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Updated about 7 years ago, 11/07/2017
WHO ARE YOU? What do you do besides real estate?
Hello BP nation!
My question for BP nation is what is your day job? Although we would love to be, most of us are not yet full time investors.
As I grow older and try to figure out the direction of my career, I love hearing the stories of other successful real estate investors and how they got there. I am currently...struggling... at my day job (100% commission insurance salesman) and dream of finding a job I can enjoy while I slowly grow my real estate portfolio.
So BP... What is your day job and what does your life look like trying to work it while you grow your investing career?
Ready...GO!
School Principal
My full time gig is working as an industrial engineer in the O&G industry. Buuuut, I'm trying to work my way into REI full time, just got to build up the cash reserve. It's all part of my plan in order to become a full time investor!
What a great post idea!
By day:
I'm a health care professional working about 50 ( sometimes feels like 500...) hours a week.
REI - Related:
I do buy and hold real estate out of state in Phoenix, AZ. Two properties currently, and looking to have a total of 10 doors in the next 5 years. I'm also starting to read about appraisals and may look into getting my appraiser license sometime down the line.
Other businesses:
I also have a fledgling e-commerce business that just launched (men's grooming, if anyone's interested!) and always looking for mentors and connections in that arena. Currently looking to expand my marketing efforts and grow on social media. Also working on strengthening my in-person sales skills.
Hobbies:
Recently started biking. A total novice right now with a used mountain bike, but I love it! The fresh air is amazing, and "biking for dollars" is fun :)
I also love personal finance and geeking out on index funds and compound interest :)
I'm learning first hand how much knowledge everyone I meet has to offer! Feel free to shoot me a PM if you are local (in Orange County, CA) or just want to chat!
Hi everyone,
I have two jobs currently. My full time job is as a Pharmacy Tech and I am also in the Army National Guard. Although, these jobs do keep me busy I don't have to much of a hard time focusing on my real estate education and taking action on my goals in dreams. My struggle is being consistent over the long term. Sometimes I hit those lows and it knocks me right off track. I am just glad to have this great community of people that will help me stay on track.
I was a fruit and vegetable farmer for 20 years and decided to partner up with a friend of mine and start a construction company. We are based in Orcutt, CA on the central coast just above Santa Barbara. We are looking for value add properties now and eventually want to develop raw land in our town or anywhere opportunity might be.
I am the Treasurer for a school district.
Hello guys/gals
This is my first ever post on BP! I am listening to the BP podcast as well to learn as much as possible about real estate investing. My day job is I run an Asset Management shop in Philadelphia PA. I am also currently studying for my real estate license while working an internship at a local real estate shop. My goal is to buy my first real estate rental property in the city preferably near a major University and rent out to college students on a 12 month lease. Trying to save up on that. But I love the opportunities offered in RE!
Looking forward to reading all your comments and continuing to learn.
-Henri
GREETINGS!
I am Active-Duty in the Marine Corps. 22 years old and getting out in a year to move back to Thousand Oaks, CA. Trying to learn as much as I can and save $$$$ to put towards a property once I'm back in the civilian world. If any of you are or were in my shoes I would kindly appreciate any advice! Also, those just looking to share some tips and pointers for first time investors my ears are open.
I am currently stationed in Frederick, MD if anyone wants to talk real estate/investing over a beer or coffee.
Estate sales manager
BP Nation!
After being offline over the weekend, I open up BP to find that my post is the number one trending topic!!! I have read every single comment on here and it never gets old. It's so interesting to hear who the average BP users are and what they do! I hope this thread keeps alive because I absolutely love to read it.
This thread puts things into perspective for me and makes me realize that not everyone is a full time investor living the dream. Most of you are hard working men/women who are smart with their money and have plugged away slowly over time to build your empire. I'm just so thankful that @Joshua Dorkin created this awesome community we have!
Keep the posts coming!
Software Engineer since 1997.
I have to say, I've been seeing this for few days now on my key words alert. These posts are non-sense to what we should be doing. Please stop.
#1 Real Estate Success Stories Contributor
- Real Estate Agent
- Cincinnati, OH
- 578
- Votes |
- 474
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#1 Real Estate Success Stories Contributor
- Real Estate Agent
- Cincinnati, OH
I have been a full time police officer for 5 years, as well as a Realtor and Investor for about a year. For me, having middle class W-2 income has been instrumental in acquiring my first rental property a few months ago. My first goal is to acquire at least 10 units within two years, I am 20% there. My long term goal is to transition into real estate full time. Including having my own brokerage, property management company, and continued expansion of my personal rental portfolio. I enjoy being a police officer, but working 50-60 hours a week with zero control of my schedule is not a sustainable lifestyle for me. I am having my first child in July, and do not want to miss the majority of my children's lives by being stuck in a career such as law enforcement.
I understand the struggle of building consistent commissions, as a Realtor I have some months with multiple closings, and other times without any. I am fortunate to only need my commission money to further fund my investment projects.
My suggestion for any newbie, or person with the ability to house hack is to take advantage. It is much much easier to qualify for a owner occupant mortgage, and if I could go back in time I would have house hacked several 4 family buildings before buying a large personal residence.
Best of Luck from Cincinnati,
Joe Cornwell
I work with interior designing, mainly focused on kitchens, bathrooms and wardrobes. It's quite interesting, as project managers often visit us when they need a new kitchen or bathroom, only to find they should have began planning the kitchen and the interior before they installed the windows in the house. Sometimes windows and the exterior design can negatively affect the kitchen layout, as windows can be placed lower than the countertop level.
The idea is to shift towards engineering within a couple of years to work with real estate construction or development.
@Kyle Grimm - Thanks for starting this topic. It's been very interesting to read everyone's stories...all 270 replies so far as of this writing.
The answer to your first question - My day job is working about 55-60 hours a week as a supply chain and operations manager. I work night shift right now and will address that below.
To answer what my life looks like while trying to build my real estate business the answer is a lot more hours and a lot less sleep. I'm fortunately right now that working night shift allows me to have day time hours to do things like meet investors, banks, as well as look at properties and go to sheriff sales. This is really helping build the business although it means the wife and I only see each other on the weekends.
Long term goal Goal though is to work night shift hours for the next year to really systematize our business (brought on a new partner this year) so that I can return to normal human working hours, we can keep working our W2 jobs but long term to be in a financial position where I do not have to work my day job. 50+ hour work weeks at my W2 are normal...so while there may be an option to scale back from 60 hours at some point I don't expect that to change much.
I've been very interested in personal finance recently. My goal here is to achieve full financial independence (no car loans, no student loans, no mortgage, no other consumer debt) within the next 5 years (only real estate investment debt). Cars should be paid off in 2017, student loans in 2018 and mortgage in 2022. Then after recovering a bit of capital from all that debt pay down I will buying myself a Tesla Model S. I'm a car guy so part of my financial independence will be rewarding myself with the "toys" I want...but I'm very much so more in the camp of doing this in a more fiscally responsible way (ie paying cash) rather than taking on loads of debt.
Real estate plan is equally aggressive. Currently own 4 properties, planning to get 4 more in 2017, 20 in 2018 (not quite Grand Cardone 10x rule, but we're shooting for big things and the market still looks like it can support this), and then 2019 and beyond will be discussed with my business partner when we get together in a few weeks for some longer term strategy planning but will likely involve a diversifying a bit more into multi-family/industrial/commercial buildings.
Day job...
Two fold: I provide private music instruction; primarily drum students with a couple of guitar students. I am slowly building and uploading a library of short videos for current and future students on you tube. I also am developing a system that has helped me learn drum rhythms over the last 6 years.
I also play in the local area and occasionally travel with bands that invite me to play drums with them.
What does my life look like trying to work it while growing my investing career?
It is a bit chaotic at times, but it is something I enjoy a lot. I suppose I am not the stereotypical musician though, because I get up early each morning (check out the time of this post) to learn about REI, develop my systems, and take small steps toward acquiring mine and Wendy's first four plex we can house hack.
I love music, both teaching and playing. However, I recognize that the income from being a private instructor and gigging can dry up when the economy takes a nose dive. We're working toward developing passive income with Real Estate, plus looking forward to the benefits of appreciation as the years go by
I work in BR for a local airline, and am also a professional musician
I am a substitute teacher I pay my own taxes early or at end of the year. I choose to use every paychecks and buy houses and live low key life. With fewer bills using solar energy. I use regular transportation. I also religiously go to many food at pantries to pick organic food. I have a renter that lives below me. I am working on home number three . I going to quite my day job to get a food truck which make 15,000 to 20,000 a month. I had rented a food truck in the pass it work well. I use to be a shame to say this to anyone but it's the only way I could build my portfolio. In addition I share a cell phone with my husband. Our daughter is also home school. My family and friends have no idea. I don't plan telling them.
I'm enjoying this thread!
Well, I am an electrical engineer that builds batteries for electric vehicles. My career has brought me to Japan where I am researching and developing the next generation of electric vehicles. I absolutely love my day job! My goal is to use real estate to become wealthy and travel the world.
As for my investments, I own one duplex that cash flows well. I plan to purchase my next deal when I return to the States in 2019.
I am a prosecuting attorney. I basically worked on a ranch growing up, eventually worked in the oil field in order to make enough money to get through college and law school. I was almost dirt poor when I finally got out of college but joined with another friend to buy our first rental in the early 1990s. I earn about half to a third of what I used to make in private practice, but the benefits are nice. I have slowly build up a portfolio over almost 30 years to a little over 30 units. As I am approaching 60 I decided about 3 years ago to accelerate my real estate investing by using the equity I had built up to buy more. I self manage about 20 of my units, and do most of the fix up projects like roofs, etc. As I was broke when I started it was several years between buying the next rental. We bought junky houses and fixed them up. It was a get rich slow. I have never owned a new car, and we live well within our means. Our personal house, cars and credit cards are all paid off. Our local area is in a recession so I have slowed down the last year from my goal of getting 50 rentals. Once I pay half of my rental units off I will retire and just do real estate.
Hi Everyone! First Time poster and excited to join the community of like minded investors.
I work in the IT industry within the healthcare sector. I'm an IT Programming manager that enjoys my day job but understands that it won't exactly get me the financial freedom that I'm looking for.
I'm new to investing but not real estate. Have owned a rental SFR (passed down through the family) for a few years and have recently sold the property to gain some additional cash to explore new opportunities. The home was in a "D" type of neighborhood and with the upswing of sales in Orlando, I thought it was great timing to take the plunge!
Looking forward to learning from each of you and hoping to gain as much experience as I can over the course of this journey.
Robert Kiosaki says "Work to earn, don't work to learn." I work for a construction company and am learning the Project Management side as well as materials and methods for renovation. I'm also making great connections with investors, the City, Agents, contractors, tradesmen, and all manners of real estate related folks.
I was a SAHM who homeschooled her children for 14 years. Started learning about our local real estate/rental market in 2010. In November of 2011, I started purchasing local buy and hold rentals, finishing up with our last one in October of 2016. During that time I also went to real estate school for informational purposes only and joined our local REI. My husband is an embedded software engineer who was able to keep his benefits and began working only 20 hours per week January 2017 because of our real estate business. We are now looking into other avenues of real estate such as crowdfunding, self-directed IRA's, etc. in order to diversify further. Always something new to learn!