Episode Description
Real Estate Investing for Doctors with Vasu Kakarlapudi, MD, MBA
In this episode, we talk with Vasu Kakarlapudi, MD, MBA, a practicing ENT surgeon and founder of APTA Investment Group. Vasu helps physicians turn their medical income into lasting wealth through real estate syndications for doctors and proven investment frameworks.
If you’re a doctor overwhelmed by administrative burdens or exhausted by the clinical grind, Vasu’s path to passive income for surgeons offers the clarity and structure you’ve been looking for. We cover everything from identifying multifamily real estate and medical office buildings investment opportunities to understanding how to reduce risk in volatile markets.
Vasu’s systematized approach to physician real estate investing is built for those with limited time, conservative risk profiles, and a desire to reclaim control over their financial future.
This episode answers the questions many doctors are asking:
1. How do I start investing outside medicine?
2. Is there a safer way to build real estate cash flow for physicians?
3. How can I incorporate alternative investments for physicians into my long-term plan?
4. What are the best tax strategies for high-income professionals like me?
With 20+ years of investing experience and a flawless track record, Vasu delivers both insight and execution. If your goal is financial freedom for physicians, this is the episode for you.
Transcript
good afternoon guys and welcome to the
podcast wherever you are in the world
for all you highinccome professionals
entrepreneurs investors out there I have
a fantastic guest for us today Basu from
the APTA investment group and he’s going
to he’s a surgeon and he helps surgeons
invest in re predominantly real estate
we’re going to talk about what it is his
portfolio is offering and I’m really
happy to have him on Zu welcome glad to
be here Christopher Yeah and briefly
introduce yourself chronicle your
journey and I’m excited to dive into the
questions yeah yeah i was a Indian kid
grew up in Kansas City son of immigrants
tried to play baseball found out when I
was because I couldn’t make the high
school team that probably was not going
to be able to make a living playing
baseball so I had to leverage my
strengths which I happen to be good at
school and so I like math and science
and gravitated towards medicine still
follow baseball but can’t play
professionally went to college and
medical school in Kansas City and really
really enjoyed the intricacies of head
andneck anatomy and wanted to do surgery
initially thought I was going to be an
orthopedic surgeon but I liked ENT
surgery a little bit better i did my
Why doctors must diversify into real estate
residency in Baltimore and I’ve been in
practice since 2003 in southern Indiana
thought once I got into practice I
thought man this is great achieved all
my lifetime goal and look forward to
seeing all these happy people that were
15 10 15 20 30 years ahead of me and
quite to my surprise I saw a bunch of
unhappy mentors of mine people who were
senior to me in medicine and they got
bogged down by some of the day-to-day
grind of practicing medicine and the
stress the insurance issues running a
practice you name it and taking call
working late hours and so I was like
looking around for the happy folks
because that’s what I wanted i wanted to
be happy and found that the happy folks
were the ones who actually didn’t need
to practice medicine they were
practicing medicine because they got to
instead of having to so I was like
that’s what I want as quickly as
possible and so being a very riskaverse
person thinking about how do I find that
in the least with the least amount of
risk real estate became that natural
tool so back in
2004ish started my journey of really
learning the ropes and did another
residency essentially working with
people that were doing this full-time as
for a living and really working with the
best of the best to figure out their
wisdom kind of learned all the basics
myself and then worked with them on on
and gaining some wisdom and then finally
dove in and worked on some projects
together with other people and long
story short is we solved that painoint
for ourselves of not being able to
practice medicine because we loved it
not because had to the natural human
evolution is to kind of share that we
worked as we expanded our medical
practice and with other surgeons in the
community created opportunities for
other physicians and surgeons to join
and leverage our strengths to develop
other real estate opportunities and they
Vasu’s journey: surgery to real estate success
too got to be able to enjoy the fruits
of their investments and be able to
practice on their own terms and so then
just naturally became an evolution i was
like okay we solve a painoint for
ourselves and solve painoint for people
around you and maybe this is something
that could really benefit our greater
community and what we’ve noticed is that
as we help more and more
surgeons get to practice instead of
having to practice brings the humanity
back into medicine so our goal is to
help reverse this negative secular
trends in medicine get to practice if
you want to or truly if you don’t like
it let’s get you out of medicine and go
do something else that you like and
solid safe real estate investments just
happens to be that vehicle yeah what a
fantastic introduction and we’ll talk
about APA and what distinguishes APA
from other s in investment groups and in
investment firms what is your USP i
think our unique proposition proposition
is a very technical term i can tell
you’re an entrepreneur Christopher the
is really we were born out of solving
problems so we didn’t get into this
business to become a real estate private
equity firm it was more like okay how
can we solve problems for ourselves it
was a problem we had ourselves our
family and then once we helped solve
that problem for ourselves it’s like
okay how do we beta test this with
people around you and then apt
investment group really became a calling
after solving pain points for ourselves
and the people around us so our depth
our experience we’ve been doing this for
over 20 years trust is very central to
us so apta is a Sanskrit word for trust
which is very near and dear we kind of
hold hold that very dear to the heart
and our track record essentially we’ve
never lost money on a deal over multiple
economic cycles including seven and
eight and European debt crisis the
pandemic money printing pand tariffs etc
you name all of these different various
economic cycles we’ve had fluctuations
but we’ve never lost money our worst
deal did nine and a half% and so never
having capital call and we invest in our
own money so we’re the typically the
largest investors in all of our deals i
think those are some of the unique
things that make up to stand out yeah
interesting and the other question I
have for you is what is your investment
How APTA was built and why it’s different
strategy is it apartments is it
commercial what areas that you invest in
talk about your strategy we’ve invested
in all different kinds of asset classes
in the past but our focus now is
narrowed into three specific asset
classes one is multif family
specifically in areas that are high
growth markets like the one you’re in
Austin we’ve got a deal in Austin
various Texas markets which are
obviously very popular for a reason
atlanta Georgia North Carolina those
states and then in the Midwest we do
have a one apartment deal in the Midwest
as well but majority of our stuff in the
Midwest is where I live in Louisville
Kentucky southern Indiana is medical
office buildings and retail centers so
think of Maine and Maine housing
e-commerce resistant tenants the dentist
the chiropractor local restaurant nails
salon those type of businesses that are
may have fluctuations but less less
sensitivity to the economy than others
yeah interesting the a follow-up
question I have for you is how do you in
terms of risk management because every
for especially for surgeons or doctors
in general risk management so how do you
navigate this climate of high interest
rates and you got inflation tariffs even
people getting priced out of real estate
climate change how do you view all of
these risks and how do you incorporate
that into your strategy yeah it’s a good
question Christopher i think there are a
ton of risks out there and so I think
it’s really about following a process
and being systematic in how you approach
risk so I’ll give you an example so
before we ever look at a deal one of the
things I suggest anybody who’s involved
in real estate to think about is what
are the factors that you can’t change
you can’t typically change the location
so looking at and then when you drill
down to location you look at the entire
metropolitan statistical area and think
about what what are the drivers of the
economy in that area what’s the
population growth look like and we break
down even population growth into various
areas because sometimes population just
grows because of more people being born
than dying but also there are more
sensitive indicators of population
growth like domestic net migration so
how are people where are people within
the country moving the net zero number
so if somebody leaves I won’t pick on a
Vasu’s targeted asset classes and investment focus
city but let’s just say some somebody in
the rust belt leaves the rust belt and
moves to Austin it’s a plus one for
Austin and a minus one from wherever
they’re coming from so we’re really
drilling down into things that we can’t
change right so put a lot of due
diligence in things that we can’t change
and then bring that down to the subm
market and look at what where
specifically this asset is located how
is it close to jobs is it close to
entertainment are the household incomes
in that area supportive of the type of
businesses or the the asset that you’re
holding and then we break then we look
at the deals and then we stress test
each of the different assumptions of the
deal and figure out what happens if
interest rates rise what happens if
there are black swan events that you
can’t ever predict but you go down from
A through F you can’t predict G through
Z but maybe if you get yourself right on
A through F you’re probably going to
survive and then wrapping a business
model around it that is not overly
levered and has staggered debt
maturities etc we don’t need to get in
all the technical terms the whole point
the overarching theme is there there’s a
systematic way to reduce risk and you
start with stuff that you can’t change
and then you figure out what are the
stuff that you do have an influence on
as you systematically reduce risk
one of the great things about great
investment teams and firms is the
operators and so you’ve assembled quite
a your team is quite skilled so talk
about how you approach assembling your
team and how it differentiates and
distinguishes from other firms yeah this
is just really another good question
Christopher because I just thought about
this because I was asked recently what
Managing risk in today’s economic climate
would you tell your younger self that
you know now that you didn’t know back
then and it’s a it’s the exact same
topic i used to think we’re surgeons
we’re like trained to think we are
invincible right you’re control of
everything that goes on in the real
world in business outside of the
operating room you need a whole team
even in the operating room you need a
team if you think about it you need a
whole team of people to help you perform
whatever surgery you’re doing but it the
team is really super important so there
are domain experts in each of the
different areas the finding the deals so
networking with brokers and owners
putting the deals together raising the
capital the lending and then asset
management ongoing property management
and then disposition so there are really
unique skill sets that are important for
the full life cycle of a real estate
deal and so I think it’s really helpful
to have a good internal team and then
you need accounting and legal and all
kinds compliance etc so finding really
domain experts in each of the different
facets of the entire real estate cycle
is super helpful so that you can again
going back to the risk issue how can you
mitigate risk and let the upside take
care of itself and I think that’s one of
the key mods that I’ve learned from
studying the most successful investors
in the world yeah a follow-up question I
have for you is talk about because a lot
of the audience listeners viewers are
doctors and they love to hear numbers
and case studies so talk about your
portfolio and your previous as well as
current offerings and case studies and
success stories
yeah I’ll share with you one story of a
exit and across a surgical hospital so
Building a world-class investment team
we noticed in 200 mid mid middle of the
first decade of the two of the century
around
20056ish that there was a small window
of opportunity where surgeons could get
together and form and build a hospital
we developed a surgical hospital in
southern Indiana and got 23 original
surgeons together and there was a
moratorum and then we went in right
found that opportunity and built a
facility so we created two different
entities so one is an operating entity
for the business itself running the
hospital and then one for the real
estate so the real estate we obiated
some of the biggest risks of any kind of
real estate deal is the quality of your
tenants so our thought process is why
not bet on ourselves and initially there
was a lot of resistance because people
were like that’s a lot of risk we’re
gonna have to sign we have to be
guaranurs on this note and what happens
if this place goes under and there’s a
lot of fear I should say but at the end
of the day we mitigated some of that
fear was okay there’s always going to be
a need for health care and there’s we’re
somewhat supply constraint you can’t
really make surgeons you know what
whenever you want and I don’t know that
we’ll ever be able to just import
surgeons from best and come practice in
the United States without going through
the training and registration etc so we
felt like from a demand side demand for
our services was always going to be
there and then from a supply side there
was supply constraints granted there was
a lot of changes in in with big health
systems becoming more prominent and
perhaps taking over but at the end of
the day a good quality medical facility
that was patiententric and provided
really good care we thought would be an
opportunity that is not likely to change
that helped us push us over the edge and
develop this surgical hospital and so
we’re able to wrap some really good debt
around this because you think about from
a lender’s perspective they’re trying to
mitigate risk they had 23 surgeons sign
on to a note that they’re operating in
Real-life case study: 28x ROI from a surgical hospital
on a facility that they’re operating in
was pretty low risk you had a bunch of
creditw worthy clients and they had
favorable tailwinds in terms of the
business they were operating so we were
able to get favorable favorable debt and
put in our own equity and we just sold
the property about a couple years ago so
it was after 15 16 years we got a 28x
return wow on our return on our money it
calculated out to 20 24 25% irr it was a
really good investment it was really
safe because we were betting on
ourselves it was not just a great
investment but it was really lowrisk
investment that did really well yeah I
love that so we we have around five
seven minutes remaining and for the
listeners and viewers if they wanted to
learn more about APTA I know you have a
lot of free resources and how can they
connect with you and learn from you and
get more information to see if it’s a
good fit yeah so we provide a lot of
resources on helping people get started
throughout their own journey whether
they’re their very beginning of their
career or middle part of their career or
they’re planning for retirement or they
just want to slow down so at
thevevest.comlearn and there’s a ton of
educational resources available no
matter where you’re at in your journey
yeah and then what for the audience also
because you cater to surgeons but if
there are non-surgical physicians where
do they fit into your offerings yeah a
lot of our investors are surgeons but
not all of our investors and in fact
probably 20 to 30% of our investors are
not even physicians at all other real
estate folks who just like the surgical
precision that we approach the same
methodical approach we use in surgery is
what we use for our investing and so
that resonates with a lot of other
professionals so we’re open to people
who subscribe to that kind of philosophy
yeah your story is very amazing and for
those that are inspired they either they
don’t want to practice medicine or they
want to do something different what are
your words of inspiration or people that
inspired you courses books podcasts
conferences and how can they reach you
yeah I think it just really begins with
a vision right we as surgeons have gone
How doctors can get started with passive investing
through a lot of training and a lot of
blood sweat and tears and you start
practicing you think you you reach this
pinnacle and what I realized is that
like you’ve got to constantly be growing
otherwise you’re dying so no matter how
much you’ve achieved you certainly enjoy
the fruits of your of your blood sweat
and tears and all the work that you put
into whatever career that you’re in but
if you’re not growing you’re really
dying and I would say figure out what
you really love to do figure out your
why i mean sometimes you’ve got to ask
yourself four five six times to get to
that peel various layers of that onion
down to its core to figure out what your
why is and then find a path that that is
concordant with that and find people
along the way that on your podcast you
get inspiration from all kinds of guests
that you I’m sure that you have and
learn the basics and then find some
mentors along the way and you climb a
mountain one step at a time it’s totally
within the reach of anybody who can go
through medical school residency and
then practice can certainly have a whole
lot of other I think we’re actually well
suited to be entrepreneurial in our
mindset given our training yeah it’s I
know it like I said investing is not
rocket science and if you went through
med school and all this training you’re
more than well equipped to deal with
Final takeaways & how to connect with Vasu
this area and succeed really fascinating
and for the audience thanks so much for
coming on and all of your resources will
be in the show notes and again thanks so
much and for coming on and sponsoring
the podcast
Additional Resources
- Explore More: Visit Apta Knowledge Hub – Educational tools, case studies, and investment strategies designed for high-income professionals.
- Read the Book: The Surgical Investor – Learn how surgeons can build wealth with purpose.
- Watch Next: Strategies for Asset Allocation - Learn the 5-step S.A.F.E.R. System to build wealth while minimizing risk and maximizing your time.
