How do you Manage your W2 Job and Real Estate Investments?

Question

I love to network with other people who have W2s and invest in real estate- My questions- How do you manage both? What strategies do you use?

Tanvir Sattar · Answer

@Kimberly Kesterke I have a few properties with a few different partners and the common factor is having someone with a flexible work schedule. This goes a long way for emergencies, maintenance requests, and anything else the property or tenant might need.

Anthony Gayden · Answer

@Kimberly KesterkeI manage 4 of my local Omaha area single family homes myself and use property management on my out of state properties. I work on my rentals a few hours a week at most, but I only have 16 rental units. My full-time job is in law enforcement so I work 50+ hours a week. The properties I self manage are in B- to C+ areas so they are easy to manage.

Lee Ripma · Answer

@Kimberly KesterkI used to do both but then I quit the W2, didn’t have time for it anymore ;)

David M. · Answer

@Kimberly KesterkeI think I'm the main exception in BP. While I worked 100+ hrs a week and self managed, my Realtor was my backup and resource. Must cheaper and "better" than a property manager. While we have become good friends over the many years, I think people seem to miss out that the Realtor has a huge incentive. In our case, she has had close to a dozen transactions of my own, and she has at least two dozen more 'first degree' transactions from my renters (plus the rental listings themselves).Otherwise, as a few others have said, its stressful. Late at night or on the weekend trying to take care of issues that come up --- they never come at a good time. Or, having to "sneak in" or fit in various calls (be they for purchasing a unit or some issue) from work (which became a bit easier once I had a cell phone).Another main feature is I take relatively good care of my units. So, less likely for an issue to crop up. I first did this for lowering my "emergency" maintenance, but word actually got out and people have been asking for my rentals by-name for a long time name.Good luck.

Dave Poeppelmeier · Answer

@Kimberly Kesterke my first question is what are your goals? Do you want to stay in your W2 job or make the jump to being in RE full time? I have several properties in Toledo, OH, and my goal for the last several years has been to get out of Health Care and become a full time RE investor. I'm happy to say that I "retire" in December and will be a full-time Investor/Realtor. What I ended up doing was buying properties and managing them on my own until I couldn't handle everything anymore. Like everyone has said, you need to build a team around you (or just find a good Property Management company to do everything) for the things you can't/don't want to do. For me it was the books. I. Hate. Accounting. So I hired a bookkeeper and found a great tax prep gentleman with experience in RE, and that helped tremendously. Eventually, I bit the bullet and dropped down to Part Time, so I had 2 full days per week to work on managing my properties. Feel free to PM me if you want any other details of how I have transitioned out of my J-O-B. Good luck to you!

Carl C. · Answer

Strategies? Lots of work and very little downtime. We self manage 9 units while working our W2s (for now) and it means working long hard hours all the time. It isn't fun most of the time but it is immensely gratifying. Weekends are just work days for the real estate business. What keeps us going is seeing how this things grows to a point that in the not to distant future, we will be able to support our lives using only our investment income and then we will be able to spend more time with family, traveling, etc.

Aubrey Tatarowicz · Answer

RE investing doesn't always have to be very hands on. A lot of people mentioned this already, but finding a great property manager goes a long way when investing in single family homes or small/large apartment complexes. Another option is investing passively. There is a lot of the RE upside without all the work of say, fixing and flipping or running your own BRRRR.If you have capital to invest and don't what to/don't have the time to be very hands on, investing in real estate syndications is a great way to go. It really depends on your financial goals and how much capital you have to start.For me, I started with turn key single family homes and moved into syndication. I still have my W2 job, but I also have a business partner working full time on syndication now. Happy to chat more about my journey of working a W2 and moving into RE investing at the same time.For me, it comes to surrounding yourself with a great team. For the single family homes, we really trust our turn key provider and the management team for example.

Joseph Schweizer · Answer

Hi @Kimberly Kesterke!I work full-time as an engineer, but I wanted to start investing in real estate. I liked the idea of turnkey properties. Did my research, found a great team to work with and this past October, I closed on my first property! I will probably continue the turnkey route for my next property as well, once I save up enough capital!

Max T. · Answer

@Kimberly KesterkeClass A/B properties and tenants mean less and smaller headaches. Tenants that have good jobs and care about their credit. They care about keeping their home nice. And systems/processes in writing for every situation in advance!

Ed Moran · Answer

@Kimberly Kesterke I have a property management team and happy to pay them -plus it’s a write off. The most important thing is get a dependable team of experts don’t go it alone -you want to have a life and time for yourself.