Rachel Cohen’s Real Estate Secrets: Success & Growth

Rachel Cohen (00:00)
Absolutely, I’m gonna start with myself and then I’ll shift to the business because I think Personally, you need to fix yourself first before anything else works Let’s start back. Okay. I’m gonna start back in 2006 Which is a long time ago. I’ll do it quickly But the bottom line is I was paralyzed in 2006 what’s called caught it Aquina They had given me a 10 % chance of walking or survival. I’ve beat both

But let’s fast forward to 2023 where I just sold my house. I felt like I could do stuff again, yada yada yada, right? And then this past February, February 14th, believe it or not, I had seven levels of my back redone for Titanium.

Quentin (02:21)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today. I’m super excited about my guest. A true overcoming story. I love her perspective. Listen, she don’t want to live in the past. She want to live in the future. But even though her past has powered her to where she is now and cataculted her to where she is now. And so y’all know how I like, I like to give a great intro, but I don’t want to tell people’s story.

So I’m just excited, you know, she’s a general partner. She’s going to talk about some real estate, but I’m sure she’s going to talk about some life too, right? Just life experiences as well. And so I am so excited and I would love to introduce to everyone, Ms. Rachel Cohen. And how are you doing today, man?

Rachel Cohen (03:07)
I’m doing amazing. Every day is a great day. I think I told you that. And I’m going to tell you again, God is good. We are here for a purpose. And I’m here for my purpose, which is showing people the way of making money and living happier and healthier.

Quentin (03:15)
Yes. Come on.

Absolutely. I love it. think it was part of my purpose for us to meet today to have this conversation. I’m with you. I believe God does everything for a reason. And so we’re here, right? And so I know our listeners who’s listening, I know they’re going to get great value from what you have to say, both on a business aspect and a personal aspect. So if you don’t mind, I want to dive right in. So Ms. Rachel, bring people into your world, people that’s not familiar with you. Let them know what’s your main focus these days.

And if you don’t mind also maybe letting them know what markets you’re operating in as well.

Rachel Cohen (03:59)
Absolutely. Let’s see, let’s start with the markets. I like that, that’s fun. That’s fun stuff. Okay, so my markets that I have chosen in the multifamily industry, and I have to make that real clear, multifamily, usually the class is like B ⁓ and the property is a C class that we upgrade. And that’s why it’s in my heart, I wanna upgrade for people. I also wanna upgrade for my investors so they make some money at the same time.

So my areas are, let’s just say Dallas, Houston, Texas. I also work in the Arizona Phoenix market, the Tampa, St. Pete Clearwater area. That’s a whole big chunk right there. And then the South Florida area, there’s a specific, let’s say Broward and Palm Beach County area that I look at ⁓ specifically because those are the areas that are growing. Job populations growing, people populations growing. Everybody needs a place to live no matter what.

So I really find it beneficial to go for those Class C properties that can be in a B area. I don’t know if that’s the specifics you were looking for, but that’s the basics of it for that. But this is based on my heart. The reason I started doing this, and this is what I want to kind of tell people. The reason I started doing this is because I went from wheelchair to walker, from walker to cane, and from cane to walking. And in 2023, I woke up realizing

that my youngest daughter was in high school and when she graduated my disability check was gonna leave. And when I see leave it’s not really leaving but you get a little bit for each child and she was the baby. ⁓ So I decided I needed to start something in my life. I had a brain. ⁓ So I just sold my property ⁓ in South Florida and I took that money and I invested in myself. And I think that’s the most important thing anybody can do for themselves.

Quentin (06:21)
Mmm.

Rachel Cohen (06:41)
I took a course. took a few courses, MFM, Millionaire Mindset with Tyler Devereux, Ryan Woolley. I also took Tim Mai’s thing for cashflow, like raising capital. And then I also, ⁓ keep saying better stop that. But I also ⁓ went to ⁓ Brad Blazer, Raze Masters, you name it, I’ve been there. I’ve networked all over the country.

Quentin (07:01)
No.

Rachel Cohen (07:10)
anywhere from Florida to New York to Texas to Arizona, ⁓ California as well. ⁓ And then I’ve gone on some cruises where I’ve met some amazing people individually and I think it’s more important to meet people individually at their own, you know, in their own environment, in their own space and become friends with them because your friends are your, are the people that are going to trust, love, respond and help you.

Quentin (07:40)
No, absolutely. ⁓ I’m sorry, was you about to elaborate? I don’t want to you off. I heard you take a breath, but I don’t want to cut you off, okay.

Rachel Cohen (07:44)
No, no, no, no. just, no,

I just, have a lot to say, but I want to make sure I keep it short and sweet as possible. Just the people know that I have learned immensely since 2023, how to underwrite, to find deals, how to talk to broker, which that wasn’t an issue as I told you before, how to, I guess, find the right deals so that we can, you know, and I have a team. It’s not just me, by the way, you can’t do this by yourself.

I have about 30 people under me. ⁓ I work with a key principal ⁓ who can sign on the note. And then we use what’s called a cash flow portal with Perry Zhang. That’s how we underwrite. That’s how we transfer our funds from a person to the deal. That way we have to do it legally. It’s all, ⁓ I guess, approved as you call it.

I want people to understand this is an actual thing. Private placement memorandums are amazing because it’s not like the stock market. I think I’m reiterating to you, but I’m reiterating to everybody now at this point is stock market goes up and down. It fluctuates. never know. But right this second, real estate is hit bottom in my opinion. And right now is the time to buy it.

Quentin (09:07)
Absolutely, no, I hear that. You know, when we was talking earlier, I love how you said you, one, you love the partner, two, you said you are connected. You just like me always say my purpose is to unite and my passion to do that is through storytelling. That’s one reason why I love podcasts, because I love to find other people’s And so I know you’re a connector. I know you’ve been through some, you know,

like, you know, getting over just and making major strides. So I guess my question is, you know, it’s not always easy in this climate to push through, to stay motivated. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly, yourself as well as your business?

Rachel Cohen (09:50)
Absolutely, I’m gonna start with myself and then I’ll shift to the business because I think Personally, you need to fix yourself first before anything else works Let’s start back. Okay. I’m gonna start back in 2006 Which is a long time ago. I’ll do it quickly But the bottom line is I was paralyzed in 2006 what’s called caught it Aquina They had given me a 10 % chance of walking or survival. I’ve beat both

But let’s fast forward to 2023 where I just sold my house. I felt like I could do stuff again, yada yada yada, right? And then this past February, February 14th, believe it or not, I had seven levels of my back redone for Titanium.

I love that song, I Am Titanium, because I am literally made of titanium at this point.

Quentin (11:17)
Absolutely.

Rachel Cohen (11:21)
⁓ and people always ask me, when you go through the airplane thing, do you make you go off or whatever? I’m like, no, no, no, it’s titanium, man. It’s like the best strongest metal in the world. That’ll probably last longer than me. but yeah, I, I, and then, so I have to re, I had to reset, right? I had to reset. So I first, I did the GP GP with Paul Montalago. He’s an amazing person. I raised about this under a million dollars for him. And when I did that, ⁓ I learned that, know what?

Quentin (11:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (11:50)
I don’t want to give away my deals anymore. I want to help people my own way. And I’m not negating, he’s a mentor. He’s a great guy. Don’t get me wrong, please. Amazing guy. In fact, he set me on the right path, right? ⁓ Now, personally, I can walk, I can talk again. It took me time to, I had to go to rehab. I had to move to Michigan, of all places. I’m from Florida ⁓ to stay with somebody ⁓ so that I can be safe.

⁓ And I’m supposed to stay here through the end of the summer. In the meantime, I’m back to work. I have to make sure I get up and walk around. I have to make sure I can’t sit for too long, stand for too long. I have to adjust. But in doing that, I’ve learned my abilities and I’ve learned how I need help, you know, in certain areas. ⁓ that’s how, and this is where I’m leading into the business part. That’s how I’ve joined team members. That’s why I’ve brought people together. ⁓ That’s why I…

do what I do, right? Because I know I have tons of people that I can help in the world. So what I do is I team up with really good people and I’ve got about 30 people under me at this point. And we’ve separated it a little bit. So if you invest in one of our deals, this is understand there’s two lanes you can go in. can either just invest, the minimum for that is 100,000 and you’re making 8%.

with 16 % IRR, et cetera, et cetera. I can’t get into any deals on here about everything else. But basically, if you join us, let’s just say you do, you can choose to, once you do that, to become a future general partner. And what we do is on Tuesdays, we teach people what we’re doing. We show them how to do it, what the process is, like the due diligence list, all the stuff that it takes to actually be a general partner. And we go through that.

And then on Thursdays, we do the underwritings. have Perry or one of his teammates come on Thursday and go over everything with the underwriting piece with, know, what if this happens? What if that happens, et cetera? So that’s two big pieces. I also am still connected to a lot of different communities ⁓ that I am helping. So I’m trying to spread myself in terms of like helping. I wanna help everyone, but you gotta be selective with the right people. ⁓

And I’ve learned a lot about being selective, especially in real estate. And I’m doing that so that people trust me. I think trust is the main entity, the main thing when you have real estate involved. You can’t take down a $24 million or $40 million building without help. So you need to make sure you have all your teams in line, your property managers in line, your asset managers in line.

Quentin (14:21)
Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (15:25)
You have to have everything sorted out. You also have to have a great CRM. If I tell anybody anything ever, the best thing you need to have is a CRM with, and that’s just a list of your people with basically everything about them, where they’re from, what they’re interested in investing in. If you did this, what would they do? Like, would they be interested or not? That’s the most important thing I can tell you. Because when I first started, I didn’t have a great CRM.

and it really screwed me up. I could have probably raised a lot more money, could have helped a lot more people. So I’m starting to get that situated. I’m now with Go High Level, which is a great program that I put all my contacts by, just by us signing up and making a link, your email is now on my list. So just by that, and then later I add notes. So here’s an example. I had my Facebook and Instagram,

Quentin (16:02)
Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (16:21)
hacked and people were getting calls, send me money. So what I did was I got on my, called my friend from Go High Level and said, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to send a little letter to everyone. I asked them to do it. They were so sweet. Please ASAP. I’m not by my computer. I’m out and about, but I don’t want to get any more calls saying I’m asking for money that I’m not doing, right? So you have to have those systems in place, especially when you’re at the level that I am in terms of like really big, big multifamilies.

You know, we’re talking large, multi-families. They think you have all this money laying around. They want to try to take it. I don’t have money laying around. I’m a GP and right now, GPs are barely making anything, to be honest, because all of the money is going to our limited partners because we make sure that we pay them first, right? And because of the industry and what happened in 2022, 2023, a lot of people are losing their, excuse me, French booties, that’s best way could say it.

That’s a bad word, but you know what I mean. I don’t want to say the other word. But that’s why it’s the best time to buy right now. That’s why we found some incredible deals in those areas that I was telling you about. Texas, Florida, Arizona, they’re all areas that I would buy right now. In certain places, of course. But as long as the numbers make sense, and as long as I have boots on the ground, which means people there to help me take care of it.

Quentin (17:23)
I’m ⁓

Rachel Cohen (17:47)
and an asset manager and a property manager, I can do the job. So the bottom line is I need a lot of people, right? I need a lot of intelligent people that work with me that help me to be the connector.

Quentin (18:02)
love it. I love it. Thank you for all the gems. Thank you for even dipping into your own personal story. I told him at the top of the, you know, at the top of the podcast that, you know, you was going to give us life lessons. So you just gave us some life nuggets. We just gave some business nuggets. And so let me ask you this, Ms. Rachel, what are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like, what’s the next real goal for you?

Rachel Cohen (18:28)
Okay, wow, that’s a big question. Well, I want to get to the point where I have enough capital coming in that I can not only make sure that my family is secure and has a legacy to have for the rest of their lives and their children’s lives. I also want to give 20 % back to, let’s just say, temporary homeless or sexually trafficked women or abused women. I want to set up a way to help others. ⁓ That is like my goal. ⁓ Long-term,

five to seven years time, I’d say that should be doable with what I do because all of our deals are a five year track.

let’s see what else. Most important thing to me is that people can have a roof over their head and food in their bellies, not the crap food they give on, you know, good food, healthy food. and be happy, content with where they are. You know, it’s, hard. Not everybody sees the negative things that people go through. Everybody hides it.

Quentin (19:25)
Exactly.

Rachel Cohen (19:37)
But there’s so many people out there that are really struggling, like really struggling. And even business people that the thing, you you think that they’re doing really well and maybe they overextended themselves and they’re having trouble too. So, you know, it’s all in the eyes of the beholder. And my grandma always told me that. So all I could do is try to help as many people as I can.

with as many resources as I can get.

Quentin (20:11)
I absolutely love that. think that’s big. The fact that you want to be able to give 20 % back to human trafficking, people that need it, women that need it, right? ⁓ I think that’s totally amazing. think that’s huge. I think that’s a well-worth cause. And I know you know this, the next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it.

But it sounds like to me, because of your service heart, you’re dedicated. You’re like, listen, this is gonna happen within five years, right? I think that’s, you said that’s the goal, right? At minimum, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (20:46)
That’s my goal. That’s my goal. You know, goals

are goals. There’s no guarantee on that, right? ⁓ I know that the first deal I did, we were supposed to sell it in 2027, but that one’s probably gonna not sell until we’re ready because we had to extend it due to the fact that the insurance and the taxes and everything’s gone up more than we expected. ⁓

Quentin (20:54)
Absolutely.

Rachel Cohen (21:11)
And quite honestly, didn’t get much. I haven’t gotten much money from that deal. My, my investors have. ⁓ so I’m literally in the middle of a deal right now that talks to God for me because when it, when it happens, everything will change. All my goals is my desires. You know, I want to have, you know, a place where my kids can come and have Thanksgiving and be comfortable, not just a little tiny place that I’m, I’m retired in.

Quentin (21:24)
yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Rachel Cohen (21:41)
You know, ⁓ there was some issues

where I did have a boyfriend until last July and I had a home with him. And then I was literally, I moved to Arizona to help with a project in Arizona. Then I was like, changed that. don’t really like Arizona, 130 degree weather. That was not like my jam. So my KP said, well, we’re looking at a deal in Tampa. How would you like to go look at Tampa? I’m like,

Quentin (22:01)
Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (22:09)
Let’s go, I’m there. So we went to Tampa and I don’t know if everybody knows what happened with the hurricane, right? So I started to do that and then there about two months, two and a half months or so. And then I had to get a FEMA hotel. This is craziness, right? I was in a FEMA hotel and then in the middle of that, that’s when I couldn’t walk again. That was in February.

Quentin (22:17)
Yeah. ⁓

Yeah.

Hmm.

Rachel Cohen (22:37)
And so my desires have been put on hold a little bit for about six months. ⁓ But I’m coming back hard, strong. I mean, I’m already back in the loop with a couple of girlfriends of mine that, and I have a whole group, like I said, on Tuesday that’s still meeting. ⁓ My friend Roy Brown is the head of that. And we’ve been friends since the beginning. ⁓ I believe that God put me in a place that’s safe and

Quentin (22:43)
Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (23:06)
that I can grow and that’s the most important. Safety and growth. And I keep going back to that. I hope that you understand. I’m not trying to repeat myself, but it’s important for people to know, like I am all about helping others. And I know $100,000 is a lot of money. I’m not a dummy, right? We do have some for 50,000, but I tell people, if you can somehow reach the 100,000 and invest,

Quentin (23:13)
Yeah.

I hate you.

Rachel Cohen (23:35)
Multiply your money by two times in five years You know at least two times. That’s what you know what we say and usually it’s more, but we can’t promise that right We can’t say guarantee. We’re definitely gonna guarantee you more because that’s not a possibility ⁓ But it’s a security thing it’s an asset-backed security and it’s not something like I’m sure people make money on Bitcoin because Bitcoin goes up, you know

I’m sure people make money on the stocks if they do it right and they don’t pick the wrong ones, right? But this is an asset backed.

Quentin (24:04)
you

Rachel Cohen (24:13)
It’s apartment buildings. They’re everywhere. They’re going up everywhere. If you look around and I don’t like class A only because, let explain, you can’t add value to them. So, you know, the rent goes up anyway, right? Cause it goes up every year regardless. And, you’re not making a change. You’re not fixing it to look better. You’re not making it pretty. You’re not adding a dog park. You’re not adding stuff like a garage with a covered garage or you’re not adding the things that are extras.

Quentin (24:29)
Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (24:43)
A dog wash, even a dog wash, little things like that. have a dog. This is Pebbles. Say hi. So I am an animal lover. My daughter has a cat. My whole family, my other children have a pit bull mix with whatever. the point is, like little things like that matter to people. So me having grown children, I have seen what people actually want, right?

Quentin (24:50)
Hi Pebbles! Hi Pebbles!

Rachel Cohen (25:13)
So that’s what I’m trying to do is I’m adding that value. And I have construction people in every area, ⁓ a whole group. We have created a point where we actually have an employment like. ⁓

I don’t know how to explain that exactly. PEO, is it’s called. ⁓ We’re growing. We’re growing. So I went from just me and House of Kings to UL Assets. And I want to make that clear because I’m doing both. ⁓ yeah, and I know that people are leaving both. Well, I’m not giving up my identity because House of Kings Collective is who I am.

Quentin (25:32)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That’s right.

Rachel Cohen (25:57)
And I’m to explain that because I think people need to understand the reason this house of Kings collective is my last name is Cohen. Hence the Kings are high priestess or however you want to put it. And I collect people and I collect money. So, ⁓ you know, that’s why I came up with that name. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to use other names on different house on different apartment buildings. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to grow. And of course you don’t want everybody to know what you own. So you have an LLC and then you have a holding company. ⁓

Quentin (25:58)
That’s right.

Rachel Cohen (26:28)
There’s a lot of things that I can teach people. ⁓ anybody that wants to learn and grow, please, I want them to contact me. I think it’s important, especially, please don’t take this wrong way, Quintinus, especially women, because women don’t understand how much they can do, even if their mother’s at home. Like they have all of these people they’re connected to that they don’t realize they have their connection to, and then they can learn. ⁓ Education, they don’t have to go to school per se. ⁓

They can still grow and learn. So, and that’s a lot of what I want to do is give back, especially because of, do you know that I went, this is a separate thing I’m gonna tell you about, kind of weird. I went on the AI, one of the AIs, and I asked a question about employment, right? Let’s say, just specifically, let’s just say a specific job, right? And I asked it if I was at this age as a woman, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

how much would I make? And it said like 280,000. And then I went on another person’s computer as a man and I asked the same question, how much would I make? It was 400,000. And that’s even in AI. So if you tell me there’s no bias, that’s craziness. And then everybody’s like, well women have babies and they take time off. And well, yeah, of course we do, but that shouldn’t mean.

Quentin (27:42)
Yeah.

Rachel Cohen (27:53)
that we don’t get paid the same amount. That should mean, my God, they’re doing everything together. Maybe we should pay them more. You know? that’s my heart speaking, not maybe my business sense, but my heart saying that I want to help women to get to a level, same level as they’re paying men.

Quentin (28:16)
No, I take no offense. I’ll champion your cause. Like, it’s needed. I’m glad you’re doing it. I’m glad that’s your heart where your mission is. And so right there, I just want to ask you, as we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you or connect with you, maybe collaborate with you, what’s the best way to get in contact with you, Ms.

Rachel Cohen (28:37)
Well, I prefer email,

But it’s Rachel at HouseofKingsCollective.com. And I’m gonna say it again, Rachel at HouseofKingsCollective.com. And also you can call, you can text me, but please don’t call me. You can text me and tell me where you got.

my number, your number from because I do have crazy people reaching out. And it’s area code 561-888-3047. Hence the 888 is infinity. So that helps you to remember the number. The 561 is where I’m from, which is South Florida. So 561-888-3047. And the number seven is also a lucky number.

So if that helps anybody remember.

Quentin (29:24)
Yes, she is everyone.

Now keep going. I mean, I don’t want to cut you off at all.

Rachel Cohen (29:30)
Yeah, no, no, no, I appreciate you.

I think that this is important for people to know that we’re human. We’re all people. You know, I have all the technology and I have all the, you the help to get everything done, but it’s really a personal business. And I want them to understand it’s, you know, do you like me? Do you want to work with me? Do you think I have my stuff together?

All of those things come together as one. And that’s the most important thing.

Quentin (30:05)
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. Well, there she is everyone, Ms. Rachel Cohen. Thank you so much, my dear. This was incredible. Thank you for your time, your story, your perspective. Thank you for your vulnerability, just sharing. Really, really appreciate having you on today. So thank you so much for being here.

Rachel Cohen (30:25)
No, thank

you for having me, Quentin. It’s been incredible. You’ve been so easy to talk to and I love that. I love that. It’s great. We should definitely connect again whenever you want. I’d love to. Love to.

Quentin (30:34)
pretty

Absolutely.

Well, again, thank you so much. And for those tuning in, listen, I’m not going to even say if you got value from this, right? I know you got value. So make sure you’re subscribed. We got amazing people still to come. But today has been amazing with Ms. Rachel. And we do not want you to miss out when we have these conversations. So again, thank you, Ms. Rachel. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.