320 – Josh Sterling–Full-Time Job and Full-Time RE Investor

Today I'm excited to interview a great investor here in my local Michigan market. Get ready to learn and take some notes!

I know Josh Sterling personally and I'm thrilled to talk to him about his business. He grew up in California and was an airline pilot for five years. He moved to Michigan in 2009 and that's when he started investing in real estate. He owns and manages 125 units, flips 12-15 properties per years, and runs a property management property. And on top of all this, he currently has a full-time job as an air-traffic controller!

For all of you out there thinking that you can't invest in real estate because you have a full-time job, listen closely to this episode and find out how Josh does it.

Josh was working as a pilot when he decided to get involved in real estate because he wanted to be able to provide for himself and not depend on an employer in a volatile industry. Before he left the airlines, he owned five properties. Josh invests in Michigan but stays out of Detroit. The first properties he bought in 2009 were in the $25,000-$30,000 range, which was incredibly low because of the financial situation at that time.

I asked Josh why he still keeps his day job. He says it allows him to aggressively invest in real estate; the more money he makes, the more he can invest. Josh strives to live on about 25% of his net income. Josh and his wife look at their day jobs as tools to appeal for bank financing. They won't be working full-time jobs forever, but those jobs have been very helpful so far.

Listen to the full episode to hear Josh talk about his systems and his criteria for buying a property, and how they've evolved over the years. Josh also talks about the differences between his rental business and his house-flipping business, and how he finances his deals.

Many new investors worry about being able to invest in real estate while still holding down a full-time job. Josh has wonderful advice on balancing the two and managing to scale his real estate business. The first step--learning to delegate.

There is valuable, detailed information in this episode and I highly recommend that you set aside some time to listen to it carefully! If you have any questions, post a comment here or email me.

Finally, I hinted a couple of weeks ago that my business has changed completely in the fast few months. I'm doing a lot more direct marketing, which I'll get into in future episodes. I'm also doing a lot more wholesaling. If you're in the Michigan market, I have a tremendous amount of leads coming in and would be happy to talk to you about them. If you want to find out more or even get on my buyers' list, email me at [email protected] with the subject line Wholesale.