127: Leaving a Career To Find Time Freedom Through Real Estate with Seena Ghetmiri

While you may start a career with high hopes of loving your chosen path, it doesn’t always work out. You may find yourself looking for alternative paths to create more time freedom, which is where real estate investing comes in.

On this episode of Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing, Jonathan’s guest is Seena Ghetmiri, a former dentist turned real estate investor leaning into the short-term rental market after learning the ropes with long- and medium-term rentals. Seena and his wife began investing just two years ago, but in that time, they’ve learned a lot of lessons they’re using to continue growing their business. He spent a couple of years as a dentist before pivoting to real estate full-time, which he did with the support of his wife.

You’ll hear how Seena discovered real estate investing through a friend and mentor, which led him to buy his first investment property in Phoenix, Arizona. Disillusioned with dentistry as a career, Seena quit his job and went all in on real estate investing, attending meetups, making connections, and making mistakes. He quickly points out that his wife’s business enabled him to quit his full-time job and transition careers. Seena shares with Jonathan the role relationships have had in purchasing more assets, how he’s learning by doing, and why he switched from long-term to short-term rentals. He explains that catering to a particular type of avatar in his short-term rentals contributes to his success, what can help you remove yourself from analysis paralysis, and what he’s still figuring out about the business.

Seena Ghetmiri went all in on real estate investing after deciding dentistry would be a career slog, and his passion for real estate shines through in his conversation with Jonathan.

In this episode, you will hear:

Seena Ghetmiri’s realization that he wanted to leave dentistry and go full-time with real estate investing after losing his dad
The time freedom that real estate investing has given Seena and his wife to spend more time together as a family
What he would have done differently to leave dentistry knowing what he knows now
Experiencing analysis paralysis and overcoming that to make his first investment
His family and friends’ thoughts on his real estate business two years into it
Seena’s first investment home in Phoenix, what made it a good first property, and what he learned from the purchasing process
Getting comfortable with buying more properties and using the equity they earn to finance new investments
The role of relationships in purchasing assets and gaining confidence as you stay on the investing path
Finding trustworthy contacts at meetups, learning from them, and not feeling intimidated by those farther along on the journey
Learning by doing
What took Seena to the next level and switched his focus from long-term rentals to short-term
Paying attention to details in the hospitality and short-term rental business and catering to a particular avatar
The one thing that can help you get out of the analysis paralysis mindset
Where Seena is going next with his investing, and what he still has to figure out
His advice for someone who wants to get into real estate but isn’t sure how to start

Follow and Review:

We’d love for you to follow us if you haven’t yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast.

If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at http://www.trustgreene.com/podcast/zen/127 to download it.