Episode 78: 4000 units - How Toro's Founder is Still Taking the Market by the Horns

Real Estate Investor MBA

Acquiring 4000 units didn’t signal our guest, John Cohen, Founder of Toro Real Estate Partners, just to stop there. Instead, he continues to push through and dominate in various types of markets. John explains his understanding of the real estate space’s deep value investing, starting with buying tax deeds and liens.

He talked about his involvement in over $500M from different real estate transactions. He also shared his spanning tax liens, his rental sale transactions in Manhattan, and even personal investments and how he’s managing them. Catch us today and find out the easiest path to earn money, find opportunities in the market despite the current challenges, and his relationships with banks and types of debt.

Remember, this is your MBA. Have a notepad handy, and get ready to take some notes!
Key Points from This Episode:

• Introduction to John’s life as the founder of Toro Real Estate Partners.
• How did John get started with multifamily investments?
• The system and scalability that has allowed John to grow his business in a short period of time.
• John talks about the current market they’re targeting and the challenges of finding properties in the current market.
• John shares his relationship with banks and different types of debts in the present moment.
• How far have masterminds helped John?
• What kind of individuals does John work with and how does he work with them?
• The easiest path when you’re raising money.
• How does John manage his assets?
• John’s ways of keeping his investors informed about what’s happening even when they’re in different parts of the world.
• The plans John has in looking for other new opportunities in the future.
• What would John like to tell those people who aren’t buying their multifamily or single-family assets?

Tweetables:

“At the end of the day, real estate is a who you know type business. Not just from finding a deal or finding an acquisition or talking to a broker, but it's also when something goes wrong, who do you know that can help you fix the situation? ” – John Cohen

“If you just buy a deal and forget about it, a lot more can go wrong. ” – John Cohen

“I think the current market condition may make it a little bit harder, maybe more challenging. But at the end of the day, you know what we wanna focus on? Deals that we believe in. ” – John Cohen

“Have a reason for what you're doing. And whether it's your hundredth deal or your first one, if you wanna do it, you're not just gonna wake up and it's gonna be there. So you gotta take action. ” – John Cohen

“The more people you can put in your contacts, that can help you in a situation will drastically impact the success of deals. ” – John Cohen

Links Mentioned:

Toro Real Estate Partners

John Cohen Email

About John Cohen

President of JC Property Group Inc., John has been investing in real estate since 2010. Having started with purchasing tax deeds and tax liens. In 2013, he did $3,247,000 in real estate transactions. In 2014, he switched his focus to the multifamily asset class and became a member of a group that closed $70 million worth of transactions. Before leaving Marcus & Millichap to focus 100% of his time on the growth of his company, he was a team member of a group that sold over 26 multifamily properties in the Brooklyn and Queens market. Prior to his involvement in real estate, John was a licensed (series 7 and 63) stockbroker, but decided that brick and mortar investments were far less speculative than the stock market. John played baseball at Queens College where he graduated with a degree in Economics.