How a Surgeon Is Building a $4M Rental Property Portfolio

Kevin Lowe (00:00)
20 homes, which would turn out to be something like, you know, three, three, four million in in total value at that point. And I want to keep that. I I will hopefully be able to keep the equity at something like 60, 60, 40. So 60 to the bank, 40 to me, never go over that with the intent of, you know, allowing that cushion. So yeah. And so to me, that’s a a pretty

I don’t know a unique philos philosophy, but it’s pretty specific philosophy and a pretty safe one and probably not one that’s gonna make me a you know multimillionaire in two years or five years or whatever. But that’s I think that’s that’s important to people to understand is you don’t have to go all out into multifamily and and try to, you know, get those those quick ⁓ value add properties. It’s not it’s not the only way to do it.

Issa Hanna (02:20)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna and today I have Dr. Kevin Lowe here to share his knowledge with us. Dr. Kevin Lowe is a physician and a real estate investor. Dr., welcome.

Kevin Lowe (02:33)
Well, thank you. Thanks for having me on.

Issa Hanna (02:36)
Yeah, I appreciate you have or I appreciate having you on. We were talking a little bit earlier and I love your philosophy for the future. I love how you’re building a whole new portfolio through rentals. It’s it’s a route that a lot of physicians or a lot of professionals, W two people don’t take. So I love how you’re doing that. so for people at home, can you kind of run down what your main focus is these days and then you know, a basic day to day for them?

Kevin Lowe (03:01)
Yeah, sure. So so I’m still working as a surgeon and not not full time anymore, but ⁓ working part-time. So on the days that I’m not doing surgery, not in the hospital or in the clinic, I’m working on ⁓ on real estate and on acquiring single families and small multifamily properties. And I’ve been doing that, you know, pretty steadily for the last couple of years. I’m really trying to now ramp up such that I’m buying.

you know, something like one one property every month or month or two. And that’s that’s where I am with I with the with the goal as you say to to build a significant, you know, portfolio over the next year or two.

Issa Hanna (03:43)
I love that plan. and you know, you mentioned you’re a physician or you are a physician, you’re a surgeon. ⁓ and then you got into the real estate investing. So I kinda wanna know the the origin story. What when was the when did the light bulb go off? And like, you what, maybe I should do this. Yeah.

Kevin Lowe (03:59)
Yeah, well that’s exactly what it was. It w it was a bit of a light bulb. And you know, I think like a lot of a lot of people in the WTO world, you just you get to a point where you kind of you realize that your you know, your well-being, your family’s well being, your income is tied to to somebody that’s, you know, in an office somewhere that you don’t know and or a group of offices or or a group of people. And and ⁓ and so and so that increasingly kind of wore on me and I and I and I was increasingly

just personality wise just increasingly uncomfortable in that situation, you know. And so so I started looking around and looked at a lot of different things, a lot of different ways that that I might replace my clinical income. And and and of course real estate came up and that was that was, you know, a number of years ago now, probably five, five, six years ago, I kind of started that process and, you know, hired a coach and put a lot into into education and and really tried to learn a lot. And and it was just a kind

grown grown over the last last five years or so.

Issa Hanna (05:01)
that ⁓ you know and and and once you get into your first one once you jump in that that pool ⁓ it becomes easier and easier to do it because it’s not that big of a deal anymore. ⁓ and you guys manage your own properties. It’s you and your wife. I I’m gonna I wanna give the wife your wife the credit. She manages the properties for you. So ⁓ how do you guys how do you guys handle the management side of it? is it fairly easy? Is it challenging?

Kevin Lowe (06:14)
So it’s, you know, that I I just a quick story. You know, when I I was managing the first few properties we bought and I I’d meet the people, the tenants, and I think, you know, my my impression was they seem like nice people. You know, they you know, I’m credit score, you know, what you know, I’ll give them I’ll give them a break. And of course that turned out terribly, you know, 50% of the time it they nice people still didn’t pay the rent. And so my wife took took all of it over, ⁓ not just the the tenant relationships, but but all the

rehab and and flipping units and showing the units and all that. And she’s she’s just a a very nice person, but also a no nonsense person in that. And so that, ⁓ and she’s learned what, you know, just learned all the processes, learning we use Tenant Cloud. And so learning how to use that appropriately and learning how to manage when people, you know, are are a little behind on rent or whatever. And that and so sh so it has become much easier to answer your question. It it was initially a bit of a a struggle, but

But yeah, we I think we’ve got our got our processes down now.

Issa Hanna (07:18)
Definitely there’s always growing pains and somebody who’s a landlord whose wife also manages his properties. Yeah, I think my wife is tougher with the contractors and and the tenants than I would be. We’re we’re idea people, we’re visionaries, so basically.

Kevin Lowe (07:33)
I

tried to sell to her anyway, right? Yeah.

Issa Hanna (07:36)
Same here. ⁓ hopefully it works. through this experience that you’ve gained and through these years that you’ve been investing, ⁓ you know that, you know, right now you’re you know what makes you money is you’re staying in your lane. You have a buying philosophy. So can you share your buying philosophy with our viewers?

Kevin Lowe (07:54)
Yeah, so and I’ll just I’ll preface it with by saying that while I’ve I’ve continued by single families over the last years, I was really aggressively chasing multifamily deals there for for a couple of years. And so against that background and and happy to talk about why why I’ve shifted away from that for the time being. But so right now it is what I’m what I’m doing is looking for single family homes. I can get into them and this, you know.

If you’re in a city, you’re gonna you’re gonna gasp at this. But if I can get into them post rehab for one forty, I know I’m gonna rent ⁓ and I know I can amortize them over fifteen years. And I and I ⁓ and I know that they’re gonna be in in high demand where I am. Having said that, if I go fifty miles away, that may not be the case. I could potentially get into a a house that has no market, but I know within the couple of counties where I where I live and where I where I buy that

that’s that that’s my buy box and that makes it real easy. I mean you can look at a you know a hundred houses really quick and know whether you know which of those are gonna work. So so that’s where I am now and and again ⁓ that’s that’s allow I’ve done some over years I’ve organized my banking relationships and banking strategies so that I can offer cash equivalent on these homes and so that’s an important part of that. But ⁓ yeah so that’s where I am

have a goal in mind of how many houses I want and kind of the net income or the net ⁓ value in those houses, net equity that I want to stay at. And so have a pretty ⁓ well defined goal I’m I’m trying to get to over the next couple of years.

Issa Hanna (09:35)
I love that. And and we talked about that earlier as well. I said, ⁓ when you know what you’re doing, when you have the experience in the real estate game, the one of the best things about it is you can speculate. You can you can get those numbers almost to a T. ⁓ obviously there’s going to be some variables, but for the most part, you you know what you got coming in, you know what it’s gonna be worth. So ⁓ I I love that. And then ⁓ speaking of the future and future goals, ⁓ do you what’s the number?

Can we get the number out of you?

Kevin Lowe (10:41)
so it’s 20, 20 homes, which would turn out to be something like, you know, three, three, four million in in total value at that point. And I want to keep that. I I will hopefully be able to keep the equity at something like 60, 60, 40. So 60 to the bank, 40 to me, never go over that with the intent of, you know, allowing that cushion. So yeah. And so to me, that’s a a pretty

I don’t know a unique philos philosophy, but it’s pretty specific philosophy and a pretty safe one and probably not one that’s gonna make me a you know multimillionaire in two years or five years or whatever. But that’s I think that’s that’s important to people to understand is you don’t have to go all out into multifamily and and try to, you know, get those those quick ⁓ value add properties. It’s not it’s not the only way to do it.

Issa Hanna (11:29)
Hundred percent. Slow and steady wins the race and and being safe, you you know, you’re not gonna lose anything. I I always tell clients of mine or other other investor friends, ⁓ we estimate the expenses high and the profits low. That way if we do get a surprise, it’s a good surprise, not a bad surprise. We don’t like the yeah we don’t like bad surprises in the real estate industry. and I I wanna shift

gears just a little bit because every real estate investor, ⁓ especially one that deals with rehab, ⁓ has a real estate nightmare. And I ask all my guests, give me a real estate nightmare. So ⁓ care to share one?

Kevin Lowe (12:09)
Yeah. So, you know, I don’t I don’t know that I have a nightmare. I have a lot of I have a lot of ⁓ you know, kind of the houses stood empty when they shouldn’t have, because you know, I probably not my wife accepted a tenant in there or or you know, the surprise the surprise pipe that bursts and you know costs you ten grand for a house you you thought you were you were done with, that kind of thing. And but I really I guess I knew that was in there, you know, I I wasn’t surprised by a by a lot of those. ⁓ and

And if I or if I was surprised, I at least had enough understanding to know what needed to be fixed or where I needed to go or who I needed to be involved or or you know what what ⁓ how to prepare for those kind of things and and always and you know and luckily had some cash on hand. So it wasn’t ever I wasn’t it wasn’t like I was 20 and and you know, living living in the basement of houses I was rehabbing, you know, I could I could I had a little cushion set aside for for this for this business to start off. So yeah, I

⁓ I think the worst the worst deal I made was one of the first houses I bought. And it was just I just bought it way over what what I should have, but the rents have increased and so now, you know, three or four years later it’s it’s it’s fine. And ⁓ but yeah, just little little really little things, nothing, nothing terrible.

Issa Hanna (13:25)
Definitely. And and that goes to show when you’re prepared. When you have a plan, you come into it prepared. it it helps to have cash on hand and and come in from from something else, you know, but ⁓ it’s a conservative approach and it’s also having the plan. That that is how you you’re able to safeguard yourself. So definitely great. And and I also wanted to ask you now about business relationships. So I have a lot of

young viewers, right? ⁓ and they’re just starting out, you know, and and they they don’t know how to establish. They might not even know who to call the first step to calling somebody after they bought their first rental property if they had to rehab somebody. So ⁓ what advice would you have for them on on just getting the ball rolling and and finding and building that network?

Kevin Lowe (14:56)
Yeah, that’s a that’s a great question. I I love that question. I so I I’ll say that when I the di one of the differences between being a full time surgeon and being an a real estate investor is is you you learn I’m I’m gonna overstate this, I guess, but you learn that you’re kind of the center of that world, right? And so people are always in surgery, people are always coming to you. You’re the expert, so you don’t have to go out and you know make those relationships. And and something that’s really valuable to me in in for transitioning.

some portion of my time to real estate is that I had to learn had to learn those skills. And and ⁓ and it was a surprise to me to to answer your your question. It was a surprise to me how easy it is to make those contacts if you just reach out. And maybe, maybe one of of three or four doesn’t really get back to you. But nobody’s ever been you know super mean or dismissive. And almost everybody just wants to to

be involved and understand what you’re doing and and try to help you out. I think that’s something about about the real estate community, at least where I am, you know, where where everybody’s just just really pretty friendly and looking to make contacts themselves. And so that’s the first thing I’d say is if you if you ⁓ are a young person, you just get into this, I just go to your local RIA, go to, you know, go to call call on realtors, they’ll ask them what kind of contacts they have for realtors all often know the

the contractors that are that are good in the area. And it’s just, you know, you don’t expect you can’t expect your network to develop in a week. You can just expect to develop a really good network if you’re putting consistent time into it over, you know, a year. And that’s, you know, and that’s kind of the timeline, I think, a six months to a year to kind of step up to the next level or kind of change your change your approach and learn what you need to learn to kind of move on to the next thing. I I think in terms of with that timeframe. And and so

I would say, you know, you if to the to a young person, you know, if you you got a house, you’re looking to buy a house, you’re looking to buy a property, make a plan on that six month to year timeline, stick, you know, every every week, you know, at have the the group of people you’re reaching out to and just stick with that. It doesn’t feel like you’re making quick progress until you look back at the end of that year and you realize how far you’ve come.

Issa Hanna (17:17)
Definitely you you’ll be surprised how you can build that network and and build your your your people ⁓ that you need for your business within a year if you just consistently do it. And just like you said, ⁓ just like you said, Kevin, I mean it’s ⁓ unbelievable ⁓ when you look back and you’re like, Man, I can’t believe I’ve been working with that guy for a year. He’s really helped my business out a lot. So ⁓ such great advice. ⁓ now if if people are at home and and

Maybe they they want to ask you a question or maybe they, you know, they want to use your services, your medical services. ⁓ where can they reach you?

Kevin Lowe (17:56)
So so I have my website is ⁓ eljaypropertiesre.com So it’s E L J A Y the word properties, the letters R E .com. And I’m my email ⁓ contact is on there too. So feel free to reach out any anytime. I’d be happy just to yeah, have conversations like this one. you know, ⁓ it doesn’t have to be a public conversation for me to be interested in in learning and talking to other people. So ⁓ yeah, please reach out.

Issa Hanna (18:25)
⁓ if you guys are interested, reach out to Dr. Kevin. ⁓ very, very smart man, ⁓ not just obviously in the medical field, but knowledgeable in the real estate industry as well. ⁓ very personable, nice guy. Dr. Kevin, thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate it having you. It’s a true honor.

Kevin Lowe (18:46)
Yeah, well thank you. That was a lot of fun. I appreciate your your taking time out to learn a little bit about what we’re doing.

Issa Hanna (18:52)
Definitely I enjoyed our conversation. And to our viewers at home, if you guys enjoyed my conversation with Dr. Kevin, want to see more just like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the real estate pros are out.