How to invest in RE when you don't have a lot of time?

[Ilona Kovacs]

Hello All!

I am brand new to real estate investing.

My current issue is this... I have a business (I'm in the food industry) that I currently devote a lot of time to....up to 40-60 hrs per week (including sales calls, shows, etc)

I would like to get involved in real estate investing however, I cannot devote a lot of time to it, possibly only a few hours (up to about 5hrs) per week. So for instance, I wouldn't have that much time to go look at properties (I'm also looking out of state to invest).

What type of investing would be beneficial to me? 

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thank you!

[Joe Villeneuve]

Easy.  Every property needs three "partners" (all 3 can be the same, but for our discussion they are not): 

1 - Cash Partner, for buy/rahab at the start
2 - Credit Partner, for acquiring any loans...including refinancing
3 - Management Partner, to do all the "heavy lifting" from the finding of the property, through closing, to management after closing.

When dealing with out of state properties, the Management Partner is usually the "boots on the ground" in the state the property is in. The two finance partners are the ones like you. They are either with cash or credit or both, and not a lot of time, but they want to get into REI.

My Financial Partners are usually both credit and cash partners, but that doesn't have to be the case.  The split of returns are usually based on involvement and risk.  It can be a standard program like ours, or the partnership can be set up on a property by property basis.  At least that's the way we do it.