The full time investor

[Josh Sterling]

I've still got a long way to go, but I would love to give up my day job and be full time into real estate. Currently I would need to make $150k a year in real estate to match my near term earning potential at my job (plus medical and retirement with a pension).
As far as our real estate goes, we have 9 sfr's and a duplex for a total of 11 units. They will gross about $110k a year and have profit of maybe $45k a year after all expenses (many of them are owned free & clear). So, keeping with those same numbers I would need to either have 35-40 units with the same numbers (actually more because we would have to finance them).

I guess my point is that I would like to hear what the transition was like for some of you that were able to go full time into real estate.

-We're you strictly buy and hold, flipper, other strategies?
-We're you able to build your real estate business up to match your old W-2 income or did you have to live a more frugal lifestyle?
-Did you eventually end up growing your real estate business bigger than it could have been had you tried to work 9-5 and do real estate on the side?
-Do you miss the stability of a job?

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I know that the people who really make it big had to go full time at some point. Just wondering what that point was for some of you and what that transition felt like.

Thank you for the responses.