Making REI Work With A Day-Job

Editor's Note: Dennis Fassett is a former corporate finance executive turned real estate investing “Cash Flow Mercenary.” Dennis specializes in single-family and multi-family cash flow properties and thoroughly enjoys assisting his fellow investors with their own strategies, including how to buy your first apartment building.

As an ongoing contributor to Mogul’s “Market News Updates,” Mr. Fassett provides us with his own unique, lively, and thought-provoking commentary on the timely industry news and events of today that are impacting our industry. And be sure to check out his other super-helpful Market News Updates. For now, enjoy...

From Dennis Fassett, Cash Flow Mercenary...

I’ve been doing quite a bit of REI coaching lately. Most clients are married with kids and all of them have full-time day jobs. Through all of it, I’m seeing the same common questions and concerns over and over again. Since a lot of folks here have day jobs too, I thought it would make sense to address some of their concerns in a lesson.

First off, let me say that having a day job is AWESOME. Yep, you read that right. In fact, I’ll go so far as to tell you that I hit my knees every morning thanking big-G.O.D. that there’s someone out there who’s willing to pay me what they do every month. Month in and month out.

I’m pretty sure that runs counter to what a lot of folks have told you. But think about it… yes, some jobs may be a grind. And all jobs take time away from doing other things (like REI), but a day job also puts a roof over your head, food on your table and gas in your tank.

But the best part about having a job, though, is that it gives you the opportunity to build your business without having to worry about money. Which lets you do it right by not cutting corners and not going into debt.

Let’s talk about the most common concerns I’ve been hearing…

1. Time

Pretty much every person I’ve talked to is worried about time, because they can’t spend as much time on their business as those who work full time can. That’s okay. The important thing is to assess your schedule, factor in work time, family time, spouse time, and “other” activities, and then plan your real estate activities around them.

time When I got started, I sat down with my wife and worked through all the family activities we had, then I time-boxed the blocks that I wanted to devote to real estate each week, and together we didn’t let anything interfere with them. The bottom line? It’s not about the amount of time you have, it’s about how you use the time you have. Which leads me to #2….

2. Focus

This is a huge issue for folks who are time-constrained, because they feel like they have to do everything at once. Don’t.

Let’s face it. Multi-tasking is a myth. It’s a fallacy. And multiple studies over the past couple of years have validated this. We can only do justice to one thing at a time, which means developing a sense of focus is critical to your success if you’re time-constrained.

So you need to break your processes like direct mail into pieces, then focus on doing one piece at a time. That means fully focusing on that one thing for the amount of time you have.

3. Competing with REI Full Timers

This is a legit concern that us day-job people have. The fact is, most of us can’t get out to see properties during the day. I can’t tell you how many months I banged my head against the wall because of this. I was a direct-mail maniac when I started in REI, and I got a lot of calls. But in many, many, MANY cases, the property would get sold before I could get to a weekend appointment. Talk about frustrating.

But, I’m happy to say that I found a tremendously profitable solution to this challenge. And that’s co-wholesaling. What I do now is direct mail – actually, it’s pretty much direct mail only. I get the calls, screen and qualify the sellers, and then send the leads to one of my partners to make the offer and get the deal sold and closed. And we split the fee 50-50.

I recommend that people with day-jobs focus on co-wholesaling.

It completely solves each of the three challenges I mentioned above. Plus, it allows you to get really, really good at one part of the process – finding motivated sellers. That gives us co-wholesalers an advantage over the wholesalers who do both ends of the process. And in this market, any advantage you can get is a good thing.

Here’s the deal…

Is it sexy to send several thousand letters and cards out every month? Nope, not one bit. But you know what? I cry about it all the way to the bank every month thinking about it. ;)