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How Passive Is Passive Investing, Really?

What exactly does passive income investing mean? How involved do you need to be to make passive real estate investing work?

The Need & Desire for Passive Income Investments

The need and desire for passive income is growing among investors. Individual investors, advisors, and economists have realized just how important it is to incorporate the cost of time and effort in an investment. Ongoing income or cash flow is a way to make the money you do have do the work. Some people win the lottery and then go broke by the very next year. What if they invested that money in working for them? There would be a different outcome.

Passive income is vital for retirement. The truth is that we never know when we are going to have to retire. Some want to retire early. Others will be forced to quit work decades ahead of their expectations. Some are relying on social security or a pension to get them through their golden years and need more income than a low yield retirement account can offer. Many want to enjoy more financial surplus now. A surplus which can only be created by investing and generating passive income which is not based on how much work they can personally do.

The Promise of ‘Passive Income’ in Real Estate

While there are several options for generating passive income from real estate, buying and holding rental properties is easily the most common.

Real estate is one of the most obvious choices of passive income investment because of the opportunity for cash flow.  A good real estate investment from a reputable source can offer security, cash flow, and equity growth potential.  For many real estate crowdfunding opportunities it is a low capital amount and ease of entry which really sets it apart, and makes it more accessible to the everyday investor.

The Myth of Passive Income Real Estate Investing

Sadly, despite all the hype and promises, most real estate isn’t really passive at all. Being a solo business owner, realtor or house flipper is not passive. Even the way most investors handle buy and hold rental properties is not really passive.

For those who go out and find rentals, find tenants, and then hand the property off to a property manager they are still hands-on and in an overseeing role that takes time and effort. It is a lot of work and due diligence to find deals, negotiate and close them, manage property managers, and figure out the best times to exit. Multiply this by a whole portfolio of properties. It can be a full-time job. A good job, and often a well-paid one, but still a job, trading your hours and life for dollars.

As Good as it Gets

Fortunately, there are other alternatives to invest. One which can provide truly passive income. Turnkey real estate investing provides investors with end-to-end service from vetting and securing properties, leasing and daily management, bookkeeping, and identifying smart times to exit or restructure. Crowdfunding opportunities can take this even further by providing allowing you to invest smaller amounts of capital in multiple deals. 

Do your due diligence and factor in the time needed to manage your portfolio of real estate. You may find that your time is worth the effort to look into a more passive way to invest in real estate so you can sit back and enjoy the cash flow!

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TJ Lokboj

TJ Lokboj is an entrepreneur with a passion for adding value to the real estate investing industry through adopting digital transformation. Some of TJs companies have been featured in Yahoo Finance, Morningstar, Benzinga, and many other publications.

TJ is the managing partner of Holdfolio, a real estate investment firm that leverages a premier crowdfunding platform.

He is also a member of the Forbes real estate council and co-founded SyndicationPro, which is the #1 syndication management SaaS solution in the market today.

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Ready to invest in real estate?

We make real estate investing simpler, more transparent, and accessible to individual investors.