The Path to Financial Freedom with the Unlikely Investor Grant Francke

Transcript

Mattias (0:16)
Welcome back to The WELLthy Investor. We’re here with Grant Francke. Grant, we got connected through Brandon Turner’s Better Life Tribe, but more specifically, we got connected through a book writing process that you were, you’ve just released.

And when I reached out to you, you were about to release the book. So you are a real estate investor. Where are you based out of?

Grant Francke (0:41)
In Southeast Nebraska. So I’m about 30 miles south of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Mattias (0:45)
Okay. And how long have you been investing?

Grant Francke (0:47)
I started investing in 2016. So about eight years now, we started the deal.

Mattias (0:53)
Okay. And what’s your, what’s your niche? Have you focused in on one thing?

Grant Francke (0:57)
Yeah, we’ve, we started with small, you know, mainly single families duplexes. Now we’re kind of working our way up towards those six, eight plexes and ten plexes.

Mattias (1:06)
Okay. Awesome. And do you do rehabs to make them into rentals or what’s your strategy?

Grant Francke (1:13)
Yeah. So we do BRRRRs. Right now it’s kind of turned into a slow BRRRRs with interest rates the way they are.

We’ll buy something that’s value add, certainly, whether the rents are low, the units need updated. Something where we can add value, increase the rents and then increase the profitability.

Mattias (1:29)
Sure. That makes sense. It is a lot harder. We are currently working on a house that we are a little too attached to and the numbers just don’t make a ton of sense rent-wise.

Erica (1:41)
It’s just a cute house.

Mattias (1:42)
In a great location, so that the location is kind of what makes us want to hold on to it.

Mattias (1:48)
What do you mean by when you say slow BRRRR?

Grant Francke (1:50)
So a slow BRRRR for me, like in a BRRRR process, you’re usually trying to do that in a quick time frame with hard money. For us, like a slow BRRRRs, we’ll buy a four-plex with traditional financing or commercial loan.

And then over the next five years, we’re going to do that BRRRR process of renovating everything, raising rents, refinancing, repeating. What do that BRRRR process that’s usually talked about is a quicker thing. This is just kind of a longer play on it.

Mattias (2:15)
No, that makes a lot of sense. So maybe as a unit or two vacate, you could renovate that unit and get a better rent for it.

Grant Francke (2:23)
Right now, it’s like, I’ve found it’s not a good time to kick tenants out. Like, if you have somebody in there paying that’s even close to market rent, just let it be.

And because we don’t buy anything that doesn’t cash flow on day one, so we’re not like losing money as it goes. So if we can buy a cash flows, let the unit vacate, we’ll renovate it and then raise the rents.

Mattias (2:42)
I mean, I think that’s what really initially got me into multifamily investing. It was basically what I was doing with single family, but on a much bigger scale.

And it’s more complicated, especially when you get into like the 20 plus or whatever you’re looking at the cap rates and playing those games. So yeah, I love it. I love it. Do you ever flip? Have you ever like done this as a traditional flip?

Grant Francke (3:06)
I’ve done one traditional flip with the partner of mine. It worked out well, like we ended up making a decent amount of money, but it’s just too, it’s not my style.

I’m just kind of a slow and steady, like having that demand about hard money out there and knowing that every day I’m losing so much on interest. That’s not my style. So I’m more of the long term, you know, buy and hold philosophy.

Mattias (3:28)
Sure. And you would be in probably a more cash flow versus appreciation market with that each year.

Grant Francke (3:36)
Yeah, you bet. So our main thing is cash flow. Appreciation comes. That’s just kind of the icing on the cake, you know, especially the last, you know, since we started six, eight years ago, everything’s appreciated so much. It’s been a huge that’s been a gift to us.

But we’re not buying for appreciation. We buy for cash flow.

Mattias (3:52)
Is it pretty easy to find like the 1% rule around your area, or do you really have to do a value add to even get close to it?

Grant Francke (4:00)
Yeah, it was, you know, prior to interest rates, now it’s getting tough. Sellers really haven’t come down.

There’s still what in 2020 prices and we’re in 2024 wanting 2025 prices. So we haven’t really made it work yet, but there are deals that are coming closer to penciling out and then that’s where we get excited.

Erica (4:17)
Great. I don’t know if you know, I’m not originally, but I lived a couple of years in Kansas. And so I know like, at least down in Kansas cities can be and towns can be pretty spaced out.

What kind of an area are you living in? Are you in a smaller town or closer?

Grant Francke (4:35)
So I live in a smaller town and then we invest in Lincoln, which is the capital city of Nebraska, and then a couple smaller college towns on the outskirts.

So we have a fairly large footprint, but we’re lucky enough where we manage it. I have a handyman in each town, and so when we have an issue, they can help out with that stuff. So I’m not driving an hour just to look at a toilet type of situation.

Erica (4:59)
Oh, cool.

Mattias (5:00)
Yeah, we drew a hard line on, first of all, I’m not very handy. Erica gave me a tool belt for Christmas one year and I get to borrow it sometimes.

Erica (5:10)
He’s really good at laundry, though.

Grant Francke (5:13)
That’s good. Everybody’s got their strengths.

Erica (5:16)
Yeah.

Mattias (5:16)
And cooking. But no, no, I just, that’s not something that gives me joy. It’s not something I want to learn. And I, you know, I know that you can, you know, make things cheaper.

You can get the numbers to be better if you do a lot of the stuff yourself, but I knew that I would also burn out so much more quickly. And I would hate owning property.

Erica (5:35)
We just don’t also don’t have a time with young kids.

Mattias (5:39)
And running all the businesses.

Grant Francke (5:41)
Yeah, it’s tough. In the beginning, so like, the reason I got into real estate is I was at a W2 job that just was like too demanding on my time. So this was my ticket to get out.

So in the beginning, I was still doing all that, you know, fixing toilets, painting, just because I had to pinch every penny. But I was also, when I was doing that, trying to build the system underneath it.

So when we did it to that point, I could step away and it would still run seamlessly. So in the beginning, I was totally doing, being that guy that was, they got a leaky toilet.

All right, I’ll be there in 30 minutes. But now we built the system up to where we have the guys in place that can help us with that.

Mattias (6:18)
That’s awesome. And I think that’s the trap people have a hard time getting out of. I think that’s a pretty common story.

But yeah, we, we, I was a full-time realtor that kind of started picking up properties. So it just, yeah, it was easier to just hire out from the beginning.

But I mean, either way, I mean, you got to, you really just got to grind for a little bit to get to that point, right? How many doors are you up to by now, if you don’t mind me asking?

Grant Francke (6:41)
So we’re at 104 doors in our area. Yeah. It’s been a steady growth.

Erica (6:47)
I was just curious. What does that number feel like to you? Are you hoping to get more? I don’t know how exactly to ask this, but what number feels good and comfortable where you want to be?

Grant Francke (6:58)
Yeah. So like in the beginning, like I said

, I just need to get out of that job. So my number was just a cash flow number, like I need this amount of month to get out of there.

And that was the race. That’s where I was grinding. And I was looking, I was buying the most rundown things. I’m like, I can make this work.

And now at this point, it’s just kind of like stable growth. So we’re going to look at everything we can, but I’m not going to take a risk on D class duplex just to see if it’s going to work. Like I’m not, I don’t need to do that.

We’ve got the doors and the income and we don’t have to do that. So there’s no number I’m looking for of doors. Like, I want to be like Brandon Turner and have 10,000 doors or whatever.

Like that doesn’t do anything for me. I just want to have, I just want to have like just easy life, just happy life type of thing.

Mattias (7:43)
Yeah. I mean, that’s the point of it all, right? I mean, like, that’s what motivates me is the freedom of time and the freedom to live a fulfilled life.

Is that, would that be true for you as well?

Grant Francke (7:54)
Yeah, for sure. So the whole thing was just so I could be, you know, more around as a parent, as a husband, friends and families. I missed a lot of Christmases, you know, 4th of July parties, all that stuff.

And I just, you only live once. So I’m not going to do it, you know, at my job with a bunch of miserable people that are not happy either eating down that’s in the break room.

Mattias (8:17)
What was your job before?

Grant Francke (8:20)
So I was a conductor for BNSF railways. So a conductor for the railroad, you know, it was a good job. Like it was great when I was younger. I started when I was 19, pretty much right out of high school, but it’s a demanding job on your time.

You’re either on call or based on seniority, you know, I’d be on afternoons or midnights. And that’s when kids stuff’s happening, but you only got babies, you know, then my wife’s home by herself with two kids. It just didn’t feel right.

Erica (8:44)
Your wife Laura, did she work outside the home? Is she home with kids?

Grant Francke (8:50)
Yeah, she’s an accountant. So she’s a CPA. So she also works outside the home. So that was the other thing is I was, we were, you know, she has a very demanding schedule as well.

And mine was really demanding on time. So after this transition, you know, especially when we flew into COVID right after I left the railroad, you know, I was able to be home with the kids doing their, you know, schoolwork at home.

And while she was able to keep working, so then I’ve taken kind of the Mattias role of doing laundry and cooking and I do that sort of stuff too.

Erica (9:18)
So yeah, that’s tough to juggle. I know, I mean, I guess I could just speak for us, but we’re trying to figure out a balance between making sure both spouses feel like they’re getting what they need between fulfillment and parenting help and support and all that is just, it feels like an ongoing conversation that you’re just constantly readjusting depending on where your family is and what’s happening in life.

Grant Francke (9:42)
Yeah, and my wife and I like we’re big on like setting goals. So like once a year, we always try to sit down and talk and be like, all right, this is where the business is at.

Like, and then I talked to my wife like, where are you out with your, you know, how do you feel where you’re at? Do you want to try to make a change? Because we could get aggressive again and, you know, maybe bring her in full time, but I, you know, she enjoys where she’s at.

She enjoys who she works with. So that’s not something we’re super aggressive about, but we always have those conversations to make sure everybody’s on the same page.

Erica (10:09)
When you have those meetings, is that like a, like a date night that you guys go out somewhere or do you sit down at home? How do you structure that?

Grant Francke (10:15)
Yeah, typically we do it, try to do it out of the house. You know, so if we take a vacation around that end of the year, we’ll kind of go up for a nice dinner and do that.

Or we’ll just go into town and, you know, grab sushi and a bottle of wine and chat through it.

Erica (10:28)
Cool. Do you guys touch base on things like, I mean, apart from just jobs and how are you doing? Do you guys touch base on like, how are we feeling about us and where are we and what do we want to focus on for all the things?

Grant Francke (10:41)
We have, I mean, more often, she’s phenomenal. Like, we have a great relationship, so we’re very open about those kinds of conversations.

You know, one of us is feeling stressed. We’re also fairly good at picking up on each other’s stresses. Like, she knows if I go quiet and like, I’m not talking, she’s like, okay, what kind of help you with?

Should I get the kids out of here? Like, how are you feeling? So we’re very in tune with that so we can keep those things running smoothly.

Erica (11:05)
Yeah, that’s cool. I’ve been talking with a lot of clients, actually, this week and last week about the rhythm of summer and how different it can be based on what they would really love the rhythm of summer to be versus what it ends up being.

Because people, summer happens and you get busy. You know, like all the fun stuff happens during summer, people travel, kids are involved in sports, and you think it’s going to be like this nice and relaxing time, but then you end up just like running all over the place and usually real estate gets busy too.

What’s your rhythm like for your family this summer? What’s it turning into?

Grant Francke (11:42)
So it’s a lot of baseball and softball, some basketball thrown in there. You know, my daughter’s 10 and my son’s eight, so they’re kind of getting into those youth sports situations.

So that was a big conversation. We had the spring of like, what do we want our summers look like? So like Madeline, she’s 10, so we had eight summers left with her maybe, probably more like six.

She’s not going to spend, right? She’s not going to want to spend when she’s 17 and 18. She’s not going to go to Branson with us and camp.

So we have a finite amount of summers, like do we want to spend them at the softball park or do we want to go on vacation? So we’re really trying to balance in those and we just took the bite, we told the teams like, hey, this is the weekend we’re going to be gone.

Like we’re going to make these memories because they’re going to remember those vacations more than you remember those softball tournaments with us.

Mattias (12:28)
Yeah, it’s true. That’s the interesting you say that because I actually just recently had that thought of like, you know, our oldest daughter seven and kind of like two more years until we’re halfway done with her being living in her house.

It’s kind of, it’s just kind of a crazy perspective to think about. And you know, it can be kind of sad or whatever if you think about those things, but it’s also super important to just kind of keep perspective like you’re talking about like, you know, we need to focus on enjoying the moments, make the most of the time we have now.

Grant Francke (12:58)
Yeah, 100%.

Mattias (12:59)
It sounds like you guys are super intentional in general and in your business and your relationships and your family. Are you self-managing those 108 doors?

Grant Francke (13:13)
Yeah, so we’ve managed them all ourselves. About a year and a half ago, we brought on a full-time VA and that’s been a game changer. She handles all of our tenant communications, maintenance requests, leasing inquiries, all that stuff.

She handles all that for us. So I’m more able to focus like on the business than rather than being in the business. Yeah, so that’s been, you know, took a lot of weight off my shoulders when she came on. She’s been phenomenal.

Mattias (13:40)
What was that process like going, finding that person, figure out what that person was going to do, training that person?

Grant Francke (13:47)
Yeah, so I started out just kind of searching like on Fiverr for VAs and then I found came across a company from Florida called Virtually Incredible

and they hire and train VAs for property managers.

So when she came to me, she was already trained on Fair Housing and all the basics. And then those couple months leading up to hiring her, I was just writing everything I was doing in an SOP.

So like when we have a maintenance request in Seward for Plumbers, this is who we set it to. If somebody’s late on the rent by the 5th, this is what we do.

So we kind of got an outline of that, a framework of it, and kind of handed her that to her, and then she’s been able to actually help me improve that. So we have a lot more systems of processes that she’s implemented for us to improve our properties.

Mattias (14:32)
And do you use a certain software to help manage these kinds of things?

Grant Francke (14:35)
Yeah, so our property management software’s Buildium is what we use for rent collection. And then we just switched over to Property Meld for our maintenance request.

The nice thing about Property Meld is it connects the tenant and the service provider so they can set their own time. That kind of takes us out of that.

Mattias (14:52)
That’s nice.

Erica (14:53)
It is really nice.

Grant Francke (14:54)
So we don’t have to call them like, hey, does this work? No, this doesn’t work. They just communicate with each other through the app and then it’s off of us.

Erica (15:02)
Great! Man, you’ve done a lot of work setting all of this up.

Grant Francke (15:05)
It’s been like, I like I love systems and processes. So like that kind of gets me going, I’m like, oh, how can I make this easier? How can I automate this?

So it takes a little bit more stress off of me or off K.

Erica (15:15)
Think about like starting on your own and doing all of the work, all the maintenance by yourself, and then getting to the point where you have somebody full time and you have all the stuff running the business for you.

You’ve really come a long way. That’s really fun to think about. We’re kind of on the cusp of wanting to hire someone on full time and trying to figure out how do you do that?

That feels kind of like a big step because now you have somebody depending on you for their income.

Mattias (15:40)
And it’s a lot of work just to get them started.

Grant Francke (15:43)
It feels like it could be.

Erica (15:44)
Yeah, right.

Grant Francke (15:46)
Whenever something would happen, I don’t want to do this again. What system can I make to prevent this from happening or alleviating me from this system?

So like, if we had a leaky plumbing thing in one of our towns, I’d be like, all right, so like, just put this in the meld and then we’ll send it to the handyman and he’ll go out and take care of it.

So it would take me out of the process. Because I like you guys, like, I don’t love doing it. Like, I’ll do it in the beginning because I had to do it.

But it’s not my passion. Like, that’s not, I don’t get anything out of that. So I’m not going to be able to do it the best. I’m not probably not going to do it the fastest. So I might as well have somebody else do it. That’s going to do it right.

Mattias (16:23)
From the very beginning, when you were doing these things you didn’t enjoy, was there a clear end game to that? Like, were you clear and like, okay, when I am able to get out of this job, able to afford paying these people, I’m going to do that.

I mean, it seems like you had almost like a blueprint laid out for you and you’ve just kind of been moving along that path. Is that accurate?

Grant Francke (16:48)
Yeah, so like, when we’re doing renovations, like, I was thinking about like the future of like, so next, so in 10 years when I’m doing this, like, is this what I want to be doing in 10 years?

Or rather be underwriting deals and teaching people and talking to people. So I’d always like, that’s what I was doing when I was working.

I was just thinking like, different processes, how can we make this better? You know, how can I take myself out of this so we can actually grow and scale?

Mattias (17:10)
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you do a lot of like, working on the business, thinking about the business and very intentional design, which I think, again, a lot of people don’t do.

And I think that’s kudos to you for, I mean, it’s probably allowed you to scale bigger. Like, if you’re still fixing all the toilets, 108 would.

Grant Francke (17:29)
Yeah, like, I feel like we could, like, my company could take on another 100 units, like, with no problem, like, it would be real scale very quickly.

And that makes it easier for me to approach other deals too, because I’m not worried about the management side. Like, I know it’s, I know the system’s there, so it can handle it.

Erica (17:45)
Yeah, that’s great. Sounds like you think from a larger perspective in general, you were talking about your daughter’s, you know, summers that she has left and just how you want to use those as they go.

I can see that being really helpful, and not just, you know, how do you solve the problem right now? But how do I solve it so that it can continue to be effective in the long run too?

Grant Francke (18:04)
Yeah, and just make it easier next time, because they’re, you know, stuff’s gonna happen, like, things are gonna happen in life, things are gonna happen in rentals.

So it’s gonna happen. So you might as well have something there to keep you going.

Mattias (18:15)
When those things do happen, when it seems like it’s raining on you from every direction, which I’m sure that happens to you as well, what are your go-to things to kind of keep your mind right or to refocus, re-center?

Do you have certain practices you do?

Grant Francke (18:30)
Yeah, so I mean, I kind of talked about my book, but like the big reason I got into real estate was like finding out my why, like, why am I doing this? My why was to leave the railroad.

I didn’t like the schedule. I didn’t like how demanding it was. So if I get a, you know, this week we’ve had two ACs go down. That’s not cheap.

But I’m like, that’s, well, well, at least I’m not at the railroad anymore. Like, it’s fine. We’re gonna get through this. We have the reserves. We underwritten everything correctly.

So I always go back to my why, like, why am I doing this? I’m doing this for, to spend more time with my kids, spend more time with my wife, my family, my friends.

So that’s what always keeps me going, is it, you know, because things are gonna suck sometimes. You know, we had one hailstorm a couple years ago that took out like 20 roofs.

That wasn’t fun. But like, you have insurance. Things happen. There’s a process. We’ll just keep it moving. So can’t get bogged down on those negative things.

Because if you do that, you’re just, you’re gonna quit. So you got to know your why of why you’re doing it.

Erica (19:29)
You know, one change that I’ve noticed since we’ve gotten into investing is just how much more available Matias’s time is with being at home with the family.

Because when he was full-time real estate, and that’s all he was doing, there were a couple of years where I really felt kind of like a, like a solo parent of a lot of the time.

Because a lot of his time was booked up on the weekends and in the evenings. And that was really hard. There’s a lot of strain there.

And it was, it was just tough to work out a balance because there was just when the clients call, you got to go. And when they want to see a house, you got to show it to them.

And sometimes crises come up and you have to deal with it and run with it. But since we’ve made a bit of a transition into more of the investment side, it’s really felt like it’s, I don’t know, like the time has, has changed in the way it shows up in our family.

And it’s been a good thing for us.

Grant Francke (20:25)
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s the nice thing. Like, I was an agent for like, two months, but I was like, this isn’t for me, like, because it’s, like

, it’s a transactional thing.

Like, if I want to make money on this deal, I have to go now and do this where a rental, you know, I’m sleeping and I’m still making money.

Like, it’s, it’s always, it’s a constant thing. So it makes it a lot more less stressful. It’s not as emergency based, transactional based.

Erica (20:49)
Yeah, when you guys first started, was Laura familiar with, with kind of the BRRRR method or even getting into investments? Was that new to her?

Grant Francke (20:58)
Yeah, it was new to her. So, like, my dad had like one rental when I was growing up. And he was the burnout landlord, you know, climbing on the roof, putting tar on the roof and just every time the tenants call, it’s, yeah, what is, what are they want now?

You know, like, I kind of saw that as a kid. And then when I kind of started getting the age, I was like, well, I don’t want to do that because he didn’t super love what he was doing, which kind of helped me build my processes and systems.

But so what happened was I was kind of starting to get into it. And I started talking to Laura about it. And she’s just always been so supportive of everything I do.

Like, I was like, I think we should try this and see what happened. She’s like, yeah, let’s, let’s do it. Let’s see how it goes. We’ll try a couple. And she’s an accountant.

She’s an Excel master, like what she does with Excel is crazy. So she was making all these spreadsheets up. We put the numbers in and see the cash flow.

And I’m like, whoa, if we do this, you know, 10 or 11 more times, that will equal my money from the railroad and we can make the move. So we kind of, she helped, you know, mindset me and kind of make the goals and help me get there.

Erica (22:00)
Yeah, what a nice skill set to have for a spouse in this kind of business.

Grant Francke (22:04)
Yes, yes. It’s very good.

Erica (22:06)
I can help him, you know, with his feelings.

Grant Francke (22:12)
That’s funny. Yeah, she’s, she’s been really, really helpful with Excel. I don’t know, feelings, she does have a good job too. I can’t complain about that.

Erica (22:18)
She sounds great.

Mattias (22:19)
Well, how active is she at this point? I mean, I would imagine she helps with your taxes and stuff on that side. But as far as the day-to-day investing, looking at new deals, all that kind of stuff, how active is she? What does that mean to you?

Grant Francke (22:31)
So she’s, she’s actually a book accountant. So she doesn’t do taxes. Okay. So we have an outside firm. So she’ll review my books. Like I still do like most of our QuickBooks.

Our VA has kind of taken some of that over, but like end of quarter, then we’ll go in and review, like, we have six LLCs. So she’ll go in and review all those balance sheets and profit loss and we’ll tie everything out.

So she helps with that. And then once like, I don’t send every deal that I underwrite to her, but if I get to a deal where I’m going to offer on it, I’ll send it over her just to make sure, just have another set of eyes on it just to make sure it’s what I think it is.

Mattias (23:04)
And as far as finding deals, are you doing marketing directly to off-market deals? Is that your primary source?

Grant Francke (23:11)
That’s been my primary source of getting deals throughout my career. I’m still doing that. It’s a lot slower right now. Everybody’s like I said, everybody still wants 2020 prices and you can’t do that with 8% interest.

So yeah, off market is kind of my bread and butter. I’m really a big fan of communication and creating relationships. So if I can create a relationship with an older landlord that’s, you know, if they’re not ready to sell now, that’s fine.

But when you are ready, just remember me type of thing.

Mattias (23:40)
Now that makes a lot of sense. And do you do buy lists for those kinds of things? How do you source these landlords?

Grant Francke (23:50)
Yeah, various ways, like driving for dollars works sometimes, source a few lists. My VA has kind of gone through it. There are certain areas in each county I like.

So she’s gone through and found like all the multi-families in there. So we sent out letters to them. So it’s kind of gutting. You can’t just take one way to go to look at it.

You know, you just only look at what’s on the market on the MLS. You’re probably not going to find much. You got to kind of put the work in on the front end.

Erica (24:16)
How involved have your kids been?

Grant Francke (24:18)
So they’re kind of starting to get like interested in it. They always know that I like they, you know, a couple years ago, they either used to build houses, but now they’re kind of understanding like, when we drive by an apartment, I’m like, no, we own that apartment and then they live there and then they pay us money.

So they’re kind of starting to figure that out. This summer, we’ve really tried to focus on like, financial education for them. So they’re reading a lot of books about money and we’re having more of those conversations about how interest works, how all these sorts of things work.

So they’re starting to kind of understand it. And then so on my book, like on the back of the book, I put a picture of the family instead of just like my headshot. So they just love that.

Erica (24:55)
I saw that picture, actually, your daughter kind of has her hands on her hip.

Grant Francke (25:00)
Yeah, she’s all popped out.

Mattias (25:02)
Have you come across good books that are for children on finances, any that you’d recommend?

Grant Francke (25:08)
Yeah, there’s a couple of workbooks on Amazon. I would have to look them up to see what they’re called. I’ll send them to you and you can put them in the show notes or something.

And then Rich Dad… there’s a “Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens.” That’s maybe a little bit, a little too high for where my daughter’s at now, but we’re going to maybe try that towards the end of the summer.

Mattias (25:23)
That would be, I bet that would be perfect. I would love to get my kids into that kind of thing. I remember there was a distinct moment where I told my daughter, like, you know, you can save some of that money, you know, maybe one day you could buy a house with it.

And she’s just looking at me, she’s like, you’re not going to give me a house? How’d these work? Because I mean, as for her, like, especially since I sell houses, you know, like it would logically mean that I probably own those houses to her, you know, every house that I’m selling.

So like, yeah, it’s funny. But I think she did say that one day she was, you know, she was going to save the money for her house. Like she was really serious.

Erica (25:59)
She did. And then my brother and sister-in-law just moved into a new house last week. And the kids think they call it the palace because there are, let’s see, one, two, three, four different staircases that go kind of up and around the house.

And my daughter asked my sister-in-law, like, can I buy this when you’re done? I’m going to save up my money. Start saving, girl.

Grant Francke (26:22)
Yeah. We started this summer with like chores and stuff. So we pay them for, we call them like value add things. So not like making your bed or brushing your teeth, but like if you want to sweep the garage out or crush cans or pull weeds, something above and beyond, we’ll pay in for that.

And then we have three different jars. We have a save jar, a spend jar, and a donate jar. So every month, then we give them the money and they put them in their jars and they can, you know, they spend money.

That’s yours. Whatever you want to do with it. If you want to take it to the concession stand or my son’s really into basketball cards now, so he’ll go to the card shop and buy some cards.

So it’s kind of fun to see them. They kind of struggle with that. Like, well, I’d like popcorn, but I’d also want to buy this

at the store. So what do I do? So it’s kind of fun to see them have that pain of what they want to buy.

Erica (27:06)
Yeah, that’s cool. Do they choose whether they save or donate any or is there a required percentage or amount?

Grant Francke (27:15)
Yeah. So we do, I think it’s 30% save, 30% give and then 40% spend.

Erica (27:24)
Okay, cool.

Mattias (27:25)
Nice.

Grant Francke (27:26)
So then on Sundays at church, they’ll take out other saved jar or their give jar and then donate to church or we’ve kind of talked about like bigger, like you could save up for a year and donate to get a well-built in Africa or something like bigger than just like the local stuff to kind of expand their mind a little bit.

Erica (27:42)
It’s a great idea. We’ve started some of the chores a little bit. We have a, like a paper on the fridge that has little tags on the side of it with the chores and the dollar amount and then they can tear it off and complete it and put their name on it and put it in a jar and they get paid weekly.

And that worked for about a week. And then my daughter decided she doesn’t really care about money. So she’s not going to do this yet.

Grant Francke (28:01)
It’s all age specific. I mean, you can’t start, yeah, you can’t start too young. And then because they get to like where my daughter’s at, like that nine, 10 age and it really starts to click.

And then she’s like, what else can I do? And we all started like if they read a book and like write a book report on it, then we give them five bucks. She’s like reading books and like actually writing the book report, which is nice.

Erica (28:19)
Wow, this is level up parenting.

Mattias (28:21)
Yeah, I love it. Does she, does she read yours and…

Grant Francke (28:25)
No, she hasn’t gotten through mine. I think she read like the dedication is to her and Brendan. So she read that for sure. She loved that.

And then she read the back page or the back side of the book. So.

Mattias (28:35)
Well, speaking of your book, let’s hear a little bit about it. What’s the unlikely investor, right? Tell us about the book and what it’s about and who it’s for.

Grant Francke (28:45)
Yeah, you bet. So the unlike investor, it’s kind of a real estate investing on like how if you wanted to leave your W2 job, this kind of blueprint of how to do it with my story kind of intertwined.

I try to take like I’ve read dozens and dozens of books while I’ve been learning and just kind of take all those practical things and some of the examples that I’ve used over my time and consolidate them into a book.

Like I said, my wife and I set goals and I was at the Better Life Summit in Vegas in December and I was like, I wanted to create a goal that was off the wall for me.

Like I didn’t want to be like, don’t use your phone after five or go to the gym three times a week. So I was like, I’m going to write a book. That’s my goal.

So that’s the whole reason I wrote the book was just as a goal. But it’s turned into something else. And I’m really happy with how it turned out. You know, hopefully people enjoy it.

Mattias (29:36)
Yeah, it sounds like they are. I mean, you had Brandon Turner write a forward. I mean, that’s amazing.

Grant Francke (29:43)
Yeah, that was a pretty amazing. I’ve learned a lot from Brandon over the years. So to have him read it and write the forward for it was pretty cool.

Mattias (29:52)
I couldn’t imagine that feeling. That’s got to be amazing. So that’s awesome. And then I saw you were a bestseller in a few categories, you know, or like in the new releases, right?

Grant Francke (30:03)
Yeah, the new release, I was a bestseller in like real estate investments, real estate sales, and then real estate in general.

So I got up to like, I think I got into number three on top seller of real estate investments. And then this guy, Brandon Turner, was at one and two. Darn that guy.

Mattias (30:21)
Yeah, you got to pick your battles, I guess.

Grant Francke (30:24)
I said I was going to screenshot a DM. I was like, I’m coming for you. He’s like, “All right, bring it.”

Mattias (30:34)
That’s awesome. That’s really, really cool. I mean, it’s inspiring. I think that one of the things that I didn’t really think about in the process of writing a book is how you could inspire other people to write a book that might have been their dream, their whole life or whatever.

And I mean, we talked early on when I was starting, and I don’t know if I’ve actually fully said on the air that I’m writing a book, but I’m writing a book and you heard it here, folks.

No, but you spoke to me and you kind of walked me through some of the process and I was reading the book “Published” and kind of learning more about the process of it.

And it just, it becomes more real because more maybe feasible seeming in your own head to talk to people. So I mean, good job. Like, I mean, congrats.

It’s got to be such a great feeling of accomplishment and inspiring to a lot of people.

Grant Francke (31:28)
Yeah, I appreciate it. It’s been a fun month, just kind of seeing friends and family and knowing, hey, congratulations.

And I had a few people like, I always wanted to write a book, but I didn’t think like I could write a book. I’m like, I wrote a book. It’s not that tough. You can write a book and get it out there.

It’s just a huge accomplishment to have to say you’re a published author.

Erica (31:45)
Yeah. Did you have anything shift or gain any new clarity for yourself about your own story coming from a conductor kind of into this business as you were writing and organizing it in the book?

Grant Francke (31:58)
Yeah, I had a few moments like, like of like clarity of like stepping back and I was like, holy cow, like, you know, the big one for me like was when Brandon Turner like read the book and wrote for us like, holy cow.

If you had told me seven years ago when I was in the break room at work, you know, reading his book for the fourth time that he was going to read my book someday and write the forward for it, I would have told you were high or crazy.

Like that’s not possible. But it gave me a moment of clarity of like how far I’ve come and like, I took a second to like actually like be proud of myself and like, okay, like I’ve done it.

Like I haven’t done it, but I’ve done, you know, what I’ve set out to do, I’ve become financially free. I’ve always looked teaching and helping people. So now if I can help on that side too, right, it’s just, it’s been fun.

Erica (32:45)
That’s really cool. That experience of pride for yourself as an adult doesn’t necessarily happen very often for us, just adults in general.

And so it’s really cool when you have a moment like that where you have this overwhelming sense of pride for yourself and where you’ve come.

Grant Francke (33:02)
It’s a very uncomfortable feeling too. Like it’s like you’re almost trained not to feel that way. Like you’re almost like, I can’t feel proud of myself.

I’m like, oh, I am. I wrote a book and it’s out there. It’s on Amazon.

Erica (33:12)
So that’s right.

Mattias (33:14)
You definitely should.

Grant Francke (33:15)
Yeah. My kids like, they’ll like Google me and they’re like, Oh, you’re on like your Amazon things. Number one, when I Google your name, like that’s, that’s cool. Like my kids can say like my dad wrote a book.

Erica (33:25)
Yeah, you’ll have to look at yourself in the mirror at night and repeat five times. “I’m a best-selling author.”

Grant Francke (33:32)
My wife’s going to be like, what is wrong with you? Erica told me to do it. I don’t really.

Mattias (33:37)
And she’s a therapist. She’s trained to do this.

Grant Francke (33:40)
She’s a therapist. Yeah. It’s a prescription. Yeah.

Mattias (33:44)

I mean, come on. Like, I think like, I know that we all, yeah, we’re trained to be humble and it feels kind of weird to feel good about the accomplishments.

But man, if I climbed Everest, I would have to take a moment on top of Everest to just be like, I put on so much work to get to this point. And I did it.

So yeah, that’s so awesome. That’s got to be such a great feeling.

Grant Francke (34:05)
Yeah, it’s been fun.

Mattias (34:07)
So speaking of books, you mentioned that you’ve read a few books that kind of inspired you or were part of this book. Do you have any, you know, highlights or any key books that you think that were really pivotal for you?

That could be just, you know, personal formation. It could be real estate related. Any, any books you think everybody should give a shot, give a read?

Grant Francke (34:29)
Yeah, I got a couple that I could say. The first one is probably what about everybody says, but “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” That was what just set it off for me.

So I was kind of like, trying to find a way to get out of the railroad. I was googling ideas and I found a, I was like, I’ve always been somewhat handy.

You know, like, I don’t love it, but I was like, I could do that. And then I found a BiggerPockets podcast where a guy was a handyman and became a landlord.

And he recommended “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” So I was like, I’ll give this a shot. So I drove to Barnes and Mill to buy it because I didn’t want to wait for Amazon.

So I went and bought it and I read it in like a day. And then that’s why I took it to Laura. I was like, read this book. And then after that, we’ll talk and I’ll tell you what I’m thinking.

So she read it and she agreed. And so that’s when we started with that. So, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” was just like everybody else. It’s just a game changer.

It’s a mindset thing. I read that book. I was like, I felt like the book was written for me. Like it was tapping into like everything that was in my heart.

Like, I like, there are better things out there than what I’m doing right now. So “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” And then the other one would probably be “The One Thing.”

Like Eric Keller, that kind of helps me through my day. Like, because there are days I can get up and I can just go through minutia of like, I’ll check my email.

I’ll do QuickBooks. But then there’s like, what’s the one thing I need to do today? That just makes everything else easier. What’s the one thing I need to accomplish today for the future?

And I kind of try to take a look back, like in a month, what’s the one thing I could do today that like grant in a month and be like, good job.

Way to get that done. Like, this has led to something else. So like, I always try to do those one things.

Mattias (36:03)
Okay. I need to read that book again. That one’s a good one. And I think it is a good practice because there’s he attributes that to a lot of different things too, right?

Like, so like, what’s the one thing I can do to my wife? Like, I think he maybe kiss her or something before he leaves or something like that, that will make the kind of set up the stage for the rest of the day to be better.

So yeah, that’s awesome.

Grant Francke (36:27)
It’s like, it could be small things. Like, if you have somebody that looks down, like, what’s the one thing I do for that person to make their day better?

Like, just go up and talk to them and say, hey, like, that, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t take any work. It doesn’t cost me money, but you could just change that person’s day and that, you know, spreads through the world pretty well.

Erica (36:46)
Well, that reminded me that phone call that you had with us about the book writing process, you didn’t have to do that. We really appreciated it.

And it was probably talking to you that helped us kind of get on board with moving forward with it.

Mattias (37:02)
Okay, you want the board? That’s awesome. I’m excited to read it. What’s the one thing I could do to get my wife on board?

Erica (37:12)
This was more about me. So that one thing that you did was very helpful for me.

Grant Francke (37:18)
I’m glad. Yeah, it’s going to be a good book. I think you guys got it’s going to be fun.

Mattias (37:23)
Oh, thank you. And going back to “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” I mean, like, that’s just such an amazing example. And I mean, I don’t have any ideas that my book will be that impactful as that one has been.

But that has been mentioned so often in this podcast alone. And we’re like, you know, we recorded like 15 so far.

Grant Francke (37:44)
Yeah, it’s going to be your number one answer, I’m sure.

Mattias (37:47)
But you know, like how much how many lives has he changed from that book? Like, it’s incredible. Like that has made a huge difference to so many people.

And so like, you know, we can’t necessarily think we’re going to get to that point. But like, even if we help a few, like that’s gonna feel amazing, right?

Grant Francke (38:08)
Yeah, like, you guys’ podcast, like, you have no idea if like somebody’s listening, and you may never get the feedback from it, but they might be listening to work driving to work to one of your podcasts and get one idea or you guys could say something or guests could say something that could change their life and that changes their family’s life and their grandkids life.

Like, it’s just so powerful.

Erica (38:26)
Changing generational patterns.

Mattias (38:29)
Yeah.

Grant Francke (38:30)
The power of ideas, I guess, right? I mean, yeah, it’s crazy in mindset. Like, I mean, it’s amazing how much “Rich Dad Poor Dad” is just that yeah, just a mindset thing really, like seeing things a slightly different way and how big that can change.

Yeah, generations, like you said.

Erica (38:50)
Well, I’m going to read that one.

Mattias (38:52)
Yeah, we need to get Erica to read “Rich Dad Poor Dad.”

Erica (38:56)
I have a long book list from these podcasts.

Grant Francke (38:59)
There are so many books. Like I just buy books and it’s just like a stacked one on my nightstand and like someday I’ll actually get through these without buying anymore, but probably not.

Mattias (39:07)
Are you mostly a physical copy book person, then?

Grant Francke (39:11)
Yeah, yeah, I do. I use the Kindle for a little bit, but I’m more of a paper guy. My new hack is reading a paper book while listening to the audiobook while I’m reading it.

That’s been a game changer for me because I can like I read I’ll just start thinking about other stuff and I’ll just kind of like, Oh, well, where was I?

But if somebody’s reading it to you while you’re reading it, that’s a huge.

Mattias (39:33)
I do that on my phone with the Kindle going downside then is it’s not as easy and fluid to take notes and that kind of thing as it is with the paperback.

But yeah, same, I love that version of reading. And there’s actually if people want a little life hack here, there’s an app called Speechify.

I think this feature would be a premium feature, but Speechify can be a plugin on your desktop browser. It can be an app that you can paste articles in.

You can, you know, if you’re on your desktop app, it’ll just read your webpage for you. You can plug it into Gmail. It can read your emails out loud to you.

It just basically, you know, reads any text as you can paste text in there. It also links to your Kindle account. So you can then read like just a Kindle book, it will read out loud to you, which is pretty cool.

And it actually has, so you could buy the Kindle book and not buy the audible book version and just have it read it to you. But then it also has an AI summary feature, just kind of cool.

Erica (40:38)
He just discovered this. He told me about this earlier.

Mattias (40:41)
It’s not as in depth as I wish it were, but it will essentially try to summarize the whole

book into a little bit AI and for getting smarter.

Erica (40:53)
Maybe I should hold something. I usually just do audio books because I can do stuff while I’m listening to, but there were a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch, we would get up early and have coffee together, and I would have like my audio book in and just be holding my coffee just staring because I’m just listening.

What are you doing?

Mattias (41:12)
I’m scared.

Grant Francke (41:14)
Why are you mad right now?

Mattias (41:16)
Yeah. But yeah, I think like having that one of the two, either the Kindle or the paperback version with the audio book, it allows you to then highlight or underline or take a note, which I think is pretty key for wanting to reference something in the future, or even just like to help you remember better.

Like I think even just taking the little bit of time to do that helps you remember. So if people want to follow you on social media or get a copy of your book, give us some information about that.

Grant Francke (41:50)
Yeah, so my book’s on Amazon, the unlikely investor, a path to financial freedom through real estate, if they want to pick that up. Social media, I’m getting started on it, I’m trying my hardest on Instagram.

It’s Grant.Francke, FRANCKE.

Mattias (42:06)
Okay. So Instagram’s the main one. Got it.

Grant Francke (42:09)
Instagram’s the main one. Yep.

Mattias (42:10)
Cool. Well, we’ll definitely link those as well in the show notes here so people can get a copy of the book and follow you.

Erica (42:17)
And I imagine reviews are probably really helpful, right, on Amazon?

Grant Francke (42:21)
Super helpful. Yeah, those are the that’s the biggest thing right now is just to get reviews. So yeah, those are always appreciated.

Erica (42:28)
Yeah.

Mattias (42:28)
As if you like this podcast and all this amazing information, please go review his book, but pick it up and review, please.

Grant Francke (42:34)
Great.

Mattias (42:36)
Yeah, well, it’s been an awesome conversation. It’s been really, I’ve really enjoyed hearing what you do more and yeah, really looking forward to the Kindle book when I can pick it up and listen to it through Speechify.

Grant Francke (42:49)
Sounds good. Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on. I’ve been excited about it.

Erica (42:52)
So yeah, awesome. Thank you so much. It’s been great to talk to you.

Grant Francke (42:56)
Yep, you bet.