Physician starting out in REI

[Matan Paret]

Hi all,

My name is Matan, I'm a physician currently in fellowship in CA (2 more years until I'm an attending making a decent salary). I recently became interested in REI after I found out one of my bosses at work has been doing long distance investing in multi family homes. I've read Rich Dad/Poor Dad and Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner. I see how hard a lot of my colleagues work, even in their 60s, and I want to start investing soon, so I don't have to work grueling overnight shifts when my body won't have as much strength in 20-30 years like it does now. I currently have about $50k saved up, and my fiancee has about another $50k. We are both interested in REI, and plan on pooling our money together to invest.

My main issue is that I don't have a ton of time to travel to desired markets (thinking of places like Phoenix, North Carolina, Reno/Vegas, Ohio) to look at properties, network, meet potential team members, etc.  Also, after reading RPI by Brandon Turner, I'm aware of multiple strategies, but since I've never actually invested or bought a property yet, I feel like I'm overwhelemd by all the options, and find it hard to get started.  For example, I'm not too sure about how to actually find good deals/distressed properties, and how to actually find appropriate property managers, CPAs, lawyers, etc.

I think once I get started and inertia starts to build up, things will make more sense, but it's that first step that I'm finding difficult.  I would appreciate any general/specific advice that you all may have.  Thank you everyone!

[Allan C.]

@Matan Paret I really don’t think you should start investing now. You can’t buy much with $50k, at least not the asset class you’ll want with your future income potential. For your specific situation I’d wait until you get $200k+ saved up and buy better asset classes…even if you have to wait 5 years.

There’s higher risk that you burn out with more difficult tenants (even if you use a PM), than you missing out on good investments. Future you will thank current you for having patience if you wait. If you have FOMO and pull the trigger now, I suspect future you will be upset.