A doctor turned a pandemic pay cut into a 16-property portfolio. Here's the first step she took.

• Jennifer and Paul Tessmer-Tuck started buying real estate in 2020 to create another income stream.
• They started with what they already knew: buying a single-family home.
• Over the last five and a half years, they've expanded to 16 properties.

Jennifer Tessmer-Tuck knows how fickle the healthcare industry can be.

The OB-GYN in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area had seen her hospital go through several cycles of layoffs, including one around 2015 that led her to pick up extra shifts so she could save more aggressively in case her own job was ever affected.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, putting even more pressure on the hospital, she took a big pay cut.

"At the senior leadership level, they cut our salaries in half," Tessmer-Tuck, who was vice president of medical affairs at her hospital at the time, told Business Insider.

She and her husband, Paul, an elementary school teacher, had enough money socked away from those earlier years of extra work that the pay cut "wasn't an immediate financial stress," she said. But the situation was becoming clear: She didn't want to keep relying solely on her physician's income.

Starting with what she knew

Tessmer-Tuck had long been interested in real estate as an investment, and 2020, with its historically low interest rates, presented an opportunity to get started.

After doing a deep dive into property investing — enrolling in a real estate course for physicians, reading books, listening to podcasts, and watching seminars — she decided to simplify the process as much as possible. That meant looking for a type of property she already knew how to buy: a single-family home.

Because she and her husband had already bought primary residences, Tessmer-Tuck felt she understood the basics: how to evaluate a house, secure a loan, and close. That made real estate investing, which can seem intimidating, feel much more manageable.

Next, they got specific about what they were looking for. They wanted to self-manage the property, so they focused on homes within a 20-minute drive of their own. They also knew they didn't want to take on a full gut renovation, but were comfortable doing cosmetic upgrades, so they targeted undervalued homes that needed some work.

With those criteria in mind, they used sites like Redfin and Zillow to scout listings and began attending open houses on weekends. Over the course of a few months, Tessmer-Tuck said they toured about 40 homes.

By December 2020, they had closed on their first rental. After completing a light rehab, they started renting it out and profiting.

The cash flow was "nothing crazy" at first, she said. "It was paying off the mortgage, and then we were getting a little bit of money every month."

Over the last five years, the couple's portfolio has grown from one single-family home to 16 properties, which Business Insider verified by reviewing closing documents. They bought a few more single-family homes using traditional financing before moving on to commercial loans and larger multifamily properties.

Their very first property has become a standout performer. After their original tenants moved out, they furnished it and turned it into a midterm rental, which has proven more lucrative than the long-term rental strategy. In 2025, the annual net cash flow was about $28,000, Tessmer-Tuck said.

"That house kind of ended up being the engine for the rest of the properties," she said.

The investments have given Tessmer-Tuck more flexibility in her work. She said she's been able to scale back her clinical schedule and now works two days a week as a physician. The added income and tax benefits from real estate have also made the couple feel more secure as they think about the future.

While the COVID-era pay cut was unsettling for her family's finances, "now, hitting bumps in the road is definitely not as big of a deal," she said.

For aspiring investors, Tessmer-Tuck advises keeping the first step simple.

"It would be okay to start like we started, with just buying a single-family home," she said. "It doesn't have to be a massive commercial building to start with. Start with something that feels comfortable."