EP18: How Will You Know It's Time To Quit Your Job? with Amelia & Grace
Hey everyone welcome back to episode 18 of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast. We are super excited to talk to you today about how to know when it's time to go full-time in real estate investing and a couple of steps that you should take prior to quitting your full-time job. Plus, we're going to dive into our personal stories and when we knew it was time.
Amelia’s Journey
In 2020 Amelia flipped a property (hear this story in episode 1) and this led her to the realization that she was interested in buying rental properties and replacing her income from her full-time job with rental income. She then bought a tri-plex which cash-flowed around $700-800 per month. At the time her income from her full-time job was right around $50k so she was used to sticking to a strict budget and living below her means but knew she could get to where she could quit her full-time job. Quickly after that, Amelia then purchased a quad-plex from the same seller and was cash flowing around $1,000, so she was already at $1,800 per month.
Being that Amelia was already debt free, she really only needed to bring in enough to cover her own rent and food. She eventually reached 7 doors, and by the end of the summer of 2021 was up to 15 doors and just shy of replacing her full-time income. She also knew that by quitting her 9-5 she could focus more on her REI career and be able to bring in even more income. The last step before she quit was going under contract for an 11-unit property with her partners from Idaho. Roughly 30 days later, she left her full-time job and never looked back.
Grace’s Journey
While working remotely from Iowa as a mechanical engineer Grace’s income was sufficient but far from making her a millionaire. She was supposed to be relocating from Iowa to San Diego to begin working in-person for her job and in February of 2021 after wrapping up a large BRRR project. She felt really good doing this real estate project in the place she was born and raised and knew that it just would not be in the cards in California. She asked her company if she could work remotely permanently which they quickly shot down. She decided it was time to try this real estate thing on her own. She gave roughly three months’ notice to give herself time to prepare.
Grace took the time to step out on a limb, and create an emergency fund for herself and she ended up taking some of her 401K out just to live on as a cushion (totally worthwhile in the long run). Amelia and Grace constantly remind themselves that you can’t fully see the opportunities that can come when you don’t have time or energy to look because you’re working full time.
Once you are able to focus on entrepreneurship full-time, there are so many ways and things that you can do to make money.
Best tips to prep for quitting your 9-5:
Give yourself a deadline to replace your full-time income
Remember your WHY
Be personally debt free!
Know exactly what you spend every single month
Establish good relationships with lenders after you have a few successful projects under your belt but before you quit your job
Have an emergency fund (most people say 6 months is sufficient but think hard about your personal situation)
Don't forget, that there is some opportunity cost with you still being in a full-time job and you have the ability to make even more in real estate if you can focus full-time on that instead.
Thank you so much for listening! We will catch you in the next episode.
Resources:
Listen to WIIRE episode 001
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