Bad idea to get into apartment investing with a full-time job?

[Kevin Nguyen]

Ultimately I want to invest in apartments one day. My original plan was like most others: buy a bunch of SFH rentals until I can upgrade to an apartment. But, then I thought why not go straight into apartment investing? Other people here have done it, except they quit their full-time job. Thus, making me believe apartment investing is a time intensive full-time gig.

If I can find enough capital to make a down payment on a small apartment complex or somehow partner with a team for bigger deals, is it a good idea to still work my full-time job?  Very detrimental?

[Michael Le]

Frankly most people I know have done their first deal while having a full-time job. I still do. I have a colleague that has syndicated 10 deals as a sponsor but is still working (no idea why) but it is definitely possible. But it rather depends on how flexible your work is because it is time intensive to educate yourself, to network with investors, to network with brokers, to underwrite deals, to do property tours, to do due diligence, to manage contractors/property manager, etc. So be prepared to essentially have two jobs and most likely have them overlap somewhat because it's hard not doing some of this stuff during normal business hours.