Money Mindset Series: Real Estate Investing

It’s no secret that increasing your income is fundamental for expediting your financial freedom journey. That’s why I’m starting a series of posts titled, “Money Mindset Series”. What’s going to be included in the Money Mindset Series? Glad you asked! I will be having Q&A sessions from experts in different fields of wealth creation to expose you all to the different opportunities out there.

For the fist installment of the Money Mindset Series, I had a Q&A session with Harsha Moole, MD, MBBS. He is an angel investor, real estate syndicator, and principal at PhysicianEstate – A platform dedicated to empowering physicians with high-quality real estate content and investment opportunities.

Even though his platform is dedicated to Physicians, he touches on key points in our Q&A that can apply to anyone interested in getting into real estate. So without further ado, let’s jump right into it!

What inspired you to start PhysicianEstate?

After graduating from internal medical residency, it did not take long for me to understand the difference between being wealthy and being rich. I decided that I wanted to become wealthy and financially free. I made a deliberate choice. Instead of buying into extreme luxuries (which I would still like to have if given a choice), I chose to make my money work for me, and have my money make more money for me passively. I decided to grow wealth by investing into various assets. PhysicianEstate is my brain child and passion project. I run this platform to empower entrepreneurially motivated physicians to make financially educated investment decisions and discuss asset protection strategies.

How do you manage time to practice medicine and run PhysicianEstate?

I work as a hospitalist- 7 days on, 7 days off. This provides me with adequate time to focus on passive income generation. I am passionate about it. Sometimes, it gets tough. But you know what they say – when there is a will, there is a way. When I am not doctoring, you would probably find me hunting for a value add real estate investment property, evaluating a pitch deck or proforma of a seed stage company, running financial profit loss sheets, and networking with experts in the real estate, finance, and healthcare law.

What are some things you find that hold physicians back from investing?

1. Not understanding the value of passive income generation.
2. Lack of knowledge of how to generate passive wealth.
3. Poor financial education or financial training during medical training.
4. “Doctor – ego” that they know everything, but unfortunately, we do not know a lot about the financial world.
5. Lack of trust in financial investment advisors, concern that we might be taken advantage of by financial vultures.

Do you believe real estate to be the best path towards sustaining/gaining wealth?

Real estate investing is a great way to make your money work for you. I believe wealth consists of 2 very crucial elements: money and time. Meaning, in order to be wealthy, you should be able to earn more income in a shorter period of time with less effort exerted––and investing in real estate will make this possible for you. That being said, real estate is not the only path towards gaining wealth. There are multiple other avenues like active business ventures, stock market trading, precious metals, cryptocurrencies, venture capitalism, angel investing, etc. However, I find these much more complex than real estate. Hence, you need to know what you are doing if you decide to build a business out of these alternate options.

What criteria would someone need to meet in order to be ready to invest in real estate?

There is no definite criteria per se. You have to be passionate about wealth generation. No matter how passive the investment might be, you still have to do your due diligence and should be willing to spend a lot of time to learn about the opportunity. There are key aspects of real estate investing that must be considered before being ready to invest. First is to identify which type of real estate investment you want to pursue—in my opinion, syndications are the most basic and practical one for physicians.

What are the most important things to look for in a potential investment property?

I consider six features in order to make a real estate deal an excellent one. I have explained each feature in detail here.

Do you have any final thoughts or tips you would like to share?

As for any investment, may it be stocks, mutual funds, or real estate, always keep in mind to have the 3 Es: Education, Experience, and Excess Cash before investing your money. True learning only happens when you start to do something. So read all you can about a topic, once you feel like you have understood the topic adequately, go ahead and start doing it. You may experience a rocky start, but that is the only way to learn. Ego hurts; education helps. Be very careful who you choose as your business partner. Any business is cut-throat. Nobody will give you freebies, you have to earn it. Always try to help your peers. Good karma never hurt nobody.

Harsha Moole is an Internal Medicine physician and founder of PhysicianEstate, a physician-owned and managed real estate platform directed specifically towards doctors in USA.