It is difficult to try to do real estate investing properly and still work your full time job, spend as many hours doing remodeling work on your recent investment, take care of your daddy duties with the kids and have time for your wife, too.

I try to work everything on a schedule, it does not always work perfectly and you have to be flexible to changes that will come up when you do not expect it. I know that I am small time compared to some of the other investors on this site but, you have to start somewhere.

I work about 45 hours a week at my day job, 15 hours a week remodeling and 12-15 hours on real estate investing. A friend of my gave me this list over a year ago to use.

Here is the schedule I try to follow for investing:

WEEKLY 15 HOUR INVESTOR SCHEDULE

1. MONDAY - Mail, Fax, or email Advertisement at least 15 letters to lenders and at the end of the 1st month you will have contacted 60 lenders. You will then start getting lenders to send you their lists before Anybody else. (takes about 30 minutes)

Mail, Fax, or email at least 10 letters to Realtors, Contractors, Real Estate Attorneys, etc and at the end of the 1 St. month you will have contacted 40 Lead producing sources. You will then start getting Leads & business contacts. ('takes about 30 minutes)

Search Internet sources for Leads REO's , FSBO's ('take about 1 hour)

Study real estate related educational material (take about 1 hour)

2. TUESDAY - Spend time networking with realtors, bankers, credit unions, mortgage companies and all others you come into contact with or make appointments to talk with them (spend about 2 to 3 hours)

3. WEDNESDAY - Go through newspaper* for homes for rent, FSBO, Homes For Sale, rentals, Legal paper listings and searching neighborhoods and drive by. (spend about 2 to 3 hours) 

      *Also, keep this information to build a buyer and seller list for contacts. 

4. THURSDAY - Court House Research. (also Online) ('spend about 2 hours)

5. FRIDAY - OFF - My Family Day - Wife day

6. SATURDAY - Inspecting Properties & Make Offers ('spend about 2 hours)

7. SUNDAY - Inspecting Properties & Make Offers ('spend about 2 hours)

I implemented this schedule for 3 months without fail and now I no longer have to hunt for deals, they now come to me. I get deals faxed, called or emailed to me almost every day, I get an average of 2-3 calls per day.