Complete Newbie: Is my goal viable? $7-8,000/month passively?

[Soobin Oh]

Hi everyone!  Complete newbie here doing some initial research on how real estate investing might fit into my life.  First, let me say that I completely understand that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme and that this is going to take hard work.  But I am wondering if this is possible:

As a doctoral student of early childhood education, I want to continue doing research and working on consulting projects with schools.  It makes no money, in fact, I'd love to work with schools that have no money so that I can help them.

My goal is to set up relatively passive income streams so that I can focus on my research.  Is it possible to get to a point where I own rental properties, outsource management, and work 10-20 hours per week on my properties so that I can focus on my research?  Can I generate $7-8000/month of income from rental properties with these kinds of hours? 

I understand it will take dedication and hard work to get to this point, but is my goal even viable?  I need to hear it from people who aren't just wanting to make deals with me.  I have a little earnest money to bring in.  I have partners who might be interested in privately financing.  Thank you for helping me out

[Kevin Siedlecki]

@Soobin Oh, any number is achievable. In the buy and hold business, you could easily do it with less than 20 hours per week of work. You just have to put in the work to find the right properties up front. Once you have those properties, if you outsource management, you won't have to spend more than a couple hours a week keeping up with things and managing your manager. If you had $500,000 to work with, you could probably get to your $7,000 number in just a couple months of 10-20 hour weeks. The challenge will be putting together the financing on those deals, and making that many properties profitable if you don't have that cash to get started.