Real estate investor and entrepreneur Tenny Tolofari has described access to information as the single most important factor that transformed his financial life, revealing that he now owns apartment assets valued at $243 million after years of believing property ownership was out of reach.
Tolofari made the revelation during a public question-and-answer session with American business coach Grant Cardone at the eCore25 conference, where he shared the personal journey that led him from being a renter to the co-founder of a multi-million-dollar real estate firm.
According to Tolofari, he spent most of his adult life living and paying rent in apartment buildings without realizing that ownership of such properties was even a possibility for someone like him.
“For years, I walked past apartment complexes, lived in them, and paid thousands of dollars in rent, but it never occurred to me that I could actually buy one,” he said.
Tolofari explained that his breakthrough came in 2019 when he enrolled in a $97 online real estate course. One month later, he co-founded investment firm XSITE Capital, which has since grown into a major player in the multifamily housing market.
The company has now closed acquisitions worth a combined $243 million and currently manages investments for more than 400 investors. In 2024 alone, the firm has reportedly completed $75 million in transactions.
Responding to questions from the audience about how he was unaware of apartment investing before 2019, Tolofari said the issue was not a lack of ambition or intelligence, but what he described as a “poverty of knowledge.”
“I wasn’t raised around real estate investors. No teacher taught it, no family member owned buildings, and no friend talked about it. The knowledge simply didn’t exist in my world,” he said.
Tolofari pointed out that for many in the investment space, real estate ownership is passed down through generations and discussed casually in family settings, creating an awareness gap between social classes.
“For some people, investing is normal. For others, survival is the dream,” he added.
As part of his continued efforts to educate others, Tolofari announced that he will be hosting a walkthrough of The Park at Arlington, one of the company’s latest investment projects, to demonstrate how professionals can build wealth through multifamily real estate.
Industry observers say Tolofari’s story highlights how financial literacy and exposure play a critical role in wealth creation and may inspire others previously excluded from investment knowledge to explore similar opportunities.
Tolofari urged aspiring investors not to dismiss opportunities due to lack of familiarity, insisting that awareness is often the missing first step toward financial growth.
“Once you know something exists, you can learn it. Once you learn it, you can build it,” he said.
