Latest / Coffee Playdate Podcast with Dr. Olga Deengar / The Pathologist Who Built a 158 Unit Portfolio in 18 Months Ep 28 ft. Dr. Deb Das
Transcript
- Coach Olga MD: Welcome to the Coffee Playdate podcast. I'm Dr. Olga Deengar, and today I have a very special guest with me, Dr. Deb Das. Welcome. Deb: Thank you, Olga. Thank you. I'm honored to be in your show. I'm excited. I'm just looking forward to our chat session. Coach Olga MD: I'm so happy to have you and have a fun chat today. I have to ask you, do you drink coffee? Deb: Yes, I always have a coffee mug with me. That's my go-to first thing in the morning. I cannot survive without it. Coach Olga MD: can totally relate. We to have our caffeine fix before we start our day, for sure. Deb: Exactly, exactly. Coach Olga MD: And how do you like your coffee? Deb: Well, I just like it simple black, no sugar, no cream, nothing, just simple black. I actually had to really train myself to enjoy this. I never liked black coffee earlier, but now I'm like so used to it that I cannot enjoy other coffees anymore. Coach Olga MD: Yeah, I know what you mean. Very good. We're going to start off with playing our first game. It's a rapid fire questions game. I'm going to give you a choice between one or the other answer and then you have to choose which one you like more, ⁓ you don't have to explain yourself. Okay, here we go. First question is surgical pathology ⁓ cytopathology? Deb: Okay. Okay. surgical pathology. Coach Olga MD: one, ⁓ pathology slides or traditional glass? Deb: Old school, traditional glass. I mean, I like OK, I'm not explaining. glass. Yeah. Coach Olga MD: Awesome. How about this one? Clam chowder or lobster rolls? Deb: lobster rolls. Coach Olga MD: the last one is self-storage units or medical office syndications. Deb: None of the above. Only and only multifamily. Coach Olga MD: Fair enough. We'll talk more about that for sure. I'm excited to hear it. Next game is take a sip. So the same format. I'll ask you a question. You choose one or the other answer and then we both have to answer this time. So if our answers match, we take a sip of our coffee cups. Here we go. First question, 1031 exchange or cash out refinance to pull equity? Deb: you Mm-hmm. Awesome. Coach Olga MD: If you had to 1031 exchange, 1031 exchange, me too Cheers. Deb: Hmm. 1031 exchange. 1031 exchange. Coach Olga MD: duck boat or sightseeing for a Boston tour. Deb: citysightseeing in bus for Boston tour. ⁓ Coach Olga MD: Me too. city sightseeing. playing baseball or throwing a frisbee in the park. Deb: throwing a frisbee in the park Coach Olga MD: Me too! And the last question. Biking or Ubering during rush hour? Deb: don't know how to play baseball. biking. Coach Olga MD: Biking, me too, if I had a bike. Deb: If I had a bike, same. Coach Olga MD: right, Deb, so can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your business? Deb: you Sure. I a practicing pathologist based out of Boston and I own a ⁓ multifamily company called Boston Rise Capital. ⁓ What do is we buy large apartment buildings and we opportunities to our investors who can invest with us and provide good housing to the community. Coach Olga MD: Amazing and is this your own company or do you have a partner in this? Deb: Yes, my husband Naren who's a non-MD, we started the company together. We do have some other partners with whom we do partnerships, but this Boston Rise Capital is our own company. Coach Olga MD: When did you start Boston Rise Capital? What year? Deb: So we started Boston Rise Syndication Company last year in 2025 summer. Coach Olga MD: Nice. And have you seen it grow quite a bit? Deb: Yes, we actually scaled to owning 158 units in a span of one and a half years. Almost. ⁓ Coach Olga MD: That's incredible! How did you do this? Deb: Well, you just got to do what you got to do, right? we educated ourselves a lot and we went and participated in a lot of masterminds, a and a lot of hustling. And I think the biggest ⁓ thing was we partnered with the right people. So we were able to partner with experienced And, we learned a lot by doing that. And now we have our own company where we do our own syndications. Coach Olga MD: That's incredible. Sounds like you have an amazing team in place. Deb: yes, I'm just so blessed. Coach Olga MD: And most of your syndications, the units that you have, they based in the Northeast or where else have you expanded to in the US? Deb: Yeah. So we do mostly Midwest because Midwest is a cash flowing market and Midwest has a lot of opportunities. It's also way cheaper and affordable. So as of now, currently our main targets are Midwest. We do have a deal in Atlanta, ⁓ but ⁓ future which are coming up, they're mostly based in Midwest area somewhere in, Ohio or, Indianapolis. So yeah, mostly Midwest. Coach Olga MD: Wow, you are really brave because I've been investing locally, but it's risky for me, or at least that's my mindset to step out of my local or state-based ⁓ investing real estate. ⁓ But did you overcome that challenge by investing out-of-state? Deb: So we wanted to scale, which wouldn't have been possible if we were doing in the New England because it is doesn't cash flow. And if it doesn't cash flow, we cannot give returns to our investors. So we were very investor focused. we had to very investor focused where we are just thinking, how can we give them back? How can we ⁓ increase cash flow? So we explored many markets and Midwest stood out the most. because of cash flow. ⁓ ⁓ lot of mindset as well. Like you have to, we went and toured those properties like before actually buying them. So a lot travel involved and having a good team on the ground helps. We also partnered up with some people who are locally based out of Cincinnati. So that was another, comforting factor for us. Coach Olga MD: Nice. And you mentioned some mindset shifts of, just having to get over the fact that ⁓ it is out the state and you are going to have to travel and put in the effort, ⁓ invest the time energy to look at the properties that you're interested in. Are there any other mindset tools that have helped you on this entrepreneurial journey? Deb: Yes, so one thing I had to tell myself repeatedly was you will not know everything before starting out. ⁓ you need to do like you need to educate yourself. You need to learn the basics and more like ⁓ you you cannot be a master at it. You learn on your journey. ⁓ So we totally had to change our mindset to immersion technique, where immersion means you immerse yourself in the project, and then you figure it out. And especially because we are like physicians, we have been like trained to figure out things, right? So, and this is just real estate, you'll figure it out. So that was the mindset shift, I think, which very important. Otherwise, there's a lot of analysis paralysis that can happen because you're not 100 % ready ever and no deal is going to be a 100 % best deal. It's going to be a good deal. So you have to keep telling yourself all that. Coach Olga MD: very true and I'm sure you've had many deals that you had to analyze ⁓ was there ⁓ time that you encountered a real challenge as you were ⁓ through this journey? Deb: Yes. Yeah, like time was a very big factor, I think, for us because I was still doing like a full-time W-2 job. And then I was also doing the syndication. There were like endless meetings, travels. So I had to take the plunge to ⁓ my W-2 And then I into 1099 gigs. ⁓ So was ⁓ helpful to some ⁓ Coach Olga MD: Yeah, that must have been a big transition because you're relying on this very comfortable income that comes in every, let's say, two weeks or so. And now ⁓ you're contractor. ⁓ How that feel? Deb: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, it's it's extremely, I think more that was one of the very, hard decisions because it's so unstable. you are in a contract for six months and you don't know what's going to happen after six months. You don't know if you're even going to get your next paycheck, So but then, unless you ⁓ pull the trigger, you know what is on the other side. So I'm just very glad that I was able to do that, pull the trigger and quit my. In fact, my chief told me, ⁓ you're making mistake. ⁓ What are doing? And then I to just ⁓ convince her, but never got convinced. But she kept telling me that ⁓ you're making a You you should not be doing this because she got to know I'm going for a contract job after my leaving my. comfortable W2 gig. yeah, if I didn't do that, this wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't have had the time and energy altogether. Coach Olga MD: It's all about perspective, right? So from her perspective, maybe she thought job is the to go. This is what you have to have for your whole life. ⁓ But you, it sounds like you wanted to follow your passion, which was real estate investing. Deb: Yeah. Yes, yes. Coach Olga MD: so happy you did that, because not a lot of people ⁓ feel comfortable their full-time jobs. So I'm glad you were able to stay away and really follow your path. ⁓ Is there some advice you would give to someone else who's starting out in a similar space? Deb: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sure, I think it's very important to take action. So ⁓ can be in any say suppose you're starting out in real estate and you want to start with an Airbnb, but you don't have the courage to buy the Airbnb because you don't know every details, but you have tell yourself or educate yourself or get into some sort of a course or some sort of a mastermind where somebody will teach you. or take help from people around you because this community has to offer so much, just take an action. ⁓ Unless you take an action, you don't know what's on the other side. do not procrastinate, do not go into analysis paralysis, take action. Coach Olga MD: Yes, absolutely. I completely agree with that. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think one of your first investments was a short-term rental, an Airbnb that was out of state. Deb: Yes. Yes. And I remember talking to you. I remember that we had a very long conversation and you were just moving from Canada, right? That time. yeah, yeah, those were, those were some good conversations we had. remember. Coach Olga MD: Yeah, and it was a scary time because there was so much unknown, was so much uncertainty. But once you made that leap, it's like every action step that followed was more natural and didn't feel as scary. Deb: Yeah. Yeah. Coach Olga MD: I love that. And I have to ask one more thing. Do you have a book recommendation for our listeners today? Deb: Thank you, thank you. So I have many books, but one book which I really like and that helps a lot of these entrepreneurs is Not How ⁓ by Dan It talks about that you don't need to know everything. You can actually hire a who who can solve your problem. So you don't have to know each and everything. You just find a who for yourself. ⁓ that's something which I have really applying in my life and my business even like in, my regular if I need like even to, exercise and I'm not motivated, I just find a personal instructor. So I find a who, who will help me solve the problem of not getting motivated, but that person will, drive me to do it. So yeah, I love that book. It's great book. Coach Olga MD: Yes, it's definitely transformational. I am a huge fan of Dan Sullivan his work as well. And you're absolutely right You don't have to know how to do everything You just have to find the right people, the right team members, like you did for your company, to help you thrive. Deb: Mm-hmm. Coach Olga MD: thank you so much Deb, It was great having you on our show I'd to invite you for a future episode Deb: you, Olga. It was such a pleasure and it was such a fun coffee chat, especially with my favorite cup of coffee. ⁓ Coach Olga MD: Yeah.