Episode 21. Peter Kim, MD — Purchasing Your Home

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2018, Doctor Money Matters
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Welcome to another Doctor Money Matters episode. I would like to thank you for listening. It’s been a year since I started this podcast and creating it has been a great educational experience for me. I really appreciate all my guests for participating and joining me on this journey and I hope you the listener have gotten something out of it as well and my ultimate goal is to help physicians and other health care professionals reach financial independence earlier by avoiding the usual pitfalls that has tripped them up previously. I have made many of these mistakes including buying a house in Las Vegas right out of residency at the height of the real estate bubble. I didn’t listen to my own instincts and bought a house even though I knew the price was too high. Well within a few months, the prices dropped and kept dropping for 4 years till prices were 60% less than my purchase price and 70% less than the peak. It was an expensive lesson that has definitely affected my views on personal real estate. My guest on this episode is Dr. Peter Kim, an anesthesiologist, entrepreneur who helps physicians with one of the biggest purchases they have, their home. Peter is the founder of Curbside real estate which we will talk about on the show. We discuss his approach to buying your own home, what a physician loan is, the status of the real estate market. We also discuss how is able to juggle being a physician, father, entrepreneur and his advice for medical students and residents. I want to thank Dr. Peter Kim for being my guest on this episode of Doctor Money Matters. Buying a home is one of the largest purchases most of us will make, but it can be made easier by getting good advice. My advice is that a personal residence is not an investment but rather an expense item. It can turn out profitable but I wouldn’t rely on it to appreciate. Peter’s company can be found at Curbsiderealestate.com Please let your friends know about this podcast by sharing it on text, whatsapp or whatever social media platform you are on. More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook. You can follow me on twitter @drmoneymatters Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group. Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues. Some other physician hosted podcasts that I recommend are: Docs Outside The Box The Hippocratic Hustle The Happy Doc Doctors Unbound The White Coat Investor There are many others, so please support your physician colleagues.

Transcript

Main Intro 

Intro Outro: 
[0:17] Okay welcome back to another episode of the doctor Money Matters podcast I want to thank you for listening it’s been a year since I started this podcast and creating it has been a great educational experience for me.

[0:28] I really appreciate all my guests for participating in joining me on this journey and I hope you The Listener have gotten something out of it as well my ultimate goal is to help Physicians and other Healthcare professionals.

[0:41] Reach Financial Independence earlier by avoiding the usual pitfalls that has tripped them up previously.

[0:47] I’ve made many of these mistakes myself including buying a house in Las Vegas right out of residency at the height of the real estate bubble.

[0:56] I didn’t listen to my own instincts and bought a house even though I knew the price was too high.

[1:00] Within a few months of my purchase the prices dropped and kept dropping for four straight years till they were 60% less than one my original purchase price and 70% less than the.

[1:11] Was an expensive lesson that is definitely affected my own views on real estate.

[1:16] I bring this up today because our episode today is a home purchasing which is one of the biggest perch purchases that most people make in their lives.

[1:25] My guess today is dr. Peter Kim an anesthesiologist and entrepreneur who helps positions with the with home purchasing with his company curbside real estate.

[1:36] We’re going to talk about what he does and how he can help you purchasing a home or understanding the loan process on this episode.

[1:47] We’re also going to discuss how he’s able to juggle being a father physician and entrepreneur and his advice for medical students and resident and also discuss a little bit about the social mission that curbside real estate has.

[2:01] So without further Ado Doctor Peter Kim.

Tarang Patel: 
[2:06] Alright welcome back to another episode of the doctor Money Matters podcast my guess today is dr. Peter Kim of curbside real estate in Southern California dr. Kim is at practicing anesthesiologist.
Also created this company curbside real estate that helps positions with their home purchasing process and questions.

Peter Kim: 
[2:27] Cool I’ll just be here thanks for having me.

Tarang Patel: 
[2:29] So tell me a little bit about your background and look at you in the medicine and anesthesiology and then we’ll talk about your company in a little bit.

Peter Kim: 
[2:36] Yeah so like you mentioned I mean anesthesiologist I live in work out here in Los Angeles.
Show me East Coast so I did all my schooling back in the east coast I I’m at my wife out there and ended up following her out west and do residency out here and,
I just end up settling here I mean I definitely when I was in Middle School I definitely,
didn’t think I was going to be an anesthesiologist necessarily but I didn’t go into it thinking I do that I mean my father is a surgeon and so some reason I thought they follow in his footsteps but I mean turns out I had interest in so many different fields it was really hard for.
Me to differentiate you know based purely on my level of Interest.
So really I mean I’m also feels I was interested in my profession based on the lifestyle I want that.
So I guess I became an anesthesiologist.

Tarang Patel: 
[3:25] Nice Avenue Radiologists is that common acronym that you I’m sure you’ve heard the road Fields Radiology Ophthalmology anesthesia in Durham so.

Peter Kim: 
[3:38] The good thing is my wife I mean she’s a physician as well as she’s an awesome all this so for that cover right there.

Tarang Patel: 
[3:45] Nice okay so let’s talk about your company tell me a little bit about curbside real estate and what made you get into the real estate this.

Peter Kim: 
[3:53] Sure every it’s a company that I started about 2 to 3 years ago and when people ask me about it I just tell him to look for a company with with two missions I mean the first that you mentioned this already it’s too early to help Physicians.
Navigate to home buying process confidently efficiently I mean no one teaches you to stuff and you know medical school and you know we get to the stuff a little bit later in life and as a physician is not like you have a good deal of time to figure it all out.
So that’s where we step in and we act as a personalized concierge service to really shed some light on the whole process.
Divided ucation if you need it and then connect you to good people and we connect you to the best home loans available to you.
And also to our network of carefully better real estate agents Nationwide if you need it in the second mission it’s our social mission,
we really wouldn’t be running this business without it I mean it’s really become so integral important to what we do but we’re really trying to take what we do with the business,
with the funds that we have with the research that we’ve been able to have as a result of this business and we try to make it impact on children around the world by dressing some housing food educational needs,
yeah it started a couple years ago really bored out of my own difficulty in buying a home you know I was just like anybody else I just finished my fellowship.
I want to buy a home I just thought that I felt like that was kind of a Rite of Passage.

Tarang Patel: 
[5:19] Right right I know one really tells you about this stuff right here about it from your car.
I talk a little bit about the process that you had when you were you know just starting out.

Peter Kim: 
[5:36] Play let me know it tells you about this stuff I was just as kind of a weird time when I came out of fellowship and that was about 5 or 6 years ago initially and the housing market was totally different than it is today,
but they were trying to sell houses and they couldn’t really so my wife and I just happened to walk into an open house one day.
And it was one of these new construction places there’s a sales person to sit in there and he said look at you I think we have a great home for you my wife and I we fell in love with it at first sight we negotiate a little bit on the spot.
We really ain’t no idea what that meant as so the number seems fine and so you know he said look bunches get some financing and figure it out and then let us out.
And so again you know I went straight to Google Now look up online I said how do I find a home loan.
And so I started calling around started trying to figure out how to talk to I ask my parents I have some friends ultimately just ended up that basically dead end after Dead End come out of training didn’t have a lot saved up.
Decent amount of student loans you myself my wife and so basically everyone said look we can’t help you out come back in about 2 years.

[6:41] Add so it’s very frustrating you know when we probably there’s really nobody to help us out on the process until I happen to just talk to one of my colleagues.
In the OR randomly and he said lucky going to find a physician home up and at that time I never even heard of such a thing I no idea they were specific home loans for Physicians.
I said that you got to look at a physician online who help out you know you on your situation and I said who did you get to help you out and he’s refer me to somebody and end up being another dead end,
internet search calling researching this actually found one guy who could help me out and so he did and of course I’ll let you know it’s really grateful,
in the process I just send you a lot of my friends would be in the same situation so I just reached out to all my friends brought them in email said,
if you’re going to go through this process don’t waste your time,
just talk to me and I’ll come to tell you what I know and maybe I’ll get you this one guy if it’s the right situation and that kind of led to my friends reaching out to me some of their friends her to reach out to me,
and then you know a little light bulb went off and I said look this needs to be something out there for Physicians as a service.

[7:48] And I’m not thinking about monetizing it I just was trying to be helpful.
And to that processor really grew to love the whole real estate home buying process and up getting my real estate license and that kind of we don’t fast forward a couple years later and that’s what it is.

Tarang Patel: 
[8:05] So you have your own license and but you work with people in all 50 states like you said.

Peter Kim: 
[8:11] Right I mean I learned that limited unfortunately interest of my time I reach I hope they actually represented a few of my friends and their home buying process.
But once people started telling me I’m moving out of state I’m doing this can you actually help me find somebody.
You know I realize that okay there’s another opportunity for me to help right and that’s the way that I can ultimately scale this business and I want to help people not only just in my little local area I want to tell people Nationwide,
and so I figured on the next best thing,
which was it wasn’t me that was going to go to do your deal find somebody else that you can trust how about in terms of real estate side.

Tarang Patel: 
[8:48] Right so how are you getting the people let’s say you have a friend that’s moving to Atlanta how are you finding the people that you’re working with out there.

Peter Kim: 
[8:56] Actually that’s to referral and word-of-mouth so I eat at this point luckily we’ve been doing this enough years we have a lot of connections to,
financial advisors we have a lot of connections through lenders right we have a lot of real estate agents that we have good connections to and so I personally whenever I get a list of names of people in a certain area.
It hasn’t been an area where I have been able to connect somebody to,
but luckily the other network especially the internet today and everything we have a network that we can work through I actually called him myself and I got them out personally I make sure that they’re comfortable working with these physician Home Loans in particular,
you don’t know how to work through a loan and highlight your physician,
who is putting down 5 or 10% skill be hard for them to win any sort of offering today’s fireman so make sure they’re comfortable with that and that they work with Physicians understand the lifestyle Physicians and.
Honestly some of the challenges in working with Physicians.

Tarang Patel: 
[10:00] Okay so let me mention the physician home loan so just go to a little bit more detail what what is a physician home loan.

Peter Kim: 
[10:08] Well I’ve got exactly when it started but I think Bank of America was the first bank to offer this type of lawn where they realize look as big Market,
potential buyers in Dallas physicians in particular that didn’t really fit the basic mold right you know these guys they don’t have a lot saved up.
But that pretty big incomes coming straight out and they’re very trustworthy day at extremely low default rate.
And their biscuits with swings of economy the economy I mean especially there still a jobs so they were going to be fine so they created a specialized product.
Where they sell certain loan limits maybe the position one has to come in with as much straight from the down payment but they can still lend a decent amount to them and so they allow people to particular.
To buy homes with lower down payment loans in spite of some of their student loans they treat them a little bit differently than a conventional loan would where they might not qualify otherwise let’s go fishing online they would.

[11:09] I know that’s pretty much a dead so just basically relax is the qualification specifically for doctors and Physicians.

Tarang Patel: 
[11:15] Right right right so now I mean obviously there’s a lot more lenders that offer these is that correct.

Peter Kim: 
[11:20] Yeah it’s I mean we like to think that were the most on top of this out there and so we’re kind of constantly scaring the market for him but new ones are popping out honestly feels like on a monthly basis.

Tarang Patel: 
[11:31] Okay okay is it in terms of physician home loans that are they geared towards basically new Physicians coming out or can any physician who’s been practicing for a while would also qualify.

Peter Kim: 
[11:43] I’m a lot of them are geared towards the younger physician right the younger fishing that can’t put as much down but again that’s changed over time too and now a lot of them,
they’re going after wire audience here that’s a lot of them will depending on the actual lender will allow you to qualify even 5-10 years out of practice maybe 15 years.

Tarang Patel: 
[12:02] Okay okay so now just in general and talking about purchasing a home what are some of the tips that you would give positions especially those who.
Christina younger in their career what time is a good time for a position to buy a home should I buy one in residency should they buy one right out of Fellowship what are your thoughts.

Peter Kim: 
[12:21] I mean I tend to think everybody situation is really unique I mean I got really lucky I think Mei came out.

[12:28] I came out of training five six years ago when the housing market was again totally different.
I got unlike most people I probably felt like look when I finish my training I want to get home address in my life as a rite of passage buying a home and getting settled this just one of those things you’re supposed to do right and it was fortunate to buy what I bought.
Now when I tell people when they’re going to the process I tell them I should kind of the opposite I tell him look it’s not something you have to do.
You have to kind of look at your whole financial picture and see if it makes sense right and you have to be able to weather some of the swings.
Housing cycle right so in which you want to do is be able to have to sell your home for a loss right so I tell people look expect to be in your home at least 3 to 5 years.
And if you feel yourself that you’re the point of transition as they may not be the best time to buy.
And suffer a lot of people in residency that it Specialties maybe 3 or residencies for your residencies and they’re going through this time of transition I mean it may not be the best time to buy now.
I try not to really convince people to go one way or the other I just tried to provide the education and let them make the best informed decision.
But ultimately I think for most people residencies not the greatest have to buy all right will you first start out of your practice for the best time to buy either.
Because again I know a lot of my friends have already changed jobs and switch locations even switch States.

[14:02] Usually I tell people to hold off for a little bit.

Tarang Patel: 
[14:05] Yeah I think I think that’s good advice I mean like you said residency and fellowship a lot of people that you know you’re only in that geographic area for a limited time and you might be lucky with the market like you said when you got out you happen to have good timing.
But if someone was coming in now or someone was coming in in 2006 2007.
They would have been the opposite type of situation so I agree I think a good rule of thumb is probably not.

[14:28] It can depend on your situation if you’re going into neurosurgery and you going to be there for 7 years maybe it’s okay to buy but like you said it’s it’s situation dependent but I think those are some pretty good.

[14:40] Kind of going along that line. What do you think is an appropriate loan to income ratio and again I know it’s different in LA versus Iowa.
I just just kind of some rules of thumb for younger dog show more loans coming out so.
If someone’s coming to you just kind of trying to get some advice and they’re looking for have ballpark or just some guidance what would you tell them.

Peter Kim: 
[15:05] Search for the bank right in the bank kind of day they start they put up some numbers out there that do they yell usually number somewhere else like 43% as you know that your maximum debt-to-income ratio sometimes you’ll see 36%,
there’s different rules of thumb out there for,
people buying a home you should buy at Max three times your yearly income and you’ll see those things out there,
you got to look at your whole financial picture in front of financial goals,
right again I think you need to save some money to put towards some other Investments right on that and so that just tells you you can,
buy home that’s 2.5 million dollars doesn’t mean you should buy home the $6 right.
That’s why I think it really helps to have either yourself or honestly I mean I use financial advisor I do and I know there’s a lot of back and forth about that out there but something else really helpful for me is locked.

[16:05] What do you think it appropriate amount for me to purchase based on here my goals boom boom boom you know they gave me a basic ballpark figure number and I was able to work within.
and so I can’t tell people to saying you got to put pen to paper look at your numbers out there and look at your financial goals and ultimately you’ll be able to come over something that’s reasonable for you.

Tarang Patel: 
[16:23] Right I think yeah I think those are good answers because like you said it’s dependent on your situation but you know whether you’re a high and Specialists of dual-position couple.
Primary Care where you’re the solo Breadwinner it out everything is different but at the same time.
You can’t be house poor I think that’s great advice from some of the real estate markets and the country seem to be getting to that point case in point California it always seems to be at that point.

[16:47] Does seem to be higher now as much of Europe in the Bay Area you know you trying to buy a house is a newly minted attending a good luck I can’t imagine you could really do it.

Peter Kim: 
[16:57] Yeah I mean even down here in Los Angeles again I just is the average home it seems like when people are trying to buy out here.
Assorted million dollars right and so you just go by strict numbers and Ed formulas and all that honestly nobody will ever be able to buy a home and I see how sure how I think.
Based on the numbers alone but sometimes it might make sense for you so it’s hard to say.

Tarang Patel: 
[17:19] Yeah so talk about what do you think the real estate market is like in your area you think we’re at a high point or Eric’s have to say.

Peter Kim: 
[17:30] Tell me the suffix cyclical just like the stock market and they somewhat everyone’s telling me in the Lenny world the real estate world or definitely nearing the late part of the cycle.
Inevitably there will be some sort of Correction and no one knows exactly how much that will be and I look at the market quite a bit out here at.
You know you didn’t see price reductions a year-and-a-half ago but and now you’re starting to see ice reductions houses sitting on the market for more than 30 days and things like that so there are signs.
Right of things shifting and changing but again you can’t really time it that well I have friends were sitting and waiting and they’re waiting for the so-called correction they be waiting for 2 years.

[18:13] Unfortunately hey everyone of them this point they feel like they waited long enough to have to keep continue to wait you know it’s it’s hard to say but again I think overtime play the quick-flip.
If you think your to be in that home 5 6 7 10 years and you won’t have to sell it I think you’ll be all right.

Tarang Patel: 
[18:35] Yeah it is true I think what you say about waiting at the same thing people been waiting for that stock market correction for the last two three years as well and it seems to continue to go up so you’re absolutely right.
Just trying to get the short-term mentality I was probably the best advice and so like you said if you’re going for the longer time span.
You should be okay but it’s that short term that we should have made that two-year deal where other people think I like having to live in the house for short-term and.
Make some capital gains and then take a $500,000 profit exempt from taxes.
And move to the next right I think that’s where you start getting into the dangerous line of thinking but you’re right you no longer term probably should be okay at least historically you would have been okay.

Peter Kim: 
[19:15] Right I mean if if the exit strategy I mean may not be to sell that place for some people they say look I want to buy this place and ultimately I wanted to become a rental,
right and then ultimately by my next to be saving up in the meeting while putting the down payment I think that’s what about strategy,
that allow you kind of weather any sort of ups and downs.

Tarang Patel: 
[19:35] Okay so let’s talk about your company a little bit more you mentioned the social Mission so tell me a little bit about that.

Peter Kim: 
[19:41] Yeah I mean that’s a really important part of what we do and honestly I like I said before it we wouldn’t be doing this business without it it definitely hit a point.
What year and a half two years ago where it was just taking up a lot of my time energy and effort and I really got to a point where I was thinking is this worth it.
And it’s funny at that time I just read a book.
By the founder of TOMS Shoes Blake mycoskie and Anna. He talked about his need to feel like to be connected his business to greater good.
Now create a for-profit business that does basically nonprofit get put through funding of social projects.
It’s always really felt like I want to do the same thing with my business here and so I really made it a goal of ours to say look for every transaction that we do is really going to take the life of one child.
At 141 type model right that’s basically the times up and so on and so we discovered look.
What we can do is with the funds that were able to collect from doing a transaction with one of our Realtors able to take that and turn it around and affect the life of one child.
And really I said it looked nice and I want to meet are especially the needs of housing.
Sweden education and so we’ve been able to do that and so last year we able to build our first.
Rescue home or orphanage in India where orphans are actually taught a trade right and they’re putting Academy for 3 years.
Out of this Academy they come out of it on the other side having some sort of trade or profession and able to provide for themselves economically provide for their siblings that is really an amazing thing.

[21:19] And so with every loan with every home that we actually participate in somehow.
We make sure that one child is either funded in terms of the economy or a given a home.

Tarang Patel: 
[21:31] That’s great I think that’s one of the nice things about Physicians Who start businesses or even position to become leaders in their Hospital whatever.
They still at least an 18 a little bit more of the caring attitude not that others don’t necessarily but I feel like it’s just more within Physicians and nurses and other health professionals because that’s what we’ve been doing.
So that’s great I really expect that you’ve taken something that is profitable but also have added to your mission and helping out others in need so.
Congratulations and thanks to you for doing that anymore of us could learn from people like you doing that so thank you again.
You were saying you’re busy guy you’ve got kids of position wife practice and now you got all Service Company and now you know social part on top of that how are you managing your time how are you doing all this.

Peter Kim: 
[22:19] That’s a good question the thing is I found a busier you get I mean the more organized and efficient you out to get right.
You have to be extremely attentional with your time the busier you are and that’s something I’ve learned over the last couple years just get better at it the other thing I’ve learned is that you know if it’s important to you you’ll make time for it.
And so before I used to make excuses all the time like I’m too busy I’m too busy but I seen a different light now basically I think it’s if you’re too busy for something it just really means I poured two.
So yeah I found a way to kind of I started actually introducing my time a little bit clinically.
To pick up some more time working on this business actually I’m able to have benefited financially from this business.
So again that been able to really just the step away a little bit clinically.
And yeah that’s give me a little bit more freedom to put towards things like this and passionate about.

Tarang Patel: 
[23:14] That’s great so your business I’m assuming is done growing because if you’re able to cut back a little bit I mean and it’s benefiting others in need so you know that’s tremendous but where do you anticipate her cellular State going what is what are your goals with that.

[23:28] And then 5 years or so.

Peter Kim: 
[23:30] Person wants a free service.

Tarang Patel: 
[23:36] You know you didn’t mention that it’s pretty important so that’s good.

Peter Kim: 
[23:39] Yeah it’s a free service for Physicians and so I hope that all Physicians will feel like they can benefit from this and so I hope that,
it’s recognized as a service for all positions whenever they want to buy home Alfredo think about curbside,
and using it and obviously the more Physicians that we help them or social good we can do and so I just want to continue grow it.

Tarang Patel: 
[24:07] All right.
Well that’s that’s great last I always ask my guess what advice they would give financially to younger Physicians Medical students Dental students whatever what are some of the things that you wish you would have learned about when you were at their stage.

Peter Kim: 
[24:22] That’s a good question something that I never thought about doing a medical school,
was pursuing other source of income and that’s the red vestments other businesses and it’s only in the last couple years that I’ve started learning about it and there you know obviously there’s some websites that and some blogs out there that kind of,
I’ll people to think about these kind of things but it’s something that I wish I would have started learning about a lot earlier I think I would have made some smarter than Asians maybe even in terms of my loans even when I first came out of practice especially that first couple years the financial decisions I would have set me up a little bit better for the future so when I do tell people is,
early on there are these other things start learning about him early and hold some time and energy towards anybody.

Tarang Patel: 
[25:12] Yeah absolutely I agree with that one caveat to that is and this is from mistakes that I’ve made to is that you will be approached by a lot of people once you become an attending and then even your colleagues will probably have someone that they know that you know may have an investment.
Be very careful not to say you don’t do it but just just realized that a lot of things aren’t as easy as they seem but you know but I would say.
Definitely learn about those things.

Peter Kim: 
[25:38] Yeah the more you learn about them I mean the better equipped you are.

Tarang Patel: 
[25:48] Good alright well.
Thank you teacher for a cabin on the show and I want to encourage our listeners to take a look at your ad say curbside realestate.com.
And learn about the services that you guys offer and more about your social Mission then again I want to thank you very much for doing that I think.
These type of things are what helps combat a little bit of the urine out that Physicians are feeling because you need to know whether you’re doing it.
A direct patient care or whether you doing it in disrespect I think those are the things that automatically will keep you going for the long run so thanks again.

Peter Kim: 
[26:22] Hey thanks for having me.

Intro Outro: 
[26:23] I want to thank dr. Peter Kim for being my guest on this episode of dr. Money Matters buying a home is one of the largest purchases most of us will make but it can be made easier by getting good advice.

[26:35] My own advice is that a personal residence is not an investment would rather an expense item which can turn out profitable but you can’t rely on that.

[26:45] Peter’s company can be found at curbside realestate.com.

[26:50] And once again please share the doctor Money Matters podcast with your friends and colleagues and.

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