Investing in Real Estate while working full time in banking

I cut my teeth as a kid getting dirty with my parents on their apt rentals changing toilets and fixing broken fences during storms.....not fun stuff. I still remember the sec 8 lady who was really just a young girl(early 20's) but had 7 kids all different colors in a 2bedroom house. Shit was always broken due to the wear/tear of that many kids but my parents loved the consistent govt pymts.

I would say it really depends on how mentally taxing your work is but the fix/flip game can be physically taxing depending on how involved you want to get. Of course the more involved you are and the more you do yourself, the less tends to go wrong and the lower the expenses are.

A plumber charges me $300 to basically show up yet I can do most basic plumbing e.g. clogs/waxrings for free. I'm also so busy doing my day job that I don't have time to fuck around after work or simply too tired to deal with it so I just call a plumber.

Another factor is property MGMT fees eating up all your profit. A small residential MGMT firm will charge anywhere between 8-10% and they really just do basic book keeping, finding a tenant(sometimes shitty ones) and handling evictions. I do all that myself and get my lease form from NAA and pay a 3rd party screener to do credit checks.

Of the 10yrs I've been doing it, I've had one bad tenant who broke his lease and skipped out early but I got him to pay 2 months as a termination fee and had it leased up a week after he vacated. At my day job, I get at least one eviction a month(1,000 unit portfolio) which isn't bad. I always hear afterwards "oh I knew he was shady" but they don't deny the prospective shithead as a) fair housing and b) they want their commission.

At the end of the day, no better way to learn then rolling up your sleeves and jumping in. My advice though is to go invest with someone who knows what they're doing and just let them make a reasonable fee so you can avoid the headache.

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The ABC's of Real Estate Investing - This is in the Rich Dad poor Dad Series and is a very quick and easy read. I really enjoyed reading it. The author makes a good argument for real estate over stocks.

Multifamily Millions - This is a book covering multifamily properties specifically. You can make a million dollars in real estate a million different ways but I think MF is a great way to go.

Real Estate Investments and How to Make Them - This is more math heavy than the other books.

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor - Must read by Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams. He interviews many different real estate investors in his book. Very inspiring.

Eventually, you'll get to a point where you've consumed so much material, the only thing you'll be left to do is just to take action if you want to learn anymore.

Dude I kid you not, I would search around bigger pockets. Mainly the podcasts. The episodes have people who have built up large portfolios of multifamily and/or single family properties as well as people who do flipping. I don't think I'd ever flip, but from the episodes I've listened to its nothing like you see on TV. The people hardly ever go to the houses, they just make sure the numbers work and get a contractor to do the work. That allows for high volume I guess. But yeah I'd check out those podcasts just to see what strategies sound most appealing as well as realistic based on your circumstances and interests.

Great insights guys, thank you. Keep it going!

Perhaps surprisingly, larger properties tend to be easier to own than small ones. The reason is that a large property can support its own management team, whereas a small one cannot. Try and round up some of your trading buddies or your boss to buy a stabilized building with 30+ units. Fix and flip can allow you to build a nest egg more quickly but it's tough to do part time. The people that have gotten absurdly rich from real estate are the ones who've held for 10+ years.

I can't add much better insight than other posters but I've considered doing a few quick flips to build a nest egg, but in another life I did home demo/remodeling so I don't mind getting a bit dirty if I had the time (also would save some costs).

That being said, maybe also look into the 1031 Exchange if you're going to acquire and sell multiple properties in a short-ish time frame. I don't know all the tax laws surrounding it, but might be a good way to preserve capital so you can get that nice, stabilized MF and hold for 10 years that really makes your cash flow pop.

hi guys, I'm also kind of interested in investing in the next years in real estates, not for too long into trading etc., but the last years I started to learn a lo, so now I'm here. currently exploring the recommended books/articles - so big thanks to everyone sharing. I guess it can be really challenging. My parents also invested in real estate so I have an idea about what it actually look likes. when you have another job too, I think you should think about how (mentally) challenging its for you. good luck!

Bump this up! Any other suggestions guys? This is a great forum! :)

Any other book recommendations?

Many people believe that in order to succeed in real estate investing, they must leave their day jobs and dedicate themselves to it full-time. Making this choice is difficult because doing so has many advantages that you should weigh against its drawbacks. Real estate investing offers many opportunities for financial gain, each with a unique time commitment. Some tactics can call for you to work 40-hour weeks while you're engaged in your business. Other tactics might be more reliant on passive methods and call for 40 hours annually. The beauty of the real estate is in the set of alternative choices and the ability to build a business that fits your needs in terms of lifestyle, finances, experience, education, and goals.

I do short-term vacation rental management (think 15 properties on Airbnb, not mine). From a management perspective, I charge my clients 15% of gross and have automated damn near everything- messaging, contracts, check-in and check-out, cleaning. It takes a fuckton of time to set it up but once you do it’s mostly just dealing with issues that pop up (some shit breaks, which it does quite often)

ForTheDream

Hi guys, I currently work in Trading but have always had an interest in investing my money in real estate, which I would like to start doing soon.

As I am trying to decide between different strategies (buying and flipping, buying and renting, getting a mortgage, buying and then renting, etc.), I was wondering if any of you would be able to help me with a few articles / books / forums to learn more about the topic.

I am the kind of guy that usually likes to learn the ins and outs of something before pulling the trigger.

Thanks a lot for the help.

I would be very wary of jumping into this space on the basis of having read a few books.  At least not actively.

Buying and flipping, for example, requires sticking to extremely tight budgets and schedules in order to deliver returns.  If you want to put 50,000 into a house over 3 months, and that ends up being 75 and 5 months, that's a huge miss.  To meet those budgets and timelines requires a lot of time and sweat on the part of the flipper.  It sounds like you won't have that time if you've got a FT job.

If you want to buy a home and rent it out, that's a little easier and has some more room for error, will give you a good sense of the ins and outs of being a landlord, and might help you build a bit of a rolodex of contactors, lenders, brokers, etc.  Especially since it's a fairly liquid market and the potential for absolute disaster is a lot less than buying a much more expensive MF building.

The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner is a solid foundation

Beautiful replys 4 years later - in the meantime, my biggest takeaway is that you need to find the strategy that works for yourself, your goals, your income, your job status, etc. be that rental properties, building something with a construction company yourself, etc.

Time flies but I hope this has helped other people! 

Thanks for the infomation.