Today is going to be one these days when I give you a little bit of tough love.

What you have to understand about real estate is that it doesn't take an incredible amount of intelligence--I mean that in a very positive way. It doesn't take a whole lot of luck either--if you're doing it right, you don't have to be incredibly lucky. What real estate does take is time. You can minimize it and try to keep it under control, but it's always going to take time.

When you're starting out, things take a long time because you don't know how to do them, so you're working more slowly and thoughtfully. That's normal and right.

If you work a full-time job, enjoy a full social life, and have a bunch of hobbies, maybe even a few kids, and you want to try to insert real estate into your schedule, something's got to give. Real estate takes time. You can't expect to work on real estate for a couple of hours late every night. If you want to be involved in real estate, you're going to have to find time. You're going to have to sacrifice some time on the weekends or after work. You have to make time for real estate because, especially in the beginning, real estate will take up a ton of time. You need to prioritize and decide what can be sacrificed to make time for your business.

You can invest in real estate without a lot of money or experience. But you are definitely going to need time.