#249 How to Take Your First Step in Real Estate Investing (Even with a Busy Schedule)

Hey everyone. Hope you had another great week. This week we're going to go back to the basics. For many of you, you think about taking your first step in real estate investing and you're not sure how to get started. So today I want to walk you through the five simple steps that can help you take action towards your first real estate investment, no matter how busy you are. So let's get started. Enjoy. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now let's get on with the show. I want to start out by sharing a bit about my story. I was probably first introduced to the concept of real estate years ago, back when I was in college, back when I was in medical school. I had heard about the concept, but it was something that was so far from my consciousness, something that was so far from something I was interested in. I was so focused on being a physician and it was only until later on when I started realizing that there were other people living life differently, that there were other physicians doing other things outside of medicine. I noticed a pattern among some of the most financially free physicians I knew, and they were all investing in real estate. It wasn't rocket science for me to figure out what they were doing. They were taking, you know, several week long vacations, not worrying about losing out on the income, they were cutting back on shifts. They were spending more time with their families, helping to coach games and things like that. And I wanted to figure out what they were doing and, and I found out again, they were investing in real estate. They had created some sort of passive income stream outside medicine, which helped them shape their lives in medicine how they wanted. And that inspired me to learn everything I could. I started small. For those who have been reading my blog and been part of this, you guys know I started with a 5, 000 investment in a small crowdfunded deal. It wasn't a huge risk relatively, but it, it really was scary for me. I was worried that I was going to make a wrong decision, but it was enough of an investment to give me a taste of what real estate investing was all about. So from there I worked my larger investments like syndications, bought my own properties, apartment buildings, and each step gave me more confidence and more income. And so it all built on itself. Now, what's great about real estate investing is that I believe it works for busy professionals too. It doesn't require you to quit your job or to give everything up right away or to become a full time landlord right away? No, you can start small and grow at your own pace. Now let me show you how I'm going to break down the five steps that you can take today to get started in real estate investing. Number one, I always start with this. You've got to define why you're doing this. What is your purpose? Like, start by asking yourself, why do you even want to invest in real estate now? Is it to create passive income? Is it to achieve financial freedom? Is it to build wealth for you and your family? Is it to. Is it because something you just think might be fun? Your why, quote unquote will drive your decisions and keep you motivated? Because it's not always easy. I'll be honest with you, there's a lot of learning. There are some challenges along the way. The market can take some funny turns. But your why will keep driving you through all those moments. I mean, for me personally, it was about creating freedom and time to spend with my family while also having that financial security that I had always dreamed about. So before you even get started, you want to take a moment to reflect on your goals, write them down, think about it, get crystal clear on it, and it'll help drive you to the next step. That next step is to educate yourself. And that seems so simple. We've all done it before. We all know how to educate ourselves. We're probably the masters of this. But it can feel intimidating when you first start. So I tell people, carve out small chunks of time to learn. You don't need to spend hours every day, all weekend. Even a 10 to 15 minute block might make a difference. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, this is a great way to learn. And even doing this consistently, it's going to grow over time and it's going to pay dividends. And so this is what I did. I mean, I listened to podcasts like Biggerpockets is an example of that. On my commute, I read blogs. I attended real estate meetups locally when I could. And eventually, eventually I even ventured, and eventually I even got the courage to go to real estate conferences. And all of these small little habits, they stacked on top of each other and they helped me build the confidence to take action. So I tell people, start by picking one resource this week. Again, you're listening to a podcast. Maybe it's a blog post, maybe it's an article, maybe it's trying to reach out to somebody and just trying to connect with them to learn more. Take someone out to coffee Whatever that might be. Take the first step to educate yourself. Now step three, Start small. Like you don't need to buy a big property or invest hundreds of thousands of dollars right away. Like you can start small and do what feels manageable for you. It's always going to feel scary to make your first investment, but why not do something where you can take that action and take that small step right away? Now, I mentioned my first investment was a $5,000 investment. It wasn't a huge risk. I could still feed my family if something went wrong with it, but it gave me a chance to dip my toes in and learn. And then it led to so many amazing things outside of that. Now, you could start with a crowdfunded deal. You could start with a real estate syndication that might have a smaller minimum. Even if you have to invest in some REITs, even if this means taking action, you can invest in some REITs on the stock market, whatever it is, just to learn about this asset class. The key is to take one small action right away. Maybe you can take it this week. You can research a deal, reach out to a sponsor, go online, find a platform where you can learn about some of these deals. You can even sign up for our Real Estate Insider newsletter where we send deals and you could just look at those just to learn from them. If you're already a subscriber to our newsletter, you can find that link to sign up for the Real Estate Insider. We're just trying to do everything we can to present opportunities to have people learn and find ways to start small if you needed to. Hey, what's up everyone? Just want to ask you a quick question. Are you ready to take your medical career beyond the traditional boundaries of medicine and amplify your impact? Well, I want to tell you about the leverage and growth accelerator community. Just so you know, we created this exclusive community just for physicians like you who want to expand their identities without giving up their doctor identities. It's an add on, it's not a replacement. When we hosted our first Leverage at Growth Summit, I know many of you have been been part of that. We realized that so many doctors were inspired by the what and why of entrepreneurship, but needed help with the how and when. And that's why we created this community called Leverage a Growth Accelerator to help doctors learn how to start, grow or scale a thriving business and connect with like minded individuals who also want to make a positive contribution to the world. Within this community, you can experience a life of greater fulfillment. It's really a powerful antidote to burnout where you can leverage your medical degree for new opportunities and take command of your time and schedule so you can invest in your family's future while enjoying today. In the Leverage and growth accelerator, you're going to have access to educational materials, you can have insights from expert speakers, small group coaching, and most importantly, you're going to have community support to help you realize your untapped potential in 2024 and beyond. And we're so confident in in the transformative power of this members only community that we're offering the first 30 days for free. If you're interested. I want you to take advantage of this. This window of opportunity is not going to last forever. So go now to lgacommunity.com again that's lgacommunity.com if you're ready to take your medical career to the next level, make a profound impact in the world and do it together with other like minded people. And it's time to join us. We can't wait to see you inside. All right, the next step, build a team. Now, I tell people, real estate investing is a team sport. You don't have to do everything alone. Think about who can support you. Maybe if you're trying to buy your own properties, yes, you need a real estate agent, you need a good lender. You want to have a good CPA on your side who understands the tax benefits of real estate investing, especially for people in our situation. Maybe you want to find a mentor, you want to find a coach. Like when I first started, I leaned on really experienced people and built my knowledge on top of just learning from them. I built all of the relationships I could with people who had been there before. Some people were far ahead, some people are just a few steps ahead. But I was able to learn from each one of them. Maybe you want to find a community of people who are doing this. You can share information and it's great to kind of learn, learn by absorption from the conversations that are going on around you. And of course the last step, this is step number five, the most important step. It's just to take action. All this knowledge, all this thinking, all this why and mindset work that's really, really important to set the foundation. But if it's all in your mind and doesn't translate to action, then it ultimately doesn't mean anything. It's not going to help you get closer to where you want to be. So pick one thing that you can do this week to help move you closer to your first investment. Again, it doesn't mean Investing right away. It could just mean meeting up with someone, sending an email, going to a meetup, creating a plan on paper. Remember, you don't need to know everything or have all of the answers right away. You've probably heard that saying, the best time to start was yesterday. We all feel like that. The second best time to start is today. Now, I feel like I need to address this real quickly. I know some of you might be thinking, well, what if I lose money? What if I don't have the time to do all this stuff? And what if I screw up? What if I make a bad decision? Now, I want to let you know these fears are normal. But here's the truth. If you don't start, nothing will change. I think we all recognize that to learn how to do some of the procedures you do today, to learn how to talk to people and create diagnoses and make good decisions, you have to start somewhere. Of course you made some mistakes. Of course you have to learn from other people. Of course you have to ask. Of course you have to look stuff up. How many of us have done that where someone asks you a question and you go quickly look it up and come back with the answer? We've all done that. Now, real estate doesn't have to be extremely risky. You can start to mitigate your risk if you start small and educate yourself and build from there. And if you can build a great team, you can save time and focus on your strengths and grow together with other people. So recap. Here are the five steps to take your first step in real estate investing. Number one, define your why. Understand why you're doing this. Number two, educate yourself. Three, start small. Four, build a team. And five, take action today or take action this week. So what are you gonna do to take that first step? I'd love to hear from you. For those of you that are part of our community Facebook group Passive Income Docs, just let us know what's your first step. And as always, thanks for taking the time to listen. I hope this adds value to you in some way. We're here to support you. Thanks for being part of this community. We appreciate you and look forward to talking again soon. Thanks everyone. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already already, be sure to hit subscribe. Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. Learn more at our website, passiveincomemd. Com. Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.