When you have $ but no time

[Mary O.]

Hello everyone! I spent some time reading through all the new posts and the advice about goals and knowing your own personality - that was eye opening for a beginner like me.

A little b/g: I have a FT job and young kids at home. So I'm busy - BUT I can and want to spend a couple hours each day towards RE and there's the weekend, too. 

I have $30k to invest.

Flipping? I don't think that's me. The thought of managing and working with contractors make me queasy (no offense contractors! it stems from personal experience remodeling our house) and I don't have any experience with home repairs. On top of that, I could only invest in fixeruppers out of state with my $30k and the thought of not being able to see the place myself worries me.

Wholesaling? I'm a terrible sales person. This much I know about myself.

Investing/lending/crowdfunding?  I think this is more my style. I'm currently researching realtymogul - seems like a well established site friendly to newbies.

Landlording? I'm also considering this. I've done it before and recently sold my apartment (hence the $ to invest right now.) Since I live in HCOL area, my 30k won't get me anywhere here. I'm researching the midwest, looking for turnkey SFH and looking into property management companies. I got excited to see decent homes for 80k-120k BUT then I found myself asking, why go through all that trouble for what seems to be pretty low yield? Especially in a market where prices won't grow at rate that can compete stocks? Do I shove the money into the market with a click of a mouse or go through the hassle of house hunting, finding a manager, etc etc where yes, owning property is great but as far as reward, stocks would be so much easier (from an investor standpoint.)

I feel like I can't be the only one who felt this way starting out and I would love to hear your stories if you had similar thoughts when you first became REI. And if you overcame that hump, were you able to do with only rentals? At what level/stage (or # properties did you have to own) were you able to match what your dayjob paid so you could quit?

As for my goals, I would eventually like to quit my W2 and live off REI. Just seems like when you're living in HCOL, owning/renting 4-5 homes in tiny cities in the midwest just won't pay your own mortgage.

Thanks for your insight. -mary