Posted by Mike-OH on May 26, 2005 at 05:23:14:
My honest opinion is that you should wait until you have more time. One hour a day isn’t going to cut it, although many of the late night gurus make these pie-in-the-sky claims. Running a business takes more than 1 hour a day while treating a business like a hobby spells certain disaster.
Life is about priorities. When real estate becomes your priority, then you will have the ability to succeed.
Good Luck,
Mike
Getting started in difficult situation - Posted by Raphael
Posted by Raphael on May 25, 2005 at 13:28:12:
Hi, I’ve been lurking here for a while and just recently started to post. Some of you may have responded to my previous post and if so thank you.
I have read a lot about real estate investing but never actually bought anything. I would like to invest for income not for capital gains. Even so, I’ve read in the How-To articles that it is better to flip first so as to build some cash to work with. My obstacle there is time. I don’t have much of it. I am a full time graduate student six days a week and won’t work on the seventh for religous reasons. That gives me basically an hour a day plus time between semesters.
I live NYC where the prices of houses are way out of whack with rents. The solution would be to flip, but as I said, I don’t have much time and am really looking to build income streams.
I was thinking of investing out of state in NJ and buying rentals over there. Section 8 pays above market rent there and there would be positive cash flow. However, I’d have to get a management company.
I would like advice as to what I should do and what risks I face with my plan.
Thanks a ton for your help.
Mike’s right - Posted by DaveD (WI)
Posted by DaveD (WI) on May 26, 2005 at 07:12:09:
It appears your priorities at the moment are grad school and your faith, of course. Plus, you are contemplating making a go of it in NYC, perhaps the toughest of all RE markets. This is where pros eat pretenders every day. Which camp do you want to be in? It takes more than an hour a day to turn pro. Do yourself a favor and find a more satisfying hobby than RE. In fact, RE is the most low-paying, frustrating hobby around. When you are ready to commit yourself, there will still be plenty of opportunity, regardless of which market you decide to work in.