Build Wealth Across Borders: International Real Estate, E2 Visas, and Global Diversification

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (00:00)

one of the challenges that ⁓

I see is that people that are looking for visas don’t necessarily care what they do to get them. So they’ll buy some business that they don’t want to do or buy and they’ll invest in something they don’t want to invest in just so they can get a visa. And I felt that there was something more and actually I’m all about client more than a visa. So I created a path to access visas through real estate investing because I felt that there was a synergy which most will tell you is not possible. And I said, there’s it’s got to be possible. It’s got to be possible. Got to make

this work. So I created this streamlined path and it also helped people expand their global footprint, including the DR for example, investing in 10 countries in addition to the US as part of their global footprint and diversification.

Dylan Silver (02:18)

Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is Lauren Cohen, international lawyer, realtor, cross border expert who guides clients in investing, living, working and immigrating across borders. She’s also a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and founder of programs like how to immigrate through real estate and the seven figure investor to immigrate.

program, please welcome Lauren Cohen. Lauren, welcome to the show.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (02:48)

Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Dylan Silver (02:50)

It’s great to have you on here, Lauren. I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into real estate.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (03:00)

Hmm.

Well, my mom was in real estate in Toronto for about 30 years. And when I moved to Florida, I was determined to be able to eventually work with buyers, sellers, and investors. And initially it was challenging because when you have a visa, you can’t get a real estate license. literally, as soon as I got my green card, I decided to get my real estate license and start working with buyers, sellers, and investors from all over the world, helping them invest and access visas.

real estate investing which is my signature program and I still work with the buyers, the sellers and the investors but mainly on a referral basis. I heard that you’re with EXP and I am the chair of international investments on the commercial side of EXP so I’m very involved in international transactions especially relating to real estate.

Dylan Silver (03:52)

big fan of international real estate for obvious reasons. live abroad. But also I think whenever you’re in any major metro you get so much interest from international investors. I lived in Texas prior to where I’m at right now in the Dominican Republic. So of course you’ll have lots of interest from investors in Mexico and elsewhere. I actually had a guest on the podcast here recently who I want to say is running for city council.

in South Padre Island, which is like a beach destination in Texas. And one of the really motivating factors for him was he works with a lot of Mexican investors who said, you know, we would like to see ⁓ this place be more of a hotbed for investing, but we feel like we’re handicapped in some way. so stories like that really are motivational to me. And one of the big reasons why I love living in the D.R. but

I want to pivot a bit here, Lauren, and ask you about ⁓ what it’s like in the Toronto ⁓ real estate space. I’m very unfamiliar with Toronto. I’ve got a fair degree of ignorance. What’s the Toronto real estate space like?

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (04:59)

I’m not

in Toronto, I’m from Toronto, but I’m not in Toronto, I’m in South Florida.

The Toronto real estate market is hot and heavy, but it has hit some, I guess, pitfalls in the past little while, so I’m still very involved there, but I am not selling real estate or I’m not a realtor there, I’m a realtor in Florida. So just to clarify, ⁓ the market in Florida is…

interesting because there’s a lot of demand right now because people are trying to get away from New York or away from Canada or other places and you know New York because of the mayoral situation so we have a lot of demand and ⁓ thank god I don’t even want to put a jinx on this but we’ve had a quiet hurricane season so that helps demand because

Dylan Silver (06:32)

Yeah.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (06:35)

⁓ It shows that there’s some more stability and ⁓ but you know there’s also it’s definitely ⁓ there’s a lot of REOs coming up and a lot of challenges because people overpaid for properties especially during COVID and so that’s been a big impact because we’ve had such an amazing influx of people from all over the US and other countries into Florida, South Florida, Orlando, Southwest Florida so it’s definitely impacted the market in many many ways.

Dylan Silver (07:04)

Which part of Florida are you in? Boca. I’m a big fan of Miami, of Fort Lauderdale. I’m there probably five or six times a year. I’ve said this to myself internally. said, has got to be the nicest place downtown Fort Lauderdale by the beach. I was there in February of last year. And I remember we had just, I had just come back from a tornado in North Dallas that had wrecked my car. And there I was in downtown Fort Lauderdale and it was

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (07:06)

Welcome back Tom.

Mm-hmm.

I’m

Dylan Silver (07:33)

beautiful. I think Florida, every major city in Florida, whether it’s Tampa, whether it’s Orlando, whether it’s Jacksonville, whether it’s Miami ⁓ and Fort Lauderdale, know, Boca area, they each have their own flavor, but so much interest from real estate entrepreneurs from all across the country.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (07:53)

Yeah, well, it’s look, you know, Florida has its pluses and minuses. There’s insurance is expensive. There’s no question because of the hurricanes, but. You can’t really get a better place to live. ⁓ You know, I’m 10 minutes from the beach. ⁓ It’s beautiful every day it rains right now. We have someplace baseball, so we have a lot of rain outs, but. Every day it’s also sunny.

I was on a call yesterday and somebody was in Orlando and he said, well, usually we call it the sunshine state, but right now we call it the rain state. And it’s true, but still every day there’s sun. It’s not like Vancouver or the UK where it’s gray. This is not a gray place. It’s only gray when it’s going to rain and then it’s black. Well, the other day I was driving along the highway with my son and literally on, there was like one, like a line right as we were entering the express lanes and the line was

no rain, torrential rain. Like you could actually see the line and that’s because we live in the tropics. Now there’s not many places where you live in the tropics and yet you’re still in the U.S. and that’s what makes Florida so unique. It’s a vacation place, it’s a great place to live, it’s a great place to raise a family. Used to be, you know, old people, it’s not and…

Dylan Silver (09:01)

Rain.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (09:21)

There’s a lot of activity. There’s a lot of action, a lot of nightlife. They were just talking, was listening to the radio as I was driving my son to school this morning. They were talking about some grant that Miami is looking for to build out a section under the metro rail, which will then turn it into this Mecca of culture and activity and all kinds of amazing ⁓ opportunities and activities. So it’s happening. It’s a happening place and people want to move here. It’s not like in the past when they would

Dylan Silver (09:49)

all over the world. ⁓

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (09:51)

run away, now they’re running too. Maybe New Yorkers are running away, because that’s not a good situation up there. But

Florida is a destination.

Dylan Silver (10:36)

from all over the country. I’ve had so many guests on this show from places that I would never have thought who are hell bent on moving to Florida. And I think there’s actually a lot of interest. And of course, you would know about this very well from all over the world. Miami in particular, South Florida is like one of the most elite cities I would say on earth right now. And having myself traveled quite a bit, it’s interesting because

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (10:38)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dylan Silver (11:04)

It’s sometimes you take it for granted. You think, how different could this be? But truly the enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit, and the real estate energy that you have in South Florida is like no other.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (11:17)

It’s true. It’s not just real estate. It’s everything. It’s just, it’s really everything. You know, I’ve been here for 25 years and I’m from a big city. I’m from Toronto. And Toronto right now is not like this. It’s not like the Toronto I grew up in. I just spent a month there in July and it’s, there’s a lot of things closed. There’s a lot of economic.

Negativity, fear. There’s a lot of fear. In Florida, there’s, mean, look, yesterday was a disaster. What happened? There’s no question. it’s like, it’s not, there’s nothing you can say to excuse those things, but Florida is kind of like this bubble. And ⁓ I’m hoping the bubble stays because I like the bubble, you know? And.

Dylan Silver (12:01)

It’s true people. I don’t know

if it’s just the vacation vibe, but when you’re down there, it feels like everyone is a little bit more relaxed. They’re they’re they’re actively trying to We got to get you’ve been maybe a little jaded because you’ve been there so long, right?

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (12:09)

Except me, but that’s another story. ⁓

I’ve been in here

too long, but you know, and today is 9-11, of course. And so that’s a whole other thing. And I remember what I was doing on 9-11-01. I remember when I heard about, mean, you know, all these things, Florida, it’s this little boot, right? Kind of off the side of the country, essentially. And most of Florida is like that. All the way pretty much from Orlando South.

Dylan Silver (12:20)

Yeah.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (12:42)

and yet we have great schools and great culture. mean, the people are like, the getting into Florida schools is super, super hard. Even more so if you’re a Florida resident, because you have Florida prepaid and they know, it’s about money. So there’s a lot of factors, but Florida is, I think it always will be a destination.

Dylan Silver (13:04)

That’s good to hear. Honestly, I am a little bit unaware of the school front when you mentioned that. It’s a good thing because one of the things that I tend to think about specifically growing up in northern New Jersey, I grew up 28 miles from New York City and then living in Massachusetts and living in Texas is there’s such a big variance on what the standard is for school. there’s real estate guy. There’s a huge intersection between school and real estate. And I wish that as a

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (13:26)

Yeah.

Dylan Silver (13:33)

as a nation, ⁓ know, Americans could bring back more of pride in education on a younger level. We have great higher education, but oftentimes, you know, I can tell you my experience, it was not necessarily the best thing for you to do on a social level for you to strive to do well in school. It might’ve even been a safety hazard for you to do well in school.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (13:55)

I have that problem with my son, I know, I know.

Dylan Silver (13:59)

It’s one of these

things, know, and I think when, just to use, you know, my personal experience, when you look at distressed areas, and I worked in distressed real estate when I was in Texas, you know, one of the things…

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (14:10)

there’s a lot of

distressed areas in Texas for sure.

Dylan Silver (14:13)

Yeah, I mean, one of the things that can really be a harbinger of change is if you have a commercial mixed use development come in, but also when you have schools shutting down or when you have ⁓ a bad reputation, that can really be a driving factor for disrepair and for distress. And so these things are all related. I do want to pivot here, Lauren, and ask you about the international ⁓ element of what you’re doing and immigration.

⁓ And I’m a testament to this in a way because I’ve really adopted ⁓ digital nomad lifestyle.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (14:49)

Yeah.

I’m sorry, didn’t hear that last thing. You’re kind of cutting in and out a little bit. Try again, Dylan.

Dylan Silver (14:51)

What’s been- That’s okay.

What’s been your experience working with international investors and then also what’s been your experience as an international attorney, right?

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (15:49)

Yeah, so there’s a couple of things to unpack there. So

one of the challenges that ⁓

I see is that people that are looking for visas don’t necessarily care what they do to get them. So they’ll buy some business that they don’t want to do or buy and they’ll invest in something they don’t want to invest in just so they can get a visa. And I felt that there was something more and actually I’m all about client more than a visa. So I created a path to access visas through real estate investing because I felt that there was a synergy which most will tell you is not possible. And I said, there’s it’s got to be possible. It’s got to be possible. Got to make

this work. So I created this streamlined path and it also helped people expand their global footprint, including the DR for example, investing in 10 countries in addition to the US as part of their global footprint and diversification.

that’s really important as an international lawyer of partners in, you know, almost every country in the world. I’ve done EB5 for a very long time, which is the green card to investment. And my focus now is mainly on E2s, which is a non-immigrant visa based on tree.

⁓ So that the real estate element is super important because it’s a legacy. It’s an asset It’s a you know, you get residual income you get recurring income There’s really no other asset that is always going to perform it might go down a tiny bit, but it’s always gonna come back It’s not like the stock market where you know where there’s so much volatility So that’s one thing. The other thing is that for companies I also have a fractional services business

which I don’t think you know about, to help companies, especially in the real estate space, because real estate owners, real estate business owners, real estate investors, real estate developers, are not necessarily business people. So they start running this business, get at accessing assets, this portfolio with no structure and no basis and no ⁓ infrastructure, no operational… ⁓

support, no legal support, no marketing support, no, none of the baseline that they need to be able to scale and grow their business and potentially even eventually exit. So we created this fractional services business to accomplish just that because a lot of people, as you know, Dylan, you know, you’re young and a lot of people think, it’s okay. I don’t need the legal structure. I’ll just set up a company and I don’t, I don’t need anything else. And that is so not true because if you don’t put the legal structure in place, you just set up a company through some online

Dylan Silver (18:18)

Yeah.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (18:23)

And you don’t have your legal structure in place. They can pierce the corporate veil and then they come after you and you’re in big trouble. So there’s so many elements that go into the proper structure, the proper infrastructure, the proper operational policies, the proper procedures, all that you need to be able to build a scalable business that you can access a legacy for your kids. So it’s not just about the asset. It’s about much more than that. And especially as you’re going global,

This becomes even more complicated. So pay attention to those things and reach out to me to help you to make sure that you don’t have these issues as you are trying, as you are scaling and growing.

Dylan Silver (19:06)

Speaking of scaling and growing, Lauren, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if they may be looking at forming their own business and would like to reach out to you or get some feedback?

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (19:17)

Please call me.

No, don’t call me, text me or email me. So everything we do is branded around investing cross borders. My new fractional service business is called Elevair Global, but you’ll still find us through investing across borders, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Our email is hello at investingacrossborders.net, our website investingacrossborders.net. hello at investingacrossborders.net. We’re on TikTok, we’re on Instagram, we’re on YouTube, we’re on Facebook, we’re on LinkedIn.

We’re on all the platforms and we have a lot of resources out there. The most important thing you can do for yourself is don’t try to do it yourself. Because if it’s not me, use a professional. And listen, there’s a lot of professionals out there, so-called professionals, that aren’t so professional. And if you’re doing stuff across borders, don’t do it with somebody just in the home country or just in your home country or just in this nation country because…

Dylan Silver (19:57)

Yep.

Lauren Cohen – Int’l Lawyer (20:16)

You have to work with people that understand the international aspects or you’re going to hit walls.

Dylan Silver (20:22)

Lauren, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.