W2 Income +500k - What's the best real estate investing strategy for me to scale?

[Marie Copul]

I am an attorney.  I invest in real estate as a "side-hustle."  I've flipped 6-8 houses, made good profit on those, and just purchased my first 4-unit multi for mainly cost seg purposes/long-term appreciation.  My W2 income is very high (+$500k), excellent credit, but I hate my job and I want to leave within a year or two.  If you were in my shoes, what real estate strategy would you recommend for scaling quickly (but smartly) so that I can replace a good portion of the W2 income from real estate investing? Wouldn't mind becoming a millionaire from this as well....

Should I hire a few ppl to scale the house flipping hustle (marketing, lead acquisition..ect)?

Should I buy up as many cash flowing/appreciating properties for long term holds as possible to add doors to my portfolio (although, I haven't enjoyed being a landlord thus far...)?

Should I play harder and get into land development?  I'd be considered an accredited investor, should I get into syndications? 

Is there something else that I'm missing? A combination of these things? I am completely open to suggestions!

[Marcus Auerbach]

If you have ever played the Cash Flow Game, you are pretty much the poster child character in the game for a high-income investor. If you get dealt that character card, your primary challenge is that you need to replace a lot of income to get out of the rat race. For quick math you'll need something to the magnitude of 200 units, call it 16 millions worth of multi-family.

If you are looking for cash flow, maybe consider buying a business instead of real estate. It is much easier to hit cash flow goals. Flipping is actually more a business than it is investing and you know how much goes into that. To replace your income you need to flip a lot of houses, I'd do the math with an average 10-15% profit margin, because you have to account for some turds.

The other opportunity is to change your job and take out the element that you hate. You have acquired skills that are worth 500k, so maybe you can translate that into an adjacent career path and leverage your existing skills?

For a lot of investors it takes 5-10 years to transition from W2 to full time RE investor and if you don't have a passion for being a landlord, you may find yourself hating it. And at that point its not easy to un-invest - takes longer than to quit a job for sure.

I think most of us have followed their passion. When I look back real estate investing and rehabbing houses is akin to games I enjoyed playing as a child. I had to take a 20 year corporate engineering detour to get back to what sparks joy for me. Funny how that works. Hope this helps!