Chris & John
- Feb 25, 2021
- 2 min read

Ep 129: The Relationship Business of Real Estate Syndication with John Okocha

Real estate syndication is all about creating relationships and scaling your business ultimately depends on the quality of those relationships. At least, that is what today’s guest, John Okocha, believes. John is the Vice President of Acquisitions at Elevate Commercial Investment Group and a key part of the growth of over 1,700 multifamily real estate units in 2019. He is a master at assessing and analyzing property and market fundamentals for new property acquisitions as well as creating, maintaining, and updating financial models of existing and potential new investments. He builds strong relationships with brokers, property owners, and passive investors and works relentlessly to find great deals and ensure that Elevate delivers higher than average returns to their investors. Tuning in, you’ll hear John’s perspectives on leveraging relationships, selling the truth, and understanding satisfying investor’s needs. He also shares what he means by “Timing the system,” and how Elevate is streamlining their syndications, management, and operations processes using software technology. All this and more, in today’s episode, so make sure to tune in!

Key Points From This Episode:

Learn more about John’s start in real estate and his role at Elevate.
Single family acquisitions to multifamily: taking his company from 37 doors to over 1,700 by building relationships.
The importance of always selling the truth when you’re crafting your story.
How Elevate got their foot in the door with 37 units by leveraging their mentor’s track record.
John explains his expertise at identifying a need and fulfilling it.
Why John believes in the value of surrounding yourself with a good team.
Understanding what the investor wants: how John puts deals in front of the right people.
Hear John’s perspective on “timing the system” and prioritizing efficiency in what he does.
How they are streamlining their syndication process using software like SyndicationPro.
Presenting a polished product versus initially bringing someone in on a deal: as VP of Acquisitions, John believes in engaging early.
Streamlining management and operations processes using data-driven software tools.
What John looks for in deals and how his priorities have shifted due to the pandemic.
Why John steers clear of properties with occupancy below 85 percent during COVID.
How having more control of a deal during COVID is the best way to protect investors.
The importance of making sure that investors are well-informed.
Partnering with others allows Elevate to access bigger deals: splitting the pie to get more units makes it easier to scale.

Tweetables:

“First and foremost, [real estate] is a relationship business.” — John Okocha [0:07:47]

“Seeing a need and being able to fill that need, I think that is number one.” — John Okocha [0:14:22]

“I feel, with our presence, there are a lot of people that want to do business with us right now. It’s about timing those systems, making sure that we can be as efficient as possible.” — John Okocha [0:23:20]

“We want our investors to be as informed as possible and make a well-informed decision on whether or not they want to invest with us.” — John Okocha [0:40:03]