Do You Want Financial Freedom or to Build a Real Estate Empire?

Each week, we post a new question to the Best Ever Show Community on Facebook. The Best Ever Show Community is a place where real estate entrepreneurs of all stripes and sizes can come together to interact with each other, me, and the guests featured on my podcast with the purpose of everyone helping each other reach the next level in their businesses and their lives.

What better way to add value than to ask you, the community, for your Best Ever advice on a variety of different real estate topics. This week, the question was “would you rather a) spend minimal time per week (5-10 hours) maintaining your business that makes $500,000 per year or b) work 50+ hours per week on your business making $2 million per year and growing?”

I really like this question because it is a reflection of the two main reasons why people are attracted to real estate investing: financial freedom or empire building.

Real estate investing allows you to build a portfolio that generates enough cash flow to cover your living expenses so that you can quit your corporate 9 to 5 job and do whatever you want with your free time. Real estate investing also provides you with the opportunity to build a multimillion or multibillion dollar company, which allows you to create jobs, donate MASSIVE amounts of money, build a legacy and pass on your wealth for generations to come, and ultimately automate the business over time to gradually increase your free time.

Whatever financial or lifestyle goals you have, there is a real estate strategy for you.

That being said, the poll is closed, the results are in and here are the responses:

Overall, option A (the 5-10 hours per week for $500,000 per year) defeated option B (50+ hours per week for $2 million per year) 46 to 32.

The majority of the people who selected option A did so for similar reasons. They would use the $500,000 per year and the extra 30 to 40+ hours per week to generate more capital.

Scott Bower would take the $500,000 and spend some of his free time to learn how to put that money to work to get to the $2 million per year without having to work 50+ hours per week.

Similarly, Charlie Kao would select option A because if he was able to generate $500,000 per year while only working 5-10 hours per week, he’d likely have great systems and processes in place that would allow him to scale, if he wanted, in the future. Kimberly Banks Fawcett agreed because she couldn’t help but imagine all the other ideas she’d have time to make a reality with all of her free time.

Ryan Groene would select option A, but it would only be his side hustle. He would still work 50+ hours per week in total, with the remaining 35+ hours spent on creating a business that would generate $1.5 million or more per year.

Jamie L. Ware likes option A because his time is more valuable than money, and he would use that time to work on other ventures that could potentially add to the pot.

Others selected option A because their real estate goals are to achieve financial freedom and enjoy their free time however they want. Eddie Noseworthy would take the $500,000 while working 5-10 hours per week because even though money is important, it isn’t the most important. Finally, Eric Kottner’s whole point in starting a real estate business is to eventually make enough passive income to become lazy, which is achieved with option A.

A few people provided a hybrid answer. Joshua Ibarra would start with option B ($2 million for 50+ hours per week of work). But, after 10 years and automating the business, he would reduce his time commitment to 5-10 hours per week while still making $2 million or more per year.

Similarly, Ben Steelman would put in the 50+ hours now. Then, he would work towards ensuring that he was the “dumbest” person in his organization by building a great team. This will allow him to achieve his real estate goal, which is to create a business that thrives without him being the day-to-day driving factor so that he can eventually reduce his working hours.

Michael Beeman selected option B because if he just maintained a business, he would feel like he is dying. Additionally, he already works 50+ hours 6 to 7 days a week between his full-time job and real estate business and doesn’t have an issue with it.

Finally, Carolyn Lorence would go with option B because she loves her real estate business and enjoys creating. That’s because she doesn’t work “in” her business, she works “on” her business. Also, if she is growing her business, she will be able to provide opportunities for others in the process. She’d have a blast with this and make time for all the fun stuff by putting the right systems in place.

Overall, people selected the $500,000 per year working 5-10 hours per week so that they could use their free time to generate additional income or just be lazy. And people selected the $2 million per year working 50+ hours per week so that they could work towards automating the process and reduce their work hours.

What do you think? Would you rather a) spend minimal time per week (5-10 hours) maintaining your business that makes $500,000 per year or b) work 50+ hours per week on your business making $2 million per year and growing?