Summary: This is part of a series of posts highlighting the real estate journeys of members of our investor community. Our hope is that you’ll be able to relate to these stories and that they will inspire you to aim big and take your first steps to achieve Fast FIRE through real estate investing.
The goal of our Investor Spotlight series is to provide you with stories of real physicians on their journey to achieving financial freedom through real estate investing.
In this series, we interview a range of investors, from those who are just starting out to those who already own large portfolios.
Through this process, our hope is that you will gain applicable insights and inspiration that you can use on your own journey to Fast FIRE through real estate investing.
Note that some of these stories will use real names while some investors have chosen to be anonymous.
Some investors are also willing to be contacted by readers who are inspired by their story and are looking for a mentor or thought partner. If you would like to reach out to a particular investor, please feel free to write to leti@semiretiredmd.com or kenji@semiretiredmd.com, and we will pass your information along or interact directly with the investor in our Facebook groups.
Today’s spotlight concentrates on Gio Gonzalez and Larissa Medina. Larissa is a hospitalist who is currently working as a nocturnist in Hawaii, and Gio is now a stay-at-home dad to their three girls. The couple sat down with me earlier this month to share their real estate investment story.
Tell us a little bit about you.
Gio: My name is Gio Gonzalez, and my wife is Larissa Medina. She’s a full-time physician and I’m a stay-at-home dad. We’ve been investing in real estate since the end of last year, when Larissa was in her seventh year as an attending. In the last six months, we’ve bought two duplexes, one in Oklahoma City and the other in Akron, Ohio.
How did you and your spouse get interested in real estate investing in the first place? What is your why? Was there a triggering event?
Gio: We’ve always been interested in finding other sources of income but we didn’t know where to start. Our goal was to have enough passive income so that Larissa doesn’t have to work as much. We liked the thought of investing in real estate, but it was too intimidating and we didn’t have enough money for the down payments. Fortunately, we met Leti and Kenji and with their help, we were able to make our first steps towards financial freedom.
Larissa: I work as a nocturnist right now, and Gio was working as an analyst for a short time, but after we decided to have a 3rd baby, we knew that we had to do something about our finances. We moved to Hawaii because of the lifestyle and it would be pointless to live here if we didn’t have time for each other.
Once you decided to pursue real estate investing, how did you get started? What was your first purchase?
Gio: Leti and Kenji were able to guide us towards making our first purchase. They connected us with professionals that they trust and with these referrals, we were able to set up a meeting with a realtor to help us find our first property.
What kind of resources did you initially rely on to educate yourself?
Gio: Basically, our primary resource was Kenji and Leti, their blog (semiretiredmd.com), and then I also found a forum online at BiggerPockets.com, a real estate investment forum. Whenever I had questions, I would either email Kenji or go the the forum on Bigger Pockets. We also made new friends through Leti and Kenji and these friends have become a great resource, too.
What type of properties make up your portfolio? Has what you’ve bought changed over time or, if it hasn’t, do you plan on it changing in the future?
Gio: We started up late last year, and currently we own two properties; both are duplexes. The first one is in Oklahoma City, and the second one we just closed on last week, and that’s the one in Akron, Ohio.
Currently what we’re doing right now here in Hawaii: we partnered up with a local investor/flipper, Cory Nemoto, to learn the ropes on how to flip properties in Hawaii as well.
Also, another strategy that we might do next is the BRRRR strategy out in Oklahoma. That’s probably what we’re going to be doing next, within the next few months hopefully. We’re going to start looking for a property that we can BRRRR, and that’s probably going to be a single family house.
How are you balancing your real estate investing with your career and your clinical work?
Larissa: I’m letting him really take the lead on this one. He’s the one focusing on the investing; we just talk about it together. I’m reading with him and trying to learn with him, but with my work and the kids, he’s doing 95% of it.
Gio: If there’s a big decision that needs to be made, we both sit down and talk about it together before we make the decision.
Larrisa: Since I work nights, at home during the day I’m mostly sleeping, but at least I have the kids with me and he can go and meet up with other investors or work in the home office. We’re trying to get him dedicated work time at home but it’s hard with the kids around. We’re working on it.
What things does your partner do that makes this journey possible? How do you divide up work and responsibilities?
Gio: Well basically, I guess it should be something that both of us agree on. Let’s say, if we’re talking about a specific property and we need to make a decision on it, we both have to be ok with it. It also helps that we know our strengths and we respect each other’s opinion.
Any insights as to how a couple can successfully work together in growing a real estate business?
Larissa: It definitely has to be something that both are interested in doing. It took a while for me to be 100% on board but then I saw how much time he was putting into learning about it in terms of reading books, listening to podcasts, researching online and meeting up with people. Once I saw that this was something he really wanted to do and that he was willing to put in the time and effort for this, it was easier for me to jump into it with him.
Can you tell us about any difficulties or failures you’ve had in investing? What has been your biggest challenge?
Gio: We’re so early into it that we haven’t run into any major problems yet. When we bought our property last year in OKC, both units were already occupied so we didn’t have to worry about renting out the units. With this new duplex that we just closed on last week, we’re still in the middle of transitioning the tenants to our property manager in Ohio. So far everything’s going smooth.
Anything you learned from your successes so far that you can share that might help other investors?
Larissa: We weren’t sure at first if we could do it. We weren’t sure what it would be like to meet with other investors, to talk about it with other people. But the more I talk about it with friends, you never know who’s going to be interested, and you never know who you’re going to be able to help. So it’s nice to talk to other physicians who feel like they’re stuck in the medical field and then they get excited about investing, too. One of the best things we’ve learned is how to make connections. We always thought we had to do it on our own, but the more we learned about it and started talking to other people, the more we realized we could do it and it just got easier.
How has real estate investing affected your lives?
Larissa: For me, knowing that we’re actually taking steps towards financial freedom.
Gio: Knowing that you have the properties, there’s a peace of mind–knowing that there’s something else that’s earning you income.
Larissa: I feel like we’re getting smarter with our money, too. Like Leti and Kenji have said, are you going to buy a new car or renovate a bathroom or you going to invest in a new duplex? I think we’re learning more about how to make major decisions with money.
Where are you now in your journey? What are your goals of where you want to be in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years from now?
Gio: Right now we own two properties, but in one year we want to be in the BRRRR strategy. We want to do one or two BRRRRs out of state and do one or two flips here in Hawaii. And then in 5 years basically we have a goal of trying to get two buy and holds in a year. So maybe in 5 years we should be expecting to own ten properties. In ten years hopefully Larissa’s not working anymore.
Larissa: Well, at least I’ll be able to cut back and do part-time work. And hopefully in ten years we’ll have moved up to bigger multi-family apartments or commercial properties.
Any final words of advice for doctors interested in starting out in real estate?
Larissa: It is easy for physicians to get stuck in doing what we do because we feel like we’ve spent so much time studying and training. You don’t want to feel like you’ve wasted your training by going into another field like real estate, but no one taught us about money or business so we feel like we have to stay in medicine. I think it’s important to surround yourself with people who what what they’re doing because it gives you courage to step out of the box.
Gio: If there are people who are thinking of investing in real estate just go to meet-ups, talk to other investors, start analyzing properties.
Larissa: We’re really grateful to have had this opportunity to have known Leti and Kenji and to have been introduced to their circle in Hawaii. We really wouldn’t be here now if that hadn’t happened. We’re very excited to be on this journey now. We talk about real estate investing all the time. There’s not a day that we don’t talk about it as a couple. It’s just a different outlook now–so much different than it was even just 8 months ago. So we’re very excited to see where it goes.
