Medre is a physician ownership platform. We buy the building your practice needs, you lease it while your capital builds the practice, and an exclusive purchase option lets you choose when you buy: any year from year 5 through year 10, at a price based on independent appraisal.
Year 0
The lease and your exclusive purchase option are signed together. Your capital stays in the practice.
Year 5
The option window opens. Buy at appraised value plus that year's premium, or keep leasing.
Years 5 through 10
You choose the year. The purchase premium declines as ownership gets closer.
The deed
Yours, when you're ready. That is the whole structure.
The real estate problem
Medre is a physician ownership platform founded by a commercial real estate broker and a practicing physician. Medre buys the building or office suite and leases the space to your practice at fair market rent plus a small premium, with an exclusive purchase option you can exercise in any year from year 5 through year 10. Real estate is the mechanism; physician ownership is the product. Medre supports startup practice owners who want long-term real estate ownership and would rather invest their capital in growing the practice than in purchasing their office space right away.
You trained to take care of patients, then decided to start a private practice, and now you must confront the difficult decision to lease or buy your office space.
If you choose to lease, you not only are generating income for the building owner, but your growing practice creates their leverage when you want to renew your lease. Ten years in, you own an established practice with a respected reputation, a patient base, and none of the ground under any of it.
If you choose to buy, you must invest precious capital to purchase the office that you desperately need to start the practice. Those are the same dollars that hire staff, buy equipment, and carry the first year of operating expenses. You lock yourself into a location that may not be ideal for the long-term practice growth.
Both are real options. Neither is a good default. There is a third: preserve your capital now, and control when you become an owner.
The comparison is the argument
Side by side, across the things that actually matter. We shaded the rows we don't win, because you'd find them anyway.
| Lease | Buy | Medre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital needed upfront | First and last month | 20-25 percent down payment | First and last month, plus the Exclusive Purchase Option Fee |
| Tenant improvements | You +/- landlord | You | You +/- Medre |
| Personal guarantee | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly cost | Market rent, insurance, taxes, maintenance | Mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance | Fair market rent plus a small premium, insurance, taxes, maintenance |
| Who owns the building today | Your landlord | You | Medre |
| Path to ownership | None | Immediate | Exclusive purchase option, exercisable any year from 5 through 10, priced by independent appraisal |
| If your plans change | Relocate at lease end | Sell or rent with potential vacancy | Renew lease, relocate, or let the option lapse |
| Best if | You do not desire office real estate ownership | You have capital now for real estate purchase AND startup costs | You want to use capital for practice startup now AND option of real estate ownership later |
Leasing provides greater flexibility but limits long term wealth creation. Buying now is typically the better option if you're confident in your office location and have available capital now. Medre is for everyone that wants both the flexibility of leasing and the investment opportunity of ownership.
How it works
01
Together we find the right office space for your practice.
02
Medre buys it with our capital and we take on the mortgage risk. You sign a lease with Medre and your Exclusive Purchase Option the same day. If the space needs a buildout, Medre can provide tenant improvement capital as part of the lease structure.
03
You see patients and grow your practice. We own the building, the debt, and the landlord obligations.
04
Your option window. Buy the office in the year you choose, renew the lease, or relocate with no future obligation to Medre.
The point of the structure
A traditional lease offers no path to ownership; ten years of rent buys the building for somebody else. A traditional purchase demands your capital at the exact moment your practice needs it most. Medre exists so you never have to pick between those two defaults.
Your exclusive purchase option puts the timing in your hands. Exercise it in any year from 5 through 10, when the practice is established and the numbers make sense to you. Until then, your capital works where it earns the most: in staff, equipment, technology, marketing, and patient care. That is the real product. Not a lease, not a building, but control over when you become an owner.
Read the fine print first
Medre earns in three places, and you see all three in writing before you sign. An upfront Exclusive Purchase Option Fee, the price of taking the building off the market for you. A small premium above fair market rent, the carrying cost of your ownership option. And if you buy, a purchase premium above appraised value, one that declines the longer you lease. If you choose not to renew the lease nor to buy the office space, Medre maintains property ownership for future leasing opportunities.
That's the whole model. This is not free money and we won't pretend it is. You pay for exclusivity and for keeping the choice open, and in exchange your name stays off a mortgage, your savings stay in your practice, and the path to ownership is in writing from day one.
Is this you
Who's behind this
Medre was founded by Erika Christiansen, a licensed commercial real estate broker, and Steve Christiansen, MD, a practicing retina specialist running a multi-location practice in Colorado. Erika and Steve have both been investing in real estate since 2009: Erika holds the broker's license, and Steve holds the experience of growing a multi-location practice in a saturated market where location and long-term strategy are keys to practice success. Erika, Steve, and a small group of capital investors help you choose your location and strategize your long-term real estate success.
Thirty minutes. Real numbers. No deck. We'll tell you whether this pencils for your situation, including if the answer is that you should just buy a building or keep renting.
Not ready to talk? Start with the one-page guide.
Prefer email? [email protected]. We reply within one business day.
Or read the fine print first, in the Library.