Mike Tokatlyan | 6 Boston Developers to Watch in 2025

NAME: Mike Tokatlyan
COMPANY: Contempo Builders

Mike, we love hearing people’s backstories. How did you find your passion for real estate?‍

My family and I moved to the US from Armenia when I was 11. We rented one side of a two-family home in East Watertown for a few years, and then when I was about 14, my parents bought a single-family home just across town. 

The property was in rough shape but it was all we could afford at the time. We had to renovate the entire inside of the house because you’d walk up to the second floor and see straight down to the basement. Fortunately my parents had a great vision of what it could be and are both hard workers. But even doing the basics—like electrics on each floor, a kitchen—took some time. I still remember my mom heating up dinner on a small plug-in electric burner.

It took us about a year-and-a-half to turn it around. We worked on it as a family—hanging drywall, painting, laying flooring. We might call in a plumber for a $200 connection or something like that, but most of it we did ourselves with my parents taking the lead. We’d load up my dad’s van at Home Depot and bring back whatever we could pay for that week. 

We bought that house for $180,000 and with a bit of spend and sweat it became $400,000. Now it’s worth $1.3 million with no debt. That’s where my mentality comes from: take something, make it better, sell it for more, and understand the in-between.

Was that when you realized real estate could be a path forward?‍

At first, it was just “we need a place to live.” But once we finished the renovation, I think we all understood what real estate could do—especially with a bit of work and sweat equity. 

The problem was my parents just weren’t earning enough to save another $50k to buy again. At the time, my dad was paying about $800 a month in rent and working days at his main job, then delivering pizzas until midnight. I’d tell him, “Take an equity line—the value’s up.” But when you’re earning $8 an hour, with three kids and all your savings tied up in your home, you’re not taking those kinds of risks.

I was only 18 and didn’t yet know the ins and outs—construction costs, carry costs, timelines, offers. It took time to learn how all those pieces fit together to make the numbers work and structure deals. 

After that experience, how did your own path unfold?‍

At that time there was a bigger piece missing too—I didn’t have the right environment. None of my friends were involved in entrepreneurship, we were just holding jobs on and off to make money for the weekend. 

At 17 I made a lot of poor decisions. I thought I could spend my young years partying and it wouldn’t catch up to me. I ended up getting kicked out of high school and never graduated. From there I bounced through different sales jobs—sold gym memberships at 19, cars at 21, then mortgages, then real estate sales at 25.

How did you go from that environment to making your first deal?‍

At 19 I bought my first condo in Swampscott, MA. I ripped everything out with the help of my dad and uncle. I was really lucky, because as crazy as my decision making was at that time, my parents were always supportive. I sold it two years later for a profit to buy another townhome in Lynn on the water.

Then 2008 hit and I found out I’d made mistakes. Being in the mortgage business I’d met an agent in Atlanta who I did several loans for. I’d bought a couple of properties in Atlanta that I shouldn’t have bought. If I’d done the due diligence that I now live by, I’d have known better. That’s why I preach due diligence now—make sure you can manage and maintain the property and that it’s the right buy. I didn’t, so I lost those as well as the condo and moved back in with my parents at 26.

That’s a big fall. What happened next?‍

I filed for bankruptcy. Foreclosures. I was floating. No career, no stable job, just whoever would hire me for sales. Plenty of work ethic, but no structure. If you’re partying five nights a week, life dwindles fast. That’s when I said, “I need a foundation.” 

I went back and got my GED at 26, finished college by 29, got into Mass School of Law, graduated, passed the bar the following year, and then at 34, opened my own law firm. Those years at law school gave me the structure I was missing. It put me in a zone: I’m not a street kid—I’m smart, I can accomplish big things. I’d work in the morning, drive to law school, get home at 10pm, study, and do it all again the next day. It proved I can set my mind to something and do it.

That’s a big achievement. How did practicing law feel once you were up and running?‍

Great at first but about a year in I wasn’t happy. People came in to wipe debts or because someone rear-ended them. It was all bankruptcy cases and personal injury claims. I wasn’t creating anything and didn’t feel I was adding value to anyone. I thought, “This can’t be my life.” I felt lost again. Then I thought, “Why not that real estate thing?” This was when the Somerville condo game was really heating up.

So what was the first step back into real estate?‍

Yeah so that was around 2016. I had friends in development that I looked up to and asked one where he was buying and he was like, “You can’t buy what we’re buying—look on Hubzu.”

So I’m in my law office, bored, scrolling Hubzu and I see a house that needs new bathrooms, floors, a kitchen, maybe $50k of work. I offered $165,000 because I just wanted to see the process. I didn’t even have the money. I go home, forget about it, and wake up to: “Congratulations, you’re the winning bidder! We need a $5,000 deposit.”
At that point I scrambled, but was also thinking, “You’ve always wanted to do this—here’s your chance.” So I borrowed $15k from my dad, $15k from my friend, and maxed my credit cards on cash advances to get the rest and just thought, “I’ll figure it out”. Got the money, went to closing. Purchase price $165k, budget of $45–50k and I walked away with $30k profit. Happiest kid ever. 

Did you roll that straight into the next project?‍

Yeah. On my first project I hired a GC and kept the law firm going, but I was forever going to site to fix problems. I used that GC for the first and second projects; on the third I parted ways and closed the law office. 

I’d pay myself a little bit of survival money out of construction funds from the bank, and within two years I was full time on real estate. 

It’s funny, the same building inspectors I can text today at 9am in Somerville and Cambridge wouldn’t even meet me on site back then. They’d show up and say, “You’re not the GC, get out of here.” So I became a licensed GC and now everything is under my name. Those first few years were a grind. I’d drive to site, deal with all sorts of problems, get home at 10pm hungry and tired, but I was happy.

A lot of people struggle with taking the leap from one project at a time to multiple—how did you make that transition?‍

For me, it’s three things. First, you need to be good at multitasking because every site has multiple problems every day: materials didn’t show, survey’s off, plans are wrong, they didn’t dig enough for foundation. 

It’s constant and if you try to do multiple projects too quickly, you can’t handle all those problems on your own. You need enough experience to stop these stupid things happening. So do two projects and get your system down. Then do three. Then four. Then hire someone to duplicate what you do—that’s how you go to five, six, seven.

Second, you need to source the right projects. If you scale with mediocre deals or bad numbers, you’re exposed. If the market dips or costs or time slip, you go from two projects to zero. You lose the bank's trust, equity, investors. So you have to scale carefully. If your plan is 12 months, underwrite 18. If your build is $2m, run it at $2.2m. If you expect two months to sell, run four. Add 10% construction budget contingency until you’re confident in your subs and your process. Then you can handle the stress of doing two or three at a time and keep your sanity.

Third, learning to raise equity. My first project I raised $15k. Now I’ve got roughly $4m of equity on the street. Profits of one project might barely cover tax and food, and the rest goes to the next deal. Equity is important because big opportunities show up at the worst times. You might get a great project a month after you close on another one—not when you’re at the tail end and can pull equity out. So understand how to structure deals and knock on investors’ doors.

And in those early days, did the deals always perform the way you expected?‍

No. Early on I’d DM guys on socials: “How do you find a project that makes $150k?” Or I’d call wholesalers, but you realize they’ve already taken a big chunk of the profit. But if you don’t have your own sources yet—which takes years—you don’t have a choice.

I’d start projects I thought would make $100k and they’d make $60–70k. Then onto the next. Keep working to build your name and reputation, learn to build better, learn construction and your go-to locations to build. As that happens, your network grows. The friend who lent you $15k on the first one now lends $50k. His friend lends $50k. That friend’s mum lends $50k. 

It’s a long way from my first project where I couldn’t raise more than $15k, but it takes time to learn the game. People think you can think you go in and make your first million in a year, but it doesn’t quite work like that.

Would you say there was a big breakthrough moment?‍

It’s hard to pin it on one defining moment—it’s more the accumulation of years of work. But there are key things that moved the needle. One of them was meeting Rick Volney. I’d been stuck doing one project at a time and messaged him cold on Instagram: “Lunch on me?”

Two months later I’d bought two projects from him pre-permitted. I told him I didn’t have the equity—he lent it to me at 15%. That one message took me from one project to three. And not only that, it gave me confidence that there were guys willing to help and that I was on the right track. Even if I went over budget, the bigger win was learning how to run three projects at once, which trades could handle it, and where I needed new relationships.

Managing trades seems to be something people tend to overlook when trying to scale.‍

Definitely, you learn how important it is to manage and build those relationships. You also realize that some contractors can’t grow with you. My old plumber was great for one project, but couldn’t keep up at six or seven. Same with an electrician I had—amazing and reliable, but had to work under someone else’s permit which slowed everything down. Now I use one who’s fully independent with his own crew and insurance. 

When you scale, you simplify. Fewer points of contact, bigger teams, the right people. For example, one group does all of our framing, siding, roofing, and decks. I don’t entertain other quotes because this simplifies the process. One phone call I can review items across four projects—I don’t have to manage all of those different people across different sites. 

It sounds like networking is as important as the projects themselves?‍

Absolutely. Opportunities don’t knock—you create them. Reach out. Be persistent. And it goes both ways. One plumber has messaged me 18 times in six months. I haven’t used him yet, but if my main guy is over extended, he’ll be first because he stayed on my radar. You don’t need ten out of ten responses—you need one, and that can dramatically change your position. 

How do you approach raising money so quickly?‍

It starts slow. First you go to close friends and family. Your project will likely be small so you don’t have to raise too much more than a couple hundred thousand. Ideally you’re asking 20 people for $10k—a small risk approach on their end and they trust and believe in you. 

As you grow make sure to be active on socials, have a good website, share what you do with everyone you come across and it grows. Even on vacation I talk to complete strangers about what they do, then share what I do to see if there’s any interest.

Very much a direct approach then, almost like “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”? ‍

Exactly. I called my cousin a few days ago. He’s still close to our high school group so I said, “Here’s what I’m offering, here’s the interest rate, here’s the term, here’s my website. Call everyone from high school who knows what I do. If they’ve got questions, tell them to call me. And when you speak to them, ask, ‘Do you know anyone else?’”

Then I text the guy who does demo for me, “I need $1.3 million. I’m offering a 20% return. I can pay it back in eight months, or over the 16-month life of the project. Have you got anything?” He said, “Mike, I can’t do it right now.” I said, “Then I need five names. Five people you think have $100k. I’m doing 13 spots of $100k to make $1.3 million.”

One of those people called today. “Mike, I’m interested. Send me your website and contract. I like investing in real estate, but I don’t have time to do my own projects.” It’s a network game.

And your systems—did you build those from scratch?‍

Pretty much. Early on I didn’t even know what a pro forma was. I started with a basic Excel sheet and kept adding to it. Every time I missed my numbers in a category I broke it down, the spreadsheet was evolving daily. I also asked other developers for their pro formas, cherry-picked the bits that worked for me, and built my own over four years.

Another big shift came from working with an agent who’s brought me about $60 million worth of deals in the last six months. I worked with him on my pro forma and construction costs, then told him to hunt deals and run the numbers my way. Game changer. Since last November he’s sourced unbelievable properties I’d never have found—already packaged with zoning analysis, cost breakdowns, and resale projections. It took several months to build that relationship, but now he’s basically a duplicate version of me in the field.

Your growth has skyrocketed these last two years. What's that been like?‍

My first year’s total development sales were maybe $280k. Now it’s around $100 million coming up in 2026. Absurd. Some days I think, “Yeah, why not? We’re doing the work, we’ve got the contacts.” Other days I step outside myself, like, “What is going on?” In January I was texting friends: “We’re at $50 million in development.” By July it was $100 million.

The projects themselves have scaled just as fast. In mid-2024, a friend brought me a 29-unit in Somerville—five times the square footage of anything I’d built before. Up until then, the most I’d done from the ground up was four units. This was 29.

That’s a big jump. And how’s that Somerville project going now?‍

We’re about ten months in. I’m three to four months from completion—well ahead of schedule. Two other 29-unit buildings on my street started eight months before me; when I closed, they were finishing framing. We’ve already passed them. I’m doing electrical inspections. Roof’s done. Windows in. Plumbing and HVAC complete. Elevators in. ‍

What’s allowed you to get that far ahead?‍

Execution. When you deliver like this, the people who backed you once are ready to double down. Even banks that were hesitant at first take notice. I went back to my bank and showed them we were under budget and ahead of schedule. They refinanced me in a week—paid off the hard money lender, gave me enough carry until next year, and more than enough to finish. Now I can take on two 29-unit projects at a time.

The other critical factor has been building the right team. My project manager, Cesar, has been a major wingman to our growth the last 12 months. He started out with one of the subcontractors and later took on small tasks with me. What was wild is without me asking or bringing it up, he took it upon himself to step into a leadership role. He began organizing contractors, scheduling work, and making sure materials were always on site. 

It was incredible to watch, when he was on site things were being executed as if I was there. Without him there I don’t think I’d tackle this number of projects because it’s not just the site work, you still have to keep up with the spreadsheets and invoices, etc. And the best part is we’re both having a lot of fun.

Can you share a couple of deals where the structure made all the difference?‍

Back when I graduated law school, I didn’t want my $1,500 monthly student loan payment hitting my main income so I started looking for ways to create passive income without much cash upfront. That’s when I found a multi-family home in Lynn listed at $340k.

I used an FHA loan and my real estate licence to buy it. The 2.5% commission I earned as the agent nearly covered the 3% down payment, so I only had to bring about $1,000 to closing. I also increased the purchase price by $12k and asked for $10k back toward closing costs. On top of that, I timed the deal for the first of the month so the first mortgage payment was covered, and had the seller give me the first month’s rent at closing—about $3,500.

So on day one: my commission covered the down payment, a $10k credit covered the closing costs and first month’s mortgage, and the rent check went straight in my pocket. I actually walked away from closing with $3,000 cash.

I held that building for three years, raised the rents, then sold it for $800k. Using a 1031 exchange, I rolled $460k into a six-unit I still own. I bought that for $1.5 million; the debt is now under $1 million, and it’s appraised at $2.2 million.

That first deal—started with almost no cash—has since grown into $1.2 million in equity.

That’s incredible. And when you find a property that’s far under market, what’s your process for locking it in?‍

Two years ago I bought a six-family in Worcester. The MLS listing showed rents way under market. I offered to buy it sight unseen and sent over a non-refundable deposit photo straight away to lock it in. By the time I arrived, there were 50 other people walking through.

At the time, the property was bringing in about $77k a year in rent. I renovated the garages and started renting each bay, effectively turning it into a seven-unit. Then I raised all the apartment rents and the gross income jumped to $145k a year.

Today it’s worth around $1.6 million—roughly $1 million in equity. Between that and the six-unit from my earlier deal, I’ve got about $2.2 million in equity. My out-of-pocket investment was nothing on the first (thanks to the 1031 exchange) and about $280k on the second. Together they net me around $200k a year, which works out to roughly 71% cash-on-cash return.

It sounds like you’re comfortable with risk. Do you ever want to de-risk a little?‍

If you’re scared to lose, you won’t scale. I know my $2.8 million equity could be at risk. The important part is to believe in your math. Analyze the project with much weaker numbers and be confident that even in that instance you can pay back your investors and the bank. As long as that’s the case, I’m ok risking my time and happy to put in the hard work.

Stick to high demand locations and deliver a great product. I still have certain goals that I want to get to, so for now we’re sticking to the plan. I’m sure there will be a day where we scale back a bit. I don’t think that happens until I get to a healthy number of rental properties which are still in the works, but somewhat of a long way to go. 

And on that topic, what does the rest of 2025 look like on the development front?‍

This year we’re wrapping up the 29-unit in Somerville that I mentioned earlier, and then kicking off sales. This one’s exciting on many levels—not only was it my largest development and gave me a ton of confidence, but my girlfriend Jennifer is an agent for Coldwell Banker and will be handling the sellout. 

In December I’m finishing my luxury development down in Naples, Florida. That’s been a fun ride. I connected with a GC and a solid real estate agent down there on Instagram. Had a great connection with both, so it wasn’t long before we had kicked off two $10M dollar builds. 

Then in early 2026 we’ll be starting our net 30-unit development in Harvard Square, Cambridge, which was just approved. This is in addition to about 7-8 multi-unit townhome developments. 

It’s awesome to see the scale you’re now developing at, expanding across regions. We hear you’re busy in other areas too?‍

Yes, my good friend and I are getting close to launching our platform, NetXreal, which will connect people with lenders, off-market deals, and even permits for sale. There’s a full backend course with videos, checklists, reminders, and templates—basically a one-stop guide for people getting started in real estate development. 

I’ve also had an exciting opportunity to partner in a friend’s trucking company. I’ve taken a stake and helped it grow from three to seven trucks in just eight months. Each one carries our NetXreal brand, which is great advertising—our next milestone is 50 trucks. 

And finally, what advice would you give to others looking to go down the entrepreneurial path?‍

For me, it’s all about spotting opportunities, acting fast, and building partnerships that grow over time. Entrepreneurship is exciting and in the US, the capital and resources are out there—but most people won’t put in the late nights, knock on doors, or sacrifice comfort to make it happen.

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Mike, thank you for sharing your story and insights. It's amazing to hear your success and we wish you all the best with your different ventures!