What's your best advice for those working a full time job to get into REI?

[Peter Haymond]

Hi I'm a senior in college right now. I plan on working full time after college while investing part time and expanding my parents business part time. Reevaluating my parents choices I learned that discipline, consistency, persistency and hard work is very important if you want to be a successful real estate investor.

One of the many blunders I see in the future is that most people work a job from 8 to 4 or 9 to 5 and then just take the rest of the day off and the weekend. I believe in order for me to become successful, I must be willing to dedicate at least 1-3 hours after work in order to reach the level of success I desire. This comes through overcoming the drudgery of work, having a different relationship with boredom, being disciplined, and putting in hard work. Do you think 1-3 hours after work is too much, too little, just right?

I would prefer advice from an employee who's made the transition to investor/small business owner but if you just started out investing full time or as a business owner/investor I'd love to hear what you have to say as well. Lastly, I just wanted to say that other things like target goals, deadlines, having good mentors, who you know in the business, and the like really helps.

Life rewards action. Thank you for your time and support.

[Steve L.]

The amount of time after your 9-5 it will take to become successful in real estate or any business will greatly vary. Based on your market, your strategy and luck.

1. If you have a buy-and-hold strategy you typically will only be able to do as many deals as your cash allows.

2. If you fix-and-flip it's more time intensive, but will be sporadic (when you're fixing a house you'll spend a lot more time).

etc. etc.

I made the transition based on the volume I was able to buy and know the income potential would be enough to replace my current income++. If I focused just on rentals, I would have had to work a lot longer, but I had to sell some real awesome deals so I could keep buying and stay liquid.

The more time you spend the quicker it should happen, but it will depend on your skill, your strategy, how lucky you get and a lot of other internal factors.

Good luck.