Lazy Money
Many busy professionals and beginners face the same situation: they want real estate returns, but have little time to manage properties. There’s nothing wrong with being “lazy money” (capital invested passively) as long as you partner with skilled operators. In fact, that was initially my approach as well (but I didn't do my due diligence properly and lost money in the process). Passive strategies trade some upside for much lower time commitment, which suits many investors. In practice, a dedicated, experienced operator running your deal (while you’re hands-off) will often outperform you trying to DIY while neglecting the work. It’s better to have “lazy money” fueling a smart operation than be a lazy operator running your own show poorly.
Time Commitment by Strategy
How much time you can spare each week should guide your strategy. Here are some rough ranges:
- Passive funds/REITs (0–1 hr/week): Index funds and REITs can often be managed in an hour or less per week. Once you’ve bought in, you simply hold. There’s minimal day-to-day work or decisions. If you have a couple more hours, you could use Investomation's analytics to further optimize these strategies to local markets (e.g. invest in REITs that favor certain niches).
- Long-term buy-and-hold (2–5 hrs/week per property): If you buy a turnkey rental (often renovated and rented already), you may spend only a few hours a week per property. If you do choose the turnkey route, make sure you're aware of the risks. Industry data suggests that a self-managing landlord averages about 8–12 hours per month per property (roughly 2–3 hours/week) handling tenant issues, maintenance coordination, rent collection, and paperwork. Hiring a property manager can cut this time down even more. This isn't a weekly commitment. Some weeks you'll do nothing, other times you may spend entire weekend at the property.
- Vacant rehab (10–20 hrs/week): If you’re doing light rehabs (BRRRR strategy) or managing a handful of rentals more actively (e.g. screening tenants, minor renovations), expect on the order of 10 hours/week. You’ll be scheduling repairs, checking on progress, and perhaps overseeing contractors. This category often fits investors who enjoy problem-solving but aren’t working full-time on properties.
- Short-term/Airbnb (14–20 hrs/week): Vacation rentals demand a lot of attention. One host guide finds that “on average, you must dedicate 14–20 hours per week” to tasks like guest communications, cleaning, and listing management - about 2–3 hours each day. In practice, Airbnb hosting falls into tiers: hobbyist hosts spend ~5–8 hrs/week and gets hobbyist results, active managers spend ~14–20 hrs/week or build heavy automations.
- House flips (20–40 hrs/week): Flipping houses is essentially running a construction business. One renovation guide warns: “Successful flipping isn’t passive. Expect 20–40 hours per week managing contractors, making decisions, and solving problems”.
Time Commitment by Asset Class
Different real estate assets naturally fit different time budgets (the time budget in this section refers to maintaining a property you already own, acquiring property can be a big time sink in itself - which we will get to in the next section):
- Raw land: If you are simply holding the land, it often requires virtually no time (unless your land is in a community with stricter upkeep laws - often the case in inner-city suburbs). If you lease farmland or land for royalties, it’s essentially passive (your main task is collecting lease checks or monitoring markets).
- Self-storage: These facilities tend to be low-touch. With professional management (gates and rentals are automated, cleaning staff on payroll), an owner might spend only a few hours a month reviewing reports. This is a highly passive income stream compared to residential rentals.
- Triple-net (NNN) leased properties: Commercial tenants (e.g. fast-food chains or pharmacies) pay taxes, insurance, and maintenance themselves. The landlord’s time commitment is minimal - mostly paperwork and periodic review. They’re almost like bonds; your money works with virtually no hands-on work. However, finding a good commercial deal will require significant time commitment.
- Multifamily apartments: Typically managed by on-site staff or firms. If you invest in larger apartments, your time is mainly in choosing the deal and maybe reviewing financials. Property management handles day-to-day. Thus multifamily investors often spend very little time after acquisition.
- Single-family rentals: These sit in the middle. Without a manager, expect the 2–3 hrs/week per property mentioned aboverentecdirect.com. But if you hire a good manager, you might only spend an hour a month or less overseeing them.
- Short-term rentals (Airbnb, VRBO): High-touch unless you outsource everything. With dozens of guests turning over each month, you need to coordinate cleanings, respond to messages, and maintain top ratings. Without heavy automation or a co-host, this easily hits 14–20 hrs/week.
Deal Sourcing: Effort vs. Reward
Another dimension is how you find deals. Easier sources yield smaller discounts, while harder work can yield better prices:
- MLS/LoopNet listings: These are public and easy to search online. They attract many buyers, so prices tend to be market level. Because competition is high, deals seldom have deep discounts.
- Broker lists or networks: Deals sent by agents or brokers (sometimes pocket listings) can give early access to inventory. You might shave a little off the price, but it’s still competitive. You're basically front-running the MLS/LoopNet here, getting first pick of the deals before they're available to the public.
- Off-market/wholesale deals: These require significant effort (driving neighborhoods, cold-calling owners, mailing letters, networking with wholesalers). The payoff is potential bargains. Off-market sellers are often motivated, and with no bidding wars, prices can be “below market value”. However, finding these deals is labor-intensive: investors spend hours “driving for dollars,” researching owner contacts, and sending direct mail. The more time and hustle you put into sourcing, the better price you might negotiate.
So if you’re low on time (lazy money), you might accept paying more via MLS or turnkey providers, or simply invest with an active investor to benefit from their network and expertise. If you have time (active investor), direct outreach can meaningfully improve your ROI.
Sweat Equity vs. Hiring Help
Time can be converted into value through sweat equity - doing work yourself instead of paying others. A hands-on investor might repair flooring, fix leaks, or manage renovation crews to save thousands. But this costs hours.
On the flip side, you can pay contractors and managers to handle these tasks. As one veteran investor puts it, he “left the renovations and renter phone calls at 2 AM to scrappy young investors” and now owns over 2,800 units passively. He still earns all the cash flow and tax benefits, but never fields any calls or negotiates repairs himself. As you scale, you will have to outsource more and more of your operations.
Evolving Strategy Over Time
Your preferred mix of time vs money will change with life. Early on, you might have more free hours (and less capital), so doing deals yourself can make sense to build up equity. Keep in mind that hiring a mentor can often shrink the learning curve significantly, sometimes saving you years. As you grow wealth and busier with other responsibilities, time becomes scarcer and more valuable. Most investors naturally shift toward hiring help and focusing on their core strengths while outsourcing everything else. Your core strength doesn't need to be real-estate - working a W2 while investing passively with someone else is a perfectly valid strategy. Double-down on what you’re good at and let partners cover your weaker areas.
This evolution is natural. Younger investors are often “plumbers” in real estate – doing the hands-on work. Older, wealthier investors become “bankers” – providing capital. Both roles are crucial. A dedicated operator running a smooth passive portfolio is likely to outperform a “lazy operator” who half-commits to managing properties.
It’s perfectly fine to be lazy money in real estate. If you choose investments that match your time and hire competent people to handle the rest, your money can work hard for you. Busy professionals can still capture real estate’s upside by allocating capital wisely: index funds, REITs, syndications, turnkey rentals with management, or carefully chosen partnerships.
If you have idle capital sitting on the sidelines and want to put it to work in real estate without the hassle, consider teaming up with experienced operators. We built our partnership program for investors just like you - those who want their money on autopilot, managed by experts. Check out our partnership page to learn how to turn your lazy money into productive real estate investments.