Investing with a full-time job

[Mike Cahill]

I currently have a full time job in finance and would like to earn passive income investing in real estate on the side. I’ve discovered a passion for it and would like to pursue it. Some real estate mentors I have, tried to make the point that Owning 1-3 single family homes is not worth it and I should just pursue my full time job? Any thoughts on this? 

[James Hamling]

@Mike Cahill So far there seems to be a sizable amount of polarized 1 dimensional responses of if your not doing it full out, trying to be involved in every aspect, to devote REI as your primary career and in volume blah blah blah, ok let's talk a bit about reality and fact here....

Real Estate Investing is a multi-dimensional field, and it has almost countless strategies and various implementations. Various combinations fit differently for different persons' situations, of which YES fully passive real estate investing IS REAL and can be great, depending on the persons situation. 

For example, real estate is a fantastic hedge against inflation, fantastic! 

So let's say your physician and exhausted of hearing about "well, over enough years" from your financial advisor every time you ask why you're getting out-paced by inflation, or worse yet losing ground. So you start acquiring rental properties and happily invest 30%+ liquid capital into each, hire top quality RE agent and property management, make sure properties are in good condition to reduce maintenance implications as best possible. This is passive, very passive. Is it squeezing every possible dollar into your personal pocket, no of course not because you have hired pro's to do that so you have your time free. 

Yes passive is very possible and many do it but as I said, it is not for everyone. Who would want truly passive, well it's generally those who don't need the additional active income and have a focus on best protecting and growing their invested retirement funds, and real estate is king for this. Under the above PASSIVE investing plan, the investor can have accurate allocations from rents going into the various deferred maintenance accounts, and putting accrued profits back into the business compounding the power and affects of the annual active contributions. To name just a few added benefits that investors may also benefit from there is accrued equity, appreciable gains, tax implications which may result in more net savings, and on all depending on specific situations. 

To say a person has to get in REI to strive to quit their job, work REi full time, must be ready to do all functions themselves is so not true it is just ludicrous. Hell, watch darn near anything of @Brandon Turner as he repeatedly speaks of the utilization of Property Management and how a vast majority of Pro's utilize such. And I can add to that chorus as I have more than 200 investors in my portfolio, all but a handful are fully passive, several to the extent that they don't even reside in this country or continent. 

So yes, passive investing is an option and it may or may not be a good fit for yourself, all depending on your expectations, personal active income situation, and about 28 different variables. 

As a last note if you really want to get the 411 on turn-key and passive investing hit up @James Wise and check out some of what he's doing and putting out there.