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November 30, 2026
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It's a lot of work to get set up and build a profile, but it can work. I charge $115/hr (adjusting depending on how busy I am). Mostly using Upwork. TopTal is also an option, but they're pretty selective I've heard. I do mostly underwriting plus a little AM.
What part is hard about getting it set up and building a profile?
How long have you been doing it for?
How much work experience do you have?
3 years work experience, 2 years doing freelance on side (no more than a few hours a month). At first, you have to go search out clients and apply for jobs. After you get Rising Talent or Top Rated on Upwork, it gets a little easier, plus the effort of building your Upwork profile and any templates you'll need to work. Most clients won't be willing to pay for you to spend 15 hours building a brand new template for them, they want you to have templates ready to go.
If you have Argus, that's an easy niche to get started in since a lot of clients can't do that themselves if they don't have access.
Curious to know how your day job firm feels about you freelancing? Is there a worry there about conflict of interest (e.g. you might be selling company IP)?
Also, what AM tasks do you do freelancing? Ad-hoc analysis? Building trackers/calc templates for the client? Lease admin?
Finally, is the market for Argus knowledge really enough to give you several (8-10?) hours of consistent work per month?
Day job: I hid it from my first company, but I was open about it from day one with my current company. I update my company on the name of the client and the type of projects I work on, careful to avoid any potential conflict of interest (I have had to turn down clients before because they were developing the same asset class in the same markets). I built 100% of my own materials and templates, never using any IP from my company.
AM tasks: one client has monthly reports, just comparing underwriting to budget to actual, but mostly ad hoc. This is 10% of my hours billed.
Argus: At first, it was very slow moving. Argus was the niche that helped me get started, billing 1-3 hours per project, sometimes repeat clients. Now, everything is excel based and I have repeat clients that I've been working with for >6 months doing all their underwriting and memos for fundraising. I get 1-2 invites per month on Upwork to do Argus projects and refer them to a friend who does those - I hate Argus lol
How many hours do you think you could realistically do this on a consistent basis if you didn't have a full time job? Is there enough work out there to average 30+ hours per week at $115 per hour? Do you think it would be a lot of repeat clients or would it require constantly becoming acquainted with new firms?
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