Small Business Spotlight: Moving Medicine
The world needs more small businesses. Those small businesses need more support. The support has to come from people like you and me. So, I want to shine the spotlight on an exceptional small business.
The typical physician goes through Medical School, Residency training, and often Fellowship training before working as a doctor. Which usually requires moving– a lot. Finding short-term housing, long-term rentals, or buying a house is common stress among families in Medicine. Limited schedule availability, tight budgets, and last-minute notification of moving complicates the process.
When we moved, we found it hard to find a Realtor who understood our needs: a decent commute, a nurturing community, and affordable housing. And to top it off– all within a location that felt like home to us. When we lived in Kansas City, we went through three realtors and never bought a house. When we moved to California, we went through four Realtors and did not use any of them to buy our home.
We never felt understood by our Realtors and felt like they just wanted to sell us a house–any house at the top of, and sometimes over, our budget. It’s almost as if they only saw $$$ when they realized we were a family in Medicine.
They didn’t see the desire to spend as little time as possible driving home after 16-hour days. They didn’t see the extra bedroom needed for busy call nights. They didn’t see the relaxing outdoor space needed to decompress after a stressful week. They didn’t see that even as a well-earning family, we still had financial obligations outside of buying a home. At the end of the day, we didn’t feel seen.
I recently connected with Amanda Baron and Zoe Cangas, two Real Estate Agents changing the Real Estate game for med families through Moving Medicine. I had the opportunity to interview them about their unique niche, helping Med Families in Real Estate.
Can you tell Move Mama Move readers about Moving Medicine?
Moving Medicine Partners is a national group of Realtors that share resources, knowledge, and experience to provide real estate services to physicians. All the members come from different backgrounds and are very diverse, except have two things in common. They are married to physicians and all powerhouse Realtors in our markets.
How did you come up with this Moving Medicine?
Moving Medicine Partners is a lovechild project produced by two powerhouse agents, Amanda Baron (Nashville, TN) and Zoe Cangas (St Louis, MO). These two had each independently grown their real estate businesses in their cities, with their niche audience of physicians being their primary focus.
Zoe’s focus was helping residents move to St. Louis after Match Day. She realized it was a hectic and stressful time for these new doctors. They needed a trusted friend and knowledgeable partner to relocate successfully to St Louis. Amanda has been working closely with hospitals and hiring staff as they interview and hire new attendings. She has fine-tuned her white glove service of providing resources to these incoming prospective doctors as they decide to make Nashville their new home.
Each of them, as complete strangers, knew they could train agents to do what they have been succeeding at and had been dreaming and independently working to create a network such as this. When they ‘met’ online in 2022, they realized that their ideas were almost identical, and it all quickly became a reality. They found and recruited a dozen physician spouse agents immediately, created the business plan almost instantly, and within a few months, had it implemented and up and going!
Luckily they even met in person in October 2022, sharing a hotel for a week during a conference. Luckily they did get along so well that they became real-life besties!
What is your background?
Amanda Baron
Amanda met her physician husband in elementary school. They have been best friends their whole life. Amanda received a degree in Mathematics from Southwest Texas State University (called Texas State now). She got her teaching certificate on top of her degree. She became a high school math teacher for eight years before relocating her family to Nashville in 2006 for her husband’s residency at Vanderbilt Medical center.
After ten years of staying home with her children, Amanda decided to go into real estate. Amanda’s experience with moving from Texas and supporting her husband through his training (undergrad, medical school, residency, and two fellowships) gave her the idea to help others relocate due to physician relocation. It isn’t just the home you are assisting clients in finding; it is connecting them to their communities.
Zoe Cangas
Zoe’s journey to adulthood started a bit early as a teen mom when she was 17. She realized that life happens, and you can either succumb or succeed. She chose to strive for success. She went to college, obtained a BS in Kinesiology, and moved to St Louis in 2011. She worked as an exercise physiologist at St. Anthony’s Medical Center and bought her first house at 25. In 2014 she met and married her husband, Dr. Joseph Cangas, and quickly had two more children.
After working her tail off as a single mother for years, she realized that stay-at-home life wasn’t for her. So, she obtained her real estate license. Simultaneously, her husband was having staffing issues, and she stepped in to take over the management role of his two medical practices for three years. She can talk your ear off about credentialing, prior auths, insurance coding, office policy, staffing issues, insurance reimbursement, her favorite (and least favorite EMRs), and all the problems she dealt with within healthcare. But mostly, she loves to talk about real estate.
What do people like most about working with Moving Medicine Realtors?
This group of Realtors is a step above the rest. Each member must have sufficient experience to qualify as a Moving Medicine Partner. Additionally, each partner undergoes an application and interview to ensure their knowledge about medical relocation and home buying/selling. Moving Medicine Partners hosts twice-a-month calls for all its participating agents to provide education and resources about physician-specific items such as physician loans, trust attorneys, visa holders, student loan debt management, and more. Not all topics are real estate specific, but they provide greater knowledge for our agents and a greater asset for our clients to provide resources for whatever needs they may have.
What is one piece of advice you would offer people looking to move during medical training?
If you are moving for residency after Match Day, start early. Match Day is on Friday, and we often connect with these new doctors the following day. A Moving Medicine Partner will provide a relocation guide containing many resources about the city to become familiar with neighborhoods, hospital locations, crime statistics, school statistics, and charts that show what communities other residents and fellows live in. Also, help clients determine whether they want to rent or buy, find your agent, and get the ball rolling!
What has been your favorite moment as a Realtor working with Med Families, and why?
Any time we help an overly stressed and nervous family moving from out of state not only find their house but find their community and social network.
Does Moving Medicine offer other services in addition to Real Estate Services?
We all provide service beyond the transaction. We want our fellow physician families to feel as settled and connected to our cities as we do. We often host social events and continue to provide resources for contractors and local shopping and restaurant options. Many of us volunteer for our local medical alliance as well.
If you’re a Med Family looking to relocate, allow Moving Medicine to alleviate some of the stress of finding the right home. Work with Realtors who have been in your shoes before to help you find a home that fits your lifestyle, needs, wants, and budget. You can also check out, this Moving Timeline + Checklist I’ve created for Med Families to start getting your ducks in a row for your move.
