Starting Out
Market News & Data
General Info
Real Estate Strategies
Landlording & Rental Properties
Real Estate Professionals
Financial, Tax, & Legal
Real Estate Classifieds
Reviews & Feedback
Updated about 4 years ago, 10/22/2020
Starting while working 60 hour weeks
Any tips on getting started while working 60 hour work weeks?
I've been trying to read a few books, and start getting a plan together but I haven't been able to start networking or anything yet. I dont have much financing and need to figure out that part as well.
Would it be better to get financing first, find a deal first then try to get financing? My days are going to be busy from 6am-6pm so I need to try and make the best of limited time after work while not neglecting my family
@Zachary Ray if it were just me I would possibly be able to just leave but with the kids i don't want them to have to miss out if it takes me a little longer to get it figured out and get going
@Todd Pultz Thanks! out of curiosity what kind of creative financing have you used? And how did you do it?
@Ryan Guffey You got it. Family comes first. Everyone's situation is different so don't beat yourself up if you can't leave right away. Your getting into real estate to reach your dreams so a little time diverted away won't hurt anyone.
@Ryan Guffey I’m not going to pile on after so many people gave you so many things to do to be successful. They are all good advice, but let me give you a couple simple tips as I believe in common sense investing. I will set this up and be honest as I have on many podcasts that I’ve been a guest on. While I listen to podcast a lot, I’ve never read a single book in my life! No book recommendations from me, but a few simple items.
1. Sit your family down and explain what you are going to do and talk through the sacrifices each person will have to make as you attempt to build wealth and financial freedom. You need their buy in or nothing else matters.
2. Do not get stuck sucking up so much information and reading so many books that you forget to actually to a deal like a lot of people
3. I tell young investors this every day!! Be consistent and intentional every day with your actions. Do not be inefficient with your time. Example....on your way home from work every single day, give me 45 minutes to an hour in a different neighborhood. Drive that neighborhood and write down the address of every property with deferred maintenance, boarded up or any property that has a hand written for rent sign. Now, give me 30 minutes before bed and research the owners and track them down online and write that info down. When you wake up give me 30 minutes to finish up that research and organize it from the best lead to the not best least and prioritize which you will contact first. Now, on your lunch break (depending how long it is) give me 15-20 minutes and call those owners to see if their willing to discuss selling their property. If you can’t get a hold of the owner, leave a card or note or mail it to them during your 1 hour your giving me on your drive home.
4. Pick one meeting a month locally to go to so you can start networking
5. Find one online meetup to join that meets once a month
6. Create a social media account for Facebook and Instagram that is only for your real estate adventures and follow anyone you can find in real estate as many put out free information each day.
7. Surround yourself with people that are more successful than you
8. Find someone that is willing to mentor you in real estate who is successful. There are tons of people out there that will do this for free. Find someone local that way you can bring something to the table, like bird dogging etc.
9. Every day tell yourself and act like your going to be a freaking real estate BEAST and do it! Let’s make it happen.
If you find time to read books in between those things I listed for you, have at it, but don’t get stuck over analyzing. Real estate is pretty simple so don’t let people make it harder than what it is. I’m a poor trailer park kid that was not great in school and I’ve never read a book. But I started with 10k I had saved and grew a portfolio to hundreds of doors, countless flips, land flips, wholesale deals etc. without ever spending another dollar of my own money unless it was earned from a real estate deal. You got this brother, be a warrior!
@Ryan Guffey lots lol! Send me PM and we can chat there.
@Todd Pultz
What you said is my exact point about no money down. I’ve been a contractor for 15 years and investing for 3 now. I understand the no money down concept trust me I do. But you have done millions this year so are you going to invest your money into a deal to partner with this guy who has zero experience? I know I won’t. He has to have something to bring to the table either a deal or to manage a deal or renovate it or something. That’s my point. Educate yourself first and save your money. He has a better chance of figuring things out on his own with his own money and learning first rather than running around asking everyone to give him money for something he has never done before. You and I may be able to invest with no or low money but starting out I feel it’s bad to hold the crutch and think that everyone can do real estate with no money experience anything. If that were the case then anyone could invest in real estate. My thing is don’t sell this guy a pipe dream. Has it happened before. Yes I’m sure it has but it’s not likely. If you can’t save or donate with a $100 then you can save or donate with a million. That’s why people making $250k+ a year still live paycheck to paycheck.
Get your mind right. Get your finances right and save your money. If you can use someone else by all means do it but don’t stay broke depending on using OPM for your deals. You made a great point about scaling. It’s common to use OPM to scale rather then to start.
@Ryan Guffey
Great question Ryan!
I am no professional by any means, but if there is a method to this madness, I know the experienced investors and real estate individuals are the best new that know it!
With that being said, and partly because I am in the same boat.. I work a salary job that is very demanding of my time. I also have 4 children running around the house and 1 on the way. I’ve had to figure out how to crunch in the education, experience, and the in the field actions as well, in a very tight cramped schedule as you can imagine. First and foremost... it takes time, and sacrifice, especially if you are in a position like myself with multiple parts of life demanding your attention and focus. In addition to time restraints, you have your own abilities to factor. Are you a focused individual or do you need to develop certain skills for efficiency, to manage the primary workload, plus this new endeavor? Long story short, and my point in total for the new person starting out... hone in on the self education first. Books books book. Like I said, the experienced are the ones that know what to do... fortunately, a lot of those people wrote books to help us newer investors out along the way.
Me personally, I have finished 16 real estate books in 3 months, and 77 self development books in total in 14 months. That was the fuel for me. I now feel ready to find the deals, to find the funding, all the other resources related to what I do, and the ability to execute.
Start with educating yourself as much as you can. Stay in your thoughts, what’s the next action. It will all come to you as you go!
@Justin Sullivan that’s why I responded to you and not him because you said it was BS to do lol! My reaction was only to that point.
You and I are on the same page as you need to educate yourself before jumping in. Read my second post after that with him adding value to a mentor.
However, your post to him did not address new beginners, it simply said you can’t do real estate if you don’t have any money. You need very little money to just get started and you can absolutely get started with no money. While it’s harder, much harder, you can do it. There are plenty of ways to finance real estate outside of using private money also, so I don’t want him to limit himself.
Let’s talk creative financing - I had a new investor that had 0 cash but wanted to jump in. I had him go to SOFI online and take a 45k personal loan. It was at 9% interest. I found him a duplex for 20k, he had to put 20k rehab in it and each side rents for $850 per side. He’s getting ready to refinance traditionally, but how much of his own cash did he spend????????? 00000000000000
So yes even a new investor can get in without money saved up. That’s just one of many ways
@Todd Pultz
This is going to be my last post because your not understanding what I am saying. Why are you telling me about these financings options and not him?
That example is market specific and he would have to have good credit along with not living paycheck to paycheck; also it’s not zero dollars. He got a loan for $45k which he is now a guarantor of. What about title fees and carrying cost? What about if the Reno goes over budget? Then he gets stuck with a loan and a house that he can’t pay or finish. But......
If he is smart and saves his money and has 10-15k saved up then he can weather the storm. That’s my point. Yeah you don’t have to use your money. But the money has to come from somewhere. You can’t buy a house with zero dollars!! I had a guy call me
The other day and ask that question. Because he literally believed that he could get a house with nothing at all.
Save your money, be smart with your money, don’t live paycheck to paycheck. Cut out unnecessary expenses and be smart with your finances. That will open up all your options for investing. If your broke and can’t manage money no one is going to give you
Money.
That’s my point to this post. Be smart with your money and manage it well and have some. Your on BP so if you listen to the podcast I’m sure you have heard Brandon say “money, time, knowledge” three things needed to make a deal happen. He doesn’t have time he has expressed that. He doesn’t have money otherwise he could already be investing and he doesn’t have knowledge either. So if he saves a little money and learns a little bit he’s got a better chance at being successful rather than believing you can invest in real estate with no money. The money comes from somewhere and someone.
@Ryan Guffey
If I can do it as a side hustle working 5am-7pm you can certainly do it 6-6. I’m no smarter and certainly not more charismatic / personable.
Find your maximum. Success is found at your maximum and nothing less. Be unwilling to fail.
@Ryan Guffey
If I can do it as a side hustle working 5am-7pm you can certainly do it 6-6. I’m no smarter and certainly not more charismatic / personable.
Find your maximum. Success is found at your maximum and nothing less. Be unwilling to fail.
My suggestion is save every last scrap of money you possibly can--MAX PERFORM your income. This means, develop a budget, minimize all expenses possible, and maximize all income you possibly can (though, don't work yourself into the grave).
Hustle in your job for 5-7 years working out this strategy, saving all money you can, and then move on from it after you have a nest egg of anywhere from $250,000 or more. If you were investing this in real estate the whole time, it will have grown into a nice monthly passive income stream for you, hopefully of 3-5k+/month. At this time, I think it would be prudent for you to start transitioning out of your career if you don't love it. With every dollar of replaced income achieved, reduce your workload that much, until eventually you have fully replaced your employment income and you can quit.
You'll have to do commercial loans at this point, more than likely, as the FM loans tend to care deeply about W2 income.
@Ryan Guffey great post and the amount of feedback from members has been valuable. I have always wanted to own rental properties but never knew where the start. Thankfully, a random Facebook message from my old roommate in college who is killing the real estate business was all the push I needed. He is serving as a mentor to while I am taking the necessary steps to hopefully buy my first property next year that I can BRRRR and continue from there. I am currently reading BRRRR by David Greene and I try to squeeze out 10 pages daily. I'm a father of three girls, working a fulltime job, and currently in the tail end of my masters program so my free time is very limited. While I'm at work I'm listening to BP podcast and also checking out my old roommate's youtube channel.
@Justin Sullivan good feedback and not bad advice at all! I certainly understand your point and your NOT wrong, we just see investing differently. Also, no need to get frustrated and say last post! The healthy conflict we have on here and the different views that so many of us have is what makes this site so valuable!
On my example I rounded a few numbers up to 20k, but closing costs were less than 1k and I found him the property for 18,200. Taxes are paid ahead at closing, so those are taken care of for 6 months at least. Your only holding cost is insurance and utilities, which is why we left 5k from the 45k in reserve and that will carry for awhile. Now, he rehabs one side, gets it rented and money coming in, then rehabs other side and things are good. 0 cash from his pocket. Of course your actually using real money, just not yours. If he saves 10-15k what does that buy him in real estate? Barely enough for down payment on a small investment property and he’ll have to leverage it anyway. All loans you are a personal guarantor, but with every investment there is a risk which is why smart investors buy right and have multiple exit strategies.
I’m not telling you these things, sounds like you already know all this, but it’s for others benefits to see our different view points.
What if rehab goes over budget? What if rehab doesn’t go well, what if you can’t get renters? Etc etc etc.....let me answer that.
What if your property burns down, what if 13 of your buildings get hit by a tornado? What if a car drives through your property running from the police? Lol, I’ve had all those happen, so let me answer.........
Those are all fears and we control our fear. We can let fear hold us back and dictate our lives or we can harness fear and use it as a propellant to success! So if those things happen, we grit down, work harder, be creative and find a way to overcome.
If we wait until the time is right, if we wait until we have the right amount of money, if wait for the purple unicorn to arrive, we will miss so many opportunities.
Great feedback and opinion buddy! It’s great to see different views and there is nothing wrong with that!
@Ryan Guffey
Come down from 60 hour work week to 40 hours. Those 20 hours you would make more flipping then getting paid as a electrician. Another option is turn key but those are hard to find and the ones that claim is turn key wouldn’t be selling it the first place.
@Stanley Huertas I don't have a choice on the hours currently but when it eventually drops thats what I was hoping to do
@Eric S Charles yeah its great, I never expected this much helpful feedback! Thats awesome congrats and good luck
Not only is getting started while working a full-time job ok, it's by far the best path when you have little to now experience.
So first things first, stay self-aware and mindful of what you don't know.. meaning don't quit your job to go full-time real estate until you have a solid foundation of experience, understanding, some deals done, and hopefully rental income.
In my opinion, it's not an either or answer for you regarding financing or a deal.
- If you want to get started you need to consistently search for deals, practicing underwriting them, and evaluating possibilities.
- While doing this, you should be working to maximize your income the field you have leverage to do so. (Your full-time job).
- Work to make yourself a strong borrower by setting aside money so you can accumulate a small chunk of capital to finance your next deal.
- Communicate with local banks to learn what loans they offer, and to understand what you need to do to qualify for a loan with them.
- Simultaneously communicate with hard money lenders to understand what they offer, be more straightforward with them about what you're looking to buy, and begin to understand what you need to do to qualify for a loan with them.
- When you find a property that fits your criteria and the numbers work, make an offer that you can stand behind, and close on.
- If you can't qualify for a loan with a local bank or hard money lender, then be patient and keep searching for deals until you're able to qualify for a loan.
Sounds like a lot, but it really isn't too much, it's not overly complicated, and it's simply what you'll have to do if you want to invest.
Be patient, keep working hard
Best,
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
In my experience you do NOT need financing first. When I started out I didn't have money, but I was able to find deals and get them under contract. I found that if I got a house under contract for a good enough price, I had people left and right that wanted to give me funding if I partnered with them on the deal. All I worried about was finding the deal, and getting it under contract. Some investors have the money, but can't figure out how to get deals. I say it's better to know how to find deals, and worry about the money later.
@Ryan Guffey just to throw an "outside the box" idea at you... you said you were an electrician by trade correct? Maybe try marketing yourself to some of your local property managers and real estate agents and offer to partner with investors in exchange for electrical work. Try the same thing with local real estate investment groups. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation but it sounds like you have something to offer other investors. You just need to put it in front of them and get creative!
Get a great Agent.
Get a great contractor.
Save your money and make time to look at properties with your agent.
Get into the field, get your feet dirty!
See 3 houses a week somehow.
Get exposed to real life, real estate and vote for the businessman that won't shut down this country.
@Ryan Luby yeah I don't think I could quit unless I was able to get several successful deals fist. what do you mean by practice underwriting them?
Is there anything specific I need to know with hard money lenders or is it basically the same but with higher interest rates?
Awesome that helps, thats a good list, thank you for the advice
@Andrew Frowiss did you just look for someone to partner with on BP when you found a deal or something like a local REIA?
@John Foresman I considered something like that my main concern with that is I don't want something to come up and not be able to deal with it since I would still have to go to work. I also mainly deal with commercial, while residential isn't too different and probably easier, I think I could do most of it but I don't know what I dont know lol
@Ryan Guffey I would suggest adding The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down to your list. I’m reading that right now alongside Cash Flow Quadrant :)