Ep 005 – Buying a House During Residency

Summary: Trevor’s Story: Finding A House During Residency [0:03:41] Buy Or Rent? Which Is Which? [0:06:36] Breaking Even On A House? [0:13:05] Buying A House Is Mostly An Expense [0:15:38] Trevor’s House During Residency [0:20:43] Unexpected Problems Relating To Houses [0:30:30] Can I Buy A House When I’m Already An Attending? [0:32:59] Motivation To Buy Or Rent A House [0:36:40] Roadmap: Values Based Financial Planning Approach [0:40:04]     Welcome to the Financial MD Show. This is the only podcast designed specifically for residents and young physicians to help you become educated on financial planning for physicians and avoid many of the common financial mistakes doctors make. Your hosts, Jon and Trevor, explore a different topic with each episode. Jon Solitro is a financial planner and certified financial education instructor. He’s been working with young physicians for the better part of the decade and lectures to graduate medical programs around the country. Dr. Trevor Smith is a board certified ophthalmologist with a full time practice and he has learned the ins and outs first-hand what it takes to make smart financial decisions as a young physician. And now here’s your hosts, Jon and Trevor.   Jon: Hello everyone and welcome to the fifth episode of the Financial MD Show. On today’s show, we dive into the concept of buying a house during residency. We start off by hearing a little bit of Trevor’s story and his experience during residency and med school and what he learned about buying versus renting and what he would do differently. I’ll give you a little clue: He’s got some regrets to share with us today. We then pivot to talking about when it is the right time to buy a house and how to buy that house. We talk a little bit about physician mortgages. Trevor goes into how his perspective has shifted which actually turns to go a little bit against conventional wisdom. We wrap up by talking through, is renting really worse than buying and what are the pros and cons of it and when in your career is the right time to buy a house, how to buy it right, and how to identify when it is a seller’s market versus a buyer’s market and how not to pay too much frankly. And so with that introduction, I hope you enjoy today’s episode of the Financial MD Show.     Jon: All right, welcome everyone. We are back again with the Financial MD Show with yours truly, Jon Solitro, and Dr. Trevor Smith. How’s it going, Trevor?   Trevor: Great! Having a good start to the week here.   Jon: Yes, it is Monday here in Financial MD land and somehow I feel slightly more dynamic with these big headphones on my head or it could go completely the other way where I’m like an NPR announcer. Anyway, we’ve got a great topic for you. I love talking about this particular topic because we do get a lot of questions on it and it’s more of a philosophical or more of how do you predict the near future is going to go, when we get asked the question of should we rent or buy during residency – we’ll talk about that first – and then we’ll talk a little bit about buying or renting when you get your first job because that’s a different concept as well. There are a lot of factors to consider when you’re buying versus renting. You’re getting out of medical school, you’ve been matched, you know where you’re going to be, and you start looking ahead maybe a few months before of where you’re going to live. Trevor, you came from U of M Med School, right?   Trevor’s Story: Finding A House During Residency [0:03:41]   Trevor: Yeah, that’s right. I grew up in West Michigan, went to undergrad there at Hope College, and then went to University of Michigan Medical School.   Jon: You then had to find a place in Royal Oak area because residency was at Beaumont?   Trevor: That’s right. Beaumont, now called Beaumont Health.   Jon: Okay, I call it Club Beaumont.