Hey Matt. Good question. When real estate is just a hobby then you'll get sporadic results, at best. I joined a Real Estate Investment Club and got caught up in all the different speakers selling their programs. I went from wholesaling, to short-sales, to apartments, to lease-options, to rehabs and then I finally decided to go back to wholesaling. I didn't take real estate as serious as I should have and because of that I was all over the map, literally. Now, I know I need to have a specific niche in a specific market and find those leads in a specific way. I chose wholesaling because it will allow me to stack up some reserves and then go after the passive income. So what I am doing is mailing to absentee owners in King and Snohomish county who have at least 40% equity and are 45 and older. I will mail them once every 4 weeks and the scrub the list accordingly. I can only mail about 750 pieces a month but a deal is inevitable if I keep at it. Then, I will be able to put the profits back into my campaign and create a system around it.
All in all, it's just about having a good solid plan and sticking with it throughout. When it was just a 'hobby' I didn't follow through on my plans and had to restart my marketing every few months. Find one niche in one market and use one marketing channel and put everything you can into that.
