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Show Summary
In this conversation, Dr. Tudor Francu shares his unique journey from being a medical professional to becoming a successful real estate investor. He discusses the challenges and learning curves he faced, the importance of networking, and the balance between work and personal life. Dr. Francu also emphasizes the significance of learning from failures and maintaining consistency in efforts towards success. He highlights his podcast, Stellar Success, aimed at guiding medical professionals interested in real estate investing, and shares insights on achieving financial freedom while enjoying life.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Tudor Francu (00:00)
it’s very easy to get more stuff, but it’s impossible to get more time.Quentin Edmonds (00:03)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.Hmm.
Tudor Francu (00:09)
⁓I don’t know how to make people understand that enjoying life, no matter how much money you have, it’s a matter of being content with yourself first and happy and confident of what you can do at any point in time. You know, being an immigrant gives you a different perspective on life because I left a country that was in, you know,
in terrible shape. ⁓ I’ve been through a lot in my youth and childhood and I came here with nothing. So I know that I can do anything if I did that. And any failure in anybody’s life should be a great and happy example that you can get up and continue and do the stuff that you want.
Quentin Edmonds (00:47)
Hmm. Hmm.Tudor Francu (01:00)
And it doesn’t matter how much money you have at the end of your life. It’s the memories, the people, it’s the ⁓ happiness that you bring in others ⁓ and the way they remember you.Quentin Edmonds (02:45)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and we’re here again today with another special guest. you know, it’s always special to me. Y’all know I say this a lot. When I get a chance to connect with different people, to see things from their vantage point, things through their lens, you know, it’s gonna sound real sappy, but it’s the truth. Everybody’s special, right?because we all have our own special take, our special nuances in the way we do things. So today is no different. And I’m excited because we have a medical professional here, right? ⁓ I love what he’s doing. I love how he’s approached real estate because he’s using real estate kind of like to take the burdens off in a different kind of way when it comes to different kind of income. He’s used it very well for his advantage. And I can’t wait for him to tell us about that. And so.
I am so excited to introduce you all to Dr. Tudor Francu, Did I do okay, Mr. Francu Dr. Francu, did do okay?
Tudor Francu (03:46)
Hey, yes.Thank you so much for having me ⁓ on your show. Hi, everyone. I’m looking forward to it.
Quentin Edmonds (03:52)
Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here.Yes, sir. Well, listen, we’re looking forward to talking to you. And I’m going to be honest with you. I kind of just want to dive right in. so Dr. Francu, if you don’t mind, you can tell us what your main focus is these days. And I know you’re going to talk about the medical field in real estate, which is definitely fine. I would definitely love to know maybe a little origin story of how you got into real estate. And then if you want to tell us what part of the world you’re in, you know.
I especially would love that, So Dr. Francu, you have the floor, Absolutely.
Tudor Francu (04:23)
Thank you. Yeah, Iappreciate the invitation. Well, I’m a medical doctor. I’m an anesthesiologist by trade. I live in Maryland right now. Actually, we’re very close neighbors. And I developed my own practice in anesthesiology over the years, over 25 years now.
But I realized early enough ⁓ that this is going to have to be something that I need to ⁓ take under my own hands to develop the practice, to be my own boss, so to speak. But in the same time, I had the very early interest in investing in real estate.
And that comes from where I’m
originally from, I’m Romanian, immigrated here over 30 years ago. And, you know, I come from a country that didn’t have much. ⁓ We are under communist rule for many, many years and the only ways to invest your money, and I grew up with that notion, was either to buy land or real estate. ⁓
Quentin Edmonds (06:16)
Mm.Tudor Francu (06:28)
there was no stock market, was nothing else to invest your money other than putting under your mattress. So when I came here, the…One thing that happened was essential for my development in this field was that ⁓ Robert Kiyosaki came out with his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, in the late 90s. And it was funny because I was there probably one of his first ⁓ seminars that he had about the book and the game, the cashflow game. And I got to know him personally.
chatted a little bit and I got into ⁓ his mindset, so to speak, about what real estate is and what disruption he’s going to create by teaching people how to invest in real estate. ⁓ And I kind of started applying those principles in my own life. I started buying single-family homes at that time, one at a time.
with little, very little cashflow a month, 25, 50 bucks a month. It was a lot of work. but I never thought about how much money we’re to make out of this. It was just a ⁓ numbers game. So, investing year by year, house by house, you end up, you know, years later with a pretty big portfolio and, ⁓ you end up, ⁓
Quentin Edmonds (07:37)
Wow. ⁓Mm.
Tudor Francu (08:01)
I ended up realizing that it’s beyond my physical ability to take care of that many places ⁓ in town. I tried to hire a property management company, it didn’t work out very well. ⁓ I’m kind of a control freak myself and kind of OCD type of person being an anesthesiologist, which is a good thing. ⁓Quentin Edmonds (08:09)
Yeah.Absolutely.
Tudor Francu (08:29)
And Iexplored avenues of what can be done after this ⁓ episode with single family rentals. And I gradually transitioned into buying small apartment buildings.
I saw the value in that, not only the value add of the building itself, but the value of having different doors under the same roof. Because, you know, your occupancy is not a hundred percent or zero. It’s a hundred percent or 90 % if one tenant leaves or not. So there’s definitely an advantage of having multiple doors under the same roof rather than just one.
And also the property management ⁓ aspects was much easier because you can find people and companies that can take care of those small buildings much easier for a better price than single family homes. So I tried to capitalize on this idea, buy a couple of them, and then ⁓ gradually the normal progression was to go bigger and higher.
Quentin Edmonds (09:34)
ThankYeah.
Tudor Francu (09:46)
Sothat’s what I did. I went up to a couple of buildings like this, and then all of a sudden I graduated into 100, 200, 300 types of units, multifamily buildings.
Obviously this cannot be done alone.
Quentin Edmonds (10:43)
Yeah.Tudor Francu (10:43)
So ⁓ the transition was made also into getting things by myself, into getting things with the team and with the group of investors. And there’s several considerations that change the landscape at this point because it’s not more about ⁓ as much as the location of the asset or the⁓ money that you’re making, it’s the people that you’re working with. And you need to invest some time into that aspect. But that’s ⁓ pretty much on Lodge where I came from and where I am now.
Quentin Edmonds (11:21)
Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Francu for an incredible story, incredible journey of how you started where you came from, coming here from Romania 30 years ago. I believe, if I remember that correctly, to build in a successful anesthesiology practice. And then your real estate, you know, growing from different asset classes, single-family homes to multifamily and so intelligent of you. And I never quite heard it like that. It makes sense when you said it.But like, you know, with single family home, when nobody’s there, you go zero occupancy to multifamily, you know, you don’t have to go from zero, maybe 99%, maybe 80%, but you you still can put somebody back in there. So that’s brilliantly wonderfully said. Dr. Francu I’ve been staring at it for a little while now, maybe almost 20 minutes. You got to tell me about this stellar success.
What’s the idea behind stellar success? What does it mean to you? I know what the words mean. I know the definitions of it, but what does it mean to you? And why is it right here, right in front of me?
Tudor Francu (12:26)
Yeah, this is a project I started probably about a little over a year ago. And I realized that besides my medical practice success and my real estate investment journey, there are people out there that, like you said, need some guidance, need some examples. They would love to have⁓ you know, ⁓ real life, experiences from other people like them and learn from it. So what I put together was, ⁓ this little podcast that’s called stellar success. And, ⁓ it’s addressed specifically to medical professionals that are having interest in real estate investing. ⁓ we talk about different.
aspects of it and how you can mingle them, how you want to separate them, depending on each person’s qualities and preferences. So it’s a very interesting show that I showcase people in different specialties that are having this kind of interest. And I think it’s very helpful for some.
Quentin Edmonds (13:45)
I love it. I’m pretty sure, I’m pretty sure it is helpful. I mean, even, you know, sometimes we think that we got to hit home runs or score a touchdown all the time, but sometimes you just got to, you just got to get on first base or get a first down, right? And I say that to say, I know your podcast is helping people because I believe that you’re on base, getting on, you know, first and you’re getting first downs, right? You may be getting,Tudor Francu (13:47)
youQuentin Edmonds (14:13)
Home runs and touchdowns as well too, but I know it’s helping because if we just help one person, that’s a first now. If we have another person, that’s another first now. And eventually we’ll get to the touchdown or we’ll get to the home run, but we just got to take care of the first thing, the fundamental steps first. And so it’s no doubt in my mind, just for the name, Stellar Success, that that has planted enough seeds in somebody to have a mindset shift. It’s no doubt in my mind.Tudor Francu (14:38)
It’sfunny you said that because I actually what I’m trying to do with the show is not necessarily highlight the successes in those people’s lives or mine is we talk about a lot about failures and I think you know this is a subject that it’s mainly avoided by a lot of people because they don’t you you don’t like to talk about things that didn’t go well in your life right nobody does
Quentin Edmonds (14:52)
HmmHmm? ⁓
Tudor Francu (15:05)
Butthat’s the only way you can learn from. ⁓ And there’s been so many examples like this in my life and in other people’s life, in my guest lives that ⁓ anybody can learn from. ⁓ if you can avoid, like you said, making ⁓ that one mistake for someone out there, it’s very helpful.
Quentin Edmonds (15:18)
Yeah.You know, I’m not a huge baseball fan. I’m a huge Baltimore Orioles fan, know, you know, coming, you know, so I love the team itself, but I can’t say I’m a huge baseball fan. But one thing that I do love about baseball in this analogy is that you can be in the hall of fame off of just like 30 % ⁓ of success, right? You got hitters that, you know, 30%, you know, of success rate in the hall of fame, you know, so.
I love that analogy because in life, sometimes most of the time, and I don’t want to scare people, but you’re probably going to have more failures than you have success. know, and, and, know, and, you still can have a hall of fame life off of just 30%, you know? And I think, you know, it’s about what you do, but what you have is what you do with the success that you obtain. think that’s what really matters.
Tudor Francu (16:46)
guys.Quentin Edmonds (17:03)
but also pushing past the failure, not letting failures derail or hinder your progress. It’s all part of the success.Tudor Francu (17:11)
Yeah, I totally agree. think one of the main things that people need to realize is that⁓ It’s the grind that matters. It’s what you do every day. It’s the consistency of your life and your routines and your habits that that’s going to bring you to a point that you might be successful if you do all these things. And that’s not a guarantee though. ⁓ know, success is something that ⁓ it’s a bonus at the end of the day.
Quentin Edmonds (17:34)
Yeah.Tudor Francu (17:46)
⁓ what matters, it’s your discipline and your consistency and your happiness of doing what you want to do and you like to do. And I think at the end of the journey that we’re in, that’s all it matters. The, the, the memories and the happiness you had by doing those things.Quentin Edmonds (18:06)
Yeah, yeah. Now I think you’re hitting on something very good. ⁓ And Rich Dad, Poor Dad, one of the mindsets that he teaches is that you kind of determine how your success look, right? Like you are trying to replace your income. So the success depends on how comfortable you want to be, right? And so success is not measured for me against Dr. Fran Kuhl. Like, no, I don’t have no medical practice, but that’s not how I determine my success.You know, and so I think, you know, perspective mindset, actually self-evaluation, what you need, what you want for yourself. think that goes a long way than really comparing yourself to other people, other people’s success. That’s not, that’s not where we’re comparing it. You know what I mean? Would you agree with that?
Tudor Francu (18:51)
Yes, we all have our own lives, right? ⁓ Different backgrounds, different education, different financial perspectives and different goals. So it’s not, it’s not about getting ⁓ compared with someone else in that same field. It’s just how better can you get at what you are doing for yourself? So as long as youQuentin Edmonds (19:16)
Yeah.Tudor Francu (19:20)
you are content and you are happy with what you’re doing, think the measure of success, it’s only by yourself. ⁓ Nobody can tell you, you’re so successful because ⁓ it’s a wrong assumption. When they say that, they compare you with something and that’s not okay.Quentin Edmonds (19:42)
Yeah, yeah, I love it so well said. And so since we’re talking most success, we’re talking about comparing not to other people, but to what we deem is our success. What is your next real goal? And I would love to know it two ways. It could be, you know, when it comes to real estate, of course, we want to know that because we’re real estate podcast for real estate, but even in your practice or in life, like what are some next goals for you?Tudor Francu (20:06)
Yeah. So in real estate investing, the goals are very, I would say clear. ⁓ don’t want to build a ⁓ huge portfolio of units or buildings or whatever it is. It’s a matter of having enough income to…be comfortable with it because there is always a balance between how much money do you want to make and how much effort do you want to put in to make that money. So if you have that kind of balance, things are enough.
you have enough money and you have enough time to live. So for me, it’s always a balance between how much time and effort I put in something and how much, you know, money or ⁓ results I get out of it. ⁓ So the goal is to have that balance really dialed in, I would say. ⁓ Unfortunately, we can get, you know, a lot of more buildings.
Always you can get more houses, more doors or whatever it is, but you can get more hours out of your life. Right. That doesn’t work that way. So that’s where the problem is. The problem is that people don’t realize that
Quentin Edmonds (21:25)
Yes, sir.Tudor Francu (21:33)
it’s very easy to get more stuff, but it’s impossible to get more time.Quentin Edmonds (21:37)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.Hmm.
Tudor Francu (21:43)
⁓I don’t know how to make people understand that enjoying life, no matter how much money you have, it’s a matter of being content with yourself first and happy and confident of what you can do at any point in time. You know, being an immigrant gives you a different perspective on life because I left a country that was in, you know,
in terrible shape. ⁓ I’ve been through a lot in my youth and childhood and I came here with nothing. So I know that I can do anything if I did that. And any failure in anybody’s life should be a great and happy example that you can get up and continue and do the stuff that you want.
Quentin Edmonds (22:20)
Hmm. Hmm.Tudor Francu (22:34)
And it doesn’t matter how much money you have at the end of your life. It’s the memories, the people, it’s the ⁓ happiness that you bring in others ⁓ and the way they remember you.⁓ I would definitely advise everybody to read a book that comes to mind right now. It’s called Die with Zero. ⁓
Quentin Edmonds (22:59)
Oof.Tudor Francu (23:00)
And it’s an interesting perspective of how life should be.It’s hard to apply though, but good thought.
Quentin Edmonds (23:06)
Mmm.What a bar. mean, drop the mic. with Zero. That hit so good because maybe three years back, a friend introduced me to a song and it was called Die Empty. And ever since then, that seed has been planted for me just to live up to my full potential. Again, not looking at nobody else. Not comparing myself to anybody else.
That’s to live up to my full potential every day to make sure I’m pouring out in a way where I look at myself and say, okay, you giving your best today. Have grace on myself. I advocate for rest. ⁓ I mean, well-balanced, right? But when it comes down to it, I don’t want to die empty. So die with zero that sticks out to me. So I’m glad you said that. I really am. Really am. Yep.
Dr. Francu I thank you so much. This has been a great conversation. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they reach out to you,
Tudor Francu (24:12)
Yeah, sure. I, I’d be glad to, ⁓ to, ⁓ have any kind of conversation with people that are looking for any kind of feedback from my experience. ⁓ the best way to reach out probably is my website. it’s stellarmultifamily.comAnd you can contact me on social media also. have ⁓ this great show that we talked about, Stellar Success Podcast. You can reach out to me through that too. ⁓ And ⁓ yeah, I hope people can relate in some ways that what we talked about here.
Quentin Edmonds (24:44)
Yeah.Yeah. No, I think, so here’s the thing, you know, we just, put the message out. So I know this is going to relate to those as opposed to relate to some people may listen to it. Fast forward, it’s get past it, but the ones that supposed to relate to the ones that the seed was supposed to get planted into those are the ones that I’m, I know is going to get planted too, cause it was supposed to do.
And so again, we just with getting first downs, we’re getting on base. And I believe you and I have done that very successfully, successfully today. We’ve done our part. And so now we’re just going to let the podcast do its part. Right. And so again, I want to say thank you to you. Thank you for your time, because of course, we talked about time is valuable time is something that we don’t get back. And so I counted a privilege that you gave us your time, because that’s the most one of the
probably the most valuable thing that you have. And so thank you for that. Thank you for your story. You know, I really love when people talk about their own narrative because there’s so much power in our own stories. And so thank you for giving us to get through your story. And definitely thank you for giving us your perspective, your mind, the way you think. And so I know for a fact you’ve given enough seeds, enough nuggets for people to have that mindset shift. So Dr. Francu, I appreciate you being here today.
Tudor Francu (26:17)
Thank so much for having me. I hope it helps a lot of people.Quentin Edmonds (26:20)
Absolutely. Well, listen, I can’t tell me I didn’t get the value out of this conversation. So please check out Dr. Francu, but definitely make sure you are subscribed because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like the good doctor here. And so thank you again, sir. And everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.
