Podcast #45 Show Notes: An Interview with Curbside Real Estate
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Podcast # 45 Sponsor
This episode is sponsored by CurbsideRealEstate.com, a free real estate concierge service for physicians, by physicians. After struggling through his first home purchase, Dr. Peter Kim founded Curbside Real Estate to address physician-specific issues encountered during the home buying process. In addition to providing news and information, CurbsideRealEstate.com is your physician-led “curbside consult” for physician home loans, expert real estate agents, relocation, and everything in between. Whether you’re securing your first home loan, just beginning your home search, or you’re not sure where to start, CurbsideRealEstate.com can help you navigate the home buying process confidently and efficiently, saving you valuable time and money. Exclusive bonus for White Coat Investor readers: $100 bonus at closing. Contact CurbsideRealEstate.com at [email protected] or (323) 515-9507 for a no-commitment consultation.
Quote of the Day
Introduction
[00:01:31] We recorded the Physician Wellness and Financial Literacy Conference the beginning of March and plan to make that available to listeners and readers to check out soon. It was a success but a lot of people were not able to come with the conference filling so quickly. Watch the blog and the newsletter for more information on how you can view the WCI conference.
Main Topic
[00:03:12] This episode is an interview Peter Kim from Curbside Real Estate. He begins by telling us about Curbside, why he started the business, and what he thought was missing in the marketplace before I start asking him questions.
[00:06:08] Connecting relocating doctors with a good realtor is a big part of the business. Why do you think that's so important?
[00:07:10] Part of the criticism of realtors probably comes from the fact that their fees are based on the price of the house. Are they likely to be willing to negotiate their percentages?
[00:08:29] How does the process work if somebody comes to you, moving from Baltimore to California, and they want to find a good realtor?
[00:10:11] How does the vetting process of realtors work?
[00:11:40] What do you think are your strongest geographic areas for hooking people up with highly qualified realtors?
[00:12:36] What else does Curbside do besides realtors? Do you do relocation companies, moving companies, mortgage referrals?
[00:13:34] Curbside is a business, you are not running a nonprofit or a charity here. Tell us a little bit about how you get paid. How do you make money in this business?
[00:14:57] Let's talk a little bit about your social mission. You're more than just a business. I'd like to learn a little bit more about that. Can you explain how that works?
[00:17:48] It is exciting to see what you are doing between your practice and your businesses and between these really charitable pursuits. How do you balance your entrepreneurial pursuits with your practice?
[00:18:53] Tell us about your staff there at Curbside.
[00:20:16] A lot of people, including me, have been critical of this philosophy, this move to a new part of the country, swoop in on a three day trip and buy a home. You know so many doctors do and somebody accused your company of facilitating that by making buying a home too convenient. What's your response to that criticism?
[00:23:45] A lot of people are also critical about using a doctor mortgage for similar reasons because it encourages people to buy before they're ready, before they have a 20 percent down payment in hand for instance, and many new attendings and virtually all residents fall into a category where they couldn't buy using a conventional mortgage. Are you really doing them a favor by encouraging them to buy? How do you deal with your conflict of interest with regard to physician mortgages?
[00:29:29] Do you have any horror stories that have happened to physicians that using your company would have prevented?
[00:32:54] Like with the partnerships and affiliate agreements that I have with anybody, I've tried to also work out a special bonus with Curbside Real Estate for listeners and readers. If you go through the links on the website you will be able to get a special bonus. Can you tell us what is the bonus they get and how they get it?
[00:35:04] Tell us a little bit about how early in the process somebody should contact you at Curbside.
Ending
[00:36:57] Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with all the latest and greatest.
Full Transcription
Intro: [00:00:00] This is the white coat investor podcast where we help those who wear the white coat. Get a fair shake on Wall Street. We've been helping doctors and other high income professionals stop doing dumb things with their money since 2011. Here's your host Dr. Jim Dahle.
WCI: [00:00:19] Welcome to podcast number 45 an interview with Curbside Real Estate. This podcast is sponsored by White Coat Investor partner Curbside Real Estate dot com. A free real estate concierge service for physicians by physicians. After struggling through his first home purchase Dr. Peter Kim founded curbside real estate to address physician specific issues encountered during the home buying process. In addition to providing news and information, Curbside is your physician led curbside council for physician home loans, expert real estate agents, relocation and Everything in between. Whether you're securing your first home loan, just beginning your home search or you're not sure where to start, Curbside can help you navigate the home buying process confidently and efficiently saving you valuable time and money. In addition to being free to you WCI readers and listeners get an extra 100 dollar bonus at closing by going through curbside real estate dot com slash white coat investor.
WCI: [00:01:08] Thank you so much for what you do. Your daily work matters. And I know sometimes it's exhausting or you feel like you didn't make a difference but you're likely listen to this on your way into the hospital or into your clinic or on your way home. And chances are that there's been some difficult things you went through today. Just remember that there are people that are grateful for what you're doing out there even though you may not feel that you're making a difference every single day.
WCI: [00:01:31] Here at the White Coat investor we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get ready for the conference next week. While this podcast will run until March after the white coat investor conference in Park City, we are recording it about a week before the conference so it's a little bit crazy around here right now. But we decided to do something pretty interesting with the conference we're actually going to record it both video and audio and make that available to listeners and readers to check out after the conference. A lot of people weren't able to come. The conference filled within six days of us making it available and within one more day we had 180 people on the waiting lists. I know there's a lot of pent up demand to listen to these fantastic speakers that we've got come into the conference. But this will be an opportunity for you to do it not only cheaper and in your own home than going to the conference itself but also to do it at your own convenience on any device you please so that will be more details to come on that But watch the blog and the newsletter to learn more about how you too can take part in the physician wellness and financial literacy conference.
WCI: [00:02:33] Our quote of the day today comes from Fred Schwed, from Where are the Customers Yachts?, who said like all of life's rich emotional experiences The full flavor of losing important money cannot be conveyed by literature you cannot convey to an inexperienced girl what is truly like to be a wife and mother. There are certain things that cannot be adequately explained to a virgin by words or pictures. It is so true a lot of people don't realize that until they've been through their first bear market but losing money really is more of an emotional experience than a rational experience. The more rational you can make it the better. But don't pretend that you are a robot when it comes to losing money until you've been through your first bear market.
WCI: [00:03:12] Today on the podcast we've got Peter Kim from curb side real estate. Peter is not only sponsoring this podcast but also has become an important partner here at the White Coat investor. And so I think we're going to talk with him today and ask him not only the easy softball questions like I often do with podcast guests but we can get into the difficult nitty gritty questions about physician home buying and loans and that sort of thing. So welcome to the podcast Peter.
Peter: [00:03:42] Great thanks for having me, I'm excited to be here.
WCI: [00:03:45] Can you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Peter: [00:03:48] Sure. I am an anesthesiologist. I live in Los Angeles. I've got a wife and two kids but I'm originally from the east coast, from Baltimore Maryland. And I did all my schooling out there until I met my wife and she kind of dragged me out to the west coast and yeah I'm currently practicing a little less than full time but I spend most of my time doing that and a good portion of my time I focus on this business, curbside real estate.
WCI: [00:04:15] It's really fascinating and I think to watch doctors combine their practices with an entrepreneurial pursuit. Tell us about curbside. Why did you start curbside? What did you think was missing in the marketplace?
Peter: [00:04:28] This all started with my own difficult experience of buying a home. I shared a little bit of my story on my website but my wife and I she is also medicine. We're both doing residency together. We both graduated together and kind of had this dream of buying a home. We didn't know where to start. We started kind of looking online and next thing you know we've found ourselves in an open house and we found a home of our dreams. The problem is that we didn't know what to do next and we found a lot of difficulty. We had huge problems finding a loan. We had to difficulty with the actual home buying process and all the contract work and we found that there was nobody there to help us out. And once we got through the whole process you know I felt great sense of relief but I felt OK I need spare my friends and my other colleagues from going through the same thing. And I'm just one of those guys where you know you find out something you want to share with the world especially if it's something difficult. That's tough and you don't want other people to go through it. So that's kind of how I felt. And I reached out to a few friends and colleagues and I told them Look if you're thinking about buying a home here's the process or here just come talk to me Give me a quick call. And in ten minutes I'll save you hours and hours of time and a lot of headache. And so that's what people started doing.
Peter: [00:05:43] They started coming out to me talking to me taking me out for coffee talking to me on the phone. And I started walking them through the process and at the end of it they said look it was so much easier. Thanks for explaining that to me. And then next thing you know some of their friends started calling me and this thing started building and all of a sudden I realized maybe like the same way you started your website you know you had something to share. And you felt like other physicians need to know about it and that's how it started for me.
WCI: [00:06:08] It sounds like a big part of what you do is connecting relocating doctors with a good realtor. Why do you think that's so important.
Peter: [00:06:16] I think having a good realtor is extremely important. I mean I've been through so many transactions now. There are definitely people who come to me after having the difficulty of working with realtor that they don't trust and they don't like. I mean I think a lot of people are upset with the real estate industry right now because the incentives don't seem aligned, right. I think you've mentioned this before but a lot of these agents it just seems like there's the they're just focused on the transaction and they might not even have your best interests at heart. But I don't believe that's always the case. I've worked with enough good agents now that I know that there are people who can advocate on your behalf especially when it comes to haggling with price making sure you know all the things are done right in the house before hand it off to you.
Peter: [00:07:03] And ultimately protecting you in the process and I think that's really what a good agent needs to do and should do know.
WCI: [00:07:10] I think some of the criticism probably comes from the fact that their fees are based on the price of the House which means you know you might be paying 10 times more to buy a house in California as you would a house in Indiana. And I think that's probably a big part of people's frustration even when they're getting great service from a realtor.
Peter: [00:07:32] Yeah and I can understand that and that's something that you know may change in the future. It's kind of similar I guess and a lot of ways to certain financial advisers who get a straight percentage of what you make. You know what you make You know you have 100000 with them or you may have a million with them. Ultimately that's just what the business is like. And the important thing is to really find good people you know in spite of the size of the home that you're buying that will pay you the attention that you deserve.
WCI: [00:07:59] And do you think those in the high cost of living areas are more likely to be willing to negotiate their percentages or do you find that it's really kind of because they also live in high cost of living area They really aren't?
Peter: [00:08:13] Yeah that's why they're usually found to be the case. I found that a lot of people are not really willing to negotiate that price. And you're right. They're also living in those high cost of living areas and have the same issues with their own housing, taking care of their kids, so it kind of all falls in line in my opinion.
WCI: [00:08:29] So how how does the process work if somebody comes to you They're moving from Baltimore to California and they want to find a good realtor. How does the process work.
Peter: [00:08:41] Well they usually reach out through our Web site or you know they're welcome to give us a phone call. And what we do is we try to be more of a consulting type service and I think that's the real reason why we call it curbside real estate and it's kind of a pun or a play on words of the curbside consult, Right, In medicine where we are there to try to act as a professional professional opinion and we're not there just to connect and off you go. We really try to make this a relationship. We get to know you. You call us. We spent some time with you on the phone getting to know your particular situation, what stage you're at, what you're looking for in a home, The reasons why you might be buying a home and we're happy to go through the whole rent versus buy scenario with you.
Peter: [00:09:26] Oftentimes you know there are times when people come to us and the answer is you know what I think you should wait for a while. We're not we're not afraid to say that. But once everyone you know you get all packaged together we feel like we have a good understanding of what your goals are and what your needs are then what we do is we find that right realtor for you in that area again who might know who has worked with physicians before. And you know we can go through that whole vetting process. I can explain that to you. But yeah we connected you to them. We see if it's a good fit and ultimately We actually also act as again continue consult throughout the whole process again.
Peter: [00:10:02] It's not just connect you and go. We're happy to be there with you to answer questions and whatever needs you might have in the future we're there with you.
WCI: [00:10:11] Now tell us about that vetting process how does that work.
Peter: [00:10:16] Well we've come a long way since we first started vetting. It started from you know people that I've actually personally done transactions with and now that were nationwide, Obviously that can't be the case. We start with our own network. We asked people if we don't have somebody in that particular area we ask our network of lenders and realtors we say hey you know anybody in this area that is used to working physicians and would be a great fit for one of the clients that we have. And so we start there and we like doing that because first hand referrals are always the best right because those people are putting their own reputations on the line when they recommend somebody they know they have to do a great job and they've got to give us somebody good.
Peter: [00:10:57] So we start with that and if we don't find anybody there, you know what we usually do is you know I have an association of realtors I'm part of, a national association. And so I start reaching out to people on that list in that area. We spend some time with them checking out their online reputation and profile what transactions they've done. We spend some time on the phone with them just to make sure they do understand what's important about working with physicians and understand these physician loans in particular that our clients often use and and will give the type of service that that we expect from them. And once they kind of pass all these different standards of qualifications that's when we ultimately make that connection.
WCI: [00:11:40] Very cool. Now you mentioned you're now nationwide but I suspect you're stronger in some geographic areas then others. What do you think are your strongest geographic areas for hooking people up with with highly qualified realtors?
Peter: [00:11:55] Well our strongest areas definitely close to my house across my home right in Los Angeles. This is where it started. And this is where a strongest network of referrals and probably clients. I mean this is a word of mouth business. For the most part so it helps when I've helped some people in certain area it kind of seems to spread and grow in that area. And we've been really fortunate to be able to do this over the last couple of years and it seems to be focused on a lot of the major cities Los Angeles San Francisco New York certain other cities like Atlanta Chicago are coming up quite a bit. But we've also help people in small towns rural areas. And at this point we've hit most states in the nation at this point.
WCI: [00:12:36] Very cool. Now what else does curbside do besides realtors. I mean do you do relocation companies moving companies mortgage referrals. What other what other branches do you have besides referrals to realtors?
Peter: [00:12:50] We're still growing and as the needs come up we try to do it we try to do as much as we can but we haven't got them moving companies or anything like that yet. We do the mortgage referrals and again just doing this over time. We've got to know a good amount of lenders as well in this space. A lot of the lenders are people that we've seen on your site that you trust. We've referred to that a lot and we've gotten to know them. We make those connections if they need as well. Right. We also have started connecting some people to investment properties as well. Some people have trusted us for the primary homes that has gone well and a couple of years later they want to either buy an investment property or a rental property somewhere and lot of times they come back to see if we can help them find somebody.
WCI: [00:13:34] Very cool. Now Curbside is a business you know you're not running a nonprofit or a charity here. Tell us a little bit about how you get paid. How do you make money in this business?
Peter: [00:13:43] You're right it isn't a charity but it's also not my primary source of income. So we've tried to make sure that we do get compensated for our time. I built up a team at this point and so it's not just me. So I have other people that are reliant on some of this income. But number one we don't make any money off of our lender relationships like any of these lenders that we are for people to. We don't make any money off of that and we like that because we feel like we're not incentivized to send people one way or another when it comes to that. And so we just want to try to help people get to the best loan possible for them. But in terms of the realtors the way we've set it up is that they pay us a small portion of their commission to be part of our network. And I think that's a normal piece of what they do. I mean realtors are marketing is a huge part of their business. I mean I'm sure you get you see the flyers right. You get flyers, you see park benches, you see billboards out there. I mean they'll gladly compensate us to have access to our network of qualified physician clients. But of course we don't just let anybody in just because they want to pay us. I mean at this point especially we've grown this network large enough and it's selective. We can be extremely selective about who you choose to be part of that.
WCI: [00:14:57] Let's talk a little bit about your social mission. You're more than just a business out there. This social mission called giving a shelter. I'd like to learn a little bit more about that. Can you explain how that works?
Peter: [00:15:07] Sure. That's a big part of what we do and I'm so excited about it. There was there was a point when this business started growing again. I just started just to help some friends some family, it started growing up and taking up more and more my time. And yes I was making a little bit of money from it. But again it's maybe easier just to work as a physician. And so I talked to my wife about it and some friends and I decided if I'm going to do this it has to be something a little bit bigger than just something monetary. And at that time I just read a book by the founder of Toms shoes. I don't know if you know their slogan but for every pair of shoes that they sell they actually give one shoe away to someone in need. I was really motivated by that. And I said Look is there a way to do something like that with this business? And so I looked into different possibilities looked into different things and I just I just made a decision I said for every home purchase that were a part of and help with, We're going to make sure we affect the life of one child in need. And obviously I have my own children and I know that I have a heart for that. And so that's what we've done and we set up a few different nonprofits that we partner with just to make sure that happens.
Peter: [00:16:18] I mean one of the major things that we've done is that last year we are able to build an orphanage to house kids that were normally on the street and we were able to help provide shelter education and water and these kinds of things and access to a really structured system to really try to break the cycle of poverty in that area. That was one and another one that we started doing actually just this past couple of months as well too as we really want to focus on empowering and kind of teaching kids a skill or trade that would allow them to kind of be self-sufficient on their own. So we partner with this other company called Zoe, Angel houses the name of the first organization, and the second organization that we partner with is called Zoe. And what they do is they go to a lot of those war ravaged areas where there's a lot of like aid and terms like they're getting a lot of support and aid. And what they try to do is that they try to actually build that place up economically by taking kids, We have an academy of 80 to 100 kids actually our academy specifically has 85 kids in it. And what they do is over the course of three years they teach him a trade teach them a business. They give them business skills and and teach them how to manage your finances. And then at the end of the academy to give them a micro loan if they need to launch their businesses and this is something that we feel strongly about because again it's just to help break the cycle of poverty in the area. And with both of these different nonprofits we've been able to you know affect the lives of so many people through this business.
WCI: [00:17:48] That's pretty exciting to see what you're doing between your practice and between your businesses and between these really charitable pursuits. How do you balance your entrepreneurial pursuits with your practice?
Peter: [00:17:59] Well that's a good question. As I mentioned before I have a family. I have two kids of my own. And you know I try to be active outside work so it's not it's not always easy. But I've noticed that sometimes when the busier you are the better you get at organizing your time and a lot of things have fallen by the wayside that probably wasted a lot of time you know doing like watching TV just doing things I just don't really do a lot from my life. And so the good thing is I'm an anesthesiologist, it's different than being in certain other fields. I think that allows and lends itself to being able to pursue some of these other things outside of medicine. So I do have my full time job. But outside of that if I'm not spending time with my family I'm able to find time with doing curbside. And what's really helped me to be honest with you is building a team around me and that's really allowed me to continue to grow and build this business.
WCI: [00:18:53] Tell us about that team and tell us about your staff there at Curbside.
Peter: [00:18:58] Sure. I mean again I feel so fortunate to have a team that I do. My main partner in this is a woman named Sue and I knew her because she's actually the wife of one of my co-residents and she had reached out to me because she had a particularly interesting real estate. She had a particular interest in social mission work and she said Look is there something that I can do to be a part of this business. And that's actually when the time when this business was really started to grow and I felt like I needed help. So in a way it was like a prayer answered for me but she actually has a perfect background for this. I mean she is a certified financial planner. I mean she has a CFP. So she comes from that background. She also has a real estate license and also she's a wife of a physician and so she has all that and she has a perfect background to help me in this business and she's been amazing. And I think people who have talked to her on the phone and spend some time with her know that she's just an amazing resource and is looking out for them. And also I hired someone named Jess who's an administrator who to kind of help me out with some of the administrative type stuff in this business. And again that's allowed me to kind of focus on on some of the bigger things and really without them I cannot run this business.
WCI: [00:20:10] Sounds like I should have gotten Sue and Jess on the podcast instead of you know.
Peter: [00:20:14] Yeah they help me out a lot.
WCI: [00:20:16] Very nice. All right. Well I got to ask you some hard questions or I'm going to hear about it from my listeners. So I'm going to give you a least a couple of these that aren't you know softball questions. A lot of people including me have been critical of this philosophy this move to a new part of the country swoop in on a three day trip and buy a home. You know so many doctors do and somebody accused your company of facilitating that by making buying a home too convenient. What's your response to that criticism?
Peter: [00:20:46] That's a good question. We do get that you do get those kinds of inquiries every once in a while where people just want to buy in a swoop in and buy quick and get out.
Peter: [00:20:55] Now if we are just a purely transactional company that would be OK with us, if we just connect to people and that was it. But that's really not what we do. Like I mentioned before we spend a lot of time with each of our clients to get to know their needs and what they're looking for and we try to offer some some advice when needed and when asked for. And we really get to know them.
Peter: [00:21:20] I mean for example I'll tell you a recent person that actually calls recently there was there was somebody who called us and he was about to start his residency in neurology and he also had a fiance who was about to start a residency at dentistry and they were coming to a certain area that they didn't know they were also planning on getting married in the following year and started a brand new program. They had like 500000 dollars in student loan debt. No family in the area really no other connections except that they were just going to start residency in that area and they wanted to do that exact thing. They want to go and move into a new part of the country and buy that home and use for the residency. Well you know if we are just again the transactional business that are sure here's a here's a real estate agent here. Just go on your way. But honestly we don't know them a little bit and we honestly Our advice to them was Look think about you know you're getting married you're having all these new changes in your life. You don't know the area.
Peter: [00:22:14] There's no harm in kind of waiting taking your time get you know spend six months spend a year there. Figure it out. You know focus on the things right now that you have at hand and then maybe buying a home would be a good idea. This is just some advice. Ultimately if you want to do whatever they want to do we will support them and try to try to make it as easy as possible. But in their case they decide to do that when they decide OK you know what this is a great idea. We're going to sit wait and we're going to find out what happens after we get married, we start residencies and see what goes on and so we're happy to do that.
Peter: [00:22:48] We don't try to really push people in one way or another but we ultimately try to equip them and educate them to make the best decisions that they can. So that's what we try to do. So honestly if we make the home buying process too convenient that's not a bad thing for us I mean we actually try. That's what our goal is to make it super convenient. But what we don't . Try to do is you know put people in a bad situation and you know that that involves us getting to know them.
WCI: [00:23:16] Well said well said. You know it's interesting, I've been talking and blogging and interacting with you know graduating medical students and residents for a long time with this burning desire to buy a house. And the truth of the matter is I can't talk a lot of them out of it you know. And so you might as well make it as convenient as possible for them to do so. If they can't be dissuaded from buying a home even at those times in life when maybe they they should at least give a serious consideration to rent for a while.
WCI: [00:23:45] All right here's another another question for you. A lot of people are also critical about using a doctor mortgage for similar reasons because it encourages people to buy before they're ready before they have a 20 percent down payment in hand for instance and many new attendings and virtually all residents fall into a category where they couldn't buy using a conventional mortgage are you really doing them a favor by encouraging them to buy? How do you deal with your conflict of interest with regard to physician mortgages?
Peter: [00:24:13] We hope we are not encouraging them to buy For sure. We really try to get to the heart of what ready means for them. And again I think every person's situation is completely different. I mean you get somebody who knows they're going to be in residency for 5-7 years has you know has a good understanding of the home buying process knows there knows that they can afford these payments and really understands what they're getting themselves into and possibly even has a good exit strategy. You know they have a good exit strategy perhaps they decided oh you we are going to keep a rental later. Or we have family in the area. These kind of things then that's a different story. And we're we're more than happy to kind of help with that situation. You know there's a person who just wants to buy knows that they want to move in 2- 3 years. There's a lot of times again we can't stop anybody from doing what they want to do but we try to offer some sort of advice and act to advice and offer that education.
Peter: [00:25:06] Now the 20 percent down, I don't think that's a magic number per se. That means that you're ready to buy a home. I mean I think that's that number is pretty much set by the bank to protect their interests. Right. And that's shown by you if you want to put down less than 20 percent. They usually offer you something called where they make you pay something called PMI or private mortgage insurance to really protect their interests really not yours. Right.
Peter: [00:25:30] But I can just tell you example when my wife and I we wanted when we finished our fellowships and we were just a few years out of practice we want to buy our home our own home here in Los Angeles. Unfortunately we didn't have that 20 percent down. So the only way we could buy a home was with you know a little bit less than that. And while we looked at the market we knew exactly where we wanted to be our jobs were very stable. We knew we wanted to be there for a long time. Our families were here. Well my wife's family was here. We knew this one particular area was growing a growing community and we knew we knew that interest rates were pretty good at that time and we thought that sure we're going to put down a little bit less than 20 percent. We're in this for the long haul and we can you know manage any sort of kind of swings in the housing market because we're happy to be here. And so we decided to make that leap at that point. And we're so glad we did because honestly two years later we were priced out of the market and now five years later our home is essentially worth double. But at the same time we're not going anywhere. And so even if the market does take another dip we're fine with it. But I think it's all about knowing and be well educated on the process and knowing that you know it makes sense for you and your family versus say that magic 20 percent number. So really that's what we try to get to the heart of.
Peter: [00:26:50] And I think if people are ready at that point sure whether they want to put down 5 10 15. As long as they kind of understand the process ahead and understand those risks I think people aren't necessarily in a bad situation in terms of the conflict of interest that you mentioned. Again we know that medicine is a small world.
Peter: [00:27:08] I help friends, colleagues and I definitely think it's it's less than six degrees separation. It's everyone knows somebody who knows somebody in this world and I'm still working as a physician. And so I feel like I'm putting my reputation at stake whenever I help somebody buy a home. If I put somebody in a bad situation connect them you know help put them in a poor loan or you know connect them to a poor realtor with a really bad transaction is going to get back to me somehow not just to the business part there's somebody who knows somebody. And so I really feel like I have. Again this is a long term game for me where I feel like again I'm not looking at just one person one client. I'm trying to. I know that if somebody gets treated well it goes well for them they're also going to tell five 10 15 20 more of their colleagues and friends. And so really I'm just trying to develop good relationships get people to have good experiences. I know I know that ultimately in the end it's going to pay off in some way. And you know it just helps the social mission. That's a huge part of what I'm trying to do too. So really I would hope that this conflict isn't there for me and I've really tried to mitigate that by just helping whoever as much as I can.
WCI: [00:28:22] You now it's interesting I put you on the spot a little bit with that question. But truthfully that question could have been directed at me as well. I mean I have advertisers that do Dr. mortgages on my Web site and the way I've kind of justified that in my mind is that there are times that people have a better use for their money than a down payment putting 20 percent down does earn a certain amount of return that you can get a lower rate and lower fees and more options on your mortgage. But if you're also carrying around 7 percent student loans sometimes that's a much better use of your money or if you're not maxing out your retirement account sometimes that's a much better use of your money than a full 20 percent down payment. And so I think sometimes it does make sense for people to buy with a doctor mortgage and it's especially nice I think as you mentioned in California not only do you worry about you know being priced out of the market but when you buy a house in California you also lock in the taxes and basically you know just because the home doubles in value after you've it your taxes don't double in value in California. So it's really a pretty unique real estate market out there sometimes.
WCI: [00:29:29] All right. All right do you have any horror stories that have happened to physicians that using your company would have would have prevented it?
Peter: [00:29:38] I'll try to think about this. You know I do remember getting a call about a year and a half ago by somebody actually did residency with. And he called me kind of frantic and he explained the situation to me. He was in escrow and his wife found I guess what they thought was their dream home. And they were in escrow. They walked into their local bank and that person promised them oh yeah I can get you a loan. And so they went through this process and ultimately turns out two days before the loan contingency was up or they have to basically forfeit the deposit. You know moving forward in the transaction the bank basically just told them you don't want looking at it again sorry we can't really help you. So basically two days before they had to decide whether to go forward with this house they were out of a loan and really they had no sort of help at all and they called me frantically trying to figure out what to do at that point to be honest with you It's a little bit difficult two days before, but you know what I did I did try to connect them to a few people. I have some people that I know can work in a pinch can help them out. Unfortunately in this situation it didn't work out. It was just too late in the process. The sellers weren't being very cooperative in extending these deadlines and timelines. So unfortunately they had to pull out of the house. And of course they were really upset.
Peter: [00:30:57] And these kind of things and the sad thing is I feel bad because I know them and they know me and they knew I was doing this business. I guess if they come to us before we would have been able to easily tell them knowing their situation that that bank wouldn't be able to provide a good loan for them. And so in some ways I just felt like they were a victim of like this shiny ball object where they were that bank was just flushing some sort of shiny ball in front of them unfortunately following it. And unfortunately they couldn't get into their home. So I think they're still looking still looking for a home today unfortunately.
WCI: [00:31:32] Now just as an aside to listeners the reason why I've got Peter on here and why we're talking about curbside real estate today is I am frequently asked for referrals to good Realtors and the issue with realtors is it's not so much like a student loan refinancing company or physician Disability insurance it's a very local business. Even with financial advisers a lot of advisers can work all over the country. And so I've had difficulty figuring out how to refer my readers and listeners to good real estate agents. And so I've found that this just simply we don't have the bandwidth to go into this business to be able to vet realtors all over the country. And so we've had a lot of them come to us and want to advertise on the Web site. You know even though they're only really offering services in Houston or Baltimore or wherever. And so we decided well maybe the best way to do this is to outsource it to partner with somebody else that has the bandwidth to do this legwork to go out and evaluate real estate agents and be able to get you guys into the hands of somebody that's good to be able to get your referral to somebody good even though you're moving all the way across the country. And so that's why how I ended up working with Peter and curbside here is to try to provide that connection for you and that ability to get you somebody good even though you don't know the area.
WCI: [00:32:54] However like with all you know partnerships and affiliate agreements that I have with anybody I've tried to also work out a special bonus with Curb side real estate for you guys. So if you go through the links on the Web site or on the show notes for this podcast that you'll be able to get a special bonus a special deal. And so I've worked out the work this out with with Peter at curbside and can you tell us a little bit about that and what's the bonus they get and how they get it?
Peter: [00:33:23] Sure. I mean first of all I'm so excited to partner with you. This is you know again the service that's as close to my heart. And it's actually a free service and I want people to understand that it's an absolutely free service to help connect you to these people and spend some time with us. Now you can people can do it on their own. I mean people have talked to me that said can I just go find a realtor on my own? I said and I say absolutely. You can absolutely do it on your own. But what we offer is a free service for you anyways and hopefully saves you some time. Right. And we save you time and money in the day. But the whole thing is on top of that yes we partner with you and partnered and we've agreed that look not only as you know not only as a free service for everyone and especially for your listeners but on top of that we want to give 100 dollar bonus to each of your listeners just to say thank you and you know we hope that the experience is good and everything goes well that they'll continue to share that you know share our name around with people and yeah look good on everyone you me and hopefully listeners have a fantastic experience. I consider that a win all around.
WCI: [00:34:31] Yeah exactly. I think that's the best way to run any sort of a business is you want it to be a win win win win win. You know the realtor wins because they get more business you win because you're also you know involved in there I win because there is a partnership and the listeners win because not only are they not paying any more for their typical realtor fees but they're getting connected with somebody good that's worked with other physicians that's used to the unique financial issues that physicians deal with and you know you don't have to just hit the Internet trying to find a realtor out there in whatever new city they're going to.
WCI: [00:35:04] Tell us a little bit about how early in the process somebody should contact you at curbside that's a good question.
Peter: [00:35:12] We have people coming to us extremely early in the process to extremely late in the process and obviously we would prefer that they come to us earlier rather than later and we encourage people to come reach out to us as always or thinking about it. It's on their mind. That's not a bad time to reach out to us because we like to provide education about the process. We like to help. We like to help people put everything you know in place and have all ready to go before they buy their home. I think the last thing that we want people to do is kind of feel rushed about making this decision. I mean it's probably the biggest financial decisions of their lives. So we want people to be well-prepared go into it and so we we encourage people all parts of the process. When are you thinking about it feel free to give us a call. We'll spend some time with you. And we're happy to do so.
WCI: [00:36:01] Thank you very much and thank you for being on the show today. Peter We really appreciate you taking time out of your obviously very busy schedule to give our readers a little bit more information about the service that you offer and that now through our partnership with you we offer as well call.
Peter: [00:36:15] Thanks so much for having me. Really appreciate it.
WCI [00:36:18] This podcast was sponsored by white coat investor partner curbside real estate Dot com a free real estate concierge service for physicians by physicians. In addition providing news and information curbside is your physician led curbside consult for physician home ,loans expert real estate agents, relocation, and everything in between. Whether you're secure, your first home loan just beginning your home search, or you're not sure where to start Curbside can help you navigate the home buying process confidently and efficiently saving you valuable time and money. In addition to being free to you WCI readers and listeners get an extra hundred dollar bonus at closing by going through curbside real estate dot com slash Whitecoat investor.
WCI: [00:36:57] Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with all the latest and greatest. head up shoulders back. You've got this and we can help. See you next time.
“You cannot convey to an inexperienced girl what it is truly like to be a wife and mother. There are certain things that cannot be adequately explained to a virgin by words or pictures.”
This quote is gross on so many levels. I am disappointed in you, WCI. It implies that being a wife and mother is a female’s only destiny. It implies that one must lose one’s virginity in order to become a wife and mother. It implies that a female is not a whole person until she has had sexual intercourse. It is reductionistic. And was written about 100 years ago. So what was your point in using this? How about “a med student does not know what it is like to be attending,” or something similar. Why use a quote that reduces the female existence to her sexual usefulness to a man and a narrow and limited existence as a wife and mother? I challenge you to find a female author to quote on your next podcast. And don’t make it about being somebody’s wife or raising children. There’s more to women than existing for the pleasure of and service toward men.
Sorry to offend. Not the intent. It is a very old quote and reflects the era of the person who said it. The point of using it, both by Fred Schwed and by me quoting him, was to demonstrate that losing money is not a purely intellectual exercise as many beginning investors feel it is and that one really needs to experience it to know what it feels like.
The next several podcasts are already recorded, but I’ve found some financial quotes by women that I will add to the list of quotes on the site and use in future podcasts.
o_0
Is Dr Peter Kim = passivemoneymd ?
They seem to have similar backgrounds and sound similar.
I’m always amazed how people who prefer to stay anonymous on the internet can be quick to raise the veil on the anonymity of others. 🙂
That’s why I gave up on mine a long time ago. It was just too hard to run a reputable business while staying anonymous.