Real Estate Investors, what’s your day job?

Question

For those of you that have them, what are your day job? Does it help with your investing at all? Do you have an exit strategy?

I’ve been working as an electrician the last 4 years, the pay is good but the job is demanding physically and time consuming. I’m really interested in possibly switching careers to something that helps me learn skills with real estate and investing. Or at least something that will leave me with more time and energy to build up my investment portfolio and manage my rental units.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

real estate license at 18 brokers at 20  mortgage banker at 35 ..

been mostly transactional  ran up some portfolios and sold them off.. currently on the side lines on the investment side IE buy hold..  accidental builder and liking that pretty well these days.. Just broke ground on a 90 home development I bought the dirt did all the entitlements putting in all the UTLS and will build the 90 homes that will sell for the high 400s to the low 600s. so about 40 to 50 million gross sales on that one project.. fingers crossed !!!

then currently I have been optioning DIRT for future communities get it entitled and either take it down ourselves or flip to national or regional builders..

and for day job we fund fix and flippers and turn key companies for their inventory.. do a few hundred of those a year.

Anthony Gayden · Answer

I work in law enforcement. It doesn't help with my investing. It is very time consuming and sometimes quite stressful. Still I enjoy my job and likely will not leave any time soon.

Tyler Gibson · Answer

@Ryan Tessier I'll be the first to jump in. I am an account manager for a large payroll company. I work specifically with a software solution the offer that is meant to help companies measure and increase employee engagement. I have only been here in this role for 5 months and it doesn't help or hinder my investing goals. My last day job was working as a project manager for a software company the made and sold and supported software that county governments use for recording official records like deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments, etc. They also made and sold a software that handles the tax deed process form the governments perspective here in Florida. I was with that company for almost 5 years and it did help me with my investing simply because I came to know that all the information about a piece of property is online and available to the public typically for free. You just have to know where to go look for it. I also learned a great deal about Tax Deeds in the state of Florida.

I recently got my RE license here in Florida and am working to pivot into that full time but time will tell. I have a good gig and a  family to support.

Kerry Baird · Answer

Air Force...I did 10 years and hubby did 24. Bought houses all the way through.

Latasha Camp · Answer

I work for the Department of Veterans Affairs as a rating quality review specialist/decision review officer.

Ned Carey · Answer

@Ryan Tessier I am a full time real estate investor. While that may sound appealing remember that means I MUST do real estate deals just to pay my bills.

Making an extra grand a  month from some rentals or  an extra chunk of $20-$40k from a flip sounds great. However when you NEED to do a deal just to pay bills it can be stressful. That is especially true if you have never been self employed.

Not having any W-2 income can also make it tough to get loans.

I say this not just because it relates to your question, but also to help other readers who are considering doing real estate full time.  Many make the jump way before they are ready.

Alexander Felice · Answer

I work in commercial loan underwriting.

helps tremendously for the the lending side of investing.

Deborah Hardin · Answer

My husband and I are both attorneys that handle real estate title issues, and he is also a Realtor. So... lots of talk about real estate at our house - 24/7.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

that's what I wanted to be when I grew up..  I used to pull chain for my dads surveyor.. he would tell me stories of his days in the mIddle east surveying the original oil fields and camping in the Bedouin camps.. So to this day and it really helped me since I started my RE career selling acreage and ranch's etc. I did pretty darn good finding corners.. in CA were I was at N. Ca lots of topography so mapping them out on USGS quad maps really helped..  there were no fence lines in these areas as the cost to survey would be too expensive.  IE survey an 80 acre 20 miles from the nearest paved road and surrounded by state lands or BLM .. when we were in logging we would run cut lines.. and then keep about 10 to 20 feet in from those lines.. I also enjoyed it when I found an  old Blaze line  it harkens back the day of rip saws 30 feet long and loggers standing on platforms 20 feet up from the ground cutting down a tree that is 20 foot in diameter and 200 feet tall.. :)  then hauling them to a river or in those days they built little railroads all through the mountains to haul out the logs.. those old right ways are still all over the place in the northwest LONG abandoned but still there in the deeds.. .

Clint Shelley · Answer

I'm a professional land surveyor since 2002. I had the real estate bug since I read Lonnie Scruggs' mobile home note deal book in the 90s. Did my first buy and hold a few years ago. My job has been pivotal in helping my RE endeavors. I have learned a lot from many of my clients and people I come in contact with. I am well versed in subdivisions, zoning, deeds, title issues, flood zones, mapping, estate divisions, etc. This allows me to be very nimble and analyze stuff pretty quickly. I get to see whats happening locally so it does allow me to keep an eye on whats happening in my market.

Clint

Real Estate Investors, what’s your day job?

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