Scaling to 3,700 Units While Practicing Medicine With Dr. Lydia Essary

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

In this episode, Dr. Schloe sits down with Dr. Lydia Essary, a board-certified dermatopathologist, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Lift Equity Invest. Dr. Essary has built a real estate portfolio of over 3,700 units while still practicing medicine full time—and she’s on a mission to help physicians do the same.

From passive investing to becoming a general partner in syndications, Lydia shares how she and her husband transitioned from single-family rentals to scaling multifamily deals through masterminds, mentorship, and strategic partnerships. She also dives into how the real estate professional status and cost segregation helped her legally avoid paying income taxes for four years straight.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Lydia went from single-family homes to buying a 118-unit property as her first multifamily deal
 ✔️ Why joining a mastermind accelerated her growth and confidence as an investor
 ✔️ The tax-saving power of real estate professional status and depreciation
 ✔️ Lessons learned from working with the wrong property management company
 ✔️ How to partner with your spouse and get them excited about real estate
 ✔️ Why mentorship, community, and mindset are more valuable than any book
 ✔️ How physicians can use real estate to reduce burnout and create freedom

🔥 Key Takeaways:

✔️ You don’t need to quit medicine to invest in real estate—you just need a plan
 ✔️ Great property management can make or break your investment
 ✔️ The right coach or mastermind is a shortcut, not a cost
 ✔️ Real estate offers powerful tax advantages—but only if your CPA understands them
 ✔️ Financial freedom isn’t just about quitting your job—it’s about living the life you choose

 Whether you're just getting started or looking to level up in multifamily, this episode is a masterclass in how to do it the smart way—without burnout. 

Connect with Dr. Lydia Essary:

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Lift Equity

LinkedIn

If you want to learn how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want then check out the links below:

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Transcript

Dr. Lydia Essary:  In multifamily, let's say you are just a passive you know, passive losses can offset passive income.  And even just there, because I remember for multifamily, we were not active from the start,  but.  It  has to have a real estate specific accountant who is  teaching you how to,  I mean,  you need to pay for the advisory term. I tell people, you wanna learn, you gotta pay little bit. We selected accountants that were specific to real estate,  so we had a lot of multifamily investing in the first years passive.  Then when we started active, we.  Continue during the past, we  could, we could see in the K ones  the high depreciation.

 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 Schloe.

 Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Physicians and Properties podcast.  As always, I'm your host, Dr. Alex Schloe, and thank you for taking the time  to listen to another episode.  Today's podcast was with my friend Dr. Lydia Essary.  She is a practicing board certified dermatopathologist, an entrepreneur.

 She's the co-founder of Lyft Equity Invest, a commercial real estate investment company  that is focused on empowering physicians  to build passive income and reduce their taxes.  Lydia has built a portfolio of over 3,700 units across three different markets, and is a GP  or a cog in three of those deals  should teaches physicians.

 Other busy professionals, how to make money and save on taxes through smart real estate investing.  In this podcast episode, we talk a lot about Lydia's journey,  how she went from single family homes to partnering with her husband.  Then buying their first property, which was 118 multifamily unit property, their first property that they bought together  after  they joined a mastermind program.

 This episode was fantastic.  I think you'll get a lot of value from it.  And if you learn something from this episode, do me a favor, can you  give us a five star rating and review and share it with one friend who you think would benefit? Thanks.

 Dr. Lydia Essary, welcome  to the Physicians and Properties Podcast. I'm so glad to have you on the podcast today.  It's been great getting to know you and follow your journey over the last year, year and a half, and so  really excited to sit down and talk with you today. Thank you for your time. How are things going?

Dr. Lydia Essary: Oh, really? Well,  I'm  excited to be here. Thanks for having me here today.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely, absolutely. Well,  for folks who don't know who you are, do you mind telling 'em a little bit about yourself?

Dr. Lydia Essary: Sure. I'm a dermatopathologist in Dallas.  For those who haven't heard that designation, I do pathology, but only pathologist is skin. So my, my life is around an  outpatient center. No, I'm in my private lab and we read a lot of biopsies. I mean, coming from our different clients, I don't do hospital work,  so that also explains how my schedule is a little bit flexible  because I,  I don't get calls.

 I don't get very.  Emergency rashes. We do get rash cases now, but it's a little different from being in a hospital setting.  So my journey in commercial real estate started about  10, 11 years ago, where  when we started with single families, yeah, like most people do,  but quickly we evolved to.  To multifamily, especially, I'm talking about my journey because my husband had been doing a lot, a lot of single families for a while, but I was not participating directly.

 So when we both started working together, it was like a combination of multifamily and single family.  Later  I would say several years later, we joined a coaching  program that is based here in Dallas, and we met a lot of  other people,  so we were able to syndicate some properties. First I started as a passive investor, but.

Didn't take us too long, but maybe a little over a year. And we started  operating as gps too. So we have three of those deals  there. Two are in Texas. One is in, no, actually two are in DFW, one is in Houston.  We have built a large portfolio of units through the passive investing too. So it's been exciting.

But I would say  I'm an example of somebody who has.  Done this journey, develop this business while working in medicine. So that's possible  too. And I like to emphasize to my  colleagues, you have to quit. You like really commercial real estate. You could invest. You really need to set your goals. See the, see the science, see how much is your time you wanna commit to investing because.

You see your also what are your objective? No. You, it, it really just to increase your networks or more cash and based on that you can decide how to go.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, you, you don't need to quit your W2 and go full bore into real estate investing. It, it can be really helpful to  invest in real estate gets. Some cash flow, get some extra income  and use that to kind of cut back over time if you'd like, or just kind of get that,  you know, buffer or some freedom.

And  I think folks hear financial freedom a lot and they think like, oh, I just have to burn the boats and go all in and quit my job and never practice medicine again.  It could just be some degree of freedom, which might be like, Hey,  I have some passive income coming in. I'm gonna just work one less half day, or something like that.

And so  it can really be flexible in that regard.  Lydia, you mentioned starting  about 10 to 11 years ago in single family homes and that your husband was also investing in real estate.  What was it like, kind of the transition from single family homes to multi-family?  And then a,  a follow-up question would be what was it like  joining forces with your husband and, and kind of partnering together on your real estate journey?

Dr. Lydia Essary: Oh,  let  tell you, the multifamily was, I would describe it an accident  because we had signed up for.  Single family rehab workshop. It was on the weekend. We truly didn't know that day two was gonna be multifamily.  So a new a different mentor came on board. And we got really excited about  we're listening all the tax advantages, all the benefits, the economies of scale, how you can work in groups, how you can leverage the knowledge of other people.

 It was like a eye opener for us. So when they announced there were gonna be another workshop of three days, multifamily, like a couple of weeks later.  We immediately sign up for that, not to learn a little more, but landing in that initial day was an accident.  We we're trying to, you know, buy distress homes and, you know, make them ready and actually keeping them.

We have never done flipping. No. We wanted to get rehab  homes and keep them for  long term. No. So we had some of those homes for a while. I mean, when, later when we learned more multifamily, we were trying to,  slowly getting rid of them because they are more.  They're more high maintenance. Even if you have somebody managing them, they require a little more attention.

 But going back to the, your second question. Yeah, it was interesting. I, lemme tell you, prior to me joining the investing, I was just a mom and a doctor and I thought I was going too much. I mean, really, I think I was a little too spoiler  because my husband did everything because he got his job  being a dad.

But  he comes from his family. He was just used to invest in single family, so he had seen them before. So he always kept some single families.  He tried to get me involved and I was not interested.  I remember those days, ah, too much. I always  had some sort of excuse and, and it was not until I  read Kiosaki that that book has  been a game changer for a lot of people.

Where it  was an impact on me too,  that I was the one actually looking for the workshop,  learn how to find resources, do this rehab a little more efficient. That was my excuse.  We were working fine. If he is, I mean, we've been working fine until now. He's slowed down a little  now because of health reasons.

Know that he can go as fast as before, but,  but it was a good like we had a new journey to together where in the past there was a little more like just being parents and our jobs.  So it was a good move.

Dr. Alex Schloe: You mentioned being just a mom and just a doctor. Those are both full-time, busy jobs, so I don't wanna glaze over that, that's for sure.  But I'm sure it was probably helpful to join forces. Was with your husband  and, and you know, invest together and go through that journey together.  Was there anything that you learned during that process about working together that might be helpful?

If people are  listening to this and they're thinking,  ah, man, I really want to get my wife on board or my husband on board so we can go  through this real estate investing journey together.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Yes, I think  I would recommend, I know husband has problems with getting their wives involved sometimes.  Getting like an outside party invite to go because like I landed in that workshop because it had,  I had to hear from somebody else to pay attention. It's a common complaint. I'm sorry. You know, the husband say, oh, my wife doesn't listen to me.

I don't know why. I see, I remember my parents saying the same thing. No, but.  He was trying to tell me, you need to invest your money. I know we have much savings together, but the money you are making, he was trying to like keep it  and he knew my 401k was not producing much money.  And you think I worry. I was not worried at all.

I say, your money, my money. Just invest whatever you can. I mean, I'm not gonna get upset.  We don't make a lot of money.  It's just lack of knowledge. We take it for granted that we have high salaries and we should be fine. Even my parents told me, yeah, you get a good job, you're gonna be fine. And  we, you and I know that's not true.

You know, we really need to prepare to it's not only preparing for retirement,  it's preparing for the life you wanna live.  I clearly remember that example that  Kiki used in his book when his wife finally got interested in real estate.  And she says, oh, I wanna buy a car. I. So how do you wanna pay for that car?

Who is gonna pay for that?  So he gave her the idea, but maybe you can buy a rental  like I'm doing and that those $300 I wanna pay for your car with there you have,  you can have a car every year if you want.  And Kinky Osaka. I got to see her later at another conference. She remembers that. So yeah, I remember how my husband got me involved,  but I would advise the.

 Spouses in general, not only the doctors, is you can find a workshop  or it  could be a friend or some outsider who can influence, because I think,  I don't know if it's a women nature, it could, it could just be mean. You know, when you hear several people advocating for something, you start paying attention.

 Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. It might be good.  I know for me, I.

I think that's great advice. It's, it's, it's true. I, I. Think back  to like my days playing baseball. And my dad would be like, he was one of the coaches and he'd  tell me what to do. He'd be like, Hey, you, you know, you're,  you're,  you're you know, pulling your shoulder out on the pitch and that's why you're not hitting it, or whatever it may be.  And I wouldn't do it 'cause he told me.  And then the other coach would tell me the same thing. I'd do it and it would work. And so sometimes that outsider perspective, having another voice  also telling you, you know, Hey, here are some of the benefits. Here's a great idea about real estate investing  that can be really helpful.

I completely agree. I think that's a great way to do it.  And for folks who are wondering what book Lydia is referring to, rich Dad, poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Great book, if you haven't read it  really can like  completely change your mindset in terms of  financial freedom and investing and  looking at things as assets and liabilities.

And  I love that example too, and I think it's helpful for doctors to hear that like.  If you're thinking about, Hey, I want to go buy that new fancy car, or whatever else outta residency,  think about, Hey, could you buy an asset that then cash flows  the monthly payment of that car? So then you're paying for that car with an asset,  with a cash flow of that asset, like a  rental property.

So it's a really cool way to think about things and do things.  Not saying that the fancy car is a bad thing, but the rental property is gonna serve you better over time.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Right. Yeah. Having that outsider view helps. I think it could be unconscious. That's the way we do it. I say, well, I don't wanna hear, I hear to. I think it's unconscious because you see, you trust your husband, you trust your spouse, but  for some things you need a little,  in this case, it was the outsider in the conference  and me seeing a lot of people doing that, I mean started asking, Hey,  how like, like the multifamily,  it was good to find a network.

I definitely tell people if you wanna advance quickly in multifamily. And in general  in  real estate,  having a network of a community of people that think like you that are looking for the same purpose, they will not provide a lot of resources, a lot of advice, and  sometimes partnering with them.  So

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, it's a, it's a great way to, to get started, but a great way  to, to really grow faster with that support system and with that network.  Lydia, you've gone to a lot of conferences and you know, been in,  been in rooms with some awesome people,  and I know those conferences cost money, and I know those coaching programs cost money.

Did you, did you struggle at all with the thought of like, oh man, I'm paying a lot of money for this coaching program, for example.  Is it gonna be worth it or not? And kind of  what would you say to folks who are on the fence about potentially  doing a coaching program or joining a mastermind or something like that?

When it comes to the financial side of things, that there is that upfront cost.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Definitely not. I don't know. A little bit could be. Well, I know we, we all doctors come from different backgrounds, but maybe I learned this from my parents. They,  they always told me when you want quality and expediting,  you  have to pay the price  and it might cost you. But I didn't feel,  I mean, well, it was both decisions.

No, we feel bad paying that high membership for the coaching and I think it.  Quickly because just buying the first property. I remember when I first joined  a mastermind here in Dallas,  there was a curious thing that  they say after you close your first multifamily, we'll give you your your membership, the price of membership back.

No.  They did. I, I was thinking why is that? I mean, I never understood the rationale.  I think it because they used our success as a promotion of the business  we were shown many times. So Lydia and Frank came and did this property  after only so many months of being here, and they found, I remember what first property was a solo investment.

It was just a. Two of us, you know, and it was a large property in,  in here, in DFW, you know, so they have used that to promote their own program. A lot know, so we got paid back.  But when I joined a second  coaching program, no, they didn't have that incentive. But still they just.  Feel, we're so busy. If you evaluate the value of your time, how much your hours are worth,  and you're probably gonna advance,  advance the same when you, I mean, nobody's telling you you're not capable of finding  out how to do this,  but I think  a mentorship is like a  shortcut.

To what you wanna do.  It definitely accelerates your progress if you know how to use your resources because they put them out there and you can judge who is good, who is bad, where to go, and  I think it's definitely a  shortcut  and  an accelerator  for what you want to do.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I completely agree. Sometimes folks just look at that  initial cost that they have to  pay, and they don't think about, well, if this gets me  a multifamily property, for example, six months earlier, you've. Probably made back the initial cost and more of that program, potentially. And so  thinking about it from the lens of like, okay, what is,  what is the cost of me not doing this?

Or what is the cost of this taking a lot longer to do  if I try and do it myself? Because the information's out there, you can  find all the information you need probably for free  on YouTube and BiggerPockets and some of these other great platforms. To buy multifamily or to buy assisted living, or to do whatever type of real estate investing you want to, but it's that accountability.

It's the community, it's the networking  that's the secret sauce that's gonna help you reach your goals  and reach 'em way quicker than you could ever imagine.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Definitely, yeah. I consider the value of our time, especially those who are still employed, not like me. I remain.  I know I have very good hours. I work  four days a week. I  plus all the vacation I have, I really have a lot of extra  time. Compared to some clinicians? No, the clinical people. Yeah. You guys depend on the patient coming and you cannot get out early.

That can accelerate my day if I want.  So my specialty,  I can,  I'm grateful that it's flexible and I think it has allowed me and gimme more time to do it, but definitely mentorship helps.  The community, having a mastermind, I would  have no hesitation. If that's what I want and I'm ready,  I will pay for that.

I'm sure you see the returns  quickly, you made me  acceptable, but the more properties you do, the more tax advantage you see  at the end of the year, and that has accrued the law. I think  if I like to talk about taxes when I talk about investment, because I have seen that, that one of the mayor plays  the mayor benefits of having in real estate.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. Well, let's, let's pivot to that. What,  what tax savings or tax benefits have you seen throughout  your career and,  and how's that helped you save on taxes through smart real estate investing?

Dr. Lydia Essary: Well  in multifamily, let's say you are just a passive you know, passive losses can offset passive income.  And even just there, because I remember for multifamily, we were not active from the start,  but.  It  has to have a real estate specific accountant who is  teaching you how to,  I mean,  you need to pay for the advisory term.

Again, you're not gonna get this for free. I tell people, you wanna learn, you gotta pay little bit. But we pick, we selected accountants that were specific to real estate,  so we had a lot of multifamily investing in the first years passive.  Then when we started active, we.  Continue during the past, we  could, we could see in the K ones  the high depreciation.

We're talking about the good years, no. With Trump putting this bonus of depreciation, the 100% bonus of depreciation.  So we got benefit in several  investments. So, you know, you have gains to, from this property who have distribution. So all that income  gets immediately.  You know, shelter by your passive losses.

 So it's like if you have an extra a hundred thousand dollars a year, you some  gains from passive income. I mean, that is  sheltered if you have enough losses for that and then depends on your tax bracket. But I think all the  physicians  where similar tax  bracket's, not so.  And then regarding my income, that didn't happen until my  husband converted to real estate professional status because we, we didn't know, lemme tell you about that.

Even though he had been doing  real estate for a long time and he was deducting everything, all the losses.  We didn't, well, he was working. No, but the accountant we had at that  time,  we seemed very good. No,  he never say, Hey, you could do it. You reduce your hours. You could do this. Because when the, I think the accountants,  I think they don't do it unless you pay for the advisory time.

They get paid.  They always told us, I remember  he was telling my cousin, you need to buy something. You need to buy more stuff you need to buy. So you have more deductions. But.  We were never thought about the real estate professional status until we advanced Being the coaching and getting better  networks.

 So when that happened, we could have,  because we had a lot of losses, we could have offset my W2 income.  So  those have been the, the major ones. I seem to the point of  no, not paying taxes for the last. Four years maybe.  And that's a big chunk of money because, you know, MA W2, I think at 10 99 before this last job, because in, in pathology it's very common to be employed.

You know, 10 99, 2, they sel  you find a business  owner. I mean, those were more common in the past, I think,  but  yeah. Is with the losses until now, we, you can carry them forward and keep saving your income and what you do with the money is you just  reinvest it again.  We were not there really to spend the money.

We don't have that fancy,  luxurious life. We like to travel, but I would say we travel really very simple. So we get to do everything we like.  But we get to invest a lot  because that's, maybe we was enjoying seeing the money growing and what  was in the beginning, just thinking of having more  cash for us or having a more comfortable retirement.

Now it's becoming more, well, maybe we can leave a legacy know.  Two kids  are adults, but  I was, we were thinking, no, maybe we can do something for them. Something that we  never saw before  because I was not trained by my parents. Like, you have to think of the,  the other  generations. But it's common,  you know, from the conferences we attend and we learn about generational wealth.

 Oh, maybe so. So we're working on that now. Even working with it.  How to  managing all our state and  just trying to get more  updated on that.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's amazing. Yeah. Yep. Haven't paid taxes in four years. That is awesome.  And it's all completely legal. And  I, I agree.

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Dr. Alex Schloe:  I think it's really important to work with a CPA, a tax accountant who,  who understands real estate and understands how  to read the IR code and how that.  Applies to real estate. 'cause there's so many different ways that real estate  can benefit you from a tax perspective that your,  you know, typical CPA who doesn't have real estate experience, may not know, may not,  you know, wanna put the effort in or whatever that may be  from a tax perspective, Amanda Hahn is amazing.

She's been on the podcast twice.  Brandon Cox is a friend of ours. He's another really fantastic  CPA who has a lot of real estate experience. There's a lot of folks out there who do great work.  But that can be a, a game changer, not to mention the real estate professional status. So  you know, to kind of in summary of what Lydia was saying  before, real estate professional status,  you could offset the.  Passive  gain. So if you were an lp, a limited partner investor  on an apartment complex, and say you made $5,000 in cash flow  and you had this depreciation of $20,000, you could offset that $5,000 in taxes  that you'd still have a $15,000 depreciation on passive income  that would carry over  with real estate professional status.

That can carry over to active income. So if your spouse is,  you know, not employed or they're interested in doing another path,  potentially getting real estate professional status can be a great way because  though  those losses can be carried over against active income, which is what Lydia's done,  where she's paid no taxes in four years which is absolutely amazing  through real estate professional status.

So  really, really cool way to do that.  Lydia, let's go back to that first large deal that you did. You mentioned that you, it was you, just you and your husband solo  after the coaching program.  What was that like? How'd that deal go? What were you feeling and thinking when you, when you did that deal? I.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Well, we were really in, no,  on that one, there was a 118 door  apartment complex  in Uli.  It's maybe only  15 miles  south from here. No, so very central area. I, I'm very central  here. And I,  I was very innocent. I think  we both, no, we didn't know exactly. I mean, we knew what we were gonna,  what we were doing.

We knew we had the coaches,  but we didn't know what was coming up regarding management. That was what the problem was.  I mean, the closing, everything went fine. I mean, we got some incentive for the seller because this was  a distressed property.  Distress property means that it is not stabilized and is a lot of innovations.

It probably needs to be  because  of paying.  Something, I don't remember, something strange happen at that point. I think I was traveling,  I was traveling a lot, and my husband ended up doing most of the management even though he was working too.  But our experience was good. Regarding the acquisition, the, I think we got a very good price.

 were the days where you could buy a.  I think we pay only 37,000 per door. You wouldn't believe that,  what, 2013? You cannot buy anything like that anymore. I mean, lemme tell you, the property looked pretty, I mean, in a good location, but it was the bad management. There were a lot of  tenants that were not paying  and, and the visibility was good. There was a school very close nearby. We learned tons of marketing strategies,  but our management company didn't have a good presence in the property.  We had a lot of questionable expenses. That was in my main concern.  The owners seem to be very confident. I'm talking about the owner of the, of the management company.

 There were no base here. That's another error we made. We,  we, we saw we should have.  Hired a company with more presence here. They were based in Colorado, so  that was a no no. I would  advise somebody don't,  don't do that. I know they were highly recommended. They had good reviews, but  even him says, no, I need to talk to my regional manager to see what's going on with your property.

 They had a lot of  extra expenses. I think. There was a mixed management there  on our.  Net income was falling, falling low now because we had to pay the mortgage and all the expenses. So  we were very close to fall on the red. And at that point we decided and it was almost a year, we had to change management companies at that point because my husband kept telling me, we need to give an opportunity.

You're too quick to change. Say, well, I don't wanna on the other side, and  we don't have investors. The money has to come from us not to compensate the problem.  But something good this  management company did, because I don't wanna  completely take credit from them. The owner was trying to help, he traveled several times to Dallas and  got the property under code.

So it depends on where you buy your property. They have different  requirements of  since need to be built or  it looked like when the remodeling was done, it was not.  Strictly that to code, and it was sold to us that way. So a lot of the money that we have borrowed from the bank to do this rehab had to be used to fix the codes first because the city kept sending us letters.

No, we had to fix that first.  And he gathered that at least. So before completing the agreement with them because they understood that we were not happy with all the  extra expense,  the mismanagement, he says, okay, yeah. I'm not gonna hold you up to the agreement. You,  I understand where you guys wanna move.

We had another  company lined up and. We did a transition that was friendly until now. We talked to him recently. I we're talking to the owner.  He knows that that was like a bad experience for both of us.  We, we try to separate friendly, but  the new company Rapid  based in here in Dallas rapidly work on putting more presence  there.

There were two people in the leasing office all the time.  They were able to retain and faster, and one of them was  even really good. I mean, we made friends with the managers. They were acting like in the old days, they knew there was a school close to the property and some small businesses, they were working there and living papers like in the old days.

 In addition to all the advertisement online.  We were  able to retain on that very well. So our second and third year went really well. The occupancy, the occupancy raised from  were low, lemme tell you, maybe 73%, very low  to nineties, 94 at the point. We, we,  we really  were not thinking of selling the property, but  some guy from New Jersey came and says,  Hey, you, are you selling your property?

No, they approach,  I wasn't here.  The owner of the management company said, yeah, somebody is interested in your property. No. Will you consider that because I know it's been a really challenge for you with you traveling, me, having my travel in.  I told Frank, yeah, maybe it's a good opportunity. So we came  very way ahead of the price that we sold it.

I mean, some people tease me, they say You could have gotten more,  but I said, no. I think I'm very happy with the money, maybe with the property and we all  exceeding a very good way. But I think if I had had more experience with management,  you would have been an easier ride. Because really  there were times they were scary or telling us these are all properties.

 It was a sea property.  They had a chiller instead of each, you only having the air conditioning. So I remember when the chiller broke in the middle of the summer, and this is Texas.  It was so scary because, oh my God, we cannot lose, we could lose a lot of  tenants right there.  They get mad. I mean, they could,  you know?

Yes.  Because it, to me, we don't fix that quickly  if like, you are breaching the, the green, you know, it's a hour  for,  so we had to add rapidly to fix it.  In one case, I think we even had to buy one  all  coming on us.  Like  I tell, you know, investors all coming on us and whatever little money we have from the property.

 So it was it was a true challenge, but good. I mean, we, I think we.  Gain some recognition at the end for having,  for having brought a property that was distressed to bring it to  and then being profitable to the  point of selling it for profit.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's amazing. Yeah. What a, what a great story. And  I, I, I  think we might have glossed over the fact that you said 118 units for that first deal. So that's Amazing. That you just went for it and that you felt confident and you,  you just, you just went for that deal and really, and really crushed it.

Ultimately over time. It sounds like the big takeaway was  property management,  local property,  property management, really important to have them be local  vetted and you know, how important good property management can be for multifamily.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Yeah, I, I would say the other advice is  don't be afraid to ask your  regional manager  or the owner,  I seen this guy rely too much on the  owner. I.  I don't know if they were told to operate that way, but we were expecting a more independent person who results things quickly and maybe somebody with a little more experience.

That's the way it looked. First, they were  cordial.  Nice, but I don't think they were knew exactly what everything was. The accounting.  Was done in Colorado for me. I was  sitting just to find the account.  I mean, there's nobody here in Dallas. No. So that didn't happen with the second company. So  it was inexperience on our part to accept the deal.

 Like,  like this. No one, everything  look good. They give you a proposal.  They made  adjustments to the  contract.  You can probably control when they call. You know, because you, they cannot be calling you all the time. You have to put it  top, not  they say the expense cannot  be more than $800 and  they need to start calling you.

 But for other ones, they have more flexibility to go ahead and fix.  No. So we, we adjusted a lot of things and they were agreeable. They, they help  and.  Of course a rape that was trying to sell us their agreement. He was very good, but well, we never  thought it could be a problem. He's having this extra management out of town.

I would.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. Well  kind of crazy first deal and you know, now I know the portfolio is over 3,700 units.  Is that correct?

Dr. Lydia Essary: Yeah. Only I would say  is, I think it's  the number, right? 613 are we are GPS in 613 of those. The other are passive,  passive management. Yeah. We, we have invested a lot of properties that are large  are 304.

Dr. Alex Schloe: that's awesome.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Yeah, investing with more experienced people, you know. But we have only an LP  role then, but  that's one of the guys  recently  I, how he could do that  experienced In spite of all the difficulty, he was able to sell one of the property because he,  he likes to return the money like after five years, no, it had been five years  and he has invest, or some of them needed the money.

 In our case, we didn't need the money. He said, well, I'm gonna try to own what everybody wants, and  he found a decent value. He  actually offered us like a 1.95 equity multiple  at the end of five years.  You know, with all the situation  last year, that was not possible.  I think we got like 67. Percent gain no.

Over the initial investment, which I think it was very good.  And when he chose a new property that he got in Dallas, very good at a beautiful property, and only somebody like him will get a property like that because he's well known. No.  At a good price. We decided to invest again with him because I, I was thinking, oh my God, I need to have some sort of loss this year because I'm gonna have a gain.

You always  your gain.  So yes. Yeah, we invest with you again. We  definitely luxury when you invest in town that you can, we actually draw away. The property was beautiful. Really was amazed how beautiful it was.  And we reinvested the money. He paid us back.  So only people  that have been in this business for a long time and it was close to the end of the year and the seller knows that they will be able to close.

They won't have problems  raising the capital.  So he got it and we're gonna get it lost. They were excited about  need to accumulate our  operating laws.  That's the way you upset your, your gain.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that the tax game.  That's awesome. What are some, what are, yeah, as we kind of wrap things up here, what are  a few lessons you've learned over the last. Couple years in multifamily. We talked about before the podcast, how  it's, it's been a challenging time with interest rates RA rising so rapidly and bridge debt and so forth.

What are some things that you've learned that you would want to pass off to folks who are interested in investing in multifamily or just getting started?

Dr. Lydia Essary: Well, for multifamily, my big lessons would be, I used to think that the property alone will help you decide as a big mistake. The number one factor for me to decide on the property is who is running the property, who acquired, and who is gonna be running the.  Like I mentioned this example of this good.

Number two would be the, the market. Where is the property located? Is there a good  location?  Is the population growing? Is the employment growing the location?  I mean well, it might be the way we were trained with our mentor biggest state that  is business friendly and, landlord friendly.  Not that we're against the  tenant, no, but we,  we wouldn't like to invest in a state where it takes you nine, 10 months to do an eviction  because they decided not to pay.

No. That seems to be unfair too because  there is operations you need to keep running the business and you need your, that income not so  business friendly. Landlord friendly. And the last, the third factor is the property itself. Yeah.  It has to be a cash flow and property.  Ideally, no,  it doesn't matter from where the money is coming from.

Could be just operations. So there is a value add opportunity, but  I would  list them in that order.  Number one, the GP, team. Number two,  the market, and number three,  the property.  Look at those three.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, that, that is great advice. I, I completely agree.  What are some things that you're working on now or what's coming up for you in the future?

Dr. Lydia Essary: When we're still underwriting, the prices are coming down a little.  I went to see a property yesterday, but still the numbers don't work. I mean, it's, I think the salary is asking a little too much. It's a good property.  The inter rates are still the same, so  I think something needs to happen here. Everybody tries to be positive, but in, I think in the multifamily environment,  it's, it could still be the same all this year according to some of the brokers I, because I like to see.  And the taxes, something needs to be done about the taxes because in Texas, not  only they increase every year, I know in some other states it's more stable,  like  Arizona and not Phoenix.

There are great properties there, and the taxes are raised only  every four years. They're very stable.  But here so many people are moving here, really, taxes are needed not to build schools.  Something needs to be done and I hear good things that there are, some states are trying to put limit on property taxes, so I hope something is done.

 Insurance having another factor. Hearing has hard too, and that, I think that could be  regulated a little too because it's true we have bad weather here, but.  Come on. They were insuring us for much less. Yes. Well, five years ago. I mean,  or this, I don't know. I think it's lack of control  a little bit.  But  I would say keep looking because the housing business is  a good one and you are in the housing business.

The multifamily  is a good one. People need a place to live.  The government is all, we're gonna give incentives, so don't quit evaluating properties or say, and if you wanna join.  A,  a coaching group or a mastermind. I mean, they have different names. I do that. I think it's  don't pay a lot of from, go to a workshop, maybe with them, something on the weekend.

And if you like the way they conduct the meetings, maybe you can join them.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's great.  You're, you're speaking at a event coming up, is that correct?

Dr. Lydia Essary:  Yeah, there is a group called  social Media Doctors. They go by, so  Docs and they're organizing an investment  conference in July.  I think it's July 19th to the 23rd.  But it is, but  you, you can look it up and I'm sure you're gonna share that link. No social media.  Doctors and it's gonna be exclusively dedicated to  people.

I mean to teach  doctors about investing so they can feel  comfortable,  but they're gonna interview people or ask people like me, you know, who have invested for some time in different area because not everybody does multifamily and  there is gonna be a lot coaching about how to.  Build your mindset.

 That was very important.  Some people think that by saving the money, they'll say they're growing the money that way. But no, you really need to  transform your mindset if you don't have it already. Some people have it know  from just being  I would say a doctor, a working doctor, to being a more I would say a rich mind to being somebody who can actually create wealth  because you can easily do it with.

 Investing in real estate.

Dr. Alex Schloe: That's amazing. Yeah. Well,  looking forward to hearing more about that event and we'll include the links in the show notes for that. Lydia, folks wanna reach out to, you  know, more potentially invest with you. How can they get ahold of you?

Dr. Lydia Essary: I, I'd say I have a, I have a website that's the easiest one. If you Google me li so you can see the, the spelling there.  The name of my company is Lyft Equity Invest. And that's Lift With An Eye? No, not with A-Y-L-I-F team. No Lift equity. And also you can have a good LinkedIn page. You can again Google me if I meet it.

 That's the way actually a lot of people contact me through LinkedIn. I also provided  an email you're welcome to use and you can find the website.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Sounds great. Yeah, those links will be in the show notes as well.  Yeah, I agree. I've been using LinkedIn more lately. It's been really fun to connect with people on there  as well. So yeah, LinkedIn is a really cool platform.  Well that's awesome, Lydia.  Thank you so much for your time and coming on. The podcast.

I'm excited to see  where this next year takes you. Excited to hear more about the events you're speaking at, and it's been awesome getting to know you today on the podcast, so I appreciate it.

Dr. Lydia Essary: Oh, thank you. This is fun. I love, I mean,  my mission is to share.  My experience and share with,  with  us, with the doctors,  because some people seeing doctors have an easy life. That's not true.  And I see. I think the sooner they start the better it's gonna be for.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely. I couldn't agree. Could not agree more.  That's a great way to wrap things up. But with that, it's been Dr. Lydia Essary and Dr. Alex Schloe with another episode  of the Physicians and Properties Podcast signing off.  

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