Summary: The goal of our Investor Spotlight series is to provide you with stories of real physicians and professionals who are at different points in their journey to financial freedom through real estate investing. At Semi-Retired MD, we love to share many perspectives and learn from others’ experiences along the way. Today’s spotlight is on Zee, a neuroradiologist in the northeastern U.S.
Zee and his wife are both physicians. After they finished residency, they found themselves in the cash crunch of high taxes and student loans. They wanted to get out of the rat race and reduce their tax burden. They just weren’t sure how.
Then they found real estate investing.
Zee loves his job. But real estate, he says, is more fulfilling than he imagined. It gives him the chance to interact with a wide variety of people, take new risks, and set goals he couldn’t have imagined a few years ago — like replacing a clinical salary with investment income by cashflowing rentals.
How did you become interested in real estate investing in the first place?
My wife and I are both physicians. A few years ago, we had one kid and another on the way. We had moved from Dallas to the Northeast to start our attending jobs. Then we got here and experienced the cash crunch of paying student loans and high taxes.
I was obsessed with the fact that there had to be a way to not pay so much in taxes. I looked everywhere. Then I went to Peter Kim’s conference in LA last year and was introduced to all these people, including Kenji and Leti.
I was just mesmerized by what Leti said on a panel about active real estate investing. I knew I could do this. When I came back, my brain was on fire. I was consuming a book every week. I signed up for Zero to Freedom right away.
What is your “why” behind this? Was there a triggering event that led you to start your journey in real estate investing?
My why is being in an orchard somewhere with my kids, being at a big dinner table with my family, spending real, actual time together — which I’ve never had because I was always in a library somewhere. I feel like I missed out on a lot.
As physicians, we spend a lot of time shut away reading and improving ourselves when we should be enjoying time with our families. I’m not designed to do that. I want to spend quality time with my kids, my parents, my wife, to spend real time exploring and traveling together.
During our last year of med school, my wife and I backpacked through Europe. We don’t have time for that right now. So that’s our why: To get our time back.
Once you decided to pursue real estate investing, how did you get started? What was your first purchase?
When I was in Zero to Freedom, I was gung-ho. Then COVID hit. I kept on sourcing deals, but couldn’t get anything going.
We ended up finding a 13-unit building in the Seattle/Tacoma area. I almost didn’t get it because it was too big for me. We invested so much time in sourcing the deal, finding the deal, doing all the financing, and at the end, they were like, “oh, sorry, no one will give you a loan because you don’t have any experience.”
I put this deal up on the Empire Builders Facebook group and encouraged people to jump in on it. Kenji and Leti agreed to partner with me. In late July, it went through.
Kenji and Leti keep thinking, they keep trying, they never let anything stop them. Just being in that environment with them has helped me so much.
What type of properties make up your portfolio (SHF, multifamily, etc)? Were they in state/out of state? Has what you’ve bought changed over time or, if it hasn’t, do you plan on it changing in the future?
For a long time, I didn’t know what market I wanted to be in. I focused on three different markets without success.
Eventually I realized that the best thing for me would be to find property near where I live, which will help me get REPS hours. Then I’ll make my major purchases in other states.
In addition to that 13-unit building in Seattle/Tacoma, I’m closing on a duplex in Buffalo in two days. I already have my contractors in place and know that numbers make sense.
How did you balance your investing with student loans? Did you wait until after you paid them off or did you start investing while you still had loans?
We saved all our money and paid off our loans. Now, looking back, I wish I hadn’t. I would’ve decreased my AGI to the point that it would’ve been a write-off.
What things does your partner do that makes this journey possible? How do you divide up work and responsibilities? Any insights as to how a couple can successfully work together in growing a real estate business?
We stick to our lanes. My wife is really good at looking into a property and finding out how much things are going to cost. She’s really handy — she can say “we’re going to need to do the roof on this” or figure out a new kitchen layout. She also screens tenants.
I’m good with numbers, so I stick with that.
Can you tell us about any difficulties or failures you’ve had in investing? What has been your biggest challenge? Any big learning points you’ve taken from these experiences that you can share with us?
A few years back, before I knew about Semi-Retired MD, I bought an expensive house in a high-net-worth area.
I now know that I did everything the wrong way. Initially we were going to live in it. Then we were going to house-hack it. Then we changed our minds and weren’t able to move there. It was a huge liability, so we decided to rent it out. Then I got a phone call from my tenant. There was a water leak.
I felt frozen. But that day, I spoke with Kenji briefly, and he asked, “what’s the next step? Don’t worry about all this. What’s the next step?”
That resonated with me. “Forget all this moping and the coulda-shoulda-woulda. What’s the next step?” Having that mindset helped so much.
How about any big successes? Anything you learned from these good outcomes that you can share that might help other investors?
This year, our taxes were close to zero. That alone is going to make a big difference for our family.
Where are you now in your journey? Do you still want to grow? What are your goals of where you want to be in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years from now?
In the next couple of years, I want to be able to completely replace our clinical incomes with real estate income. But even after that, I don’t think I’m going to stop. I just want to keep going and see how far I can go.
Any final words of advice for doctors interested in starting out in real estate?
Just be persistent. Nothing is easy. There’s always hard work involved, but all of us physicians are hard workers. It all comes down to mindset. If your mindset is correct, you find a way forward.
I’m so happy that I went on this journey. It’s been a hectic year, crazy, really difficult at times, but it’s so rewarding. I can’t wait to do my taxes now.
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