” Live without fear or die with regret! ” #seeyouatthetop – Josh Cohen

Josh Cohen: Expert Renovator / Class A Builder / Investor / Landlord / Techie

My Story

Who is Josh Cohen? My story starts in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle, WA. I was introduced to the saxophone at the age of 8. Most of my early years were spent dreaming about the man with the same initials as mine, John Coltrane (JC). In 1995 I transferred schools to James A Garfield High School in Seattle which had the #1 high school jazz band in the country at that time. Famous graduates are Quincy Jones and Jimi Hendrix. I didn’t make it into the band my freshman year but by sophomore year I was not going to be denied. It was then that I learned that the hard work happens behind closed doors into the late hours of the night doing what others can’t or won’t do. I may not have been the most talented in the band but I would outwork you by a mile. By my junior year of high school I was winning soloist awards across the West Coast.

Young Adult Years: I followed my older sister, Elana, off to college on the East Coast where I played in our college band for 4 years and traveled the world playing in Jazz Festivals internationally. By 2002, the economy was in a deep recession and there were no jobs! I got a full ride for a Masters in Electrical Engineering in the great state of Illinois and decided to stay in school. By 2004, the economy was still weak. I had 2 opportunities for employment and 1 took me to the Nation’s Capital as a research engineer for the Navy. To all who serve – Thank You!

It was in 2005 that I first observed people making a ton of money in real estate. I started moonlighting as a part time mortgage broker. I would go to my goverment job from 830am-5pm and work from 5-8pm at Carter Mortgage. During this time the real estate market was going crazy. I bought a condo in Logan Circle on 100% financing with a No Income No Asset loan (NINA) as they called them then. The same types of loans that would later destroy the real estate market in 2006. That condo would go up 25% in the next 12 months before the market crashed!

Start of my investing journey: My investing journey started in 2008 as a broke federal government employee earning $62,000 a year. With a condo that had gone from being ahead 100k to upside down 150k, I rented it for a loss of $400/month and moved into an apartment in Northern Virginia in Arlington. A building that was slated to be torn down within 12 months. My mom visited me and was disgusted by the apartment I was living in. I started putting up bandit signs on Route 50 in Northern Virginia. One day I got a lead on a deal in Falls Church that the owner originally wanted 450k. 9 months later Tom would sell me his house for 235k and the rest is history. I didn’t understand how to flip houses properly in those early years. I ended up doing “lip stick” renovation and moving in.

NOVA Express Buyers: 2 months later I found a mentor in Sherman Ragland CCIM in Bowie, MD. My first real flip came 8-9 months later in Arlington VA. A duplex near Shirlington, VA in foreclosure that I bought for 175k, put 35k reno into, and sold for 349k in <65 days in 2009. After making 120k+ on that deal, my investing journey was launched. It was in my early years I realized how technology could impact your investing journey. I started stacking lists using scripts I wrote in MATLAB and C before anyone knew what list stacking was.

Building Journey Starts: By 2012, the real estate market had begun to recover and I had settled in on Falls Church as being a prime location to build in due proximity to Washington, DC and Arlington. It was a classic “emerging neighborhood” with all signs that things were trending in the right direction. I started to realize that fix and flip was no longer as profitable and that the real estate cycle was supporting more extensive projects now including pop tops, major additions, and even tear downs. I ran into a builder by the name of Terry Hamm, hardcore Army engineer / retired builder, who became my friend/mentor and taught me how to build.

Mental Shift: In 2012 I got married. Post honeymoon to Hawaii, my wife at the time told me that I would never reach the level of success that I wanted AND that I would never EVER quit my government job. I had been making a solid 250-400k per year part time as an investor since 2009 hustling in silence. It was then that I realized that any partner whether it’s personal or professional needs to be fully committed to what you’re doing. Let’s face it entrepreneurship is not a cake walk! Her words stung but I held onto them as a challenge to become the best version of myself and a full time investor.

Affordable Luxury & Full Time Investor: By 2014, the demand for new construction was peaking in Virginia and I decided to get my class A builder’s license and launch a new brand DC First Properties with my sister, Elana. I had become known as the biggest flipper in Falls Church from 2009 to 2014 but no one knew I had done it part-time while occupying a desk in the government. It was 2016 that I finally gathered the courage to write a letter to my bosses for 12 years that I would not be staying. In fact September 6, 2016 I “fired my bosses” which if anyone knows the federal government, people don’t quit after 10+ years almost ever. “Affordable Luxury” became a niche product for DC First Properties. We delivered new construction homes at a price point 30% less than all of our competitors by creating a niche product. Terry and I looked at zoning / site / building guidelines to figure out how to create the product.

DMV Deal Makers: Around the time I became a full time investor in 2016, I realized my network was very small. Your network after all is your networth! I had been a quiet coder for many years. I decided to expand my horizons and created DMV Deal Makers – an investor club on Facebook. 4 years later DMV Deal Makers was the biggest live networking group for real estate investors in the DC Metro region AND soon the term “deal maker” started showing up all across the country as the name of clubs and events.

Investorlift: In late 2019, a tech whiz by the name of Robert Wensley showed up at one of our DMV Deal Maker events. I didn’t know Robert at all at that point. He would end up launching a product that was so disruptive that by June of 2020 (middle of COVID), DC First Properties would sell off 8 luxury building lots and change business models completely. Investorlift changed the way residential investing works.

Deal Maker Nation: In early 2020 during COVID, Robert and I launched a new youtube channel Deal Maker Nation where we interviewed some of the most powerful players in the real estate world. I realized I had been thinking too small all these years! https://www.youtube.com/c/dealmakernation I also realized how powerful wholesaling real estate was IF you had the right technology to back it – something that had been lacking all these years.

3 Step Home Sale: By summer of 2020, we had launched a home buying company backed by Investorlift as one of our core platforms that would start buying houses in 8 markets across the East Coast. My new venture, 3 Step Home Sale, would become client #2 of Investorlift before anyone knew what Investorlift was. https://www.3stephomesale.com

Current: Investorlift remains one of our core platforms that we’ve used to buy 160+ houses YTD as of December 2024 and generated millions in assignment fees. Today 3 Step Home Sale has a staff of 13 rock stars. We are sourcing deals all across the East Coast and Texas using digital techniques. We are a tech company disguised as residential real estate investors. We are strong on PPC, SEO, A.I., and cloud based processes and systems.

One of the Tools We’ve Used to Crush the
Residential Game Last 36 Months

Join me on joshcohen.investorlift.com
promo code: joshcohen
Good for 2025!

The EXCUSE ZONE!

There are 4 excuses people give for not reaching the goals they set or the dreams they have:

1. Time
2. Money
3. Knowledge
4. Right People

We’re going to get you out of the excuse zone. I’ve heard them all. I’ve said them all. They are all just your brain telling you that you’re scared. It’s time to move past that hump and become the person you’re supposed to be. No limits. Here at realjoshcohen.com we are not gurus. We are people putting in the actual work NOT 10 years ago, not 5 years now, NOW! We know what works from Front to Back! We’re not here to take your wallet. We’re here to give you great actionable advice.

Coming Soon….. Spring 2025:

As an investor for 15+ years now, I want to take you behind the curtains and show you what has worked, what hasn’t, and what’s working now! This will be a no fluff website with all my best tricks, tips, and advice. I have failed so many times I can’t count them anymore. The most important thing is I never quit and neither should you. If you’re unhappy, like I was, with where you’re at today then you’ve come to the right place!

My goal is to change your life! The information you get from YouTube University is GREAT and will get you 95% of the way there but it’s the 5% that you don’t know that is the difference between success and failure. The devil is in the details. Stay tuned….. we’re going to show you things that no one has! We’re going to open up the vault on everything I’ve learned since 2009 as a real estate investor. #10000millionaires #seeyouatthetop #GO_TIME