163: The Road to Becoming an Unlikely Real Estate Investor with Grant Francke

Sometimes, it’s the W2 job that convinces you to pursue a different career—one that offers time freedom and the ability to control your income.

On this episode of Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing, Jonathan welcomes investor Grant Francke to the show. Grant is the author of “The Unlikely Investor: A Path to Financial Freedom Through Real Estate. He began investing in real estate while still working for the railroad, and Grant quickly caught the bug, spending a lot of time learning more about the industry. It ultimately led him to quit the W2 railroad job and become a full-time real estate investor.

Jonathan and Grant explore Grant’s exposure as a kid to real estate investing through his dad, how he found his “why,” and how he was ultimately able to leave his railroad job to invest full-time. Grant shares why it was important for his wife to be on board with him in this venture, how his W2 helped them kickstart their investing, and how he used seller financing to fund his first few properties following his first duplex. Grant shares when he began to create systems and processes, the importance of building relationships in your local community, and why he likes keeping his portfolio local. You’ll hear how he began transitioning into larger multifamily properties, the role of educating himself with podcasts and books in growing the business, and why Grant believes he waited too long to hire an assistant.

Successful real estate investors can come from any background, and Grant Francke is setting that example for his children and others as he builds an impressive portfolio in his community.

In this episode, you will hear:

• Grant Francke’s path to real estate investing and why he decided to do it differently than his dad
• Finding your “why” and building systems and processes around it to scale
• When Grant left his railroad job after he started investing
• The importance of a spouse who’s on board with real estate investing
• How W2 income helped Grant and his wife start investing in properties and their first investment property
• What he had to do to finance his next few properties and how it led to creating systems and processes
• Doing your due diligence and building relationships in your community for local deals
• Why building relationships is the most important part of real estate investing
• The benefits of keeping your real estate portfolio local
• Grant’s transition into larger multifamily properties versus duplexes or single-family assets
• Involving his family in the business and how podcasts and books helped him take the business to the next level
• The role real estate meetups had in showing Grant what was possible
• How clustering locally helps him identify good investment properties and offers credibility
• Scaling at a reasonable pace, staying in your lane, and knowing your why
• Hiring someone you trust to free up even more time

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If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://zenandtheartofrealestateinvesting.com/podcast/163/ to download it.

Supporting Resources:

Grant Francke’s website - GrantFrancke.com

Find Grant on Facebook - www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561247135104

Connect with Grant on Instagram - instagram.com/grant.francke

Website - www.streamlined.properties

YouTube - www.youtube.com/c/JonathanGreeneRE/videos

Instagram - www.instagram.com/trustgreene

Instagram - www.instagram.com/streamlinedproperties

TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@trustgreene

Zillow - https://www.zillow.com/profile/StreamlinedReal

Bigger Pockets - www.biggerpockets.com/users/TrustGreene

Facebook - www.facebook.com/streamlinedproperties

Email - [email protected]

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know we sent you.