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Question

Recently entered the world of Bigger Pockets because I want to leave my family with a set of options I never had growing up.

My wife and I (both still paying off PA school loans), have one toddler and are about to bring another little nugget into this world.

We know we want to invest in real estate. We live In Aledo, TX and are looking to eventually buy a rental property local to where we live. Ideally once we’ve made a greater dent in our loans and kid numero dos is a little older (5 years max, I ain’t getting any younger).

At any rate I was curious to see if anyone else here worked in healthcare and wanted to know y’all’s journey and what has been helpful for you.

So glad to finally join this community. I have been a lurker for some time!

Steven Foster Wilson · Answer

Hi Gregory, welcome to BiggerPockets! This is surely the best place to start networking and learning. I always recommend the book “Rich dad, Poor dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki to anyone starting out. Start listening to the BiggerPockets podcast starting at the very beginning. Start growing your network, look on Facebook/BiggerPockets for different events, find a mentor doing what you want to do, and get to know the local lenders/brokers. I'm not in health care but I know a lot of people who are and have been very successful in real estate. I'd say experience will always be the best teacher for everyone out there that's looking to start their journey. Be sure to get a full understanding on what market you're going for, you'll find it very beneficial in your journey. All the best!

Bruce Lynn · Answer

Aledo is an awesome area of growth to buy in and of course many of the surrounding cities.

Good news is you should have great income to match your student loans.  Get those paid off quickly.   No reason to stretch it out over 10-15-20 years.  Not sure what your area of interest is or where you are working now, but think of how fast you can knock that out if you live cheap for 2-3 years and work an extra shift a month in ER or maybe a med spa....or for a 2nd doc...maybe picking up Saturday rounds for someone, or covering their clinic for after hours or Sat/Sun hours.  Maybe they even get 2 for 1 if you can cover Sat and your wife can cover Sundays.   You've got choices....you can buy the big doctor home and drive beautiful cars and take luxury vacations with a YOLO mindset, or you can have a generational wealth mindset where you get busy and pay off the bad debt ASAP with more short term pain for long term gain.  Hard to do, often hard to convince the family to do.   Another idea might be to partner with a doc where you open and run a clinic in a city 1hr to the South/West/North of you.  You get SBA loan to pay for the building.  Work your day off and Sat out there and have your wife work her day off and Saturday.  Provide a great primary care service in a town/region that doesn't have that.  Maybe someplace like Hico or Graham or Bowie.

There are special loans for healthcare professionals, but these will be for owner occupied residential loans...these tend to look at your income vs debts....as they know you have great earning potential.  If you can convince your wife to do it for long term gain with some short term pain....buy small cheap properties, the cheapest you can stand, live in them for a year, and move every year for next 2-4-5-6 years while keeping the properties and getting good loan on the next one.   The wife of one of the most successful real estate investors I know said during the early years of their marriage she lived in 22 homes in 25 years....and I think they kept most of those as rentals when they moved.   Not sure what your mindset is, but a lot of docs and their families get in the mindset of I sacrificed for 4 years of college, 4 years of med school, 3-5 years of residency and get pretty nice income after that and feel like they deserve the big fancy doctor house after all that, best areas of town, where all your other expenses also go up too.  The longer you can put that off, probably the better financial position you end up.  Not always easy to do though.

I would also read the book The One Thing, by Gary Keller.   In ways it is about real estate, but I think it is about leverage.  I give it to all my medical professional clients.  Medical practices I often think are super inefficient.  Help your doc increase the income and leverage as much as possible and ask for a share of the profits.  Is your practice for example using a scribe?  It drives me crazy to see expensive specialist typing orders and notes.  I remember one night at a hospital seeing a cardiothoracic surgeon spending hours documenting records.  What is highest and best use of your time?

Jennifer Volek · Answer

Hi Gregory, don't let student debt stop you from purchasing your next property. You simply have to factor it into the equation. If you're looking to buy, I'm an investor as well, and I live in Arlington! Maybe I can help you!

Gregory Duck · Answer

Agree, I think it’s obvious you would want to start earlier. My interest in hearing from other folks in healthcare is because we tend to have a larger degree of student debt. This is the culprit of our hesitation.

Brandon Rabe · Answer

I'm not in healthcare either, and I know what you mean about not getting any younger! When I started, I also had a toddler with the second on the way. In fact our second came about 2 months after our first rental. Needless to say, 3 years later we now have a portfolio of singe families because we just got started. If my wife and I waited till we were done having kids, we would've just got started 6 months ago (our youngest is 6 months old).

Money (or school debt) aside, when you're 80 years old will you regret starting today or regret waiting until the "right" time?

Alli Breighner · Answer

Hi Gregory! Welcome to BP.

I'd love to discuss your interests in real estate.

Happy to connect!

Hamp Lee III · Answer

Welcome to BP!

Thank you for sharing your story. I look forward to hearing about your successes as a real estate investor!

I wish you all the best!

Gregory Duck · Answer

Thanks man! They're the reason why we do stuff right.

Kevin Bartlett · Answer

I'm not in healthcare but just wanted to saw welcome to BP and congrats on your new nugget on the way!

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