Design A Cashflowing Real Estate Business with Asher Cohen

Welcome to another episode of the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast, your source for actionable real-life examples and advice to help you move to the next level of investing. Each week we help you make a quantum leap in your business, your finances, and/or your life. We want to help you take back control, help you thrive during chaos, and lead you through the current crisis to a better tomorrow. For more resources, check out smartrealestatecoach.com and be sure to give us a rating and review on your favorite platform. Good morning and welcome, smart community listeners. This is Chris Pree, your host again with another amazing guest. Today we're going to hang out with and chat with Mr. Asher Cohen. He's a top advisor out in the Arizona area, and certainly in the dedication of his family and, and his clients, you're going to see all the things he gets accomplished in that. And I think there's a lot of lessons here built in, uh, to this chat, meaning a lot of you come to me with Challenges around building and balancing. I hate to use that word, but balancing the family and the transactions at the same time. He's got 1,000 transactions closed. He brings some transparent communication like we like doing. So, I love the fact that we're going to jump into this conversation. He actually has a very cool personalized approach to it. He hosts— this is a writer-downer. I always do this with any hosts that also have their own show. He hosts a podcast called The Real Deal.

Yeah.

With Ashley Cohen. And again, I love the blunt, to-the-point, kind of clear-cut method that he approaches this whole thing with. And on that podcast, he shares insight on real estate, business, and life in general. He's the founder of buyazre.com. That's buyazre.com. Again, a writer-downer. Also founder of The Proactive Close. He supports realtors and he simplifies the real estate process in general. I know you're going to pull some nuggets out of this. So remember, this is all about taking action. Anything that comes out of the call, or even if it's an idea that's provoked from the, from the interview, from the show, then write that down and let's act on it. And I'd like to hear from you. I'd like you to email me at chris@smartrealestatecoach.com. Yes, I check my email. chris@smartrealestatecoach.com. And let me know what the number one nugget was out of this particular episode. And if you haven't done so yet, definitely check out our virtual event coming up because it's the last of the year, guys. The last of the year. Just go to 3, the number 3, 3paydaysvirtual.com/podcast. That's 3, numeric 3, 3paydaysvirtual.com/podcast. All right, Ashley, with that as a little backdrop, welcome to the show, buddy.

Thank you very much for having me on, Chris. It's an honor. Excited to add some value.

Yeah, I love it. Just because of your experience, we were talking off air, just give the smart listeners a little bit of a backdrop, you know, behind the green curtain, so to speak. How you landed here, like a little bit about your journey and then we'll peel back some layers.

Okay. Yeah, it started with being in marketing and business development. Got an opportunity to get into the commercial real estate space. I knew nothing about real estate, but knew about people. Was in that space for about 2-ish years from '06 to '08. So working in the commercial real estate space.

Experience the lovely '08.

That's right. November of '08. So right around this time of '08, I hit the eject button, went back to business development and marketing for companies and startups. But I had this license that I wanted to continue using, and I saw an opportunity on the residential side of the business. I knew how to help people buy assets and invest in real estate. So we did that same type of thing, but on the residential side, primarily the buy and hold and fix and flip, helping principals portfolio their rental properties up if they had 2 to 50. Hedge funds were coming into the Arizona market. I had these listings of individuals and group Portfolios. And a lot of other agents weren't sure how to do that. And because of the experience in commercial, that helped leverage that value. As the market continued turning into more of a traditional market, that's where I started getting phone calls and said, hey, can you help us with the— I just want to buy a house for my family. And that's when I personally started investing in real estate. I'm more of a buy and hold guy than a fix and flip guy, but we help all of them.

So this is interesting because our audience listening to you right now would be wannabe investors, a small handful of realtors, investors who are quite active in all the niches because I try to be pretty broad. So talk about a couple things I'm thinking of already. Talk about your desire first, personally, For buy and hold. So is that your main thing right now besides, you know, when you can service people, but your personal investments are buy and hold?

My personal stuff is buy and hold. I'm more of the long-term, let's create a Monopoly board, if you will. And I like the assets that are, you know, maybe a little bit pricier, but they're in very high demand areas. The return on investment might be not as sexy as other things, but But we're seeing a lot of appreciation with those assets. So I like that. And that's really the primary thing. And it started with creating the opportunity from our current, at that point, our current home, converting that to a rental property. So that's what we like to advise on. The best investment property is probably the one that they own already and converting that to a rental property. If they need to take some equity out, like with a HELOC and buy that next home, we're really big on that solution for people.

Yeah. And you've seen just a little bit of change, I would say, since you were dating back to '08. So in Arizona market in general.

Oh my gosh, there's been so much change. Yeah. A lot of the rental rates were continuing to go up. You could definitely buy something with a lower interest rate, And make that pencil a lot easier for a return or just break even, if you will. Nowadays it's a lot harder. So that's why our advice to people, if their goal is to invest and have a rental property, really start looking at what their current home looks like at that level with rents and what their mortgage is, their debt service, and then just do the numbers that way. Versus trying to find something in the marketplace right now for them to have cash flow.

Yeah. Or even to our niche, and you and I can talk about this after we get off the show, but like the listener to know, like combine what you're saying with also what we do. Because if the rates are crazy right now, go buy that zero interest rate or go buy a sub, you know, so you can do what you're saying with your own property and you can go find stuff on terms. So yeah, 100%. So I'm thinking now, just as a, when I mentioned the audience earlier, I was thinking of people that want to get out of corporate and this episode's going to air right before year end. Was there anything, especially in hindsight now that you look back, that you'd want to share with these guys about, because you transitioned, you said, if I'm tracking with you from the biz dev and marketing over to real estate, I mean, what drove that? I guess in my first and second, any nuggets for them? Because I just, for the life of me, actually, I just want to shake people and go, what are you doing? Like, I don't understand why you'd be trapped in a job. I really don't. The majority don't like it and they're trapped. So I don't know. Any words of wisdom there? Yeah.

I mean, I'm, I'm an entrepreneurial type of guy. So the business and marketing side was a, was a company that I had. So I don't, I don't know a lot about the corporate world personally, but I have a lot of friends that are, and I'm shaking them, so to speak, to continue looking like, how can you get out of that? Rat race. Some of the conversations I hear them having on their daily meetings are about things that our children can do. And I don't, you know, I'm not making fun of them. It's just, you know, they're aggravated about it and they're having meetings to have meetings about meetings. They want to get out of it. You have to just take the plunge. You have to have the faith in yourself to make that leap, you know? And is it going to work for everyone perfectly? No, there's, it's going to be an uphill battle. Maybe how I did it is I just needed to have some people around me of encouragement and just put the head down and go after it. And we didn't have a pile of money sitting around for this. We, my wife or fiancée at the time was the breadwinner for us. And I just said, I'm going to make this happen. And it took a good year to get some traction, but once we did it, it really started humming away. So what role do you think—

oh, sorry, Asher, go ahead.

No, no, you're good. Go ahead.

What role do you think coaching plays in that then? That just popped in my brain as you were talking about that, because they are— a lot of people are afraid. Like, let's just call it that. They're afraid. So if they're afraid, what, how, and where do you see coaching or mentoring fitting? Because I think you do some coaching as well. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Yeah, I, I think the coaching element comes into play when someone has the ability, you see that they have the ability and really just align with someone that can help bring the best out of you. That's really the essential purpose of having a coach. The coach should already have some experience. They should be in a place where you want to get to and go to, but they really can help drive your potential out. And it's about taking small steps and it's not only focusing on the big prize, it's really focusing on the daily tasks that have to be done. And then once you're getting in that rhythm of doing those daily tasks, the prize will be there, but you just have to have that consistency and get the reps in.

You said something real important. So it's almost like we talked, but I want to go deeper on this. You said it's important to have experience because you've been around. I scream about this because there are people in your market or my market that coach what you do and they coach what I do. And some of 'em haven't done a deal and some of 'em have not been through more than, haven't been even been through one cycle, let alone 2 or 3. So I'd love your thoughts on, on that. There's just too many of 'em out there. It's kind of crazy right now.

Yeah. And, and when there's slower markets, that's when those guys come out to say, hey, hire us, pay for this. And you can do it monthly. You can do it quarterly payments. We're going to get you to the next level. What does the next level even mean? Yeah, there's a lot of the gimmicks out there. Make sure that if you're going to hire someone, you've had a nice deep dive into where they're at with things. And if someone's not open to sharing with you what they've accomplished and where they're at, it's probably not the right fit. And that's how I take that on, right? So everyone should have a coach. The coach should have a coach. The coach's coach should have a coach. You know, we need people around us that's going to help not just motivate, but hold us accountable. If this is what we're trying to accomplish, then let's put the roadmap together. And again, just take one step at a time because it could be overwhelming when you're looking at the whole year plan.

Yeah. I mean, our coach, I'm thinking, because you're in Arizona, our coach since '17, one of our coaches as a company has been in Arizona. Like, we only do what we tell you to do. Hire a coach to get to the next thing, whatever it is thing for you. And I agree with you 100%. Like, they've gotta already have been there and experienced some cycles.

Yeah.

Um, and I go one step further. I'd love your thoughts on this, uh, morally and ethically, like, and value-wise, because you and I can go find a coach, but maybe someone that had success at the risk of a bunch of other things. Like, I know people that had huge success, but they also Screwed up the relationships with their kids or their wife or both. And I don't know, that's not something I want to follow. So any, any thoughts on that? That's just another criteria I usually use. Yeah.

I mean, it's a whole balancing act, right? Um, it's not just for the business, the coach, it has to be about mindfulness. It has to be about, you know, mental and emotional as well. Physical, you know, it's, it's that circle of life that we need to make sure we're, you know, hitting all of those things. You know, we have a core value in one of our companies, which is love where you live. And everyone thinks it's, you know, cute because we're in the real estate space. But the deeper meaning behind love where you live was a constant reminder to me personally to remember that where I am right now, I need to love that right now financially with my wife, with my kids. Like, We might have goals to get further and do better, but I have to enjoy this present moment right this second. And that's the deeper meaning of love where you live. Like, yeah, we have goals. We want to get to the top of this mountain that doesn't really exist, but we want to get better than we were yesterday.

Yeah.

But we have to enjoy that time, that journey to get where we're going. And I didn't enjoy it at the beginning. And that's why that's a core value for us.

Okay, who wants to be the next apprentice? Pretty interesting, guys. We started this apprentice program back as a July 4th, 2024 promo. That's where it started. And it was so incredibly effective. We were just gonna run it for the summer. It was so effective immediately, we kept it. It's in place now. And what is it? It allows you to get into the community, the Wicked Smart community, for less dollars than the QLS Home Study Course sells for right now on our site. In fact, When you go to smartrealestatecoach.com/apprentice-pod, apprentice-pod, when you go there, you're going to see that as an apprentice, you're going to get over $13,000 worth of coaching, the possibility for you to touch base with us if you want to, 4 or 5 times a week. And it doesn't exist anywhere out there, frankly. That's why we did it. We did it for 2 reasons. One, no one is giving you the support out there. We keep hearing feedback, which is how this was born, that other educators are not giving support. They're just selling stuff. So it doesn't exist anywhere and nowhere in the real estate education or coaching space. And we want to help you do one thing: deals. So we've wrapped the support mechanism around this. We've allowed you to get into a Slack community with the other associates who previously were protected in Slack. And now you get to jump in there and experience that for 12 weeks. You also get to come to the In the Trenches boot camp, which is private. It's a chance to hang out with the family team and one of the coaches for 2 and a quarter days in our conference room, roll up his sleeves, get calls done, get deals done. If you come with leads, you leave with deals. Absolutely incredible. I could go on and on. Go to the website right now, check out more information about the Apprentice, and I'm going to give you the In the Trenches boot camp site because you don't have to become an apprentice. It just happens to be free with apprentice and associate. So 2 links I'm going to give you, super important. smartrealestatecoach.com/ittb-pod. That's going to give you some information about the boot camp. If you want to buy a ticket to the boot camp, it's more expensive, but you can just come check us out. About 1 or 2 people every time we run it do just that or become an apprentice and it's for free. smartrealestatecoach.com/apprentice-pod. I appreciate that. But I was me. Like, maybe it's a lot of young people. That's not me anymore. I'm not young anymore, but I was me at first. I was always chasing something. So, okay. So, that statement you made strikes me as someone that probably practices some form of gratitude.

Every day.

Do you journal or? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. There's journaling, but I like to say it out loud too. I think writing's very important, but I like to say things out loud. Sometimes we say things into existence.

Both. I like both. 100% agreed. So talk about, I'll switch gears a little bit. Actually, who, so you do some coaching, right? You yourself and who?

Yeah. So I have like kind of 3, I have 3 pillars. I'll break it down. We have Buy AZ RE, which is like Buy Arizona Real Estate, real estate team in the Phoenix and Arizona markets. And then we have Acre Coaching, which is the coaching platform that also has a training platform on it. 2 different segments of that. And then we have Proactive Close, and Proactive Close is a transaction management service for agents within the same brokers that we're with.

Love it. And I put those in the— a little bit earlier, and I'll put 'em in the show notes as well. So talk about the Acre Coaching specifically, what happens in there?

Yeah, so first of all, we need a good foundation. So I want everyone to go through the training program element of it. We do that at very little cost because we understand people getting into it, they might not have all these extra dollars. So if someone's on our team, they get a, they're just in it. So getting the foundation right, again, the mindset of real estate, it's really not about the houses though. It's about how we're connecting with people. It's not how good we sell things. It's good. It's how good we communicate things with people. And really understanding their situation. So that's the training element. The coaching element is they have the foundation. They're either new or an existing agent and/or other business owner. It doesn't have to be real estate, but it's a lot real estate heavy for us of clientele. And that's really the big part of it. It's, you know, meeting with them on a, you know, every other week basis, making sure that they have the resources they need, holding them accountable and breaking things down, going to the why you're doing it versus what you're doing first.

Do you have anything to share? Like I think I mentioned too before we went on the air here, to investors out there now, I don't care if they're in the fix and flip, wholesale, or creative like Arnif, do you have anything to say to them? Like a nugget or two from all your experience with how they can, I'll use the word leverage, experience teams like yours to do more in the investment world or any way to improve that relationship, I guess, is the best way to ask.

So their relationship, the investor and realtor relationship? Yeah.

Like I'm an investor out there thinking, well, how can I leverage someone to do more or do better?

I think the conversation first has to be about what does the agent that they're hiring Know about investing. It's not just about looking for a property that might need to be upgraded or in a good area. We have to look for some key variables. Most of those variables are how long has it been sitting on the market? The agent needs to know how to have a conversation with the listing agent in regards to like what the motivation level is of why that person's selling. Maybe that we can uncover something to create a good either seller carry or other type of opportunity for someone to buy it. Maybe they are not looking to leave. Maybe that person wants to stay in there and they just can't afford all of the things that are going on with maintaining that property. So having someone that is by your side that you're hiring that knows how to do those things are really important. They need to understand all of the ways that a home can either appreciate what's going on in those markets, not just on a residential level, but on a commercial level and infrastructure level. What's, you know, what company is moving to that area? Being on the lookout for those types of things is critical. So, you know, making sure that the agent is well-versed with more than just how many bedrooms and bathrooms and square feet that property is.

So it sounds like definitely you're a proponent of like have that person on your team versus pick up the phone because you see a piece of property or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. Have a dedicated person. Most investors like to have a lot of agents at their beck and call. And whoever gives me the property is the agent that I'm going to pick. That's a typical conversation with an investor. Our investor clients, if we're locked in together and exclusive with each other. There's going to be either a weekly call update of, hey, this is what we've been looking at. This is what we got on the due diligence docket for these properties. We're in a constant communication. Sometimes we're talking to them daily depending on what's going on. So it's a high demand situation, but we know that we're in it to win it. We're like a partner with them. On that side of real estate.

Yeah, I agree. I think that's why I brought it up and you went exactly right where I wanted to, only because I think too many of them just think it's better to be all spread out and no dedicated, not tied in, I guess they'll say. But that's kind of a waste of time because you're not really making any headway.

I think investors don't want to be tied down because they maybe haven't found the right group or person that can deliver to them what they're looking for.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you handle, speaking of that, just Arizona or do you go elsewhere as far as investors?

On the investment side, we've helped people outside of Arizona. For us doing the transaction, we handle Phoenix Metro and then we ventured up north to Prescott, Flagstaff, Sedona, and the Payson Pine market. Is a lot of our clients that are looking to invest or second home or retire wanted us to be a part of that transaction. But we have helped people in the Southern California markets, the Northwest market, and just having us kind of look at the underwriting of, hey, does this pencil out? Are you seeing any red flags? And again, The disclaimer is, hey, I'm not in that market, but traditionally when you're investing in real estate, there's a lot of overlap of things that we should be looking for.

Yeah. And I'm betting that you probably have, if I called you from whatever, Rhode Island, because I'm in this tiny state of Rhode Island and I said, hey, Asher, I trust you. Can you get me someone in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut? I would imagine you have a decent network right around the country. Is that accurate? Yeah.

Without the country, also also internationally as well.

Yeah. Okay. So with that, let's do this. So don't forget. Let's make sure these guys know how to reach you. Anything you want to share website, phone number, email, whatever. Share some with that so that they can and I'll put in the show notes, but I want them to be able to reach out to you, and that's precisely why I was going in that direction.

I appreciate that, Chris. Yeah. Best best way to contact me is my phone number four eight zero. 650-2995. Easiest way to get ahold of me. You could text me at that number or call me, leave a message. Let me know where you, you know, you saw, you heard us on the show and podcast, and I'll take care of the next steps from there.

That's awesome. That's why he's on the show, guys. For the smart listeners, you got to understand that the proximity and association, I call it, matters. And so let's make sure you're grabbing your dream team and Asher as part of that for 2026. Asher, anything I— I do so many shows. I mean, I don't want to forget something that you have on the brain that you think might be helpful. Any nuggets or something I didn't ask you that you want to share before we wrap? Anything at all?

Yeah, I really wanted to make sure I covered everything you wanted for this one. I know that we're going to definitely have you on our show as well. I think that if there's anything that I I can add to this, feel free to ask. My main mission today was to, you know, meet you. I read your story. It's fascinating. I like the, you know, energy that you bring to the table and the insight that you're providing people. So if there's anything else you want, I don't have anything specifically that I need to make sure they hear.

I appreciate it. I appreciate the candor and the name of your show, The Real Deal. Like, I can't wait to be on. All right. So with that, I appreciate you, buddy. I look forward to being on. And that's a writer-downer, guys. Make sure to review the show notes for not just his coaching and his team, but also his podcast, The Real Deal. Thanks again, buddy.

Appreciate it. You got it. Nice meeting you, Chris. Thank you.

Okay, smart listeners, this does wrap up our time together with Mr. Asher. As a reminder, I would love to include you in our virtual event in December so that you look forward to 2026 and never, ever, ever again say, Oh, I didn't accomplish my goals. And let me give you some context there. We had about a month ago our boot camp here at the office, and I'm going to give you a link to that in a minute. But in that boot camp, almost every time I like to survey who's in the room and I say, raise your hand if you set year-end goals, they all raise their hand. We all do. And then I said, keep your hand raised if you accomplished your goals last year. You know what? This past boot camp, none. Usually, we have like 1 or 2 in there and I go, wow, none had accomplished their goals. And my suggestion to you is for 2026, let's look at these as not kind of would-be nice, warm and fuzzy, cool goals to have. But let's look at 2026 as a definitive, predictable, profitable, and fun plan that you put in place. Plan, not goal. A plan that has accountability and mentoring, all things that will guide that right along the tracks. So, one year from now, literally one year from now, you say, I am so glad I did that. You want to learn more about the Apprentice Program? Go to threepaydaysapprentice.com and you can simply use the code, the coupon code podcast. That's three again numeric threepaydaysapprentice.com and then use the coupon code podcast. For those of you last but not least who do not have the books yet, you can go to wickedsmartbooks.com/podcast and those are free for you. Make it a great week. We'll see you on next week's episode. Be sure to. to like this episode and share the episode with your friends, family, and coworkers so that we can begin to spread the amazing word in 2026 that we're after our plans to accomplish them, not after some warm and fuzzy goals that would be nice to have. Make it a great week. Hey guys, are you simply sick of juggling a dozen different software tools for your real estate business? I know I was, and I know I'm not a tech person, so it was frustrating. A subscription for this, you got a subscription for that, and they don't even work together out of the box. That's very frustrating, especially in the real estate world where your best time spent is going to be out in the field or on the phone with sellers. And now you're stuck hiring a tech guru just to make all that sync up. So let's ditch the chaos and let REI BlackBook handle everything. Automate your lead follow-up, track every deal, analyze things quickly for you, make offers all in one platform. In fact, with the Wicked Smart platform, we now have access— if you're in the Wicked Smart community, to all the other associates' properties. Can you imagine that? So you're brand new in the business perhaps, and your seller looks on your website and sees 20, 30, 40 properties, instant credibility. So you're going to get everything on REI Black Book from our custom workflows for lead generation all the way to closing. It has it covered. Try it today for just a buck. $1, guys. Visit smartrealestatecoach.com/reibb. hyphen DD. smartrealestatecoach.com/reiboy-dog. All right. Thanks for tuning in to the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast. If you got value from today's episode, guys, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a future episode. It literally takes one nugget to access some of the things we're doing. And when you're talking the amount of the size, rather, the paydays, it's an opportunity cost that you can't let go. So don't miss an episode. And for goodness' sake, share it with someone who needs to hear it. If you're ready to find your best path for getting started on your real estate investing journey in general, head over to smartrealestatecoach.com/getstarted. We're going to help you take the guesswork out of your next steps. See you in the next episode.