applicants.

    Too many investors get bogged down in the daily management of their rentals. This could actually slow their earning potential and hurt them in the long run.

    If you want to grow, focus on making and saving money. Buy property, then turn it over to a professional for management.


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  • Becca F.
    Rental Property Investor · San Francisco Bay Area · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y

    As far as finding the property and in which market to buy, that has been the most time consuming for me with analyzing deals, putting in offers, etc. 

    Once you acquire the property. outsource the things you would do yourself. Hire a property manager and bookkeeper (if buying one SFH, I personally don't think a bookkeeper is needed at this point until you have multiple properties). I self manage one local SFH and I go over there when the tenant needs repairs. For the other properties I have a PM - it's difficult to self manage an out of state property but it can be done if you have a team with contractors, repair people, and someone you trust in that local area.

    Would also recommend getting a business checking account and credit card so that your personal expenses aren't mixed in with rental property income/expenses. I do my own bookkeeping it takes maybe 20 to 30 minutes a month to pay mortgages and other bills for my properties. If there's a repair or capital expense like new water heater, might take a little more time with getting estimates. 

    1Reply
  • James Hamling
    Real Estate Broker · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2011 · 5k+ posts · 6k+ votes
    2y
    Quote from @Ben Stanley:
    How do people invest in real estate while working a full time job?

    .... They hire me. 

    Yeah, it's just that simple. You time leverage, knowledge leverage, experience leverage, execution leverage, better known as hiring the best. 

    1Reply
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