How To Get Started Investing In Real Estate w/ a Full Time J.O.B.

Have you wanted to get started investing in real estate but just didn’t have the time to dedicate to it because you have a full time job?

I understand that feeling. The feeling that there is just not enough time in each day or week to pursue another endeavor.

When I first took that leap into real estate investing for the first time, I too was working a full time job. After a long day of work it was very difficult to focus on a new business.

The cold hard truth is that we all have the same amount of hours in any given day.

It is what we choose to do with those hours that separate the successful action takers from the dreamers. It is what separates the spectators from the real players.

It all begins with your “Why”. This is your reason for wanting to pursue real estate investing.

If you have a strong enough “Why” and a burning desire to achieve it, you will free up the time to dedicate to it.

My Dead End Job

I was working at a dead end job that I really did not enjoy. Everyday I was immersed in a pessimistic environment full of what I call the “Gloom & Doomers”.

The Gloom & Doomers are the people that only focus on the negative in their lives. They are the pessimists.

These people are professionals at discouraging others' ambitions.

Can you relate to this type of an environment?

I knew that I had to break the chains to my J.O.B (Acronym for Just Over Broke), and live up to my true potential.

But how?

The only way I was going to escape the J.O.B. was to make the time to take massive action regardless of how tired I was. Regardless of what TV show or sporting events were on TV.

I knew that I had to re evaluate my life outside of work to see what areas I could scale back to free up more valuable time.

How To Free Up More Valuable Time

Here is an exercise that I highly suggest you do if you are in the same boat that I once was. The “little to no, free time” boat.

We are going to a little math. Don’t worry….. very simple math.

We all have 24 hours in a day. Follow these steps to see where your free time is being devoted on the average workday. For each section below, come up with a time. At the end you are going to subtract 24 hours from the total times below.

Amount of hours worked each day- (Example- 8 hours)

Commuting time to & from work- (Example- 1 hour)

Amount of sleep each night- (Example – 7 hours)

Preparing/Eating breakfast, lunch, dinner- (Example- 2 hours)

Household tasks (Laundry, cleaning, etc)- (Example- 1 hour)

Quality time with family – (Example- 1 hour)

In this example the total hours came to twenty. 24 hours minus 20 hours leaves 4 hours. This means that 4 hours each and every workday is dedicated elsewhere.

Now it is time to dig deeper within those 4 hours each day to see where it is going.

For most people, much of their free time is spent watching TV. The average American spends 5 hours a day watching TV.

If this is where the bulk of your free time is going you need to stop yourself right now and ask yourself a serious question.

Is American Idol more important than my goals in life? Does Game Of Thrones really take priority over creating a better life for myself and my family?

If your answer is that tv is not more important than your goals, dreams and aspirations, then you are going to find a great deal of extremely valuable free time each day.

If you really want to see how much free time you can get back, do the same exercise above but now add in your weekends or your non working days.

Where is all of your time being devoted to on your off days?

Here is what I did

I knew that I needed to make some drastic changes with my free time habits if I really wanted to free myself from my job.

I decided to wake up 1 hour earlier each working day. I was getting 8 hours of sleep each night and knew that 1 hour less would not make a big difference to me.

I used this extra hour each morning to make phone calls to landlords advertising their properties for rent. I was looking for tired landlords that really wanted to sell their rentals. I also called all of the for sale by owner ads looking for motivated sellers.

In the evenings, after I returned home, I made sure that the biggest time waster of all did not lure me in; The TV.

Every time I thought about a show that was coming on, I stopped myself and asked if that show was really more important than my goals. My answer was always NO.

I was able to dedicate another 1-2 hours to my new real estate investing business. I used this time to make more calls and also to, what I call, “Mind Feed”.

Mind Feed is a term used for feeding your mind with what it needs to help you reach all of your aspirations. I dedicated a lot of free time to studying real estate investing, business, successful entrepreneurs, and self help books.

Since my job was Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday were my days off. These were prime days, full of opportunity to dedicate to my new endeavor. I used these days to take massive action.

How Bad Do I Want It?

This is where you need to be completely honest with yourself. Dig down deep inside and figure out why you really want to be a real estate investor.

If you truly want to invest in real estate and have that burning desire to live up to your full potential, you will be wiling to make sacrifices.

You will find a way to create more free time.

Figure out where you precious time is going and allocate a portion of it to taking action and moving towards your “Why”.

You will be amazed at what you can accomplish with just an extra 5-10 hours each week.

I leave you with a great quote I once heard.

“Most people are drifting along in a childish sleep. To live our dreams, we must wake up”. John-Roger & Peter McWilliams

It is time to wake up and take action!

Here’s to your success!