In today’s episode, we are joined by Harry Nima Zeggara, MD. Dr. Harry graduated from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Facultad De Medicina Alberto Hurtado in 2003. He specializes in Critical Care Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Critical Care, and Pulmonary Disease. Being a busy doctor it didn’t stop him from investing and pursuing a career in real estate, Now Harry and his wife are involved in commercial and multifamily apartment complexes syndications and helping other physicians invest in real estate.
Highlights:
[00:00 - 05:43] Opening Segment
- Harry Nima Zegarra is a Peruvian physician and real estate investor who helps other doctors invest passively in real estate.
- Harry started investing about five to six years ago when they moved to Dallas Fort Worth and started acquiring single-family homes long term rentals.
- They then transitioned into commercial real estate after finding it difficult to manage their single-family homes.
- Now they are involved in multifamily apartment complexes, and syndications.
[05:43 - 10:59] How to invest in real estate as a physician
- Harry joined a mentorship group here in Dallas, which gave him the confidence to be open and share his ideas with others.
- He adds that it's very important to have references when investing in real estate.
- He shares that it was easier for him as he was a physician, which gives a good network of people who can help him invest in real estate.
- Bringing on other physicians is important because they can help spread the word about real estate and help educate others about the benefits of investing.
[10:59 - 16:21] Harry's Story: Taking Action, Building a Portfolio and Positioning It for the Future
- Harry shares that he and his wife were looking for a house to live in when they moved to Richmond, Virginia for fellowship.
- After 3 years they sold the property and were happy that the value appreciated and moved to Texas.
- In south Texas, they bought a piece of land to build a home on but later changed their plans and sold the land
- With that experiences, it gave them the idea to do real estate.
- They are now based in Dallas and own a large multi-family portfolio
[16:22 - 16:59] Closing Segment
- Reach out to Harry
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- Links Below
- Final Words
Tweetable Quotes
”In some areas, there's a discrepancy between areas, where the people are moving in and out. We see this discrepancy and for now, we're assuming that it's going to continue to grow, but it is very important to do our underwriting, to not expect that explosive growth in the next couple of years. And that's the way that you should be doing a conservative underwriting.”
- Harry Nima Zegarra
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Connect with Harry Nima Zegarra by visiting their website www.nimaeuity.com
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Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
[00:00:35] Sam Wilson: Harry Nima Zegarra is a Peruvian physician, entrepreneur, and real estate investor. He helps other doctors invest passively in real estate. Harry, welcome to the
[00:00:45] Harry Nima Zegarra: show.
[00:00:47] Harry Nima Zegarra: Hey Sam. , Thank you so much for having me today in
[00:00:49] Sam Wilson: your show. Pleasure's mine, Harry. There's three questions. I ask every guest who comes in the show in 90 seconds or less.
[00:00:54] Sam Wilson: Can you tell me, where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get. .
[00:00:57] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes, absolutely. We started about five to six years ago when we moved to Dallas Fort Worth. We have been here in the us, like for 10 years already, but we were moving every two, three years. So, we were very interested in real estate and, When we arrived to Dallas, , we decided to start investing initially in single family homes, , long term rentals.
[00:01:16] Harry Nima Zegarra: And then after, a couple of years , three years or so, we were getting like already a couple of, , units under our belt and it was more and more difficult to manage. So we continue our education around that time. And, We decided to jump into, commercial real estate, which is where we are now.
[00:01:31] Harry Nima Zegarra: So commercial real estate, mainly, apartment complex syndications where we, work together with other, sponsors experience and sponsors. And, we buy apartment complexes , with the help of our investors. And, , how did we get there with a lot of effort, a lot of time education. Networking.
[00:01:50] Harry Nima Zegarra: And , and I always say at the end, , taking action, right? Be because all the prior ones like, are like, are important. If at the end you don't take action and you don't get anywhere
[00:01:58] Sam Wilson: at the end. Now you're a full time physician still though, right? Yes. That's correct.
[00:02:03] Sam Wilson: That's correct how did you find that time to educate yourself and to then take that plunge into bigger assets? What was the. thing, when you said, Hey, I'm gonna set aside X so I can do Y tell us about that. .
[00:02:15] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. Yes. And, , I can tell you, I mean, it's not easy, but you just have to be intentional, right?
[00:02:20] Harry Nima Zegarra: So you just have to find the time to do it. I'm a full-time physician. My wife is also a physician and she was working also full-time until just recently until November. you can imagine like both. With the full-time jobs and with two kids six and 10 years old and doing real estate at the same time, it was not easy task , but yeah, I mean, like I like, like again, we found something that we were very interested that we had a passion for it and we decided to
[00:02:46] Sam Wilson: go for it.
[00:02:47] Sam Wilson: How many single family homes did you guys have before? You said, man, this just isn't working.
[00:02:51] Harry Nima Zegarra: So we have nine units in the Dallas Fort-Worth area. And which is where we live right now. So we started five years ago or so. And we started acquiring every couple of months until we reached the ninth
[00:03:02] Sam Wilson: property.
[00:03:03] Sam Wilson: And what was the turning point when you said, man, I just, I can't do this. There's gotta be a better way.
[00:03:08] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yeah. Yeah. And don't get me wrong. I mean, we were doing good. I mean, I mean, actually, and that was the reason we were growing so fast and like the thing is that again, like the more single family homes or units, you have the more difficult it's to manage, even with that property manager.
[00:03:22] Harry Nima Zegarra: And I was mentioned this and every single decision all the responsibilities and liabilities. Specifically on you, right? And we found ourselves like every single week, like talking with our property manager about like small and big problems that we could have in every single unit.
[00:03:40] Sam Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So talk to us about that transition then to multi-family. How did you get involved in your first deal and what would you suggest to somebody else maybe in your same position.
[00:03:51] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. Yes. so We found ourself already with nine units and it was difficult to manage.
[00:03:56] Harry Nima Zegarra: It was taking out like already a lot of our time. And we found ourselves that we were not able to scale that quickly. And we always hear the stories about people who invest in single family homes that at some point in their fifties or sixties, they're already with 80 units or 100 units and they don't know what to do with them.
[00:04:13] Harry Nima Zegarra: and then As need, like to unload them like very quickly or like a discount. So we decided to continue our education at that point. Like again was like about four, two years ago. and start going, to, to meetups, to conferences, to to listen to audio books. So I live like about half an hour from where I work in downtown Dallas.
[00:04:30] Harry Nima Zegarra: So, so that helped me like to. To listen to podcast like yours to listen to Audi books. And again I just continued that education and it brought me to multi-family apartment complexes now,
[00:04:42] Sam Wilson: apartments syndications. I know you, you said this early on was that you have found great sponsors to work alongside.
[00:04:49] Sam Wilson: If somebody wanted to go out today and they said, Hey, I wanna find a good sponsor in the multi-family syndication business. I mean, there's a lot to choose from. How did you select the people that you had ultimately ended up working right alongside.
[00:05:02] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yeah. And that's very important, right? Because multifamily is a team sport, am I always say I'm part of a team that, that is doing already this And the reason is because I'm a physician, I'm a full-time physician. So I wouldn't be able to do this by myself at all. Right. Because just trying to find apartments, trying to do the underwriting, trying to acquire them, trying to manage them is more than a full-time job. Right? And there's many people doing this already many people with a lot of experience that many people who are doing this for many.
[00:05:33] Harry Nima Zegarra: So I would do be doing this service to my investor or the people who are trusting me in trying just to do this myself. So I was able to partner out with different sponsors. Like initially I actually joined like a mentorship group here in like in Dallas forward. And that gave me like, again That I became very comfortable in being like in a group, like with a abandon mindset, right.
[00:05:56] Harry Nima Zegarra: So, and we know each other and we know each other for some time already. And we share like our underwriting and we share our notes and all of that. So it's very important. Always like to know who you're working with to ask for references to ask for, again, like prior projects, good and bad experiences.
[00:06:14] Harry Nima Zegarra: Right. Because again we will know from people like when they tell you about the great experiences and great, like the return on investment, but it's more important, like to know when they have had a problem and how they managed it. That's,
[00:06:26] Sam Wilson: that's exactly right. It remind me of us saying my dad always told us.
[00:06:29] Sam Wilson: He said, it's not, if you'll have problems, it's what you do when you have 'em. So, yes. Finding out that information I think is is really helpful with your sponsor. So you found a good sponsorship group and what was it that you were able to bring to the table? That they said, Hey, here's a way that you can plug in with this Harry.
[00:06:45] Sam Wilson: We'd love to have you on board. What did you bring to that general partnership that made it valuable for everyone?
[00:06:53] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. And this happens to, I believe to everyone who starts in real estate or specifically multifamily we, we start in the space, very excited and we think we can do everything. We want to learn everything.
[00:07:04] Harry Nima Zegarra: right. And and at some point we need to be honest with ourselves, right? And we need to find. The best thing that suits us and the and the field that we are stronger at. Right. So, I'm a physician. I have a good network of of people who have seen me in real estate already for a couple of years, have family, friends colleagues people in like the medical field.
[00:07:24] Harry Nima Zegarra: So, they, they were looking at me when I was doing already single family homes and long-term rentals. So when I told them like that I was switching into multi-family, they were on. And they were there to support us and the.
[00:07:36] Sam Wilson: Got it. That's that's really cool. Let's transition this conversation maybe a little bit, and we'll talk about what it's like to bring on other physicians.
[00:07:44] Sam Wilson: I know you said here that there in your bio that you spend it sounds like quite a bit of time helping other physicians passively invest in real estate. What have you built either? Either? I guess, tell us your process for how you bring a physician on maybe that doesn't know anything about real estate and you educate them such that they then feel comfortable investing in real estate with you.
[00:08:02] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. And we start from the fact that again, like you invest in what you're familiar with, right? Like in what you feel comfortable with. So most of us in the US, like in even in professions we're only familiar with stocks with the mutual funds with stock market. Right.
[00:08:18] Harry Nima Zegarra: And that's the way we invest, but we don't know that there are other. Alternative ways to invest and maybe even safer, and maybe even where you have more ways like to take advantage of that. So what what is important is again many physicians like us, they.
[00:08:32] Harry Nima Zegarra: They work very hard. They go through a long process of training, but at the end of their careers, they don't have enough financial education again and we try to help them and to bridge that gap, like in terms of just showing to them that the others ways to invest, right?
[00:08:46] Harry Nima Zegarra: And again they don't necessarily need to invest like in syndications but again they may be like interested in being more active, again, like in single family houses, we're doing something different. It's just again, like to have the options for them. Right,
[00:08:58] Sam Wilson: right. And so how do you, I guess, how do you approach that conversation with your colleagues?
[00:09:02] Sam Wilson: Is it something where they just come to you and say, Hey Harry, I hear you're investing in real estate. I'd love to learn more.
[00:09:06] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. Yes. They, so again, like we're working towards our financial independence and that's how we approach this conversation with many of our partners, right?
[00:09:15] Harry Nima Zegarra: So you would think again, as physicians, high earners we have a very comfortable life and we get good income. However, we get taxed very high. So, so, so that's one of the problems that we all have. Right. And also we're kind of trapped like again, We depend on one stream of income.
[00:09:32] Harry Nima Zegarra: Right. Which is our work. If something happens to us, we would be in, in serious trouble. So, so that's why I sometimes with we talk or discuss about these things about what would happen if something would have happened to me for example during the pandemic, right? So I would be in serious travel because I don't have any other source of income.
[00:09:50] Harry Nima Zegarra: So that's, when you start thinking about that you need to start investing somewhere else other than the stock.
[00:09:56] Sam Wilson: Right. Yeah. Assets that produce an income is is something we talk about quite a bit. And I think it's even becoming more relevant, today we're working exactly on what June 14th.
[00:10:06] Sam Wilson: And we've just watched here recently, the blood bath and the stock market and, oh, you know what, yes I want to buy things that, that no matter what the stock market is doing, it continues to produce an income. And I think that's. That's a really key point that I hadn't really thought about, and when it comes, for those of us who are in the business, yeah.
[00:10:24] Sam Wilson: I've got multiple sources of income, but as a physician or as a high income earner, there's. There's a single new one single source, right? Yeah. Getting that diverse diverse income stream is is certainly a need that it sounds like you're solving that's really cool. I love that.
[00:10:37] Sam Wilson: Tell us your story. A little bit of coming to from Peru then coming to the, becoming a doctor in the United States and then investing in real estate. Was it what was that journey like?
[00:10:47] Harry Nima Zegarra: That was, that was very interesting. so, so we came here to the states, my, my wife and I about 15 years ago.
[00:10:54] Harry Nima Zegarra: So we, we both are from Peru. We both did our medic, our medical school over there. Wow. So we were actually friends for seven to eight years. Until we decided to come here to the us, we started dating and then we got married. And so we came here we did our training again, like we were in different states because of the nature of our training.
[00:11:12] Harry Nima Zegarra: We were in Pennsylvania. We were in Virginia for the followship. And then we end up like in south Texas, initially in a private practice set up like for a couple of years. And after that we decided to came to to, to Dallas and finally to settle here. So we were always in interested in real estate.
[00:11:29] Harry Nima Zegarra: And actually one of our first encounters with real estate was like when I was, when we were moving to, to Richmond, Virginia for my fellowship. So we, it was around 2011 and we needed like to find a place to leave. Right. And we didn't want to rent initially. So we decided to buy like a small townhouse.
[00:11:46] Harry Nima Zegarra: It like, it was a short sale actually. So , and we didn't know anything about short sales in that moment. So we thought it was like actually a short process, but actually it was a long process and like a very long process. There's nothing short about a short sale. Yes. Exactly. So, and at the end of the three years, we decided to sell that property and we were very nicely, so surprised that it had appreciated.
[00:12:07] Harry Nima Zegarra: Very good. And then like in, in south Texas, we we, at some point we were planning like to stay in that area. So we decided to buy a piece of land to make, to maybe to build a home there. But at the end, we changed our plants and we came to Dallas and we, when we were selling that piece of land, it also had appreciated like a good amount
[00:12:25] Harry Nima Zegarra: So we were really primed, like to get started in real estate when we decided to come and settle here in
[00:12:29] Sam Wilson: Dallas. And I think that's the thing that you said early on is that for you, one of your keys has been just taking action. It's finding a way it's finding the time. It's, it is no excuses approach to getting it done.
[00:12:43] Sam Wilson: Like you set your sites and then you go and do it. So I think that's a really compelling story, for a lot of people they think they feel overwhelmed, it's gosh, where do I start? How do I start? They see all the obstacles as opposed to the opportunity. And I always love the story of where people come to the United States.
[00:12:58] Sam Wilson: They work hard, they figure out how to get it done. And I think that's it's always a good reminder that it's still possible even today. So that's awesome. Absolutely. Thanks for, thank you for sharing that one last question here for you before we sign off, what are some risks that you may see in multifamily or in real estate in general right now?
[00:13:18] Sam Wilson: And then what are you doing to maybe position your portfolio in such a way that you maybe don't take the shock that some other people maybe some risk other people may be taking on. So you see any risks right now in the commercial real estate space?
[00:13:30] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. Yes. I mean, we have seen just lately, like the hike, the rates for everything, right?
[00:13:35] Harry Nima Zegarra: Like for residential, but also for commercial real estate. I mean, actually it has hit more in the residential space. It's very funny that again, which means that people see more risk in the residential than in co. Commercial is more again like resistant, right? So, I mean, we see that these rates may continue to continue going higher.
[00:13:54] Harry Nima Zegarra: Right? So like the thing that we need to make sure is to do a very conservative underwriting. Like again, and what means a conservative underwriting is to do what we call a stress test and putting ourself in the worst case scenario, right? Like in terms of the rates in terms of occupancy, in terms of the cup rates that until now in the last five or 10 years, they have been great.
[00:14:15] Harry Nima Zegarra: And they have helped so most of us like to get great returns for our investors, but again, like we need to be more more. More into this, like analyzing all these deals now, like again that you need to look for your investors in this sense.
[00:14:29] Sam Wilson: Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Do you think here's a subjective question.
[00:14:35] Sam Wilson: Do you think rent rates will continue to climb? Have they reached a peak? Where are we when it comes to, and again, obviously this is very location specific, so. This is a general question, but we've seen just enormous rental growth rate in the multi-family market. Where's it going?
[00:14:53] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. It's very difficult to see in this moment.
[00:14:55] Harry Nima Zegarra: And the thing is that again, like they have been raising with inflation too, right? And also with the salaries too, it like, in some areas there's discrepancy like, like between like where the areas, where the people is moving in and and where the people are moving out.
[00:15:09] Harry Nima Zegarra: like again, we see this discrepancy and for now we're assuming that it's cont it's gonna to continue to grow, but it is very important to doing our underwriting, to not expect that explosive grow like in the next couple of years. And that's the way that you should be doing a conservative underwriting, right?
[00:15:26] Sam Wilson: Yeah. I think that's key, over time, I think no matter what we will. Rents continue to climb, but I think, potentially it sounds like you, you're saying we should be underwriting little to no rent growth just to be conservative.
[00:15:37] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes. Or like in the three to 4% at most.
[00:15:40] Sam Wilson: Right, right. Very cool. Harry, thank you for taking the time to come on the show today and really just tell us your story, how you got started in real estate. What you've done to build your portfolio from single family into a large multi-family portfolio. The get it done. Um, just take action attitude and where, and how that has brought you to today.
[00:15:59] Sam Wilson: So certainly appreciate it. Love your story and love your enthusiasm for real estate and what you're doing. Is there anything else you'd love to share with our listeners here before we sign off?
[00:16:07] Harry Nima Zegarra: no Sam again, thanks so much for having your show. I really appreciate this. And I re enjoy our conversation.
[00:16:12] Sam Wilson: Absolutely. Harry, if our listeners wanna get in touch with you or learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?
[00:16:17] Harry Nima Zegarra: Yes, they can always reach us our website which is Nima equity.com. NEA is N as in Nancy I M A .com like we also have a Youtube channel where we have a free education about multifamily real estate investment.
[00:16:31] Harry Nima Zegarra: Awesome,
[00:16:31] Sam Wilson: Harry, thank you again. Appreciate it. Have a great rest of your day.
[00:16:34] Harry Nima Zegarra: Thank you, Sam.
