How Doctors Can Buy Real Estate with $0 Down Using a Physician or VA Loan With Dr. Alex Schloe

Welcome back to another insightful episode of The Physicians and Properties Podcast with your host, Dr. Alex Schloe!

In this solo episode, Dr. Schloe unpacks two of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, loan products available to physicians and veterans: the physician loan and the VA loan. These no-money-down financing strategies helped him buy his first investment property during residency for just $58 out of pocket—and that property now cash flows $1,200/month and has doubled in equity.

Whether you’re in residency, on active duty, or just getting started in real estate, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you start investing before you think you're ready—without needing hundreds of thousands in the bank.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How the physician loan works—and why banks offer it with $0 down
 ✔️ The differences between physician loans and VA loans
 ✔️ How to use these loans for house hacking during residency or military service
 ✔️ Real-life examples of residents and veterans building wealth with these strategies
 ✔️ Tips for finding lenders that offer physician and VA loan products
 ✔️ Common mistakes to avoid when using low/no-down-payment financing

🔥 Key Takeaways:

✔️ You don’t need 20% down to get started in real estate—just the right strategy
 ✔️ VA loans allow you to buy 1–4 unit properties and house hack from day one
 ✔️ Physician loans often overlook student debt and count future income
 ✔️ These are not unicorn deals—doctors and veterans are doing this right now
✔️ Your journey to financial freedom doesn’t have to wait until after training

💥 Bonus: If you’re a physician, dentist, or veteran ready to take action but unsure where to start, this episode will give you the clarity—and the confidence—to make your first move.

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Transcript

Dr. Alex Schloe:  So that house cost me $58 out of pocket,  okay?  $58 is what it took for me to buy that house. That house has now  doubled in equity in cash flows  1100 to $1,200 per month.    And I bought that while I was in residency.

 Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast, the show where we teach you how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want. Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. Now here's your host, Dr. Alex Slo.

 What if I told you that you could buy your first real estate investment property  with $0 out of pocket  and do it while still in residency or active duty?  No. Massive down payment.  No PMI.  No excuses.  I'm your host, Dr. Alex Low with the Physicians and Properties Podcast, and today we are diving deep  into two powerful and often overlooked  loan programs.

That allow physicians and veterans to purchase real estate  with no money down  the physician loan and the VA loan.  If you've been on the sidelines thinking that you need hundreds of thousands of dollars into the bank to get started,  this episode will change your mind.  Let's get into it.  Physicians are often strapped for time,  buried in student debt and unsure where to begin with investing.

 The good news is you can start building wealth in real estate without needing to come up with 20% down.  This is something that stops most folks in their tracks.  If you're a doctor, a dentist,  a veteran,  you may qualify for no money down financing  that can help you house hack  or buy a property that builds wealth passively,  even with a packed clinic schedule.

 Let's start with the physician loan.  This is something that's called a doctor loan typically,  and here's what makes it powerful.  You can buy a primary residence with no money down.  There's no private mortgage insurance.  There's flexible debt to income ratios,  and the reason behind that is they're often looking at future income, like a signed employment contract  that can count towards qualifying.

 The banks are counting on your  liability as a physician  and your future income potential to guarantee that loan.  So they're willing to flex in terms of debt to income ratio, and they're understanding  that a lot of residents or a lot of young attendings  have a lot of the student debt.  This is typically only available for primary residences and they have to be single family homes.

 If you're listening to this and you know of a physician loan product where you can buy  multiple units or a duplex, triplex, or fourplex,  please let me know. I'd love to reach out to the lender and learn more,  but typically this is available for primary residencies only.  And that's a single family home.  So this can be used to jumpstart your wealth building.

This can be used to jumpstart your financial freedom journey  while you're in residency.  A lot of times I have residents who come up to me and they ask, Hey, how do I get started investing in real estate?  This is an absolutely incredible way to do it.  You could buy a four or five bedroom,  single family house in a nice area for no money down,  and then rent out each of those bedrooms  to one of your residency mates.

 Then you'd be cash flowing,  building equity,  getting all the tax benefits of owning real estate while you're in residency.  Not to mention living in a nice place for free.  I mean, imagine  working all those long clinical hours, working all those long residency hours and you're cash flowing from day one.  I.

And you just need to live in this house for one year. That's the requirements typically for primary residents.  So in theory, you could buy multiple of these while you're in residency.  I mean, talk about a huge jumpstart  when you become a young attending.  For my fellow veterans and  active duty military out there,  the VA loan may be one of the best wealth building tools available, and here's why.

 It's 0% down.  There's no PMI.  There's competitive interest rates and there's no prepayment penalties.  This can be used to buy a one to four unit property as long as you live in one of the units,  and it's backed by the Department of Veteran Affairs, making it a low risk product for lenders.  And a low risk product for the sellers of these properties.

 It's such a cool opportunity that you can buy one to four units, which is something you can't do with a typical physician loan.  This would allow you to buy a fourplex, a four unit property,  live in one unit,  rent out the rest. Again, you're building equity in cash flow.  Starting from day one.  You could rent out each of those units to your residency mates or multiple of them  and just continue to cashflow,  and then a year later do the same thing again.

 There's a common myth that VA loans are one-time use, and that's not true.  As long as you have remaining entitlement on your loan,  you can use it again,  and in some cases you can even carry multiple VA loans.  There is something to be aware of, and that's the VA funding fee.  Since that's the only upfront cost of the program to be aware of,  the VA funding fee is a one-time fee charged by the VA  to help cover the cost of the program.

Since there's no PMI.  Here's how it works.  First time VA loan users who are putting no money down. Again, this is a no money down loan product,  would pay a 2.15% funding fee.  If you've used the VA loan before,  that fee's gonna increase to 3.3%.  If you put down 5% or more, the funding fee's reduced. But again, this is a no money down product,  so you don't have to put anything down unless you want to.

 And yes, you can roll that funding fee into your mortgage  so you don't have to bring cash to close.  Also, a big note.  If you were service connected, if you have a service connected disability  with even a 10% rating,  you're typically exempt from that funding fee altogether, which is a huge benefit.  So I would say  these  loan products are absolutely amazing ways to build wealth.

 With the physician loan, typically you can only buy a single family home, so you can't buy multi-unit property.  There's no funding fee.  With the VA loan, you have the benefit of being able to buy a one to four unit property.  You do have that small funding fee, but you can wrap that into the loan.  So these are incredible tools.

 Now, just because you can buy a house with no money down,  it doesn't mean that you  should just buy any deal possible. Okay? There still needs to be some parameters. You still have to have your goals. Okay?  But let's talk about an example.  In terms of the physician loan, we'll use myself. For example,  when I was an intern at Eggland Family Medicine residency in Florida, I bought my house  and that house  I bought with no money down, a physician loan.

I.  Through, through what was SunTrust bank at the time?  They weren't able to cover all the fees except for, for they were able to cover all the fees except for one. So that house cost me $58 out of pocket,  okay?  $58 is what it took for me to buy that house. That house has now  doubled in equity in cash flows  1100 to $1,200 per month.

Passively is a long-term rental.  Okay,  so absolutely amazing way,  and I bought that while I was in residency.  Another example is a resident friend of mine  used a physician loan.  They bought a $600,000 house,  and that was four bedrooms.  They rented out each of the other bedrooms for $800 per month, so they lived in one.

 They rented out three other bedrooms for $800 per month. They were renting that out the house out for $2,400 per month.  They had a mortgage of $3,000, so they lived in a nice house for only $600 a month while building equity.  That's a non-cash flowing example,  but it still shows you like you could live in a nice house for only $600 per month while building equity.

 There's other ways you could do this. You could buy  a cheaper house or more bedrooms or charge more for rent.  So there's plenty of ways where you could steal cashflow from day one  on a property while in residency using a physician loan.  Okay.  Another thing you could do as a VA loan  is you could buy a fourplex, a  ER Doc I know used the VA loan to buy a fourplex.

 He lived in one unit for a year  and then he moved out and he rented all four.  That property now cash flows $1,200 per month,  and he started with no money down and get this  after he moved out of that.  That house after he moved out of that duplex, they lived in for a year,  he went and did the same thing  and that property when he moves out's, also gonna cash flow him $1,200 per month  and he's fresh out of residency.

 These are not unicorn deals. This is how smart professionals,  this is how smart professionals are using tools  that are already available to them,  and these tools are most likely  available to you as well.  So  a few quick caveats.  Both the physician and the VA loan require you to live in the property for at least 12 months.

 That's why this works best for house hacking.  You can't use them to buy a second home vacation property or pure investment from day one,  but you can convert them to rentals later on.  Not all lenders are gonna offer physician or VA loans, so you're gonna wanna work with someone who's familiar with these specific products.

 If you have any questions, I do have a few recommended lenders and I can get you in contact with them.  VA loans also typically are gonna have minimum property standards. So the house has to be safe,  sanitary, structurally sound.  So the VA loans typically not a loan product where you're gonna want to go buy like  a huge fixer upper property.

 They may not lend on that,  but bottom line, just because it's 0% down does not automatically mean it's a good deal.  Always run your numbers, assess your cash flow.  Make sure the location and the asset clash matches your investing goals  and talk with a lending professional. I am not a lending professional.

These are just things that I have learned along the way.  This is one of the lowest risk, highest leverage ways  for busy physicians to get into real estate.  For residents to get into real estate investing,  you do not need to be a full-time investor. You do not need to flip houses or buy a hundred units overnight.

 You just need one good property.  Let your tenants pay your mortgage.  Build equity,  learn the game, and over time, you can keep stacking properties that create serious  long-term wealth  without burning out or waiting for  someday.  Just get started.  So if you're a physician, a dentist, or a veteran who hasn't taken advantage of these 0% down loan programs,  this might be your opportunity to stop waiting and start building wealth.

 You already have the income, you already have the credentials.  Now it's time to apply the strategy and take action.  If this elbow show episode helped you,  this episode helped you.  Share it with a colleague, a co-resident, or another doctor  who's ready to take control of their financial future.  If you want to connect, you can reach me@physiciansandproperties.com  or DM me on Instagram at Physicians and properties.

 Until next time, keep investing in yourself and your freedom  and your future  and stay tuned for the next episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast.  Take care.  

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