Drawbacks and Time Commitment When Investing in Real Estate.

[Andrew Y.]

Hello all, 

Even though I have been on Bigger Pockets for sometime now, this is indeed my first post on here. Part of why that is, is because I have decided this year to take RE investing seriously. I am mainly interested in multifamily houses acquired through house hacking to eventually move out and rent all units. 

My question is, I always hear and read about how awesome real estate is when it comes to wealth building and creating passive income but rarely do I hear about the drawbacks of investing in real estate. More specifically, I am curious to know and hear examples about the time commitment that investing in real estate would require. I am not talking about the time renovating a property would take in the short term, I am talking about managing rentals and the long term time commitment it would require. 

My goal is not to retire through real estate, at least in the short term, but I am interested in having some passive income coming in through rentals and I am not sure how "passive" is really passive when it comes to real estate investing. 

I would like to get opinions and feedback from people who buy, hold and rent properties who are not necessarily doing it full time/not planning on doing it full time in the near future about the how much time does it take. 

Thanks and I really appreciate your feedback! 

Andrew