Can You Invest in Real Estate Even with a Full Time Job?
There are many individuals who are wondering whether it is wise to invest in real estate even with a full time job. The second-guessing is understandable. After all, when people think of a real estate investor, the image that comes to their mind is someone who is completely devoted to the real estate industry. Someone who’s always going around – suit, tie and all – traveling and looking at properties and making deals. It’s not exactly the kind of lifestyle that leaves enough time for anything else, much less another full-time job.
While that mental image does have some basis in facts, it is only a small part of the bigger picture. There are many kinds of real estate investing. And it is a shame that many people believe that it’s the previous example, or the kind that you can see on TV or with gurus where it’s not so much investing as it is simply speculating or gambling.
You Can Invest in Real Estate Even with a Full Time Job
The truth of the matter is that there are a multitude of ways to get in the real estate investing industry. Some ways do require you to put in forty or more hours a week, while sacrificing personal time and your social life. But there are also ways that only require forty hours per year, or some where you get to decide how much time you invest. The key is that the amount of time you put in will affect the time it takes to grow your real estate business.
So the answer to the question on whether you should in invest in real estate even with a full time job is “yes,” but it comes with the disclaimer that you won’t grow your real estate business as fast as you would if you are doing it full time. But this does not necessarily mean you should drop your day job – study your options carefully and decide whether you can afford starting from scratch in a new field. There are situations where it is better to play it slow and steady.
If you choose to invest in real estate even with a full time job
You have a few advantages over full time investors if you choose to invest in real estate even with a full time job:
- You are not dependent on your property’s cash flow
- You can reinvest 100% of your revenue back into investments
- You will have a much easier ability to get bank loans approved
However, in the end you really do need to weigh your options. If you really love real estate investing and you hate your full time job, there’s no reason to be stuck there. Just make sure you set up a small nest before jumping head on into full time real estate investing.