Full Time Vs Part Time Investor
Find out if your ready to take the full time investor plunge. I see a lot of investors that are just getting started in real estate and want to go full time from the start. They talk about quitting their good paying job so they can spend more time working on their investing career.
I share their enthusiasm and I want to share some ideas with you to help you decide when the right time to go full time is. When you are full time you must make enough money to support yourself and your family on your investments. Sure you can wholesale or retail houses to keep the money coming in but just remember that you need that money each and every month.
Sure you can have a good month every once in a while but at the end of the month you go from hero to zero and have to start all over. I have to tell you that if it were easy everybody would do it. Let me say that again. If it were easy everybody would do it.
There is so much to learn about real estate that it can be very difficult to jump in full time and be successful long term especially with the pressure of I have to do it to pay the bills.
The worse thing you can do is jump in full time, have a few good months, hit a dry spell and then get discouraged and quit because you have to go get a job to pay the bills. Also to be in real estate long term you need to keep some properties for cash flow, tax advantages and long term appreciation and this is difficult to do if you don’t have a job.
I would like to suggest that you get in and start slow. If you have a job please don’t quit it until your investment income exceeds your job income. I know it can be difficult to stay excited about your job when your heart is in real estate but you still need that job to get financing for your real estate investments.
If you quit and you have not been investing for at least two years it can be extremely difficult to get any kind of financing for any type of property. I am not suggesting that you keep your job forever but please keep these things in mind before you just jump in full time. When you are full time you are everything from the president of your corporation to the janitor.
You have to handle taxes, accounting, property management, sales, marketing, education, insurance, accounts payable, accounts receivable and bring in the money to pay the bills.
Another option if your married is to have one spouse work the full time job while the other works real estate full time.
This way you can still keep the bills paid while working on real estate. Just remember that real estate is a get rich slow business. About 90% of the people that get into real estate after attending a seminar end up quitting after three months.
Real estate is like any other business and you must treat it like one by giving it the attention and getting the education you need to help you become successful. Don’t be one of the 90%! Real estate is a lot of fun. Make the right choices to keep it that way.
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