Building a Life of Time Freedom Through Intentional Investing with Grant Francke
Key Takeaways
- Time freedom comes from intentional systems, not passive income fantasies.
- Mastering underwriting and focus removes fear and hesitation from investing.
- Long-term success is built by aligning daily actions with a clear future vision.
United States Real Estate Investor®
The REI Agent with Grant Francke
https://youtu.be/XCgb-CXhwu4
United States Real Estate Investor®
Value-rich, The REI Agent podcast takes a holistic approach to life through real estate.
Hosted by Mattias Clymer, an agent and investor, alongside his wife Erica Clymer, a licensed therapist, the show features guests who strive to live bold and fulfilled lives through business and real estate investing.
You are personally invited to witness inspiring conversations with agents and investors who share their journeys, strategies, and wisdom.
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From Railroad Shifts to a Bigger Vision
Grant Francke’s story begins far from spreadsheets and rental portfolios.
Fresh out of high school, he stepped straight into a demanding railroad career, a job that paid well but quietly stole time from the moments that mattered most.
Holidays were missed. Birthdays passed. And eventually, the cost became clear.
“Great job if you do not have a wife or kids.”
That realization became the spark that pushed Grant to search for a different future, one built around choice, presence, and purpose.
The First Duplex That Changed Everything
In 2016, Grant bought his first duplex. It was not glamorous. It was not perfect. But it was the beginning of something transformational.
By committing to the BRRRR strategy and learning the numbers behind every deal, he began stacking confidence alongside cash flow.
“I realized the time I was missing away from them.”
Within just a few years, that first duplex turned into a rapidly scaling portfolio.
By the end of 2019, Grant made a bold decision. He walked away from the railroad and stepped fully into real estate, right before the world shut down.
Scaling With Discipline, Not Hype
Today, Grant owns and operates more than 200 doors across Southeast Nebraska. His success did not come from chasing shiny objects or jumping markets blindly.
It came from discipline, focus, and systems.
“It is better to choose something than what you choose.”
Rather than overcomplicating decisions, Grant emphasizes narrowing the buy box, underwriting relentlessly, and eliminating unnecessary headwinds before they ever appear.
Writing the Book That Cemented the Journey
At a goal retreat, Grant committed to a challenge that felt uncomfortable and defining. He would write a book. Not someday. Now.
“I wanted a goal that would define the year.”
The result was The Unlikely Investor, a book that captures his journey, early mistakes, and the lessons that helped him scale faster with clarity.
Writing the book was not about ego. It was about finishing something meaningful and proving that consistent action compounds.
Teaching Others Through First Deal
Grant’s passion for teaching led him to become an advisor in the First Deal program, where he helps new investors take real action instead of staying stuck in theory.
He sees the same pattern again and again.
“It always comes down to knowing your numbers.”
By underwriting deals repeatedly, even ones that will never be purchased, investors build confidence that carries them through fear and uncertainty.
Numbers replace emotion. Facts replace doubt.
Time Freedom Is Not Passive Income
One of the most honest moments in the conversation comes when Grant reframes the idea of freedom.
“I call it time freedom, not financial freedom.”
Owning hundreds of units still requires work. Systems must be built. People must be hired. Decisions never stop. But the difference is control. Grant can pick up his kids. He can be home for Christmas. He can design his days with intention.
Family, Goals, and Leading by Example
Grant and his wife intentionally involve their children in conversations about goals, values, and growth.
They do not just talk about success. They show what follow-through looks like.
“I set a goal and I achieved it.”
That example matters more than any lecture ever could.
Thinking Like Your Future Self
One of the books currently shaping Grant’s mindset asks a simple but powerful question.
“What would ten year Grant think of this decision?”
By aligning daily actions with long term vision, distractions lose their power. Progress becomes deliberate. Momentum becomes sustainable.
The Real Lesson Behind the Doors
Grant Francke’s journey is not just about real estate. It is about intentional living; About trading comfort for clarity; About building systems that support life instead of consuming it.
“If you are not intentional, life just happens to you.”
This episode is a reminder that success is not found in speed or hype. It is found in focus, discipline, and the courage to design a life that actually feels worth living.
A Life Built On Purpose and Presence
Grant’s story proves that ordinary beginnings can lead to extraordinary outcomes when paired with commitment and clarity.
From a single duplex to hundreds of doors, the real win has always been time, family, and choice.
“That is what everybody is chasing.”
Stay tuned for more inspiring stories on The REI Agent podcast, your go-to source for insights, inspiration, and strategies from top agents and investors who are living their best lives through real estate.
For more content and episodes, visit reiagent.com.
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Contact Grant Francke
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Mentioned References
- The Unlikely Investor by Grant Francke
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Be Your Future Self Now by Benjamin Hardy
- Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki
- First Deal program by Brandon Turner
- Better Life Tribe by Brandon Turner
- BNSF Railway
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Transcript
Welcome back to the REI agent. We are back with Grant, Francke Grant. Thanks so much for being on the show again.
Yeah, happy to be back.
Grant was an early guest when we were still the wealthy investor. And man, I got so much good stuff to say about Grant. We connected initially after a conference.
I decided to use a program to write a book and I asked for a reference of somebody that had done it and they recommended me talking to Grant. So he was gracious with his time and hopped on a Zoom call with me and had a conversation. And people have said like Midwesterners are cut from a different cloth.
I mean, that's why I'm kind of like married to one. I don't know, man, I just feel like we have, like we had that conversation, we had a podcast, we've probably texted a good amount there for a while. We kind of met up a little bit at the last conference that we were at together.
And I just feel like you're like, I don't know, maybe everybody feels that way about you, but you're just a really awesome person and I really enjoy your friendship. So yeah, I'm excited.
Well, thanks man, I appreciate that.
And on top of being an awesome person, you are also an awesome investor. If anybody hasn't seen the past episode, I thought we could kind of, yeah, let you hash out your story a little bit as well and talk about how that kind of all led to a book and kind of what you're doing now. So yeah, if you want.
You bet.
The real estate.
Yeah, I appreciate guys. So back in, right after I got out of high school, I started at the railroad right away. I didn't go to college.
I was a conductor for BNSF Railways for 13 years. Great job if you don't have any wife or kids. Started, we got married, had a couple of kids and I realized the time I was missing away from them, the Christmases, the birthdays, all those fun things.
So I started looking for an avenue to get out of the railroad. Bought my first duplex in 2016. Went pretty hard at the BRRRR process there.
Scaled it fairly quickly in 2019. End of 2019, I left and started doing real estate full time right before the COVID pandemic. So that was a really great time to quit my job and rely on rental income.
But yeah, since then, we're now up to about 215 doors. It's a great, great little market we have. I'm in Southeast Nebraska.
So we're invested all within Southeast Nebraska within an hour and a half of where I live here. So yeah, that's my story. It's been a fun ride.
And through that process or whatever, like you then wrote a book about that whole process, right? Like the unlikely investor, right?
Yeah, it was at a goal retreat with Brandon Turner and the Better Life Tribe. And I wanted to write, I wanted to make a goal that wasn't like, I'm gonna use my phone less or I'm gonna work out so many times a week. So I wanted a big, hairy, audacious goal, right?
And so I was like, I'm gonna write a book. And everybody at the table that I was sitting with were like, okay, I'm sure you are. I'm like, no, I'm serious.
I'm gonna write a book. Yeah, so I wrote a book. I got out, released about a year and a half ago.
The Unlikely Investor, it's just kind of my story. Some of the beginner tips and tricks I went through to get it where I'm at now. But yeah, it was great.
Brandon Turner was able to write the foreword for it, which was really fun. You know, I learned a lot of what I know from him. And now I work with him in first deal as a first deal advisor.
So it's been kind of come full circle for me.
Yeah, well, I think you wrote that book a lot faster than I have.
I had some rough, I had like a rough winter here. I didn't go out and do anything. So I would just sit in the closet, just pounding it away.
The Unlikely Author, maybe it should be my title.
Did your wife, Laura, did she also get a phone call from you from this conference? Really super excited, like, I'm gonna write a book.
Yeah, she did. It was very much, she kind of had the same reaction. She's like, okay, we'll see.
And then she got home and saw how serious it was. That's the way it was when I started investing. I told her about it and I was really excited.
She's like, all right, let's see where it goes. And then once she saw my passion for it and how much I was like, because when I do something, I do it really hard. I don't just kind of half-ass anything.
So she saw when I dove into the book, I'm like, she's like, okay, this is gonna happen now. Because once he starts, he doesn't stop.
Are you a finisher? Like when you start something, you finish all the way through?
I try to. Sometimes I get frustrated in the middle and start thinking about the finish line. I'm like, how can I get there?
But yeah, if I do something, I usually try to do it at the best possible way I can. I can be kind of obsessive about things.
Yeah, I still love you.
That's my weakness. I'm a great starter. Finisher is tough for me.
So on the third round of edits, if you're curious on the book. So looking forward to getting that monkey off my back and moving forward with the other goals. That book writing goal reminds me of, and I'm gonna blank on the name for that, like the Japanese term, Misoki or something like that, where, I don't know if you've heard of this, but it's basically a big, hairy, audacious goal.
But it's a year-defining goal that you're gonna look back and be like, 2022 or 2023 or whatever the year was when you wrote that book, was the year that you wrote that book. And it's like a defining moment. So you could have an epic mountain or ultra marathon or something like that.
You could have. And the thought of like kind of in your planning, if you were to take on something like that each year, I mean, you would have an incredible journey of a big race that you've accomplished. So kudos to you for actually getting it done.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm like self-management. So we'll see if, we'll see what happens. Yeah, so then I was writing my goals for 2026 and put on there to write my second book, which will be on property management, self-management, but we'll see where that goes.
That's not as strong as my first book goal.
I don't know, man. I would read it because I know that you've implemented a VA to kind of help with things, right? And systemize stuff well, right?
Yeah, it's been good with the VA. We're actually looking to make our first like full-time hire here locally. I just need some more boots on the ground person that can kind of come alongside us and make sure everything's getting done.
When you have this much stuff going on, it's easy for stuff to drop through the cracks and that's what we're trying to eliminate.
Oh yeah, 100%. That determination you're talking about that you had, it just, it shows, you know, as you're talking about like how your life has evolved here in the last couple of years from starting as a conductor, which I forgot, by the way. I forgot that you were, that was like a first, what a cool job to start with.
Yeah, it was, I mean, especially as a young kid, you just kind of travel around and.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I've ever heard of anyone else starting out with that, but it's cool to see where you were and even talking to you initially the first time we did the podcast, you had just maybe finished your book, I think.
I think so, yeah. I think it was just gonna already come out.
Yeah, yeah, and then to get to where you are now and you've done so much more and you're still pushing forward, so it's just fun to see.
This is also like a testament to surrounding yourself with the right people, because like whenever I talk to you, Grant, like I'm like excited. You know, I feel like I'm happy for you, I'm thrilled for you, I'm motivated to do more. And like, I think that's just such a, A, like if you can cultivate that in yourself, I think that's probably one of the first steps that if you can try to figure out how to not feel threatened by Grant's success, but feel excited for Grant's success, right?
I mean, seriously, like if you're constantly feeling threatened by somebody else's success, like you're not gonna, they're not gonna wanna be around you because they're gonna be like a jerk to them.
Yeah, yeah. That's, I mean, I had some of that. So I joined the 50, which is like Brandon's high-end mastermind and those are people that are killing it, like Brandon level, killing it.
So I very much had that going to them. Like, what do they, they don't wanna talk to me. I just have duplexes and you know what I mean?
So it's just surrounding yourself. And even like just all the Better Life Tribe stuff we do, like go to those conferences, just being around it. You come home, you're on fire, you're ready to go.
It's always a good community to be around too.
Yeah, no, 100%. But it's, yeah, it's a great thing to kind of be intentional about. And, you know, if you're still trying to make goals and figuring out what you're gonna do in 2026, it's definitely like, I think a relationship audit is a healthy thing to do.
Not even like, it sounds like you're just gonna cut people out, but I think it's more like trying to be intentionally focused on being with people that, you know, have a similar mindset, have are, you know, kind of, you know, working on the same things that you wanna be working on, so.
Yeah, you're the average of the five people you're around the most, is what they would say. So surround yourself with those good people. Totally.
Can you talk to us a little bit about the First Deal program?
Yeah, you bet, it's great. So it's First Deal, Brandon Turner's kind of first deal mastermind, I guess. We take people then that either have like one deal, an accidental landlord, maybe have a couple deals, but don't really know what they're doing, or they have no deals at all.
And you join the program. There's a five week fast track in the beginning where you learn just the basics of real estate investing, financing, finding deals, funding deals, all those underwriting, all those sorts of things. And then once you graduate past that, we have a community as well with, we've got, I think, seven, eight advisors now that do all different things, right?
So we've got, I do long-term rentals, self-management. We've got a flipper. We've got people who do pad splits.
We've got people who do syndications, section eight, mobile home parks. So we've got all those people in there to help. But you graduate from the five weeks into the community.
We have weekly calls as well, two weekly calls, and then you have the community as well that you can lean on. And then anybody who comes in the program gets two hours a quarter of one-on-one calls with any advisor they choose. They can choose different advisors too.
So yeah, I spend a lot of, some of my days just kind of doing one-on-one calls with new investors, which is really fun because I enjoy teaching. I enjoy real estate. I enjoy talking about real estate.
So it's fun to see them come in new with fire in their eyes and ready to go and kind of show them the way.
Yeah, kudos to you for doing that. It's huge. I'm curious if you see any common stumbling blocks for people that are trying to get started and what prevents them from being successful.
Yeah, it really comes, I always say it comes down to knowing their numbers. So a big step that I always tell people to take is underwrite just to underwrite. Even if the deals aren't gonna work, it's about flexing that muscle.
It's about, like you guys do in CrossFit, right? You're doing it over and over. You're getting stronger and stronger.
Same thing underwriting. The more you do it, the stronger you're gonna be at it. The more confident you're gonna be in your numbers because like we all know when you get towards the end of a deal and you're about ready to close, you get that feeling in your stomach.
You're like, I don't know if it's gonna work. You know, I may not make money on this. You can always fall back on your numbers.
You can fall back on your spreadsheets and be like, yeah, these are the numbers. This is facts. Like this is what it runs for.
This is what it's gonna cost me. I'll be okay. So knowing your numbers and having that to fall back on that is huge.
Try to eliminate any sort of headwind you can. And a lot of that comes from numbers. Just knowing your numbers, knowing everything's gonna work out in the end.
That's a good tip. Are you working too with people who are largely in your market, your area? Or are you working with people anywhere?
Yeah, anywhere across the country. So yeah, we've even got people from Canada. So it's almost across the country and elsewhere as well.
So anybody can join and I'm pretty happy with the program. It's done some pretty cool things. It's fun to see, especially the ones that started at the beginning.
So I've been doing it for a year and a half and the ones that first started are now getting their second and third deals. And you're seeing that light switch flip. They're like, oh, this is how it works.
A BRRRR actually works. So you pull your money back out and just do it again and do it again. So it's fun to see that progress with them.
So people are fast-tracked or they're choosing a track when they go through this program. Is that what you said? Like it's like there's like long-term rental?
Yeah, so the fast track is just your basic explanation of how real estate investing works. It's just a five-week program. Everybody goes through just to get everybody.
It's kind of get everybody on track to like, cause we had people coming in that knew a little bit, didn't know anything. So it was just like that education piece of how do we get everyone at the same spot? So the fast track does that.
And then after that, we have a clarity call with them where we kind of define what they want to do and try to get their buy box down. And then we can push them, not push them, but if they want to do long-term rentals, okay, this is the path you should take. If you want to do short-term, here's your path.
So there's all those different paths within the program that we can take them.
Cause I was going to say, I think that's often a really difficult thing for people is like that shiny object syndrome, like where I think, and maybe this is the beauty of this kind of program. Like I think people often will listen to podcasts or listen to whatever, and they'll hear different experts doing different things. And like maybe never actually ended up doing anything because they keep like exploring, like, okay, maybe this is the route.
This is the way I want to go. I want to read a book about that before I take a step to actually doing something. It's actually investing in the property.
So that kind of eliminates that a little bit. I mean, do people jump around at all then?
They do, but we try to limit as much as they can. We kind of have them put into a buy box of like, this is what I'm looking for. And we always say it's better to choose something than what you choose.
Like, I don't care if you're choosing between Cincinnati and Indianapolis, pick one of the two, and then we're going to dive into that one. But if you have too wide of a vision and you're not focusing on one thing, then it's just like you said, shiny object syndrome. Then you start looking at motel conversions and self-storage units and all these different things that just focus on what you want and keep your head down.
I'm curious what you've learned from that, working with people in different areas or different cities.
It's very, I mean, it's very different. I've learned I'm very blessed to live in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is a very boring market, very cashflow heavy. We've got a lot of people that are in California that are investing out of state because that's really the only way they can do it.
And it works, like there's a process to make that work. But I've been very lucky to live like where I live. But it also did show me like, it doesn't matter where you live.
You can build the systems around where you're going to invest. Like one of our advisors, Janelle, she lives in California and Hawaii sometimes, but she invests in Ohio. And like, she's got a system set up there that runs just like she's there, but she's traveling around all the time.
One of the things I chew on for like, an agent that's working in their market and wanting to maybe invest in their market with like a house hack or whatever is to start, with lower down payments, et cetera. One of the things I've chewed on in the more appreciation heavy markets is, can you make that work by house hacking, by moving into the property? It might, I mean, I guess it really probably depends.
Like if you're in San Diego or something that you might have to live in that property for a while before you can move to another one and actually have that cash flow. But I think typically there is some sort of advantage there because like if the person was doing that, they might then have a lot more equity to play with or tap into from a HELOC over a shorter period of time. And then maybe they wanna focus on building up the cash flow through a different market and investing in out of state.
I mean, does that strategy come up at all when you're looking at these?
Yeah, especially for our people in those expensive markets. Like you could house hack something in a duplex and technically you're not cash flowing, right? But if you're paying less to live there than where you would be somewhere else and you have an asset on your balance sheet and that is getting paid down by the other tenant, like that's considered a win because you're paying less, you're building an asset.
And then you can, like I said, after the appreciation goes up, tap into that equity and then buy cash flowing properties in Ohio or Nebraska or Iowa, or just finding those cashflow rich areas. But being able to start in your own market and kind of hands-on experience with managing, doing turnovers, doing leasing, all those sorts of things.
Yeah, and I think, I mean, with a program like you guys are talking about, it's probably less daunting to try to invest in another market. But I think for a lot of people that aren't in a program, that's probably very intimidating to start there. But I had a, I think also some agents probably, they're wanting to be an agent.
They wanna sell real estate and they're not looking to be a full-time investor. I had a person from Tacoma, Washington on the show that she's like, you know, my daughter has no interest in real estate, but I'm like, you just need to get five properties. And for a lot of people that don't have anything, any houses at all, that seems like an insane goal.
Thought, yeah. Especially in a market like that where it's gonna be really expensive to buy. But her point was like, you know, like every time, every 10 years historically, the house prices have doubled here.
And like if you just sit, if you just try to get the five properties, you know, without stressing yourself too much out about it, but like try to get that as quickly as possible then and just sit and have somebody else manage it, like that's like a pretty awesome retirement plan.
Yeah. Time heals a lot of wounds too in real estate. You know, if something's not cash flowing right away, I always tell people like, if you're gonna buy something that's not cash flowing, you need to have a path to get it to cash flow very quick.
But even if like a long-term BRRRR I'm doing, if I'm pulling all my money back out and I'm only cash flowing a couple hundred bucks a month, I don't have any money into it. It's like a free property, right? Like I don't have any cash in that.
And I can just let that appreciate, let that asset sit on my balance sheet and increase my wealth that way.
I love it. Yeah, I'd heard the whole concept of like the investing pyramid where you have like your base of cash flow. And I feel like depending on like where you're at, if you feel more comfortable investing in your own market, if you're in an appreciation heavy market, maybe your base is trying to build up equity to begin.
And if you can do that through house hacking, that's amazing. And then like from there, maybe you take that equity, like you get a HELOC out, move to the next property, do the same thing over and over again. You can start doing some BRRRRs, that's great, but start building up some equity that you can then play with, slash hopefully some cash as well from your sales or your cash flow.
Then start focusing more on a different market and maybe taking down different markets to really build up that cash flow part of the pyramid.
Yeah, and I love like in first deal when we see agents come through, because as an investor, I love when an agent is investor minded. Like we were talking about, now it's not for everybody, right? Not everybody understands the distinction between investors and retail buyers.
Like I have no emotions going into looking at a house. I don't care what the color is. I don't care what the flooring looks like.
Like it's all about numbers for me. So when we see agents coming through, I'm super pumped for them and they're even getting deals within first deal, different referrals and stuff. Because once you understand and you're an investor minded agent, that's quite the market to tap into.
We're also very repeat customers. If we're very happy, we're gonna stick with somebody for a long time.
Totally. I've thought about having an approach of almost like a wealth advisor for real estate investing. And it's probably not something you can promote.
I don't really know what the rules are with that.
Yeah.
But like to try to really take care of your clients. And I think if you also then have the property management thing, you kind of get that both, you get the sale, you get the ongoing management and just kind of like portfolio management, right? Like you can really try to help people make good decisions based on your expertise in that market.
Yeah. You could know your clients well enough to know what kind of equity they have in their properties. Are they getting a good return on equity?
Could they 1031 this into this and get a better return on equity on it? Totally.
Grant, I'm curious what you would say your shift has been with your family dynamics, like talking about how you weren't really able to prioritize them with the other job. What have you seen? What are the benefits of taking on 200 plus properties?
Yeah, I mean, it's night and day compared to like just staying in Kansas City because I took a train there overnight, right? Like it's night and day from that. I'm always home.
I work from home so I can pick the kids up, take them to practice, do those sorts of things. It does come with some more stress, right? I haven't really been on a vacation in 10 years that I haven't worked someone or had my phone with me, you know, fully released.
So, but they understand that. They understand like what I'm building. And we have those conversations my wife does too because she still works for a full-time job.
So they understand, they see us working. They see me as an entrepreneur that I own this company and that I'm trying to make sure it's, you know, growing well and everything's being taken care of. So they understand that side of it, but it has, it gives us that flexibility.
Like we went to Disney for seven, eight days, you know, earlier this year and just had a blast. But, you know, there was times I was on my phone texting my VA or texting a contractor or something. So they see that, but it's given me the flexibility to kind of enjoy those things.
I was home for all of Christmas. I haven't missed a birthday, all those, all that stuff.
Wow, that's awesome.
Yeah.
And I know even with the flow of being an entrepreneur and having to have your phone a lot too, do you ever for yourself struggle with not having a time where you can just be turned off?
Yeah, a hundred percent. And I've realized it more, like obviously the more properties we've gotten, the more stressful it is. When I had a hundred or 80, it wasn't too bad, but we have 215 now.
So like there's something always going on and that's where we're gonna try to make this higher and bring someone in to get in between me and everything else so they can carry all that stuff up. So it's been stressful. And I do, I realized the last couple of years, like I need to be able to shut off at some point in time and feel comfortable with being shut off.
Yeah, yeah. That's the key, right? Feeling comfortable too and being shut off.
Because I can shut off, I would just, but I'd just be worrying about things for the week while I'm shut off.
Yeah.
So I'm not really shut off.
Yeah. What's your hiring process been like? Do you have a strategy for vetting people?
Like how's that going?
Yeah, I hired like a business coach just to help me through it. Cause I really need to get structurally wise. Cause I was still running it like I was a person with four duplexes, right?
And I don't have four duplexes anymore. So it was like getting that mindset shift of me of like, no, you're an operator. You need to treat this as a company.
But yeah, so we posted up on Indeed and Facebook and we've had like 90 applicants, which is really fun. But I'm just trying to weed through all those people of like, who has property management experience? Who has operations experience?
I'm trying to find the perfect candidate.
Yeah, yep. We get that really well. We're in the same kind of process with a business consultants and actually we're going through a training next week on doing like personality assessment type stuff to try to have- Yeah, like the disk profile and- Kind of thing, yeah.
Yeah.
Which it's super fascinating and great. And I mean, I think like, you know, one of the things too that like people often forget and I think Robert Kiyosaki described it so well with the cashflow quadrant is like, you know, a lot of agents, a lot of people kind of look at that self-employed category as like, I've made it. Like this is it, which is great.
But I think that's probably true for investors as well. Like, I mean, like, you know, and obviously you're investing that's on the other side of the quadrant but you're also self-employed. I mean, you're doing the work.
And so like, there's a period of needing to learn how to, you know, have a business and like leverage not only money but other people as well and do that, you know, well. And so it's a fun, yeah, it's a fun thing to keep in mind. And I think a lot of people miss that.
Yeah, it is. And it's, everybody comes into real estate investing you get time freedom, which you do get but you're also still like a small business owner. Like there's no qualms about it unless you have full third-party management and you don't even touch it which a lot of people don't do.
Like you're very involved, you know. I'll probably work more hours now than I did when I was at the railroad but it's just, I'm home and I can do it later if I want to.
Yeah, the passive income sales is a little bit misleading. It's tough, yeah.
I always call it time freedom instead of financial freedom because like that's what I have is time freedom. I can do what I want with my time. Yeah.
That's what everybody's chasing is the time freedom.
Yeah, we often joke sometimes because we'll both often be working from home. I'll be doing like telehealth sessions or doing like accounting stuff upstairs at the Kitchen Island and he's doing his work and sometimes he takes a nap during the day. Sometimes we have workers come to the house to fix stuff and we're like, they probably don't think we do anything.
What do you think these people do? Home.
Yeah.
Yeah, but it's a fun journey and I think it's great to kind of keep, yeah, pushing forward and striving for an intentional life and I mean, that's what like definitely the Better Life Tribe, Brandon Turner preach is like if you don't plan out, if you aren't intentional about what your life is gonna be, then it's just gonna kind of happen to you and you're gonna wake up and be like, I mean, that's probably where midlife crisis comes from, right? Yeah.
I mean, I still wanna get the Corvette. Tesla. I think you should.
Tesla.
Tesla, that works too. But yeah, anyway, I do wonder if you have a golden nugget for our listeners grant.
Yeah, I mean, it would probably fall back to what I talked about earlier, create at least the least amount of headwind as you have, like underwriting is huge. So if you're gonna get into investing, even if it has the agent side, a lot of agents listen to you guys, like understand the underwriting that your investors are using because that's gonna, when you understand that underwriting, you'll be able to provide better properties for them and do better lead generation for them. Because if we get sent a property that's a negative cash on cash return, but it's beautiful, and you're like, this works.
I'm like, well, it doesn't make money, so I can't. So if you understand the underwriting better, you're gonna have happier clients, more repeat clients, all those things that'll come back to you.
100%. And I think the analytical side of the sales business is something that not a lot, not everybody can master, not everybody masters. Like, I mean, there's obviously property analysis just for like general marketing purposes if you're doing residential, but if you are selling a rental, understanding the way investors think is gonna be huge too on the listing side and pricing appropriately.
So yeah, very good point. What about, I don't remember, when we talked last, I probably asked you about a fundamental book or a book you were currently really enjoying, but do you have any new books that you're currently enjoying?
Yeah, I'm certain I probably said Rich Dad Poor Dad back then because that's still is like the most influential book for me. But right now I'm reading, it's called Be Your Future Self Now by Benjamin Hardy. It is very much like a mindset of like what would 10-year Grant think of your actions right now?
Like what I did today, would 10-year Grant be like, that's a good job or would he be like, you were slacking off? So planning your 10-year vision, five-year vision, three-year vision, one-year vision, and just making sure you're accelerating to that. Instead of like I said, going through the minutia of just like, all right, I'll come out and check my emails, I'll do this, I'll putz around, but being very intentional with your time and the direction you're headed.
Absolutely, like I think like it's one thing to set like a big audacious goal and there's another to like actually like kind of know what the actions are gonna need, like know how to act upon like to achieve that. Like what do you have to do on a day-to-day basis? Where do you have to get to?
It's a whole nother animal. I think I heard once an agent that was asked like what their goals were and they're like, I wanna be a billionaire. Like that.
Okay, yeah, that's a great goal, but what's the steps to get there? That's what we talked about in first deal too, like, okay, your goal is to buy two properties, but at the end of the year, like what's the steps we're gonna be able to do to get there? It's all about laying everything out and everything you do, investing as an agent, like if you have your goal, that's great, but how are you gonna get there?
What are those steps you're gonna take?
Yeah, and this person has not really done much, like hasn't really taken much action, so it's a great, grandiose goal, but like they're not actually thinking through those steps like you're saying, so. Also a billion is a lot of money. That's a lot of dollars.
Yeah. Yeah. Like did you say the M wrong?
Yeah, yeah. Maybe multimillionaire? Yeah.
Yeah. What were you gonna say, sorry?
No, I was just curious if you and Laura had conversations like this with your kids, asking them about goals they'd like to have.
We've really tried to do that this year more. We went this last fall to, it was a family camp up in New Mexico, and Scott Donnelly was there. He writes books on like kids' stuff and a lot of great people, like AJ Osborne, his family kind of runs it, and it was really dived into like goal setting as a family, like what's our family, who are we as Franckes?
Like what are we, how do we conduct ourselves? What's our goals? So we've really dived into that this last year and they're, Madeline's 12, Brendan's gonna be 10 soon.
So they're kind of at that age where they can kind of get it where they're not like five and six and those sorts of things. But we've definitely dove into that last year of trying to set expectations and like they know what our goals are. We've explained that to them and try to have them see us succeed.
Like I told them like that a couple of years ago, my goal was to write the book and this is the book. Like I set a goal and I achieved it. So we're trying to lay that framework now of like, they don't need to be crazy for them, right?
But just understanding how goal setting works and like we said, those steps, like, okay, this is your goal, how do we get to those steps every year?
Oh, that's awesome. I didn't even know family camps existed. That's awesome.
That's really cool.
It's great, yeah. I'll send you guys the link when it comes up next time. It was phenomenal.
It was, I think it was four days, three days, but it was some great families there. We met some really cool friends. It was a great time.
Oh, I'd love to do that. We did like a miniature version of that. We had like a family meeting at the dinner table.
Is that this week still?
Yeah.
And it was cute. My daughter, our oldest daughter, created like a Canva presentation to go through. It was older, you know, we're going to go through, everybody's going to create a goal for themselves for this year and we'll review with first quarter and each person came up with a goal for themselves.
And then we, as a family, came up with a goal for them. And so each of us had to each, and it was kind of fun to see what they picked. Yeah.
Our middle six year old, she decided it was time to stop sucking her thumb.
Great. That's good.
Yeah, she's doing great. She's awesome.
Yeah. That's her. That's cool.
That's a great idea. I'm going to take that. I'm going to bring that up to Laura.
That's fun. Not sucking your thumb.
Laura, it's time.
Yeah, it's time.
Yeah, no, it was, that was a fun thing. And it's been, it's been cool to, you know, we can follow through with them, follow up with them and kind of check in and see how things are going and kind of, you know, it's easy to say that, you know, it's going to be easy or whatever, but like when the rubber meets the road, then we really look at and assess like how things are going with it. Like it's, yeah, it'll be a fun, fun thing to try to continue with.
Yeah. I guess I just want to ask you yet where people can find you, if they're interested in doing the first deal, for example, or if they just want to follow you along on social media, what are some good places?
Yeah, best place is probably Instagram, @Grant.Francke. And then I've got a link in my bio that has a link to first deal, take you right to the page and you can sign up from there. Then you can DM me with any questions. I can happy to answer what I can.
If I don't know the answer, I'll send it off to whoever can answer it. And yeah, I'll be at the REI Summit again this year. I don't know if you guys are going to be able to make it to Austin, we'll be speaking there again.
So, I think Laura's going to come as well. So I'd love to meet anybody there too.
Nice. Awesome. Thank you, Grant.
Yeah, Grant, thanks so much. It's been a pleasure as always. Yes, love it.
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