Is going full time realistic early into real estate investing?

Question

Hello everyone,

I’m a commercial electrical contractor and have been operating my own business since 2019. While I've built a successful contracting career, my long-term goal has always been to transition into real estate full time—a passion I've had since college.

At present, I own a primary residence in Easley, SC, where I’ve converted the downstairs into a mid-term rental. I also recently acquired a 2 bed / 1 bath property in Greenville, SC. I’m actively working to scale back my contracting operations so I can focus more intentionally on building a rental portfolio.

Currently, I’m dedicating 60+ hours a week to my contracting company, and I’m beginning to evaluate what a realistic transition to full-time real estate looks like. Specifically, I’m interested in pursuing a buy-and-hold strategy, and I’d like to understand whether it’s feasible to go full time while self-managing fewer than 10 units—or if supplementing with flips or other income-producing strategies is typically necessary in the early stages.

I would greatly appreciate hearing from those of you who are already full time in real estate:

• What does your day-to-day typically look like?
• At what point did you consider yourself “full time”?
• Did you ease into it gradually, or make a clean break from your previous profession?
• Is your weekly schedule consistent, or does it vary depending on deal flow and management demands?

What does your day-to-day typically look like?

At what point did you consider yourself “full time”?

Did you ease into it gradually, or make a clean break from your previous profession?

Is your weekly schedule consistent, or does it vary depending on deal flow and management demands?

Any insights or personal experiences you’re willing to share would be incredibly helpful as I plan this next phase. Thank you in advance for your time and input.

Best regards,
James Ryan

Drew Sygit · Answer

Suggest you get your real estate license because highly unlikely you can make a living off of 10 units - unless they have no mortgages on them.

Even then, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancies and nonpaying tenants will make it difficult.

So, you'll need to do wholesaling, fix & flips, or be a real estate agent for other investors to supplement your rental cashflow.

Jaycee Greene · Answer

Hey @James Ryan, welcome to the BP Forum! Going "full-time" in real estate investing is mostly a function of the income you need to live vs. the cash flow that your properties generate.

I have several clients that have gone full time at various points in their REI journeys - it also depends on whether or not they are generating income from other real estate-related areas (e.g., real estate agent, property management, etc.).

James Ryan · Answer

Thank you @Scott Trench, @Jay Hinrichs, and everyone else who responded—I really appreciate all the input!

To give a little more context: I typically have about 20 employees working for me, with staffing ramping up in the summer and scaling down in the winter. Managing everyone in the field has become increasingly challenging, and with my wife and I planning to start a family soon, I'm hoping to cut back my hours. Unfortunately, that’s proving difficult with how things are currently structured.

The good news is that we both have strong incomes, and if we keep our expenses in check, we should be able to purchase a new property each year—valued around $250K—using cash. My plan is to buy the first few properties outright to minimize risk and get hands-on experience. I intend to self-manage the first 2–4 rentals to learn the ropes before transitioning to a property manager.

From what I’ve gathered, once your systems are dialed in, managing rentals can be fairly light on a week-to-week basis. That said, to maintain a more full-time workload (30+ hours per week) and potentially step away from my electrical contracting business, I may need to supplement with a few flips each year. Either way, I understand this is a 5+ year transition and not something that happens overnight. In hindsight, my post title about going “full time” early on in real estate might’ve been a bit misleading.

Right now, I’m in the middle of a light rehab on my first property purchased specifically as a rental, and I’m excited to get it stabilized. I'm treating this first deal as a launchpad to build from.

I like to plan ahead and set clear goals, and I truly believe that building a rental portfolio will give us a strong foundation and income safety net for the future.

Scott Trench · Answer

A couple of observations/notes in response to your questions:

1) At what point did you consider yourself "full-time"?

This will likely never happen. The goal for me, and for most, is not to worry about my properties full-time. The goal is for the properties to be stable, boring, cash flowing and wealth generating machines that are occupied and well-maintained and do not require a material percentage of my attention, similar to my stock portfolio. This output is achieved with: Capital, Systems, and my Property Manager. I think about my properties once a month on a good month (at my scheduled checkin with my property manager, usually lasting no more than 30 minutes), and more frequently if there is some problem that the property manager brings to my attention that month. I spend further time on months where I am acquiring or selling a property.

I could potentially do nothing, except for that ~30 minute check in with my portfolio for a month, but I would hardly call that a "full-time" effort.

2) Did you ease into it gradually or make a clean break? Ten years at least of self education, steady accumulation, and increasing the gap between income and expenses in my life and portfolio to get to this point. I don't see why the snowball won't continue to roll for another 30 years unless I do something dumb.

3) My day to day and week to week: Ask me again in a few months!

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

YUP this is not even remotely possible.. unless the OP has a LOT OF CASH if its highly leveraged rentals there is no way to go full time unless you have other income or you want to live below the poverty line.  Not sure the attraction to people thinking being a full time landlord is some sexy business.. LOL.. i hate it.. its one thing to have a business like you have and others are paying you.. But man doing it on your own is a tough slog.I have clients that own 100 to 300 units and they are all leveraged up and while there is some cash flow it generally goes right back into cap ex. its only when they start getting the homes paid for and their cash flow doubles that the rewards start to flow in  in any appreciable way .But some people think if they can make 50 to 100k per year on cash flow they are now retired and going to live the good life :) So depends on lifestyle.

Jaycee Greene · Answer

@James Ryan Can you share some details/numbers on your current light rehab project?

Is going full time realistic early into real estate investing?

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