The 5-Step Method to Start and Scale a REMOTE Real Estate Investing Business in the Next 6 Months

In this article I’ll show you how to build a real estate investing business that will unlock time and location freedom for you and your family.

Real estate investing tends to get a reputation of being a time sucking business model. But don’t be fooled.

If you’re using the right systems to build foundations for growth, you’ll actually be able to collect passive income while scaling beyond your wildest imagination.

It all starts with choosing one city, one strategy, and one property type to invest in.

But, how will you know which one to choose?

You might also be asking, how about tenants and property management – isn’t that a huge time investment?

And how can you buy multiple properties without a ton of cash in the bank?

I’ll answer all those questions and more in the sections below.

Step #1 – The Strategy, Market, and Property Type

Taking the first step is the most difficult part of any process.

If you can decide which strategy you’ll use and what market and property type you’ll invest in, you’re halfway there.

The good news is – I wrote an entire article about this.

Click here to learn how to choose a Canadian market & property to invest in.

Long story short, we focus on finding undervalued properties located in an evergreen area of a value market with over 50,000 in population.

Now, if you’re not sure what any of that means, I highly recommend going back and reading the previous article.

As for the investing strategy, we focus on the BRRRR, which stands for Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat.

What’s great about the BRRRR strategy is that it makes room for higher ROI.

Here’s why:

For the BRRRR project to pay off, we look for discounted off-market properties that need a bit of work.

The two KEY factors here are:

Property type – multi-family residentials with 2-4 units.
Motivated sellers – individuals eager to get the property off their hands ASAP.

The properties we go for are typically slightly distressed but not too rundown to the point where it would be too expensive to renovate.

The renovation then allows us to leverage forced appreciation (an increase in property value) to bump up rents and also get a hefty refinance cheque after the project’s done.

Having done dozens of successful BRRRRs in under 24 months, I’ve been able to pin down the most important systems and processes to generate profits through multifamily investing.

At rentalconsulting.com, we share these systems with our members through one-on-one and group coaching calls, video course content, and a value-packed library of legal documents, scripts, and materials to support the process.

Step #2 – Financing the Real Estate Investment

Now, the biggest misconception in real estate is that you need to be rich to buy property.

This is absolutely not true.

In fact, I had less than $10k to my name when I bought my first long-term rental.

And I did this through something we call a Joint Venture.

Joint Venturing is a strategy where you partner with another investor to purchase a property together (and split the profits 50-50).

This partnership consists of two parties:

The active partner – the one who takes on all the work (finding deals, analyzing properties, closing deals, and doing property management).
The money partner – the one who provides the financial resources for the purchase.

Now, if you’ve maxed out your mortgage capability or your credit score isn’t strong enough to finance a real estate investment…

You’ll step into a joint venture as the active partner where all you need to bring to the table is the time and the knowledge needed to source and close deals.

(And don’t worry if you’re not there yet, we’ll teach you everything you need to know at rentalconsulting.com).

Once you put in the work and find the deal, present it to your joint venture partner and close the sale, you’ll officially own real estate without putting any of your own money down.

Now, some people don’t like the idea of owning only 50% of a property.

But the one thing I always like to say is – I’d rather own half a watermelon than an entire grape.

Besides, joint ventures are a great way to not only step your foot in real estate but also to snowball your portfolio and scale quickly.

Because there is really no limit to how many joint venture deals you can do in a year.

You can just as easily repeat the process multiple times and own 50% of 5 properties in 12 months.

Does this sound like a better deal?

And for those who’d rather go into the trenches alone and keep the entire watermelon, there are other creative financing strategies to consider such as private money lending.

Click here to read our latest article on creative ways to finance your first (or next) real estate investment.

Step #3 – Renovate and Rent Your Property Out

Let’s say by now you’ve closed on a deal, whether through a joint venture or not.

Now the next step is to renovate the property to increase the value (as explained in Step #1).

Although renovation sounds like a complex and intimidating project, there are THREE KEY FACTORS you need to take care of in order to make it work:

Choose what you’re going to renovate strategically.
Look for functional improvements that will make the property more attractive to live in, such as bathroom and kitchen renos.
Don’t overcomplicate the process and don’t go too fancy with the details.
For example, you don’t want to install marble floors in a neighborhood where it would be difficult to demand higher rents (we always look at comparables first to determine what is the maximum rent we can charge in the area and which renos will justify the price)
Hire the right contractors.
Maybe even the most important part of the reno is choosing contractors for the job.
You can look for qualified contractors on Google, Facebook groups and Kijiji, as long as you’re getting quotes from multiple people and not settling for your first choice.
Make sure to set clear expectations with your contractors and put it all into writing before starting the project.
(I’ve had a couple encounters with “contractors from hell” that I might share in one of the future articles).
Source quality materials at lower prices.
Last but not least, you want to be creative when sourcing quality materials for the renovation.
Not everything needs to be brand new – there are actually lots of appliances and furniture pieces in nearly mint condition available on Facebook Marketplace.
And you can get these at a significant discount to keep the project within budget.
Speaking of which, make sure to prepare a detailed budget plan for the reno and calculate the expenses properly.

Now, after the reno’s done and the property is ready to be rented out, you’ll need to attract A+ tenants and vet them before having someone move in.

Same as with the contractors, you never want to settle for the first option available.

Make sure to run a detailed background check for each potential tenant and take a look at their credit and employment history to determine whether they will be a good fit or not.

You want to focus on finding tenants who are open to communicate and easy to talk to (trust me, this will save you so much time and energy in the long run).

Step #4 – Outsource Real Estate Portfolio Management

At the beginning of this article I promised to show you how to build a remote real estate investing business that will unlock time and location freedom.

And you’re probably thinking there’s so much work involved in this entire process… how can it ever be remote?

The key is in building out systems and processes that will allow you to outsource all the work so you can travel and live life without being tied down to your properties.

After my first few property investments I was drowning in work. My time was being chewed and spit out with no light at the end of the tunnel. Out of pain, I recognized that the only way out was to create systems and hire people, so that’s what I did over the next three years. I interviewed many high level real estate investors and was able to create scalable systems for every step from finding and financing deals to renovating and managing the property.

That way, I created a predictable and repeatable process that allows me to scale my real estate portfolio without being in the trenches of it all.

However, to make this work I had to learn how to attract A level players to my team.

One of the most important hires I made that allowed me to step away from my portfolio and focus on higher level tasks is the portfolio manager.

This person is overseeing all of my properties and managing all the boots on the ground (contractors and property managers who are in charge of visiting the site when needed).

You can find qualified virtual assistant candidates for this role on platforms such as Dynamite Jobs, LinkedIn, & Indeed.

And in most cases you’ll be able to find a great portfolio manager within the range of $6-$10 per hour from overseas countries. I’ve worked with virtual assistants from all over the world, and hands down my favorite is Eastern European Countries.

From there, you’ll transition from being in the trenches to leading a team.

This includes creating detailed SOPs for different aspects of each role, having team meetings on a regular basis, and building a team culture to cultivate growth.

But, at the end of the day, this whole process gives you the freedom to travel and live life on your terms without being tied to one location or property.

Besides, you’ll be able to invest in properties away from your local area, which will open up the gates to unlimited investment opportunities.

Step #5 – Repeat the Process

Lastly, once you’ve got the first 4 steps down, the only thing left to do is repeat the process.

And the best part is that you can repeat the BRRRR over and over again as many times as you want.

With a strong team in place, you won’t be held down by the burden of managing multiple properties…

Meaning you’ll be collecting passive income and growing your portfolio while actually working less.

However, there’s lots to unpack in every step I’ve outlined above.

And if you want to skip the trial and error, you can simply copy the systems and processes I’ve put together to scale my portfolio past $10 million in less than 3 years.