“Get Out of Your Job and Get Into Multifamily Real Estate…Fast” by Lance Edwards

Let’s be honest: Work isn’t always a pleasure. That’s why it’s called work! You fight traffic, you put up with your boss, you try to ignore the office politics, and you can’t wait to get home at night. Day in and day out. No wonder so many people want to be their own boss!

Starting a business is not an easy task and the economic turbulence creates a forest of question marks for people who want to start something of their own, especially if they are working at their day-job. What do you do? How do you do it? Will you be successful?

I find that many people know the theories but are still scared to put those theories into practice to actually take that leap and start a business. Often, they’re just not exactly sure where to start and they want to know how to make that leap from moonlighting with a day job to full-fledged, full-time real estate investor.

This was my situation way back when I started in multifamily real estate. I was working at a job during the day and investing in apartments at night. And before long, I made that leap out of my job and into my current profession. I learned the concept of “one and done” that I want to share with you because I believe it will help you with the same job-to-investor career trajectory.

“One and done” is a simple principle. It works like this: The hardest real estate investment is the first one because there are so many things to think about and it’s hard to know what you should consider as a successful exit strategy. My advice is that you should strive to push through that most difficult investment with the singular goal of creating cash flow. That’s right, not equity, cash flow.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering why I would advise that. After all, isn’t multifamily real estate investing all about a combination of cash flow and equity? It is, but on your first one, you need to focus, you need to take baby steps, and (most importantly) you need to set yourself up for the future. Let me give you an example.

Jane split her time between her day job and her new career as a real estate investor. She went the traditional route and worked at creating some cash flow and some equity in her investment. Like many investors, she shared both the cash flow and equity with her investors and at the end of her investment, she had a bit of each. But, she still had to work at her job because while she had some equity, her cash flow wasn’t enough to allow her to quit her job and focus on real estate investing full time.

John also split his time between his day job and his budding career as a real estate investor, but he went the less traditional route and focused solely on cash flow. As he worked with investors, they were happy to get more equity in exchange for him getting more cash flow. That’s right, he happily gave up equity in exchange for cash flow. At the successful conclusion of his investment, he earned enough money each month to quit his job and focus fully on investing.

That’s the “one and done” principle at work. Do one deal – your first deal – with the focus of creating cash flow. Happily give away your equity if it means getting more cash flow. Do it all for the singular purpose of creating a monthly cash flow that will allow you to quit your job and begin real estate investing full time.