On this episode of Ask The Experts, Alka talks to Rhea Razon-Wu about how she started her journey from working as a physician to real estate. We all go through tough times and it’s in those tough times we discover ourselves and we realise who we are becoming. Rhea’s story will truly inspire you to do what she is doing today.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I’m an immigrant from the Philippines who came here in 2004 to start a residency training programme as a family medicine physician. I didn’t know anything except the world of medicine, I didn’t have a finance or real estate background. Growing up, my parents never taught me about having a business or even apartments of my own. During the residency training programme I started saving to invest in stocks and CDs, which was a ladder approach. I didn’t know back then that I could lose money through stocks, but my employer was investing 50% of what I was selling into stocks, so I did it.
• After that experience I decided I could not lose another investment or any more money, so I invested in my own personal education, I bought a lot of books, I went to the library and I followed mentors in my space. Then I started learning about real estate. I realised I was an employee and was being heavily taxed and I could do a lot of good with the extra that businesses don’t get taxed, so I slowly transitioned to being a business and an investor.
• When you’re starting out you have to make your money work. There are expenses that you need to cut costs, one of the ways that I cut costs was labour: I was doing the cleaning in the apartments, doing the lawn mowing, doing the snow shovelling and I cried at night because I didn’t realise this was going to be hard. I’d been a doctor, on a high pedestal and now I’m the lowest of the low – a cleaner or a housekeeper. But I had to do what I had to do to build up my mentality and mindset – I saw my future and I saw my potential which was owning several properties. Now I own several properties. I'm able to afford a housekeeper now, a lawnmower guy, and a snow shovelling company. If you want to succeed in this game you have to learn it and do everything in the beginning, like building up callouses.
• During Covid I realised that my apartments are brick and mortar and I cannot just rely on brick and mortar, especially when the government tells you there’s no evictions allowed. Thank god my tenants are physicians, medical students and nurses, so during the pandemic all the medical professionals were needed and employed, so my business was protected. But despite that, in the back of my mind I need to be online, so I thought “how can I bring my bricks and mortar into an online business?” I can share my story in a book, which became ‘Apartment Prescription’.

BEST MOMENTS

‘My husband and I didn’t realise when we were buying our first property that it was the 2008 housing crisis, we put a 20% down payment of our hard-earned money into that condominium – our first American dream home. Three years later we had to relocate to Delaware and I didn’t realise house values could crash or that the value is determined by your neighbours. But, we couldn’t sell our property without taking a loss, so we kept it and I became an emergency landlord, but the expenses went up to more than I could afford to rent it out.’

‘It took me to go through that painful loss, but without that experience I wouldn’t be where I am today.’

‘When life throws you a ball, do you take cover or do you pick up that ball and throw it back?’

‘If you are committed to improving your household, if you want to give back to your community, you do whatever it takes, even if it’s the lowest of the low.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Rhea Razon-Wu is a real estate professional who transitioned from her career as a licensed physician in order to begin investing in apartments full time. While she began her real estate journey with the intention of impacting her family and educating her children on financial literacy, she has far exceeded her own expectations. Now, Rhea has had the chance to impact hundreds in her community both nationally and internationally by making the transition from being a medical practitioner to a full-time real estate professional.

Website: https://www.apartmentprescription.com/

ABOUT THE HOST

Alka Sharma is a Real Estate Investor. She has a zest for life, helping her clients gain knowledge and insights into property investing. Alka takes her time to make sure her client’s needs are met.

Alka is an accomplished, professional ballroom dancer having competed both nationally & internationally.

Alka is grateful for all her experiences that have shaped her today as a successful Entrepreneur, Real Estate investor.

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