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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Cherif Medawar, a seasoned real estate investor and educator. Cherif shares his journey into commercial real estate, emphasizing the importance of education and scaling through unique real estate funds. He discusses the flexibility and advantages of these funds compared to traditional syndications, and how he educates aspiring investors on property acquisition strategies. The conversation highlights the current market opportunities and the potential for significant returns in real estate investing.
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Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (00:00)
The biggest thing I’ve done that’s different is practically every business model I thought of that I have done, I realized that there is an opportunity to scale it.by creating a bigger pie for others to
me. First I started teaching and then people said they want to do business with me so I started creating joint venture programs where they can do things with my money, with my knowledge, etc. They can go maybe find the deeds, create joint ventures, etc. And then the best thing, then people said I want to invest with you,
Michelle Kesil (02:02)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Cherif Medawar, who is a real estate investor, fund manager, and educator with 35 plus years of experience. So excited to have you on the show today, Cherif.Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (02:26)
Thank you, thanks for having me.Michelle Kesil (02:28)
Of course. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching raising capital through your funds and scaling your commercial business. So let’s dive in.Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (02:41)
Thank you. Well, you want me to get started?Michelle Kesil (02:45)
Yeah, how about just first off sharing what your main focus is?Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (02:50)
Well, I’ve been a real estate investor for all my life practically, but I focused mostly on commercial real estate. I’ve done a lot of residential, but commercial real estate. Then,I started educating people on how to invest themselves. So I did a lot of educational events throughout the country for many years. And I still do that. We have over 13,000, 14,000 maybe members, a subscriber on YouTube. That’s my focus. I do a lot of free trainings and stuff. And we have some joint ventures trainings that people want to…
let’s say get started into commercial, they just get a training, go find properties, assign them to my real estate fund. And then I realized the people I trained wanted to grow more, so we helped them set up real estate funds that are very unique and very powerful. So it’s been amazing. We have over 1,000 video success stories on YouTube. I don’t think there’s anybody else has more success stories.
Michelle Kesil (03:49)
Amazing. Yeah, how did you get started in the commercial space? Why did you choose that avenue?Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (03:50)
Thank you.Well, when I was very young, I was…
I wanted to be in the hotel business. wanted to be general manager and I was working at a hotel called Century Plaza Hotel. I was in my early 20s and a billionaire in name of Edmond Beisari was a hotel guest several times in the hotel and he noticed how hard I was working in the hotel business. So he asked me to work for him. He said come and work for me. I’ll I have a hotel as a resort and and from there I’m going to teach you real estate and this way you can go speak on my behalf and do things because I want to stay in.
Europe and travel so you can do the work on my behalf. I’ll tell you what to do and what to say. So that’s how I got started and that was the commercial arena. He was doing bigger deals, incredible developments and stuff. So I got exposed to all that. Then I branched out on my own and I realized that income producing commercial properties are just so much better because one deal can change your life. That’s how I got going with it.
Michelle Kesil (05:47)
Yeah, that’s awesome. Are you operating throughout the entire US or in a specific market?Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (05:49)
Thank you.Yes, I’ve done throughout the US and ⁓ mainly my assets. hold a lot of assets in ⁓ old San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is the US territory, right where the cruise ships arrive.
like my website, CREPR.com, commercial real estate, portorico.com. You could see inventory of close to 100 million. These properties I bought through the years and they’re mixed use, like downstairs retail, upstairs residential or offices, et cetera. And that gives you an idea about my portfolio. I concentrated the portfolio there that I hold, but I buy and sell.
and improve, etc. throughout the U.S. I even have students finding deals and they get assignment fees, etc. We’re doing these right now in Georgia, we’ve done in Florida, quite active, California a lot because I have a place in California as well.
Michelle Kesil (06:50)
Awesome. What do you feel are some of the main keys that have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow and run smoothly?Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (07:04)
The biggest thing I’ve done that’s different is practically every business model I thought of that I have done, I realized that there is an opportunity to scale it.by creating a bigger pie for others to join me. First I started teaching and then people said they want to do business with me so I started creating joint venture programs where they can do things with my money, with my knowledge, etc. They can go maybe find the deeds, create joint ventures, etc. And then the best thing, then people said I want to invest with you,
So I said, okay, I set up a real estate fund that’s back 16 years ago and
I set up a very unique type of real estate fund and that helped me grow like crazy. And then I realized people wanted their own real estate funds. And so that was the biggest impact I’ve had on my life is helping others set up their own real estate funds, which are debt funds. They’re not the normal ⁓ equity syndication, but real estate funds. And that helped them grow like crazy.
Michelle Kesil (08:08)
Yeah, can you expand on these funds? Like what they yeah, just share more about it.Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (08:13)
Yeah. Okay, solet me define a few terms if you would. A syndication is when somebody sets up a structure whereby the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the watchful eyes of the government ⁓ division that says, if you’re gonna raise money from people, raise capital money, and go deploy it on their behalf and making all the decisions for them to return a profit, ⁓ you will have to file
with the Security and Exchange Commission, which is with the SEC, a private placement memorandum, a regulation, you have to follow certain regulations and be in compliance. Otherwise, we will suspend you, we’ll fine you, jail you, however bad the infraction is. But if you follow the rules, yes, this is good, and you can do a syndication, which is…
Raising the capital from various investors for a specific deal. So a syndication is raising the money for one deal let’s say an apartment building or a ⁓ storage facility but a real estate fund is a structure that allows you in that structure to raise the money for maybe an apartment building for storage facility for development for loaning for borrowing for ⁓ Partnering for managing and all types of things can go slack instead of
buying a stock in the stock market, you buy a mutual fund. So I help people set up that type of mutual fund, which is a real estate fund. And in a syndication, usually it’s an equity structure whereby people invest with a real estate syndicator.
that raises the money, usually that syndicator charges the investors about 3 % on the property they’re gonna acquire. Let’s say they’re gonna acquire a $5 million building.
So they’re gonna charge 3 % acquisition fee. So it’ll be 150,000. Then from the cash flow, they’ll pay the investors maybe five, 6%. And then they keep the rest.
And then when they sell the property, they’re going to pay from the upside gain five years later, maybe 70 % of the gain and they keep 30%. So that’s called the equity splits, if you will. The problem is sooner or later, these syndicators and they set up one syndication by an apartment building, another one, a third one. Sooner or later, they realize, my God, I’m working so hard for the investors. And it’s just…
It’s too much work, it’s too much risk, something goes wrong, the investors want to go after the acquisition fees and mismanagement, etc. So it’s a lot of work and not that much return compared to a real estate fund where you set up only one structure, not structure, a syndication every time you have to go to an attorney, pay 30,000, 40,000 to set up the syndication to go acquire a building, but…
one structure which is a real estate fund that’s a debt fund whereby you tell the investor this is an open fund you can come in and invest let’s say from 25 000 to millions of dollars and when you put your money in we’re going to pay you a steady return let’s say six percent from 25 000 to let’s say 249 000 we’ll pay you six percent per year paid maybe twice a year you put 250 000 we’ll pay you
8 % per year. And we’re going to take the money, we’re going to buy these types of assets. We’re going to buy…
some apartment buildings, going to buy some storage facilities, we’re going to buy some single tenant buildings retail, we’re going to buy some shopping malls with a huge upside, we’re going to do a development, we’re going to do some lending, hard money, etc. So now the investors can come in, they know they’re getting a steady return, there is no acquisition fee, there is no management fee, there is no disposition fee, and anytime they want to cash out, they are not stuck for five years, they can actually request a withdrawal within 12 months because the SEC allows the
fund manager to actually raise more money to pay somebody who wants to come out or maybe refinance the building or sell a building. So it’s such a flexibility for the investors and for the fund managers. And the beauty is there is no closing date. These are approved by the SEC to can stay open. So the person raises the capital and they have been investing and now three, four buildings ⁓ are doing well. You can refinance as a fund manager one of the building, pay off the investors or actually take
the money and go buy other buildings and keep growing, eventually you create as a fund manager legacy for your family because whatever you’re holding, eventually you can sell a couple, refinance the rest, cash out the investors and keep them for your family forever.
I’ve set up many, many people like this. I’ve been doing it for quite a few years now, dozens and dozens of people. We even have a network where fund managers can team up with other fund managers for joint ventures. So I created something to help a few people that were telling me, I’m doing syndication, I’m working so hard, making so little. And now with a fund structure, you can raise…
10 million and it’s like somebody in a syndication raising 100 million. The impact and the difference of income and potential is phenomenal and the investors love it because they can compound that return especially if they have IRA accounts, retirement accounts. An 8 % which is paid twice a year, let’s say February 28th, August 31st, 4%, 4 % can compound in 10 years is like 12 % annual rate of return.
This is internal rate of return where you have to calculate how much you pay in taxes and all this. It’s a pretty powerful structure. 20 years later people will be making an annual rate of return of 20%. These are real cash flow. You you buy, you buy…
⁓ Berkshire Hathaway with Warren Buffett, the best investor in the world, historically speaking, he doesn’t pay dividend. If you want to compound like this, you just put the money, you can’t use the money forever. But in the actual real estate fund structure, people can truly compound based on certain return and it’s got the incredible flexibility.
So, and one more thing, in a syndication, if you have a building and you want to refinance it, cash out the money, by law you have to pay the investors.
But in a debt fund, when you refinance, you can take the money and go buy another building for the fund and keep growing. It’s been such a phenomenal success that structure has been insanely good. have in-house attorneys who deal with a great team that actually works at tailor-made for each investor and what they do, cetera.
Michelle Kesil (16:05)
Amazing. Thank you for explaining all of that.So what are you most focused on solving or scaling next in your business?
Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (16:18)
want to scale the real estate funds with people. These are the debt funds.Because actually what I’m seeing is as they grow they want to team up with other people so the network grows not only do they go and raise capital and do some deeds at a bigger scale But then they realize my gosh, you know, we bought this small hotel and made money It’s someone else in your network Cherif trying to do hotels Maybe we can team up and do a true joint venture between the real estate fund of Susan Johnson and ⁓ John Doe and then they come in together
and they can create a true joint venture on bigger hotels or bigger apartment buildings. And the opportunities right now are amazing because if you look in 2025, the market has been frozen. I some people say, there are some activities. Yes, if somebody’s down and out, somebody’s got to jump in and buy it. But really, those who have the capital,
They are able to get better loans from the banks, they’re able to buy properties at the lower amounts. I mean, it’s insane the deeds that we’re seeing right now. And it’s going to be like this 26, 20, 26, 27, 28 and forever after. Why? Because the markets keep going up and down and up and down. And all you have to do is understand the opportunity, understand the market. And in commercial is based on the cashflow. I don’t care what the whole market is doing. There was the deal in Georgia, the properties worth $50 million. The bank told me,
We’ll give it to you at 27 million. The loan itself is 32 million, the loan balance. They said 27 million, just get us out. We want to finish before the end of next month. These are deeds that are unheard of. I’ve been in the market forever. Never seen deeds like what happens now because what has been happening in the market with the cyclical patterns and all that.
Michelle Kesil (18:11)
Yeah, absolutely.So you also are educating people. What are you educating them on?
Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (18:22)
So I train people on how to find the right properties in certain markets. Mainly, I like single tenant buildings. I’ll give you an example. So take a busy street that has two-way traffic cars.I train them on finding a single tenant building. Those are the standalone buildings like an old Jack in the Box or Starbucks that’s vacant and it has a sign for sale. So I train the certain students, investors. I say, call the broker, tell them you’re interested in the property, use my proof of fund which is from my real estate fund. We have millions always sitting and they say I’m interested in the building, how much is it?
And let’s say the broker says 700,000. Well, because it’s sitting vacant, maybe they can put it under contract at 600,000. They show the proof of fund and they say, I’m representing this fund, Mixif, which is my fund. And, you know, we’re going to buy all cash. We just need 45 days to put it under contract and close within 15 days after. That’s relatively fast.
for a single tenant building commercial property. Usually it’s 60 days to 90 days under contract, et cetera. So we move fast, 45 days to diligence, 15 days to close. And what I give these students, the training on what to tell the broker, how to present the proof of fund, how to present the letter of intent to purchase, and usually we put it under contract right away. So the student puts it under contract, they send me an email, we’re gonna send this to the tenants. So we’re looking at national tenants.
I’ve combined a list of 4,500 plus national tenants. These are the big tenants, the Jack in the Box, the Burger King, the mostly quick service restaurants, know, QSR. That one expand because they’re like, you look at Quiznos and Subways, all these people, they want to grow. Their business model is to grow.
So I trained the people on here is the list of tenants, here is who to contact, here is the size they look for, here’s who they want to be next to. This is the ideal property. The traffic should be so much ⁓ per day in traffic, et cetera. So once they have it under contract and they send me, Cherif, this is the email we’re going to send the lieutenants. I look at the email, I approve it. I make some changes because I’m the one doing the training. I’m the one coaching them through it because it’s big profit for them and for me, as I’ll explain in a minute. Then they start smiling and
and they call these tenants, they leave voicemail messages, they send an email, there is also a video of the place, they talk about the neighboring tenants, there is a whole spiel that I tell them how to do it. And all we need is one tenant to call that student back. And usually the tenant responds by email. We like the area, we saw the video, we saw it on Google Earth, we did our studies, we need to talk about it in more details.
And that’s when we set up a Zoom call and then we go on a call, the student, me, the tenant, and maybe some other retail person or tenant representative on a call and we tell them, we will give you the space for so much money. Usually they want 10 to 15 years lease. And we write a letter of intent that they want a lease and they sign it.
Usually have to kick in tenant improvement. So that property under contract at six hundred thousand Let’s say they asked me for a hundred thousand tenant improvement to come in They want to change the floor upgrade the kitchen or the drive-through whatever. So now it’s gonna cost me seven hundred thousand so Six hundred thousand under contract I’ll give them tenant improvement the tenant will come in leasing for a whole year and let’s say the tenant will pay eight thousand three hundred a month like we have a deal like this That’s that’s a hundred thousand a year
100,000 a year with a tenant like these national big tenants makes the property worth 16 times that base rent. So the 100,000 base rent, the property would be worth a million six, six, seven. I’m telling you the numbers of the market, people can verify that all day long. It’s called 6 % cap, capitalization rate. The tenants usually pay this lease triple net, that means net of tax.
insurance and maintenance on the property. So they paid 100,000 plus they paid a property tax, let’s say it’s 10,000 a year. They pay a property insurance, let’s say it’s 8,000 a year. All this is paid by the tenant. There’s nothing for you to do as an owner if you buy a building like this with a tenant in it. And every year there is an escalation, usually 3%. And on top of all this, these tenants give us a corporate guarantee. So if they cancel the lease or they don’t make it, their company publicly traded mostly, they pay us to leave. So it’s just unbelievable opportunity.
Where else can you get a property at $600,000 and it jumps to $1,006,000? Or let’s say I’m wrong. Let’s say they just pay $60,000 a year. Times 16, it will be worth $1,000,000. So you get something under contract at $600,000. Let’s say you’re doing it for yourself because many of my students don’t assign it to me because at the end, when we have the tenant ready to come in, they sign the letter of intent, I buy the property.
The actual tenant then signs the lease.
and what ends up happening, the property has increased in value. So for the students that are doing it with me, from the purchase price they locked it under, which is 600, to the value where it became, let’s say the value is just a million, went up 400,000. It doesn’t matter if I’m putting tenant improvement or not, that’s not the student’s problem, that’s their opportunities. They got it
contract 600, it’s worth a million. On that 400,000 profit, I pay them 10%, which is 40,000, if we sign a 10-year lease.
If we sign with the tenant 15 year lease, I give them 25 % of the upside gain between the purchase price and the value of the lease being 16 times. So they get $100,000 assignment fees. Now people say, okay, this is too good to be true. You make it so simple. Well, look at my success story. Look how many people walked to 98,000 assignment fee. I have a guy walked with 180,000 assignment fee. That guy, I mean, he’s done it a few times. I told him you’re ready to do the deals on your own.
He’s now actually doing his own deal. I mean, one deal changed his life because if you get the property at 600,000 you have to put
tenant improvement, guess what? When you go to the bank and say I have a property under contract, it’s vacant at 600,000.
and here is a letter of intent for this national tenant coming in. The bank will give you the loan even if you have bad credit. Why? Because they’re going to ask you to assign the lease to the bank and they’ll give the loan based on the corporate guarantee of the tenant. These are corporate guarantees. is, I mean, we’ve done this for quite a few years. We’ve had dozens and dozens of people doing it. And those are the people eventually that come in and say, okay, let me set up a real estate fund. I have people set up funds in the past that say, I’ve been doing apartment buildings. ⁓
you know, syndications, maybe I set up a fund and I can do apartment buildings and single tenant buildings and shopping malls. Yesterday I talked to two gentlemen that do shopping malls. They started with a million dollar these and now they have four full shopping malls. They took the idea of the single tenant that I’ve done with them and I’ve done it now with shopping malls. They take a shopping mall where they lost big tenants and they learn the system, they get it under contract, they start lining up some tenants, they close when they’re done.
Last year they did 10 million dollars worth of deals, not profit, but worth of deals. Anyway, I get too excited about it, but it had changed my life. I mean, that’s why I tell you my website. tell you, look at my portfolio. have…
Michelle Kesil (25:46)
Yeah.Right. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Of course. Yes.
Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (25:58)
Burberry’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Sunglass Hut, Diamond International, the biggest diamond dealers in the Caribbean. And all these, just got the right building, started smiling and dialing. They came in and I’ve been receiving income forever. And guess what? For my kids, I tell them the same thing. They came to the training. My son was 16 when he came into the training. My daughter was 17. Now my daughter is in university, but she knows this is the way to do it. She can scale that. She can manage this. It’s extremely powerful and simple way to become free usingMichelle Kesil (26:11)
Awesome.Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (26:28)
estate strategies and structures along with the real estate funds etc. So got too excited. Thank you.Michelle Kesil (26:31)
Yes. Yes, thank you so much for sharing that.So, before we wrap up, how can people connect with you and reach you?
Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (26:39)
Yeah.Okay, so www.cmrei cherifmedawarrealestateinvesting. They can talk to Ashlee. They can email her. Ashlee@cmrei Ashlee is ASHLEE@CMREI cherifmedawarrealestateinvesting.com . ⁓
put my name like Cherif Medawar, C-H-E-R-I-F, Medawar M-E-D-A-W-A-R on YouTube or something. I see plenty of videos and all this. I’m happy to share like your company does. sharing the knowledge and opening the network to the world is just one of the most powerful things people can do. I’ve really enjoyed doing that. When I started teaching and doing joint ventures with students to find these and assign them, et cetera,
Michelle Kesil (27:25)
Thanks.Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (27:31)
or finding the deeds and do them for themselves. I didn’t expect the opportunities to come like this and to grow like that. So it’s been a blessing.Michelle Kesil (27:37)
Yeah.Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story and thank you for being here.
Cherif Medawar Www.CMREI.com (27:44)
Thank you, Michelle.Michelle Kesil (27:46)
And for the listeners tuning in, you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators who are building real businesses. See you on the next episode.
