Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies who spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

A real estate pro is spending their time in real property business.

We've had it happen before, nothing major, but just some extra money we weren't originally planning on spending to turn a unit. 

I usually spend my time, if the seller is present, keeping him/her out of the way if needed, pumping tenants for info, taking measurements for room sizes and drawing floor plans with doors and windows and noting appliances and taking pictures.We look for value add properties that are in decent structural and mechanical condition (except for one deal that we got really cheap).

The 500-hour rule means spending at least 500 hours actively managing your rental property, which could include things like tenant communication, maintenance, and bookkeeping.You can also group multiple properties together as one “activity” to make reaching the hours easier.

You'll spend a lot of time (sounds like you may have already) spinning your wheels in trying to find the right lender, whereas a solid broker can pair you up with the right fit right away and get your project moving. 

Look at the comps in your market, having extra storage is a bonus so as long as it has working electrical I wouldn't spend much time or money on it other than making sure it's clean for showings.

Maybe you can help the investors you meet with all the miscellaneous tasks involved with investing like picking up rent checks, turning over properties for new tenants, or even just driving by occasionally to make sure their properties are in good condition.I'd also recommend spending a lot of time looking at all the homes you're targeting in your area, both online and in person.

@Sandee SampsonA construction attorney would be who to contact but you are going to spend a lot more than $7000 in getting this resolved against a builder.Also let’s say you win, the courts could also say you didn’t pay for a retaining wall which is needed so it’s a betterment to the property so you would still need to pay for the wall and they would be responsible for some soil etc.

I see this is posted in the house-hack forum so I'll make the assumption that you want to owner-occupy your next investment.To work more hands-on, you'll want to spend time searching for deals, analyzing deals, and networking/building a team.Before your property search, I'd recommend speaking with a lender to find out how much you'll qualify for.