Real estate investing vs. amazon selling

[Jessica Peng]

Hi everyone! 

I am new and this is actually my first post :) I have not yet started any real estate investing and am currently just doing research on everything possible. I also just finished reading "The Book on Rental Property Investing" and am now going back to take some notes. 

Passive income has always been a dream of mine and I am now starting to work on making it a reality. I have always heard about rental investing returning real passive income but lately I have also been hearing about how selling on Amazon can also return real passive income. I was wondering if anyone would be able to educate me on why rental investing is better than selling something on Amazon? I think Amazon might be a bit saturated now but not sure if that is a problem to worry about. I am just trying to figure out which route to focus on and I know this is a real estate forum so people may be biased but would love to hear real opinions of experienced real estate investors! Thank you so much!

[Jose Tamez]

WOW lots of amazon horror stories, I've been selling on amazon FBA for 5 years now and yea it sucks but i make enough money to pay my mortgage and bills and still save some money to buy real estate! 

all while I'm at home learning more about real estate! YouTube, forums, deal searching, calling sellers...etc

Yea profits are slim on amazon but just like real estate you must be able to pivot. A product or house deal is a deal, it all depends what strategy you make with it. 

You find a product, you source over seas or buy at stores. You can do retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, Private label, white label, reselling, local flips...etc 

I sell on Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, Mercari, Posh, FB marketplace, Goat, Stock X, Shopify, Craiglist, Flea market

its a grind... just like any business 

Margins are slim yes, but for example: if i sell a product that net me $1 dollars after fees and i sell 100 a month...$100 "MAAAN WHY DO ALL THAT WORK????!!!"

i have products on multiple platforms doing more or less than that... im netting about 5k to 7k a month JUST ONLINE

i have two rental properties looking to pick up a new one soon, that is just gravy to my income. Although COVID hit me pretty hard...My ecommerce business boomed! I made 14k in one month on my own product this December 2020.

This is a business you gotta love, it sucks at times but when I'm home learning, when I'm able to pick up my kids and take them to play, get to work on my body and mind from the comfort of my home...it makes it worth it for me. 

Selling online is not forever, but for right now it serves as my lifestyle business.