Dr. Calvin Lowe Saves Lives 2 Ways: Pediatric ER & Teaching Overworked Med Pros How to Get $ Balance

Are you one of the many busy professionals working in offices day in and day out? Do you wonder how some people grow their wealth fast, retire early and play on work days? Well, you're in luck because Ginny Bolling hosts this show Pivots of Prosperity where she interviews people that can do just that play on work days. Many guests have become financially free. She also interviews people that are on their journey and people that are in support roles like attorneys, contractors, brain brokers and others. Commercial real estate is the common element. She is on a mission to be sure. Busy professionals know they can own substantial commercial properties too, like apartments, self storage facilities and others and not have to do the work managing them. Passive investing is the key. Syndications are the typical method. Tax write offs are some of the biggest rewards. Ginny and partners find the deals, build a strong team and business plan, then offer the investment opportunities to passive investors. New episodes are released every Tuesday at 12, so watch for new releases. If you want to get involved, let us know. You need to get pre qualified to hear about most deals. See the show notes for contact information.

Hello, hello. Ginny Bowling here with Pivot to Prosperity and that's sponsored by Pivotal Real Estate Investments where we help investors build wealth and income through commercial real estate that also improves communities. And today we have Calvin Low with us. Calvin, thank you for coming on.

Hi there Jenny. Thanks for having me here.

Well, I appreciate it. I'm going to read your bio and then we'll jump right into it. Calvin is a full time physician in the Division of Emergency and Transport Medicine at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. He is amidst his 31st academic year at CHLA and serves as the Medical Director of the Allen Perwin Emergency Transport Program. Calvin has lectured nationally and has served as the course director of multiple national medical conferences. He has given many television, radio and print interviews. He's been quoted in the Los Angeles Times and has appeared on CNN's Larry King Live. That's awesome. The British Broadcasting Company, BBC Radio and Animal Planet Channel. Wow. Okay, we'll get back to that. He and his wife Peggy became passive real estate investors through Vertical street ventures in late 2021. In May 2022, they took the next step to become active investors by enrolling in the VSV Academy. They subsequently founded Peace Equity LLC with the philosophy of family, peace of mind and generational wealth. The name has special meaning because the first four letters are the acronym of the first names of the family. Peggy, Elizabeth, Austin and Calvin. Calvin and Peggy became multifamily apartment investing general partners thereafter. Currently Their portfolio consists of over 850 doors with properties in Arizona, California, Texas and Utah. Calvin has served as the master of ceremonies of the VSBCON is what is that? Which okay. The Vertical Street Ventures national conference in 20, 22 and 23. Calvin and Peggy are also host partners with the Passive Income Club who have monthly meetups in the Southern California area. The aim of the meetups is to educate those who want to achieve the freedom of time through passive income streams. Very good. Thank you. So as I read that what do you wish was in there or you are thinking would be the next best thing to add as your next accomplishment?

Well, I think the biggest thing is just to show people that they don't have to work too hard at the current jobs in the medical profession. You know, we work really hard, we train for so many years, we get sort of addicted to our jobs and so forth without looking on the other side of wellness and balance. So that's where I'm trying to convey to my fellow health care professionals because I see them at work and they said, oh my God, just so many hours I'm working here. I said, well, I can help you, right? So just to how the money work for you, get that time because I have personal experience from this as, as a young physician, I was being a yes man, just saying yes to everything. I thought I was doing the right thing so that not providing care for my patients as well as providing, you know, whatever I need for my family, but I was just losing that time, that freedom and time that I missed with the kids growing up. You know, it's what hit me poignantly. My wife sometimes tells me that, you know, I felt like a single mother, you know, during our marriage when you were working so hard. So that really hit me, you know, to, to my heart, really, really good because this is working so hard really affected our marriage to some degree. But then I've recently just cut back and just noticed that or found out that in passive income through multifamily apartment investing is the way to go just to have that money work for you so you don't have to work so hard.

Amen to that for sure. And yeah, there are certain jobs out there where we work extra super hard and it's so easy to not even see the potential until someone hits you over the head was what we were just talking about. Because my peers the same way, it's like, wake up, they're even working in real estate. It's like, you can be the owner, right? But yeah, yeah, even if you're not the owner per se. You can be the limited partner, you know, be the, you're still an owner. Right, but. Right. It. Yeah, so. And for your, your industry, working in the pediatric area, you have those heartstrings that are, you know, you probably feel like you, you can't leave a lot of kids, right?

Yeah, it's, it's really tough because, you know, especially when my children were very young, I would see patients that, oh my gosh, that could have been my daughter. Auto accident kids coming in, you know, near death sepsis or, or some type of congenital heart disease where we're doing a lot of things, a lot of modalities where they acquire special medication drips and so forth and gets really emotional. I sometimes I would have to come out and say, oh my goodness. Or I would come home and just lay next to my daughter and son and Bess and my God, thank God they're healthy. But you know, I do what I do because I love what I do. Take care of these kids to give them, you know, the optimal chance for survival, their treatments, to give the parents a ray of hope for them. Because some of these kids come in really critically ill and we just do all we can to ensure they're the best chances of survival.

Right, but you get burnout after so many decades of doing that too, right?

It is, you know, it's the grind. It's not so much the work I do the clinical, I love doing that. I love relating to people, I love to talk relationships. For me, I live in Southern California and I live 30 miles from the hospital. It's so much the grind, driving back and forth. I don't know if you've ever been through traffic, right? So like the morning shifts, I have to get up at 4 o' clock in the morning, get there at 6, then I leave at 2 or 3 o'. Clock. The guarantee, hour and a half to drive home. And I get home, I eat dinner and I'm on the couch, then it's time for the next shift, the next day. So it's just that repeated grind. Or when I was doing overnights, my shifts, my hours were just fumbling all over the place. I would go overnight, then have a quote, day off just to recover, then work the next day. And that just repeats itself. So it's just that, I guess it's sort of that emotional and mental trauma. And it's physical too, because then at times where I told my, my wife, I said, boy, that that shift really hurt. Not just mentally, but physically too, because I'm just really tired and just that grind and, you know, going back and forth and not recovering fully. I've, like I said, scaled up quite a bit in my clinical work now where I have more time now. I'm an avid orange theory person. I go to. I work out every day just to keep up that health. And we were talking about pickleball. My wife and I are starting that up on weekends. So you got to do things outside to, you know, it's all about emotional, mental, physical, spiritual and things like that to keep that balance.

It sure is. I mean, I spend so many hours at the computer. I found out there's something called computer army.

I can help you. Come on motion, be fine.

So I'm dealing with that. I can still play pickleball, but I can't play tennis right now.

Oh, wow.

So, but so in my tagline I was sharing with you on this, the show is work less, make more, and then more and more. So I'm saying play more because.

Absolutely.

But yeah, people don't think about. They get so, so over dedicated to the job or, you know, the, the ladder. You know, trying to climb the ladder and thinking it's all about money. But if it's money, then passive investing can make that trip a whole lot faster, right?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Just let the money work for you. Because what's your definition of wealth? Is it money? No, I, I think it's the time you spend with your loved ones, things that you want to do, things that you're passionate about. I'm an avid Dallas Cowboy fan. I would go every weekend to see the Cowboys play if I could. You know, that's the passion. Right? But yeah, it's just like, you know, people said, I need to work, I need to work, I need to provide. To provide. But you can do that through passive income. You can do that by investing and just work as you need to. Because that balance, wellness, that's a big thing in our, in my profession now, we actually have a division or a person in our division who's the wellness leader. So we talk about these things and never have I, when I first started 30 years ago, you know, a big thing now, and it's very important.

Yeah, I've worked with some large corporations where they have that wellness person that's really good. But they still don't tell you about alternative investments.

Right.

So you need a buddy like you and I. I mean, somebody that, that knocks you over the head and says, you can do this instead of just that grind. Right?

Yeah.

Go ahead what's your normal conversation go, like, with another doctor, nurse, whatever?

Yeah, that was one of my. I was alluding to because my original avatar, and still is, is the female attending physician. So what do they do? They have to balance their life as a mother, as a wife, and as a physician. So, okay, I'll put it out there. My wife will love this because women are the stronger gender. They can do all these things right and balance all this time together. I've had some of my colleagues say, calvin, can you work for me this shift? Because I can't do it. I said, well, are you okay?

Everything.

What's going on? Well, husband's on a business trip. I need child care. I'm missing out on these things. So, yeah, I can help you, but I can also help you on something else. You just talk about, you know, about real estate investing, tax benefits, and they get it. And they, you know, they'll say, well, I don't know, for Ray. Well, let's just sit down and talk about it. I can go over what we have. Do I have to make a decision right now? This is what my experience is, because it's all about trust and relationships, right? In this. In this industry. Because they know. They say, well, Calvin wouldn't do something crazy, would he? You know, they might think I'm crazy to begin with. But no, they said, I'm here, I'm doing this. You know, I'm out in social media and just showing what I do, what can happen. So I've talked to several nurses. They think I'm really interested in this. So just a ongoing conversation to talk about how they can balance, again, their lives outside the hospital and do the work that they need to do. But again, just to know that there's something there, that the money can work for them.

So in my world, it's easy to talk about investing in commercial real estate since most of my peers are already in it.

Right?

You do you show them a picture of something or how do you get that vision going for them?

Yeah, I will sit down on a zoom call. And I said, here. Here's our web. I'll give you an example of a latest deal. This is what it is. I'll just get. Okay, you might have a rental, a single family home, you know, to talk about the differences. I grew up in the single family home realm. My mom, she had, like, she has, like a single family home portfolio, 12 doors. But, you know, it's a thing you have to, like, get a mortgage for each one. You need to deal with that. I have three brothers. I was the only one that had to do the turnovers when I was younger. I learned how to do the tiles, paint. You know, I hate us what is going on. Right. But you know, and I know now where my mom said this is passing. The things are obviously paid off. Paid off multiple times. She bought a fourplex in Huntington beach when I was six months old. I just turned 60. She still has it. Isn't that crazy? And just like going on and my kids grandkids like, wow, grandma's a beast. Right. But the thing is just trying to scale up and I know it stresses her out. I can see her every time. She's 92 now. She just completed a 1031 exchange. I'm like, oh my gosh, two miles from my house. Right. But I can still see the stress. I don't know that they're going to pay. I said, mom, you're fine. Don't worry about that. That's what drives her. But just showing my colleagues that you can own this versus multi found where it scales up, the risk is a little bit lower because occupancy, things like that and, and also the tax incentives as well. So you know, just money to speak to just put on a level they can understand because I wasn't. I said I was in your seat like three or four years ago. All these things were going over my head. But as time goes along, it's getting more simple. I can understand. I can, you know, speak to you about it and you can put in terms that they can understand.

Well, so I just had an idea and if I were you, how would I make it so that the conversation came up even more? I think I would put a model apartment building on my desk.

Oh, there you go.

I am building one right now to help me in the trade shows so that people the, you know, other industry type.

Yeah.

Picture you on this, right?

Yeah, yeah, there you go.

Yeah. Because I imagine some of your colleagues really have a hard time picturing, you know, what's like or self storage.

Right. It's hard. So I remember when I first started this, you know, you mentioned I was the MC of the national conferences. They said you need to advertise. I said, okay. So I threw out a group mail and one of my colleagues came up to me and said, what's this full time marketing thing you're doing? I'm like, no, no, no, Right, Yeah, it's a sponsor came that that show went to your spam mail. But it sort of like discouraged me a little bit. I Said they just need, it's all about education basically. Just like, you know, we have CMEs, we have continuous medical education. So we have to do, you know, just talk about it and just keep giving the exposure. I just, you know, give them emails and talk about like they're all, you know, my friends on social media, LinkedIn, you know, Instagram and Facebook. So they know I'm out there. So they'll, they're ready. I have the deals, I pitch it to them, they say, okay, let's talk about some more. So you just continue to expose them to it. And I don't want to be a salesperson because I'm not. But just to show that, wow, Calvin, he's going to cut back in July. Okay. He can afford that to do that. Yeah, I can reach into my retirement funds now, but no, because between my wife and I have the more high maintenance months I want to do things. So they know that he's a big Dallas Cowboy fan. He want to go to Dallas and watch the Cowboys play every week. And I said, yeah, I'll do that. And see, this is how this will pay off for you. Especially the. Like I said, the young female attending has small, you know, younger children. This is the best time. You get that set ready to go because once they go to school, you can see that relationship is going to change so much. But you can be there for them when you need to be.

Yeah, so true, so true. So also then tell about what you got into or maybe your first one or what, Take it somewhere more personal to what you have in your portfolio or the steps.

Yeah, the first time that we did it was one of my friends. His name is Steve Louie from Berkeley Street Ventures. And I knew he was doing something and he came to me. So let's go out to lunch. We, our families grew up together in the, in our same church. My kids still call him Uncle Steve. And he came over, we went for dinner and he was talking. I could see the wheel spinning on his head how he's trying to pitch this to me. I said, yeah, I recently got incorporated from my medical practice.

I know.

I got something for you. And so we talked about this. I said, okay, it sounds really good, but you're gonna have to convince my wife because I'm an ER doc, I make decisions just like this, right? Just too fast. My wife, she reins me in, she has the processes, right? She really puts me in. And something goes, no, let's think about it. I'm like, no, we just gotta do it. So Steve came over Explained it to us over dinner. And my wife goes, that's a good idea. I was totally shocked. Right, okay, let's do this. And then after that I was thinking, okay, we're gonna get $50,000 or $100,000. And he says, you know, you're sitting in it. I'm like, what? Then the light bulb went off. Oh, the equity. So that was the big thing for me because growing up, my mom being the real estate pioneer, she is, she says, you gotta pay off all your houses. Your house, you gotta pay off this and this. I'm like, now I say, no, you don't have to. You don't have to. Just, you know, we, we did our loan, refinance our loan and used that to invest. And that was just the beginning there. So we, right now we're in like 12 to 15 properties as limited partners and those are including the ones who are GPS as well. So obviously we're in for the long run. But it's just that trusted relationship with somebody that you build up. Because I would never have done this. Right. Unless you know somebody. And I hope I come across my colleague. Yeah, I've known Calvin for 30 years working with a hospital. He's doing this. So that's where I hope that where this leads to.

Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that the more you tell people that that's what's going to help you wean yourself away, that that's going to really make a difference. What, so, so you're is an LP in most of these, but you're in a GP and some now too. Do you want to talk about that difference in what your role is?

Oh, yeah. Right, right. So as part of the academy, which was great through Vertical Street Ventures, is that they allowed us to be student GPS on a couple of deals. So we actually run the properties and so forth. That's our first One was in G.P.

Stands for General.

Sorry, general partners. Right, right. So as a limited partner, you're a passive investor, so you let the money work for you, but people have to. Who are the people who make that money work? It's the general partners. So we have a 39 unit apartment complex in northern Phoenix and that's where we're the general partners in that. So the general partners can consist of an asset manager, operations person, I'm a capital raiser, syndicator, also can be an underwriter and so forth. So that's the active team that runs the business, so to speak. And we rely on the property managers who run the place. So I don't have to go in and fix every toilet aisle and so forth. Let somebody else do that. So sort of a hands up. And yes, we're still hands on, but still we still dictate what goes on during our weekly property management meetings.

And that's the beauty of it is when you're buying these bigger properties, you get the economies of scale. You're not buying one or two refrigerator, whatever, kitchen at a time. You've got discounts for all that and you've got, you're hiring the pros to go put it in.

Yeah.

You're not the guy down the street.

Right, right. No, that's great because they can do it quickly. They can turn over an apartment that's been moved out, paint it, new appliances, whatever needs refurbished. The counters can take up to a week at most, so they can get it ready to keep the occupancy rates higher.

Right, right. And as far as learning the software and all of the ins and outs, they're getting it, getting, giving you a behind the curtain view of all of that. As a student GP oh yeah, we.

Get all the financials, we analyze it. My wife is a homemaker, but her former job was a graphic designer. So we do all the newsletters from investors. That includes all the graphics as well as the financials, occupancies and, you know, pictures and things. So give the investors, you know, we want to show them where their money's going because when they're investing, that's not cheap. Right. You're giving, you know, a good chunk of money and I think transparency is the key. We want to make sure you they know what their money is doing, good or bad. Because in the market has been on the downside recently and we say, okay, that's the way it is, but we're in it for the long run. So just, you know, you know, just stick with us and we're going to make this work.

Yeah. A couple of the other big things that I hit on, even though it's called an alternative investment, Mother Earth has been the biggest asset of all time. Of all time. Kings and queens used to fight over it, cavemen fought for land. It's an old asset.

Right. It's been there always. Right. It's historical. Right. It just always there.

Plus another thing that a lot of people I feel, don't really realize, you know, they think, okay, well, kind of like a re or this or that. But with these syndications, they get to meet the team, they can go to the property. Not like a reit. You can know all that you've got to read and know that business plan and sign off that you, you like it, obviously.

Yeah. I have some of my colleagues, they say, hey, I'm going to Salt Lake, I'm going to drop by the property I invested in. Yeah, go ahead. You're part of it. And it's great. I think that's wonderful. They can just come and, you know, they know the address. I give them everything. We have a portfolio of two different properties in and they're like a mile away from each other. Go visit both.

So, yeah, it's a world of difference, I think. And I think the returns are an eye opener for a lot of people. It's like not only do you need less to put into it 50,000 typically. Right, right. It's a lot more than that to go buy a rental property down the street.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And then you gotta sign on the mortgage and do everything and then scaling up quickly too. And a lot of my colleagues, they're playing Wall street too. That's the other issue. Right. And sometimes they're like, oh yeah, Calvin, I see what you're doing, but I'm waiting for my stocks to return. I'm like, when is that going to happen? Lock something in now. You're going to be ahead of the game by the time your stock return comes back out, whether Apple or whatever it is. And then by the time that happens, you're running Maine some, you know, returns, distributions. By then you're already be ahead of the game. So it's a, it's, it's the mindset change, really.

Yeah, it sure is. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so anything else you want to share or should we go into that, that big question I ask everybody towards the end here?

Oh, go ahead. That's fine.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

It's because of course the company's name is Pivotal Real Estate Investments. I ask every guest, is there a pivotal person or event in your life that either got you to where you are now with real estate or that's pushing you to some particular goal?

Yeah, I mentioned Steve Louie. It's a big part of my life and that he's been a good friend. I knew that he, he was in corporate America. Commercial insurance. We are one of our things we did every year we used to go to the LA Auto show. We just go there and check out the cars with another buddy of ours for 20 years in a row. And he'd be on the phone, you know, when pagers were. They had two or three of them, like, what's wrong? With the guy. Right. He just, like, very type A. I can say that he'll know that he is. And I'm like, wow. He's just really, you know, really busy. He seemed like he was more intense than I was with my. My profession. But then when he turned into, you know, multifamily, things were much better. I can see a difference. And so I said, wow, okay. It's something that, again, trust relations. I trust Steve to do these investments. And I saw through his academy how it changed my life. I said, oh, I can see this now with the tax incentives. Working with my wife on this, with Peace Equity and my children, they say, wow, this is something dad is really doing. My son's a cpa and he invested in my first GP thing. So it validated me and said, wow, he's an accountant. He looked at this, has value. Right. So, yeah, I would say Steve Louie from Vertical Street Ventures, great guy.

All right. You're nominating him as a pivotal person. Right. All right, well, we'll talk afterwards on how. Who's going to call and tell him. Okay. But, yeah, so. So the big, big thing and the big takeaway for. For both of our audiences really is, is that, like, you say that, that you can get involved in these and stay busy with your career and the rest of your life and for less money than it costs to even put in a pool.

Right? Yeah.

You can get into these deals and not have to do anything and you get the tax benefits.

When you're sleeping, we're on call, you're sleeping at night. Doctors. Money's working for you. Yeah, absolutely.

Almost too good to be true. The way it sounds.

I would have thunk, right? Yeah. It's because, again, like, we're highly trained, we study long hours, we're still learning. But let something be good and that you don't have to do, you don't have to think about, and that'll work for you.

Right, Right. Well, good. Well, thank you very much. Anything else you want to add? Last chance.

No, I'm just like, you know, you can reach me. It's my. Yeah, yeah, that goes to my county. Just want to talk. We got a couple open deals right now and be more than happy to talk to anybody. Thank you for having me.

Since this will be on Spotify and itunes and things where people won't see that, go ahead and say how to reach you.

Yeah, the best part is through my. My website is www.peaceequity.com and Peace Equity is spelled P, E, A, C E, Q, U I t Y so that's. Yeah, it's one. Yeah, it's a planner on our name, so, yeah, that'd probably be the best way to contact us.

And Your phone number?

714-74-7144. The rank.

Great. All right, well, thank you. And we'll put all that in the show notes, of course, too.

Great. Thanks so much, Jenny.

Thank you. Appreciate it.