How to Invest in Real Estate with a Full-Time Job

Investing in real estate when you have a full-time job may sound like quite the feat by itself, but top that off with family, friends and hobbies and you may be wondering how balancing everything is even possible without pulling your hair out. Tarek and I were full-time real estate agents before we stared flipping, which meant we didn’t have the traditional 9 to 5 schedule, so the transition to full-time investing was pretty seamless for us. Learning how to juggle our busy lifestyles along with managing a real estate investing business is where things got a little more complicated.

Tarek and I spend a large portion of our time managing our flipping business, filming a new episode of our TV show or trying to make time for family and friends. As you can imagine, life gets pretty busy in the El Moussa household. Luckily, we’ve found that it is possible to balance everything at the same time.

Whether you have a full-time job, or you have other responsibilities you are busy with, it’s possible to pursue real estate investing without losing your sanity.

Dedicate Yourself to Your Goal

If you are dedicated to your goal of pursuing house flipping, then you won’t let anything get in your way. When Tarek and I made the decision to start flipping houses seriously, we made it a goal that we were willing to dedicate ourselves to. While we made room for the important things such as family, we would often wake up early or stay up late just to take advantage of a few extra minutes or hours during the day.

With a full-time job, this type of dedication is so important if you really want to start investing in real estate. Over time, dedication will prove to pay off, it just takes a lot of patience and hard work in the beginning.

Maintain Persistence Everyday

Persistence is a trait that real estate investors must practice every day. Persistence will give you the strength to keep pushing forward, even when things get tough. When Tarek and I did our first flip we made every mistake in the book. It was pretty discouraging and there were definitely times when we wanted to give up, but our persistence kept us moving forward on the path to following our house flipping dreams.

Stay strong when challenges and hard times arise, and soon enough you’ll be on the road to having a successful real estate investing business.

Keep Your Projects Organized

Organization is key if you want to take advantage of the little free time you do have when you are working full-time. Whether you have to set reminders on your phone or place some notes around the house, keeping yourself organized will prevent you from wasting precious time on unnecessary things. Time is a very valuable when you have to balance real estate investing and a full-time job, so figuring out how to use your time wisely will help you to work more effectively.

Have a “Start” and “End” Time Before You Begin Working

House flipping is one of those things that can easily suck all of your free time if you are not careful. Before you start working, set yourself a “start” time and an “end” time. For example, say you will only search for houses from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and then you will spend the rest of the evening with your family. Not only will a set “start” and “end” time force you to be more productive, since you are only allowed a certain amount of time to work, but you won’t get too carried away with working. After all, your personal and family time still matters too!

Don’t get discouraged. Juggling a full-time job, real estate investing, and friends and family time is possible when you put these steps to the test. 

For more information about real estate investing, visit Real Estate Elevated's BiggerPockets blog.