The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
Navigating Cross-Border Real Estate Investing with Lauren Cohen
On this episode of The 5 Questions Podcast, Lauren Cohen shares her journey from facing unexpected immigration obstacles to becoming a leading expert in international law and cross-border real estate investing. Hear how she turned personal challenges into powerful programs like "How to Emigrate Through Real Estate," helping others navigate business immigration with confidence.
Discover the incredible opportunities in cross-border real estate and how strategic partnerships can help make dreams a reality. Don’t miss it!
https://investingacrossborders.net/
#5QuestionsPodcast #RealEstateInvesting #CrossBorderSuccess
95% of lawyers and others will tell you you can't do it. Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we unlock real estate and business insights one question at a time. Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast. I am your host, mario Lamar, our guest on today's show. She is a serial entrepreneur. She is an international lawyer, realtor and cross-border expert. She is a best-selling author, a keynote speaker and globally acclaimed legal and real estate business advisor. Lauren Cohen. Sorry about that, lauren Cohen.
Speaker 2:Bonjour Ça va. How are you today? Lauren, welcome to the podcast. So happy that you made it on the show today, likewise Excited to be here, excited to be in your acquaintance, excited to be doing the cruise with you. Just lots of fun and exciting things coming up.
Speaker 1:Lauren, the way the podcast works is very simple Five questions about real estate or business and we get straight to the point you ready.
Speaker 2:I think so We'll try it.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:What happens if I'm not ready?
Speaker 1:We'll make it happen.
Speaker 2:I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:Lauren, your journey from experiencing personal immigration challenges to becoming an international law expert is very inspiring. Can you share how your personal experience motivated you to help others with their immigration and investment pursuits?
Speaker 2:So if this hadn't happened, I couldn't make this stuff up. Believe me as I tell people when they say, well, how did you get into this? You cannot make this stuff up. So I married a guy here in Florida that was from Montreal and unbeknownst to me at the time. I was working in corporate law and I'm originally from Toronto and I lived here in Florida and, unbeknownst to me, he was inadmissible. I did not know this because he was in the US when I met him. So we got married. We went on our honeymoon to Thailand, which was not very smart on his part, but he didn't make a lot of smart decisions. I mean, the smartest one he made was me, but that's another story.
Speaker 2:So we went on our honeymoon to Thailand and on the way back they said your husband is not allowed in the country he has. They literally went like this mario, he's gone like this to the us government one too many times and we're going like this right back to him and I was like what now?
Speaker 1:at the time I was not in the immigration space.
Speaker 2:I was in the process of getting my green card and here I am, a newlywed, and they're telling me my husband is not coming home with me.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I was like what they said yeah, you can go to back home. This was at chicago o'hare airport, but he is not allowed to. We're sending him back to um, to japan, where it's just where we flew from, and he can find his way back to canada. He, as I said, he was from montreal. Needless to say, that was the beginning of the end of a marriage that probably never should have happened, but if it hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have been doing what I'm doing. And it caused me to be determined to not allow other people to experience that type of challenge lining in the business immigration process, because I found my silver lining through all of that adversity and turn it into something positive, so I could help others achieve their American dreams without facing all of these obstacles in the process.
Speaker 1:So you know, and that's most of the time, that that's what happens with people and they start getting into a path of life. It's because of personal experience. And then it brings you experience in whatever field you are in, and then you take it and share it with others. So that's amazing. That brings us to our second question, talking about your programs. One is how to emigrate through real estate and the other the seven-figure Invest to Emigrate program. They've gained significant recognitions. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Can you explain how these programs work and the benefits that they offer to your clients?
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely. Thank you for the question. So the first most important thing in both programs, the first most important element or feature, is that both of them are handheld, both of them are concierge, both of them are true, truly holistic, streamlined processes. So most people when they come to moving to the US from Canada, especially my home country, they go through different steps and they say, ok, maybe I'm going to look at a business, and now I have to do a business plan, and now I have to figure out what company to set up.
Speaker 2:And now I have to find a lawyer and now I have to do immigration. We do everything. It's a one-stop shop, and the reason that we do this is because piecemealing never works and the failure rate is very high. And so we I decided several years ago, realizing that my sweet spot, my wheelhouse, is dealing with the client that doesn't want to deal with that stuff. Kind of like me. I like to have things done for me. I like to have my path paved, I like to have a smooth process. I said I'm going to do that for my clients, so we take them through the whole journey.
Speaker 2:The seven figure invest immigrate program is basically figuring out what business you want to do, where you want to do it. Do you want to franchise? Do you want to buy an existing business? Expand your existing business? What do you want to do in the US and how can that get you into the visa process that you're seeking? The real estate was something that I developed during COVID. I actually have a good friend he's from Ottawa no-transcript investing. Now the interesting thing is that 95% of lawyers and others will tell you you can't do it because real estate is generally passive.
Speaker 2:What we do is turn passive real estate on its head, make an active business around it, overlay the real estate and develop a business model with four entities in a structure that avoids double taxation, legal liability and achieves immigration status all in one.
Speaker 1:That is, I mean, you describe it and you make it sound so simple, but I know, I'm a real estate investor myself and I know it's not simple. It's very complicated, but the fact that you can offer potential customers or whoever they want to invest in another country, make it so easy for them, is wonderful. So congratulations on those programs.
Speaker 2:Thank you. The real estate one is really exciting because, being in the real estate space myself and being the chair of international investment for eXp Commercial and being a real estate investor and working with so many real estate investors 95% of them were told over time the ones that have access visas you have to buy a pizza shop, you have to buy a franchise, you have to, and that's not their passion. You're not a real estate investor because you're passionate about owning a pizza shop, you're a real estate investor because you're passionate about real estate and creating a legacy.
Speaker 2:So what we've done? Just over two years ago, my partner and I sat down and I said we are going to come up with a solution for them so that they don't have to buy the pizza shop and that they can actually access visas and eventually, potentially green cards as well.
Speaker 1:That brings us to our third question, and given your extensive experience in international law and cross-border investments, what advice would you give someone looking to start their journey in cross-border real estate investing?
Speaker 2:So I don't want this to sound self-serving, but the reality is that nobody should start this by going online and setting up an LLC and saying I'm gonna invest in real estate and if I had a dollar for every time, I have somebody that does that, or that they listen to some US CPA, tell them or do us lawyer, this is how you do it. Well, the reality is that's how you do it if you're in the US, but if you're in Canada or you're looking at a visa, it's a completely different situation, and one of the reasons Carolyn, my partner, and I got together is because she did just that. She invested, through a very large company, into some US real estate, set up the structure that they told her and it was all wrong for Canada. So it's really important to not try to do it yourself, to not try to save pennies you know it's penny wise and pound foolish save pennies well, you know it's penny wise and pound foolish and to really seek whether it's me or somebody else.
Speaker 2:That's a true cross-border expert, because people from Canada, canadians, are different than anywhere else in the world. Why a few reasons when? Well, we know a lot of reasons. But you can drive across the border, so you can. You think that you can just go and buy real estate.
Speaker 2:It's no big deal, it's a big deal and if you don't do it right, you can end up really in a lot of trouble. You can end up losing financially, losing legally and without a path to any future other than just continuing to buy real estate. Now the other thing that happens and this has been happening more and more lately is people can come, you know, because it's so easy, and often they drive or they fly to florida. Whatever they buy real estate they've. They've done it one time, two times, three times, 20 times, the 21st time. Why are you going to florida? You own real estate there. Uh, you're running a business, but you don't have a visa. What, what's that about?
Speaker 2:right and all of a sudden. Or? Or you could be going to your self-storage in upstate New York and all of a sudden they turn you back and you're not. There's nothing you can do. Okay. I personally had this happen to me when I was in the process of getting my own visa, my first visa. It was like that movie Green Card, because you're in purgatory and they have complete discretion. So don't do this without proper guidance.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I mean, and these are complicated things, the complicated laws, and you know what you can do, what you can't do, and doing trying to do it out of you know Google advice or Google advice, or you really need to seek somebody who knows both sides of the border to make sure that the plan they give you or the plan you have in front of you will make sense. So absolutely.
Speaker 2:I compare it to like would you go to a heart surgeon if you needed an oncologist? To a heart surgeon if you needed an oncologist? Like, yeah, you know, and and that's why, like that, somebody reposted this the other day and I know you can relate to this, um, in your industry because you know one little mistake can cost a lot, right? So somebody posted this the other day um, I guess they were. I actually posted on facebook. There was a ship and it had a leak and they called some guy to come fix the ship leak and the guy charged I don't know whatever, $100, $200, $300 an hour. And the guy spent hours and hours and hours and didn't fix the leak and sent a bill for thousands of dollars. Okay, then they called the ship leak expert and the guy charged $10,000 an hour and they said why do you charge $10,000 an hour? And they said why do you charge $10,000 an hour? He goes because I fixed the leak.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go, lauren. It brings us to our fourth question, and this one is close to me. You're a bestselling author and a keynote speaker. It was just released that you will be speaking at the Real Estate Investors Summit at Sea 2025. What can people expect from your time on stage?
Speaker 2:Oh, you want me to give away all my secrets now.
Speaker 1:Just a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, for anybody that knows me and a lot of Canadian cross-border investors definitely know me you know that I am very tongue-in-cheek. I try to bring humor and interaction and engagement to everything I speak about and I will do exactly that on the cruise. I'll be speaking with my colleague, scott, who is the specialist with LendCity, the specialist in cross-border lending, and we'll be talking about the full process of investing in US real estate how to do it the right way, how to get the proper financing, the proper legal structure, the proper way, how to get the proper financing, the proper legal structure, the proper tax guidance and, potentially, the proper visa. And really engaging with everybody, because I'm going to get to know all of you over the week-long cruise. I've been on a few marketers cruises and they're amazing because you get to know people in a very in-depth way.
Speaker 2:It's a really wonderful experience which is part of why I'm participating but to really interact with you and answer your questions. Now, obviously, as a lawyer, I can't answer specific legal questions because I'm not allowed to do that, but most of the people who know me know that I try to go above and beyond and really give as much information as I can so that you really understand what your opportunities and options are. So I think what you can really expect from me is to build a relationship on the cruise that allows us to engage in a more in-depth and deeper conversation when I'm speaking on stage and when I'm speaking with you off stage as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because people will have lots of time to speak, not just. You know. This is what's good about this event is it's going to have lots of personal time that you could still, you know, connect and get some answers, maybe a little bit from you or other speakers. But what I'm most that's the key.
Speaker 2:It's for free.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and you're making friends at the same time.
Speaker 2:You're making friends, yes.
Speaker 1:What I'm mostly excited about is the fact that more and more Canadians are looking to invest in the United States because of the market.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It's crazy up there and the capital gains tax and everything there. And the capital gains tax and the just like you know, everything's the landlord um the tenant friendliness, the landlord friendly friendliness.
Speaker 1:down here I would say, at least once every day or two I get a request specifically for landlord friendly states now, and if we yeah, and if we want to put a humor twist on it, how much would you charge someone to spend seven days with you?
Speaker 2:You don't want to know, there you go.
Speaker 1:So there you go, so you can yeah, my hourly rate.
Speaker 2:That's why I don't charge by the hour, because you don't want to know.
Speaker 1:All right, this brings us to our fifth question already, and our last question. But you've helped hundreds of people, hundreds of clients, achieve their American dreams. Can you share with us, maybe one really successful story of somebody, somebody that stands out, that in your career that you helped out?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, there's so many to choose just one, so I'll choose one that's very well along their path and is in the green card process right now. They built a multifamily platform over time and this started about two and a half years ago probably, I think, our first yeah, our first strategic REI client, and now they're in the process of getting a green card. They have a few Airbnbs, they're quite lucrative, they're making money and they're getting a green card through their investments because they built it into such an amazing business model that they are able to access a green card. Another exciting, I guess, positive client experience that just happened, which is another Wealth Genius member, is Rodrigo and Luciana Rodrigo Arrojo and Luciana Lima, and Rodrigo and Luciana came to me probably about just over a year ago a year ago, april and at first they said, well, we don't really need you. Why are we going to spend all this money? What do we need you for? How can we benefit? What are you going to bring to the table? They were extremely skeptical. They're both extraordinarily smart, very academically oriented, very well versed in real estate, very high level positions, and they were, as I said, skeptical and we got their visa for them actually three weeks ago today and it was amazing. They are just so happy and excited about the opportunity.
Speaker 2:They're building a model called PadSplit, which was also discussed at the recent Wealth Genius Conference. Padsplit is where you take a single family home and turn it into multiple units like a glorified co-living or glorified student housing model. So instead of making 12 or 1300 on this single family rental, you can make about double that by renting by the room. And this is the model that they're using and replicating and hopefully going to be getting a green card eventually through this model as well. So, um, we have you know it's not only so we have, you know, it's not only real estate. We have a success stories with people that have started businesses and bought into franchises and developed their brought their own business. I have one pool pool supply company that came from Western Ontario, southwestern Ontario, down toxas, and they're just making money hand over fist doing so well. Their kids are thriving. You know, it's thank god. We have a lot of very, very strong success stories that we will continue with, and that's because we really screen people from the beginning.
Speaker 2:Um, we're not for everybody. We're, we're, we're a very high-end, top-tier, integrated model. We work very closely with our clients and they become our friends, offering that to everybody. But you know, that's the relationships that we build and I'm actually hoping that some of our strategic rei clients will come on the cruise with us. One of them is coming to my birthday in two weeks. She just moved down to south florida lovely, lovely lady, lovely client with a um. Her husband is a lawyer in ontario. So you know, we we build relationships, like you and um. I'm sure you've heard this before. I put it in the emails I just sent out about the cruise. But, um, the best ships are friendships, right, and relationships that are that you can build on this cruise and that's what I'm looking forward to. I have some friends from the marketers cruise that maybe they didn't turn into business relationships but they certainly turned into trusted friendships and colleagues and advisors and all of the above.
Speaker 1:Well, that's, it seems, you know, it's not only an American dream, but when you can take relationships, like you said, and turn them into friends, friendships, it certainly, it certainly has a different meaning to just, you know, having business relationships. It's it, it it starts a totally, a totally different book.
Speaker 2:You're not just breaking bread with them Now. You're going to have a drink with them, maybe shoot some pool, maybe play ping pong, maybe go on a date, you know a shore excursion which I'm sure we're going to have the opportunity to do many of. And I'm looking forward to this cruise on many, many, many levels and I'm looking forward to really connecting and getting to know all of the people, a lot of my colleagues that I don't know so well, or some of whom I haven't even met, because, you know, we're far, far away. So I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1:Well, lauren, it was a pleasure having you on the podcast with us today. Lots of knowledge. I know that the people that will call out to you for help in cross-border investing will be very lucky to have your guidance in their journey. So thank you for that, and I know we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, absolutely. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks a lot. I know we'll talk soon. Yes, sir, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks a lot, Bye-bye. Thanks for tuning into the 5 Questions Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and hit the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. Stay tuned for more insights and tips to transform your real estate and business game. See you next time.