How to Start Real Estate Investing with a Day Job

[Kai Zhou]

Hi, my name is Kai. I recently read Brandon's book “The Book on Rental Property Investing" and got really interested in real estate investing. But here is my situation. I work in the finance industry, and my day job is very demanding. I have to work 12-13 hours a day. I do have the weekends to myself, which right now I mainly spend on unwinding and relaxing. In Brandon's book, it seems that rental property investing can be a very time-consuming process. You will need to spend time on finding deals, analyzing deals, carrying out due diligence, and all other stuff. I have imagined doing this at night and on weekends, and it just felt overwhelming to me. 

Apart from that, I live in northern California Bay Area, where the property values are extremely high, and the rent-to-price ratios are low. It seems like most of the time I will just be building up equity instead of receiving cash flow if I invest in California. Most likely I have to invest in another state like Idaho/Michigan to find attractive deals. This "long-distance" adds another layer of difficulty to me starting on real estate investing. 

Does anybody have similar experience before or are in a similar situation now? If so, could you give me some advice on how to start out despite these difficulties? Thank you!