A day in the life of a full time investor

[Joey English]

I’m often asked when talking to aspiring real estate investors what a “full timer’s” daily schedule consists of. So far my reply has not been that we push computer buttons for 10 minutes each day, in order to make a bazillion dollars a day while enjoying umbrella drinks on exotic beaches. I say that because that’s how infomercials portray us. My experience, however, has been… well let me tell you about today.

This morning I was startled awake at 6 a.m. to an amazingly loud alarm clock. That’s because my four-year-old likes to experiment with the volume knob. Being startled awake from my precious few hours of sleep (said 4-year-old had a cough all night) didn’t start me out on my A game.

I happily greeted my morning coffee and headed toward my home office.

The first thing I needed to do was work on rental applications. We have a few houses on market right now, and we’re sifting through potential renters trying to find a good tenant. We had already identified a few who were out of the running, and I needed to notify them they didn’t get the house.

As I sent out those emails, I noticed a letter in my inbox that looked like a hot lead. When you see a hot lead in today’s market, you stop what you’re doing and investigate it right away. For me, this meant I needed to jump in the shower, choke down some breakfast and get over there before anyone else.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, except I had a closing for a flip we were buying at 11 a.m. that I needed to prepare documents for -which of course, I hadn’t started. Not to worry. I took a lightening fast shower, ate breakfast and was on site to look at the property before 8 a.m.

When I say you have to stop what you’re doing, I mean it. By 9:30, I was getting calls from agents telling me about the house. Like I said, it was a hot listing. All the agents in town had just gotten to their offices and were calling all their contacts to tell them about the lead. Just another instance of the early bird getting the worm.

Next, I made my way back to the office to work on the closing documents. This closing was a subject-to deal, which is where the seller’s mortgage stays in place after the sale. These deals take more paperwork than a traditional closing, and I had about 45 minutes to make sure I dotted my i’s and crossed all my t’s before I headed down to Lee Perkins’ Office.

We finished down there by noon, which was great because I needed to get by the bank and be up in Calhoun to show a house by 1 p.m. This gave me about 45 minutes to call all the people who had left messages while I was in the closing.

I stopped by my house to take lunch, and immediately got a call from my project manager who needed keys for one of the three rehabs we have going. I literally almost swallowed an avocado whole and headed right back out the door so we could get a bid from a painter.

Finally, here I am at the end of the day writing this article. (I have to leave again in a few minutes to go to another property, btw) Needless to say, an investor’s day is always slap full, so realize if you’re going to go full time, it is Full Time. Regardless of whether you start your day with enough sleep, being an investor is a lot of work, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.