Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Investor Club

Tell Us Your Side Hustles

  • 27 Jul 2018 9:26 PM
    Message # 6402060

    Hello Everyone,
      I believe most of us investors have an entrepreneurial streak. Whether real estate investing is a side business or you're a full time investor without any other "day job", it seems most of us always keep an eye out for additional opportunities and are open to making money outside of the real estate industry.
      That being said, I'm curious... What other side hustles are you involved in?

  • 28 Jul 2018 6:32 AM
    Reply # 6402266 on 6402060

    Hi Dwayne, I've always had some sort of gig going on the side, from owning an Auto Restoration business while in the Marine Corps to health juice business to Amway in the early days.  I personally found those businesses unrelated to my Real Estate investing, hard to keep excited about and hard for me to keep them growing so now, I only do things that tie into my REI business easily for me.  Now I offer discount and free electricity and natural gas programs to all my buyers and sellers I do business with in my REI business, and teach others to do the same.  I do a lot of affiliate marketing for real estate investor tools.  I find it much easier for me to stay focused on everything because it's all related and all ties into and supports my REI business.

    I to am curious what others are doing out there.

    Last modified: 28 Jul 2018 10:08 PM | Robin Carriger (Administrator)
  • 30 Jul 2018 4:18 PM
    Reply # 6405709 on 6402060
    Deleted user

    Real Estate is my side hustle... I've worked full-time for the same company for 11 years. I negotiate healthcare contracts for a large IDN. The main job is too lucrative and my passion is in driving down the cost of healthcare in the U.S. Real Estate has been a great side business though! I don't know that I'll ever dedicate to this 100%. 

    Brian R. Baker, MBA 

    Texas Housing Partners LLC. 

  • 30 Jul 2018 6:30 PM
    Reply # 6405848 on 6402060
    Deleted user

    What Brian said.  I have a long-time career in technical communications, now specifically in professional editing of content of all kinds.

    But in addition to holding and managing rental property, I also freelance as a writer, editor, and "specialized" graphic designer. It's specialized because I will only do what I know I can do well for the customer.  I have an editing contract with a book publisher and am working on a second contract with a prominent publisher in the software/IT field. I also do pro bono work - I just published a newsletter for Clan Donnachaidh of Texas, Inc. If you want to know more about my services, you can find me on LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/paularobertsonfinelines

    Last modified: 30 Jul 2018 8:10 PM | Robin Carriger (Administrator)
  • 03 Aug 2018 1:22 AM
    Reply # 6411489 on 6402060
      Every endeavor directly complementing each other sounds like a good way of doing it. I have a lot of varying interests, but I think I have discovered the thing that excites me more than whatever business/industry I’m working with is the business development aspect. I am very results driven, so taking a business and growing it, getting to see the results of your efforts, has a lot of appeal. Of course, I’d also like to not work so much. I’m a bit of a contradiction.


      I tried a few MLM type side “businesses” while in my late teens. Halon fire suppression, electricity, etc. I sold (tried to sell) Kirby vacuum cleaners once upon a time. Also Cutco knives, but with my mindset of wanting to scale and grow companies, I found a loophole in their rule about not selling to commercial users and racked up 30k in commissions my third week with the company. Unfortunately, they did not share my optimistic appraisal of the situation and no longer wished to “share the opportunity” with me. Lol.

      Currently, I have an IT business, REI, just joined forces with my wife to build her (our?) It Works! distributorship (The first MLM type of anything I’ve been involved with in a lot of years. This one is actually doing quite well.) I have a community involvement charity, an insurance agency, and a handful of other dormant/possible future projects. I founded my IT consulting company about 20 years back. I’ve taken a couple breaks from it. Well, tried to, anyway. I fire myself all the time. It just keeps pulling me back in. I’ve developed or built and sold insurance agencies on one of my attempted breaks from IT, but I always end up the designated IT guy that everyone goes to and sometimes clients are specific that they want me to do a job instead of sending one of our techs. So even when I step away from the business, I still end up working in it. I really enjoy the work though, which also makes it difficult to stay out. And, like you mentioned, Brian, it is just too lucrative and something I’m passionate about.

      When someone asks, "What do you do for a living?" How do you respond? RE investing may be the most lucrative, and therefore the one we highlight the most, but how much business are you leaving on the table by only saying you work in real estate? Of course, how do you shine the light on other areas you work in without taking that light away from promoting yourself in RE? After all, maybe the person you are meeting knows of a property situation that would benefit from your help. If you tell someone a half dozen different things you're involved with, they're gonna tune you out. Kinda like what most people did while reading this post. I suppose that's where a solid elevator pitch comes in, but there's only so much you can effectively pack into just a few seconds of speech.

  • 08 Aug 2018 9:13 PM
    Reply # 6424608 on 6402060
    Deleted user

    Real Estate is my passion and has allowed me to quite my J.O.B. as a contractor.  Now I just work on my own projects and a rental portfolio.  While I do enjoy Real Estate, I don't want it to be who I am.  Many of us work and never enjoy life.  I'm at a point where I would rather spend the time with family/friends than go after another deal.  So my side hustle would be living life....I guess;)  I would encourage everyone to live life to the fullest, live life modestly and invest wisely.

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