How Balancing real estate investing/rehabing to your W-2 job

Question

Hi ￼I’m new real estate and I brought my first rental property. A year ago but I’m having real trouble balancing I have in this property with my W-2 job.￼ between my job which I do sometimes 40 hours or more and rehab the home sometimes after work I go straight to the house rehab the property or I do it on my day off or I do both the same week. But I get extremely exhausted a lot of days.￼￼ and it’s frustrating because if it wasn’t for my job, I will have finish we have in this whole house months ago but they are Some days I have to take a break even though I really don’t want to my body cannot take it. I just want to know is there anyone in the same boat as I am and if you guys have a do you deal with it?￼￼￼￼

Dan Guenther · Answer

@Adrian Suarez

I definitely feel your pain. My wife and I just finished our rehab a few weeks ago and finally have it rented out. We were both working full-time 50+ hours a week, coming home and working on the house, and spending every weekend for a few months on the house. We got very burnt out, as your describing. You've got to be honest with yourself and find some balance. For example we set specific goals for a few days a week with a few days during the week completely off from working on the rehab. We also forced getting out of town every other weekend to reset. If your forcing the rehab while burnt out you are sure to start making mistakes and just not enjoying investing in general. Be patient, the house will get done eventually!

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

Welcome to the investing world. I spent many wonderful years working full - time as a GC and then working on rentals after work and on weekends. If you can't afford to sub out some of the work and have to do it all yourself, you are in a bind. But just take it day by day and it will get done. Don't sacrifice quality or start taking shortcuts, that will come back to haunt you every time. In the end you will appreciate your investment and hopefully it will make you a lot of $$...

Matt Devincenzo · Answer

I have a friend who we'll loosely partner on it. We both do plenty of on our own things, but he'll send me something to fund and he'll manage the 'boots on the ground' aspect. Or I'll send him something I'm looking at, but would need him to manage the rehab etc. There's no formal partnership or payment structure, just a kind of deal by deal agreement we discuss. Our families were friends before we did anything together, so we knew personalities etc. and that we could make things work.

This is a good arrangement in that there's no long term expectation from either of us that the other one needs to keep up deal flow etc. We both make money separately from either a W2 or other projects that we're not working on together.

Justin Windham · Answer

@Adrian Suarez

It’s nice to have you here!

This is a great forum with very knowledgeable members that will help to guide you in the right direction, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance. You will be able to share your story and receive plenty of helpful feedback from experienced members.

The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members. For example, if you are looking to connect with other members near you, want to learn from people in a specific area you’d like to invest in, or have a desire to find people interested in certain topics, you could use the search feature here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/users

I really like the alerts feature that can quickly guide you to current topics that may be of interest: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

Jaron Walling · Answer

@Adrian Suarez You need to learn how to leverage other people's time.

Investors don't paint every wall, lay every tile, or hammer all the nails. They pick and choose the most cost effective projects to DIY and hire contractors for everything else. Pay contractors accordingly and keep moving forward. If you're >10 months into a remodel something is seriously wrong even with a regular job.

Adrian Suarez · Answer

@Bruce Woodruff thanks for the advice reading your comments make me feel better knowing that I’m not alone in this situation it helps the day go by better.￼

Adrian Suarez · Answer

@Dan Guenther thanks for the advice I’m just taking day by day I know this wasn’t supposed to be easy to not get me wrong it’s just hard to bounce sometimes and you get overwhelmed.

Jon Kelly · Answer

@Adrian Suarez If it was easy everybody would do it.

But follow @Jaron Walling's advice and hire other people. It costs money up front but you will begin to earn rental income much quicker.

Or, make it a family affair. Bring any willing and able relatives you have to help fix it up.

How Balancing real estate investing/rehabing to your W-2 job

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