The year was 2002 and I had just graduated from medical school. After a one-year internship living in resident housing in La Crosse, WI, a small city famous for having the most bars per capita of anywhere in the U.S., I would be heading to The University of Florida to spend the remaining three years of my anesthesia residency as a Gator Sedator.
I needed a place of my own. I needed a place of my own in the swankiest building downtown high above the din of the partygoers below. I needed a doctor loan, or a physician mortgage loan, specifically.
Buying My First Property with a Physician Home Loan
They didn’t love my debt to income ratio, either. With an income of about $36,000, taking on debt of $114,000 on a place with association dues of $175 a month was pushing the limits of what they were willing to underwrite. And I did have that student loan debt, as well.
Did they forget that I was a doctor? I’m good for it, you know!Eventually, I was approved for the loan with 10% down with a monthly payment the bank was confident I could afford.
I did nothing but locum tenens work for nearly the first two years after finishing residency. Initially, I used the Gainesville condo as a home base, but I was eventually able to convince my wife to move our belongings out and find a tenant to pay rent.
As a homeless doctor, I knew we’d need a place to live when we were ready to settle down in one place. After all, we were expecting our first child in the latter stages of my full-time-locums years.
We had decided to return to a hospital where I had first been a locum. They had been looking for a full-time anesthesiologist, and I would be the department head.
We were told about the strong financials of the place and the fact that they were considering building a surgery center. I might even have an opportunity to invest!We found a great stretch of vacant waterfront property, and with the help of a 0% APR credit card, I was able to buy the six-figure property with cash.