15 Side Hustles for Real Estate
What's up guys and welcome back. This blog is where I document my real estate investing journey and bring you along with me.
Today I'm revealing 15 real estate side hustles that you can do part time.
Not only are these jobs in super high demand, but they also pay pretty well. And I'm going to show you how to use these side hustles as a way to get your foot in the door and become a full-time real estate investor yourself.
Today, I'm going to tell you exactly what you would be responsible for if you were working with an investor to do some of these jobs.
I'm also going to tell you how easy it is to get started doing that side hustle, how much money you could make, and what type of time commitment you might need.
Side Hustle #1: Project Estimator
So one thing I do as an investor is break any big rehab projects up into three phases.
So at the start of phase one, I'll have all of my estimates for phase one and all of my contractors hired.
Then, as we're approaching phase two, I'll get the estimates and hire the contractors for that, and the same thing for phase three.
The reason that I do it this way is because it would be really hard as changes are made to get estimates for the entire project at once.
So if we've got this huge bathroom shower/tub, it would have been really hard to get an estimate from my tile guy before this area even existed.
At the end of phase two, it would be about time to start getting the estimates and hiring the contractors for phase three.
This is where you come in as the side hustler.
If I had someone to collect all of those estimates for me, get all the estimates from my three tile guys, get all the estimates from my three painters, and whatever else is left in here for phase three, and then present them to me at once that would be a really valuable service.
I could walk around the property one time with my estimator and show them exactly what's needed for phase three, give them the document that outlines everything, and then they could show up when the contractors were able to schedule a bid, open the door, and walk through with the contractors.
Of course, if they had any questions they could call me and ask, but for the most part this would save me time and energy showing the property to multiple contractors and repeating what the job entails over and over again.
Now if you're also bilingual in English and Spanish, you would be extra valuable because a lot of times I'm in a part of the country where my workers speak Spanish.
And because I don't, that's a big barrier. So if you're bilingual that could also be a bonus and you could charge even a little bit more.
How would you find an opportunity like this and how much could you get paid for any of the side hustles in this video?
The key word's going to be hustle.
So if you're willing to put in a little bit of work, it's not that hard to find an investor like me who could use your help.
One recommendation I have is to go into your local Facebook investing groups, go to Craigslist, go to Instagram DMs, and as a bonus go to the hardware store right when they open.
Whenever I'm in need of a new electrician or a new plumber, I just go to that aisle in the hardware store first thing when they open and ask people if they are contractors in that area and if they have a business card.
You wouldn't believe how many contractors and other investors I've met just striking up conversation in the checkout aisle.
But you want to make sure that you go to the Pro section and not just to the normal home owner section because then you're going to find people that you're looking for.
So with a little bit of work, you can easily find someone who needs your help for any of the side hustles in this blog.
So if you want to find estimates for investors, you can probably find someone within a couple of days with just a little bit of work. So I'm gonna give this five stars as a way to get started, as you also don't need any money up front.
In terms of how much you might get paid for this job, I would probably pay around a hundred dollars per phase. So for me that would be $300 per project, and I've got two to three projects happening per month, so that's $600 or $900 per month.
And I'm gonna give that five stars as how much you can make with the side hustle.
And then finally, in terms of the time it would take, you would have to schedule the contractor so that you could be here and let people in when their schedule allows.
And it would probably take an hour or so to walk through with someone and make sure that they could get their measurements.
And so I'll give this one three stars in terms of the effort and time it would take to do the job.
Side Hustle #2: Handyman
The next side hustle is to be a handyman or an installer.
So for a project like this, once it's done there's going to be a handful of things that I still need to get finished before I can have a tenant move in here.
And let's say that my general skilled contractors cost about 75 dollars an hour.
I'm not really going to want to pay them that much to do some of the simple things that need to get done before I can rent this property out.
So that would be things like hanging blinds in the windows or hanging mirrors above a vanity.
So having an installer or a handyman to come in at the very end of the project and knock those things out would be a super valuable service.
So if you don't have the skills or the time to be a contractor full time, being a handyman slash installer time could be the side hustle for you.
I'm going to give this one three stars in terms of ease to get started because you do need to be a little bit handy and know how to use a drill, but a weekend on YouTube could take you pretty far in that.
It also gets three stars because you probably are going to need some basic tools up front so that you can go in and actually get the job done.
In terms of pay I'd probably pay someone about 150 a day to come in and knock out all of those punch list items.
I'd need them for about four days a month so that's 600 a month which gets four stars in my book.
And you could probably do this for just one or two weekends a month which is not a huge time commitment for that amount of money.
So that gets five stars.
If we go out the back of this property you'll see that there's actually another unit back here which I'm going to go inside and show you guys in a moment.
But one of the questions I get asked most often is how do I find properties like this.
So about 75 percent of them I find on market, meaning they're on Zillow or Redfin and I contact the real estate agent.
And about 25 percent of them I find off market. That just means there's no real estate agent involved and instead I go directly to the homeowner to find the deal and negotiate with them.
Or if I don't want to do that work myself I go to a wholesaler who's already done that work and can just pass me off the deal and I pay them an extra fee for that.
BONUS: Now wholesalers can make great money and it's actually how I got my start in real estate before I started buying the properties for myself to keep but I wouldn't call wholesaling a part-time side hustle.
So as you can see we have a bonus unit right here that used to be a detached garage but that we're using for something extra special.
Yes this is a legal conversion. We pulled the permits and did everything we needed to do.
This is going to be our Airbnb on this property.
So this unit is much more finished than the front house and that's because we're going to use this as an Airbnb and go ahead and start renting it out while we finish up work up there in the main house.
Side Hustle #3: Airbnb Cleaner or Restocker
Which brings me to the next side hustle which is being an Airbnb cleaner or restocker.
Every single time a guest checks out, I'm gonna need someone to change the sheets and wash them, dry them, and put them back on the bed.
To restock things like toilet paper and paper towels as well as just make sure that this area is ready for the next guest.
Getting started with this would probably be pretty easy with a couple of facebook and craigslist ads.
And I don't know if this is allowed, so Airbnb don't sue me, but I imagine you could just go on Airbnb for your local area, find a couple of properties, and message the host letting them know you're looking for a job as a cleaner.
Someone try that out and let me know in the comments section if it works.
I'll give this one four stars in terms of ease of getting started because you probably will need a bit of upfront money so you can buy some cleaning supplies and things of that nature.
But it's also possible that the host will provide those for you.
My plan for this place is to pay about 60 dollars per cleaning and restock.
And depending on how long each guest stays and how occupied we are that could be about 15 turns per month which would be 900 per month for the cleaner.
So the pay on this one gets five stars for me.
But I am going to need the cleaner to be available every day of the week from 11am to 3pm because that's the time in between one guest checking out and the next guest getting here.
So this one does get three stars in terms of time needed because that is a pretty strict schedule to make sure you're always available for.
Let me know what you guys think of this Airbnb in the comments.
Side Hustle #4: Airbnb Furnisher
The other thing you could do related to Airbnbs is to offer to be an Airbnb furnisher.
Maybe you're really good with interior design or you could just contact a host and let them know that whatever furniture and things they buy for the Airbnb, you'll put it together and set everything up.
I give this one two stars for ease of getting started because it might be kind of hard to find someone who wants that service.
I also give it two stars for pay because I probably only pay around two hundred dollars for something like that and it would be less often that I would need someone to do that for me.
But I give it five stars in terms of time commitment because you could probably set up an entire space like this in less than a day and definitely less than a weekend.
It could also be something that you tack on to your service as an Airbnb cleaner just to get a little bit extra cash in there.
I've also got some virtual side hustle ideas that you can do no matter where you live or where the investor you're working for lives later on.
Side Hustle #5: Scrap Guy
So the other day I was back here while my contractors were laying all of this new concrete and there was a guy that none of us recognized who walked back here and started asking people if they were in charge.
It was kind of funny because he kept going to all of the guys first and the guys kept looking at me like no she's in charge.
And he must have just been mishearing and didn't get the she's and thought he kept hearing his because he kept going to other guys and being like are you in charge and they're like no she's in charge.
And then he finally made his way over to me but that said he told me that he was a scrap guy.
So if I had any scrap metal from old ac machines or water heaters or anything like that he would take them off my hands for free.
And this was a pretty good deal for me because that AC condenser over there is brand new but we had just taken out the old one and I was gonna have to pay someone to haul it off.
But now I had the scrap guy who would go ahead and haul it off for free.
It was also a good deal for him because he got to take it for free and then go and sell the pieces of metal and make a profit on him.
So if you have what you need, being a scrap guy could be a good real estate side hustle for you.
I give it two stars to get started because you do need a truck that can haul around different pieces of large metal and you also need to find a place to get the metal and also find someone to sell it to on the back end.
But I give it five stars in terms of how much money you could make because you're usually picking up the pieces for free and whatever you sell them for on the back end is 100% profit.
I'll give it four stars in terms of time commitment because it does take a bit of time to drive around load stuff onto your truck and then on the back side you've got to take it to the person who's going to buy it and probably help them unload it but overall being a scrap guy not a bad side hustle.
Side Hustle #6: Trash Hauler
So in addition to all the scrap metal that's created at a job like this you also typically need a couple of these big old dumpsters throughout the project and these cost 350 dollars for a week.
But sometimes you have a smaller amount of trash that's too big to fit in the trash can and go to the curb but it wouldn't be worth me paying 350 dollars to get a giant dumpster just for this.
So you can do a side hustle of being a trash hauler.
It's pretty easy to get started. I'll give it four stars as you will need a truck but that's about it.
You don't need any upfront money to haul off trash.
In terms of how much it might pay, I pay my trash guy about a hundred bucks per haul and I need him about four times a month. So 400 bucks a month gets us three stars.
And in terms of the time commitment this one gets five stars as he could probably have this loaded up and headed to the dump in less than half an hour.
Now let's show you some side hustles that will be good if you're driving around town pretty often.
Side Hustle #7: Bird Dogging
Now if you've got a car and you don't mind driving around a ton this next side hustle might be for you.
You may have heard of it before it's called bird dogging and it's similar to wholesaling but it's not the same thing.
With wholesaling you're putting a property under contract and shopping it around to multiple buyers.
With bird dogging you're pretty much only working for one investor.
You're usually driving around neighborhoods like this and looking for distressed properties for them and then you're using an app like deal machine or prop stream to log that property.
And then you give them the entire list of the properties that you found that day.
So for me it might be I want to find distressed properties that have a detached garage in the back that I can turn into an Airbnb.
Another investor might be looking for any distressed properties that have overgrown lawns or stuffed mailboxes.
Bird dogging is pretty easy to do so I give it four stars in terms of getting started because really the only thing you need is a car or somebody who'll let you borrow their car.
And pretty much every investor I know is looking for bird dogs because it's such a valuable thing for someone to do to spend time logging properties that you might one day end up buying.
In terms of the pay though typically bird dogs only get paid when a deal closes on a property that they found for an investor.
So if I had a bird dog who sent me a list of properties they found I'd probably pay them somewhere around 500 to a thousand dollars once I closed the deal that they were the ones who found.
And so in terms of pay I'm gonna give this one two stars because you never actually know when you're going to get paid because you never know when an investor is going to close a deal from your list.
You're also depending on that investor to do the right thing and keep track of where they found the property and pay you when it closes so it can be a little iffy there.
In terms of the time commitment it does take a lot of time to drive for dollars and log dozens if not hundreds of properties which is why most investors don't want to do it themselves and they're looking to get a bird dog who will do it for them.
So time commitment wise I'm going to give it two stars but I do have a bonus for you.
If you're already driving for rideshare or you're driving for meal delivery bird dogging in addition to that could be a really good idea because you're already out driving and in between passengers or in between delivering meals you can go ahead and log properties and make some extra money on top of what you're already making from the rideshare job.
Side Hustle #8: Mobile Notary
Another side hustle option for you if you're driving around a lot is to become a mobile notary.
So every state has a different requirement in terms of the amount of studying you have to do and the fees that you have to pay in order to get licensed.
So this one I'm going to give one and a half stars in terms of ease to get started although that does really depend on whatever state you're in.
But in terms of the amount of money you can make, apparently mobile notaries charge about 150 dollars per signing, which depending on how many signings you do per week can be good money.
So I'll give it four stars there.
But three stars because in order to make a good amount of money you'll probably have to drive all around town and you need to do a significant amount of signings in order to make money but it could be an option.
Side Hustle #9: Bandit Sign Placer
Now that we're back at our other property that takes me to the next side hustle on the list which is to be a bandit sign placer.
You can see a couple of bandit signs here in the background but you also usually see bandit signs when you go to stop lights and you see those we buy houses signs on the corners.
Now these signs often get stolen by competitors or taken down by the city which means that they need to be placed out pretty often and makes it a good side hustle for you.
In terms of the ease of getting started I'm gonna give this one five stars because you can go to any street corner, look at the bandit signs, call the numbers on them, and offer your services.
In terms of pay you could probably expect to get paid around ten dollars per sign and let's say someone needs 50 signs put out a month so that's 500 bucks a month and also gets four stars.
And we're going to give it another four stars in terms of the time commitment just because I know a lot of people who place bandit signs want them put out very early in the morning before people do their morning commute.
So as long as you don't mind getting up early it's a pretty quick job to get done.
That said, let's go check out the inside of this property and talk about a few more side hustles.
All right so at first glance it just looks like a normal rundown house that needs a bunch of work, but we got something special over here.
So if you can't tell already I like houses that have extra space that I can convert into an extra unit.
So what I'm standing in right now used to not exist.
This space on the back used to be a detached garage and the previous owner converted that into a bonus room and converted this area into a little bit of a walkway so that they can get to it.
And at first when I first saw this property come on the market it was a three bedroom one bathroom but it was much more than the 1200 square feet that all the other three bedroom one bathrooms around here were.
This one instead of being 1200 square feet was 1900 square feet and I didn't understand where that extra square footage was coming from.
But I thought I might be able to finagle that extra square footage into an extra unit and that's what we've got going on here.
Side Hustle #10: Property Photographer
But if I was an out of state investor and I wasn't able to come see this property for myself I would need someone to do this next side hustle for me and that's come take pictures of properties.
There are many investors who either can't go to a property or don't want to stop what they're doing and go to a property to take pictures.
So this could be a very valuable side hustle.
In terms of ease to get started 5 stars for sure because we all pretty much have a smartphone that has a pretty decent camera.
In terms of the payment I'll give this one three stars.
I would probably pay around 50 bucks for a set of pictures.
In terms of the time commitment I'll give it four stars because it wouldn't take long to take a bunch of pictures but you probably will need to be available to that investor because when they send you a property they're usually going to want you to go take the pictures right then and there so that they can make an offer quickly.
Side Hustle #11: Project Assistant
Now before I talk about the virtual side hustles, the last side hustle I could use on a property is someone to order materials for me.
Now for the most part my contractors take care of the materials that they need.
So the framer takes care of getting the wood even though I pay for it.
The drywallers take care of picking up or making sure the drywall is going to be delivered.
But there are some things especially towards the end of the project that I'm in charge of getting here.
And that would just be things like the light fixtures or the hardware on the cabinets or the sink and the shower fixtures.
And so if I had someone where I could send them my spreadsheet of things that need to be ordered they ordered them and brought them to the property that would almost be like a project assistant role.
Which would be very useful for them learning the ropes of what needs to be done and would also save me some time.
This one I give five stars for getting started because you literally just have to put yourself out there and offer yourself to an investor and help them in whatever way that they need.
In terms of payment I'd probably pay someone around 300 bucks a project to be a project assistant so three stars there.
And I give it four stars on time commitment because if there's a lot of projects going on you need more work but you can also let the investor know what's the amount of time you have available and then work from there.
Side Hustle #12: Virtual Assistant - Lead Puller
That said, let's talk about some side hustles you can do from anywhere in the world.
First up, you can be a lead puller or a virtual assistant.
So periodically in my business it's time to pull leads, which basically means gathering the contact information of people that I potentially think might be good prospects to sell me their property.
So this might be something like pulling a list of all of the vacant homes that are owned by someone who lives out of state and has owned the property for at least 10 years in a certain zip code.
And so a job for a side hustler might be to pull leads like that.
To wait on the phone with city hall for five hours to pull a water shut off list which is a highly coveted list that investors like to go after but it takes a lot of time and work to get it done.
Another thing that lead pullers and virtual assistants do is to stack lists on top of each other so if I have two lists then I want my virtual assistant to kind of scrape through that list and make sure that there's no duplicates.
And a lot of times there's software that somebody can use to do this so they don't have to manually compare them.
But it can be a tedious job that an investor wants to pass off, which makes it a good side hustle for someone looking to get into the game.
Pretty much every investor I know is looking for a good VA, and so the ease of getting started here I'm gonna give it five stars.
Anything you're gonna need to know for that investor they're pretty much gonna teach you that when they hire you.
In terms of the amount of money that can be made every investor is going to pay a different amount and there's so many different tasks that you can be doing that it's hard to really pinpoint what you can make.
But there is a lot of competition from virtual assistants who live overseas and have a lower cost of living and so they can accept a lower rate so I'm going to give being a VA three stars on this one.
And finally the time commitment. These are tasks that are usually time intensive and a bit tedious so it's also gonna get three stars because you're probably gonna spend a lot of hours doing those repetitive tasks as a VA.
Side Hustle #13: Virtual Assistant - Cold Caller
Another side hustle you can give a try is to be a cold caller.
And so on one hand you have the VA who pulled that list of leads but next up that list is usually sent to a cold caller who's literally gonna sit down and call hundreds of people.
And most of them are gonna say no they're not interested in selling until they find the one and then they usually set an appointment for the investor to go meet with that person or whatever next step the investor says.
Now cold calling is not easy and I've posted videos on this channel of myself trying to cold call and I'm not very good at it.
I need to take some courses in and learn how to do it better.
So the ease of getting started I'm going to give this one three stars because you do need some skills and you need some thick skin but a good cold color is worth their weight in gold.
And so I would say this might be one of the most lucrative side hustles on this list so give it five stars.
But that said cold calling does take hours and hours and hours because most of the people you're talking to are not going to be interested.
So you have to get through dozens and hundreds of leads per day so that's going to give it two stars on the time commitment.
Side Hustle #14: Virtual Assistant - Airbnb Help Desk
Back to the topic of Airbnbs. Another side hustle is to be a virtual Airbnb help desk.
This is someone who would basically take over the guest experience for the investor who owns the Airbnb.
And so you would message with guests in case they need anything or they're wondering where's the laundry detergent or how do you turn on the TV.
And then also, if there's a problem with the Airbnb, then the guest would send a message to you, and you would call the appropriate handyman that the investor has already designated.
If something goes wrong with the plumbing call this guy if something goes wrong with the electrical call this guy.
In terms of getting started I'm gonna give this one five stars for ease of getting started because you really don't need any money up front and you can learn the basics of managing an Airbnb after like a couple of days on YouTube.
The money to be made would probably be pretty nice to take somebody's Airbnb management off of their hands.
I know for this service if I had a couple of Airbnbs up and running I would be willing to pay upwards of five six seven hundred dollars a month for somebody to completely take that off my hands.
So I'm giving that five stars.
But in terms of the time commitment I'm giving it two stars because guests can reach out to you literally anytime they need something.
And so you'll need to have alerts that will wake you up in case a guest is asking for something or there's an emergency in the middle of the night.
And so even though guests probably don't reach out that often, you will need to just make sure you're available in the case that somebody does.
Bonus - Side Hustle #15: Property Management?
If buying property to build passive income and grow your net worth is the end goal, but you haven't saved up all the funds you need for a down payment, or maybe you're just not confident enough yet to make that jump and buy your first property, then property management can be a great first step.
Property management is difficult and can take time, but it can also be lucrative and a great starting point for beginners.
Property managers are responsible for just about everything related to the property, such as collecting rent, managing tenants, finding tenants, dealing with those tenants, and calling the correct professionals when the repairs are needed.
Many property owners and landlords are tired of dealing with tenants and managing their properties, and that means they'd be willing to pass that job off to someone like you.
You could fill that need for the owner while at the same time learning about real estate and getting paid.
Property managers often get 50%-80% of the first month's rent after they find and place a tenant.
That means for a property that's renting for $1,000 a month, you could get $500-$800 for placing an ad on sites like Zillow, as well as sifting through those applications, and then finding and placing a tenant.
From there, most property managers charge 10% a month. So for that same $1,000 dollar property, you're looking at $100 a month.
I know that may not sound like much, but if you get a few properties in your portfolio, that monthly fee will start to add up!
I hope you enjoyed these side hustles.
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