About The Team….

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This blog is a collaboration of four business partners:  Rob Powell, Emily Cressey, Steve Maxwell, and Roger Maupin.  Some of you may recognize us as the members of Grassland Investments, Inc., but chances are most of you won’t recognize us at all.

We all met a few years back on the real estate seminar circuit.  No, we weren’t speaking… we met as students.  We wanted to get involved in real estate investing, but only one of us – Roger Maupin – who had been a landlord for years – had any real estate investing experience.

The thing that set us apart from a lot of other real estate investment circuit wanna-be’s is that we did what we were taught. We went out and IMPLEMENTED those systems we’d paid dearly for.  And what did we get?  Fame and fortune?  Well… some and some.  The methods worked and we were all able to acquire property, but not quite as smoothly or profitably as the guru’s had led us to believe.

Now our mission (since we’ve chosen to accept it) is to share publicly and freely what works and what doesn’t.

During the real estate run up, a lot of people made a lot of money promising to share the “secret” techniques of real estate investing.  By now you’ve probably realized that there are very few true secrets out there to be had.  There are systems that can help you get ahead, definitely, but there’s no magical pill that makes it easy or profitable every time.

While we firmly believe in paying for your education – since it’s worked for all of us – we also believe in networking, sharing, and helping.  So that’s the point of this blog.

We answer questions for free, we put people in touch with others who can help them.  We are giving as much as we can.

That being said, if you want or need extra help getting started in commercial real estate investing, we do occassionally mentor students who are actively working on deals.  We can work out a deal with you if you’d like.  It won’t be cheap, but it will cost you less than the mistakes you’re likely to make your first time through any commercial real estate transaction.

What else is interesting about us?

You can read the About So-and-So pages to learn more about each individual member.

We want to talk to you, but please don’t be too mean in your comments… for real estate investors, we have a thin skin…

We own both residential and commercial property, but this blog focuses on commercial real estate investing.

Generous as we are, this blog is not a non-profit enterprise.  If you feel like advertising here, you can pay us, and we will work something out.  If you feel like hiring us, same deal.

We all live in different states: Rob lives in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, Roger lives in Austin, Texas.  He used to live in Denver, Colorado, but then Steve moved to the state, so Roger had to leave.  Emily lives in Seattle, WA and thinks real estate is way too expensive here, but hey, it’s the number one commercial real estate market in the country, so clearly SOMEONE is willing to buy it.

We all have kids.  Emily is experimenting on her first son Blake to find out how to turn him into a Super Achiever by the time he’s 3 years old.  Rob has enough kids for his own basketball team.  Steve’s got three kids and his daughter is a budding artist and entrepreneur.  Roger’s kids are entrepreneurial too.  One of them – Rachel – is an invaluable asset to the Grasslands’ property management team, and we’re trying to lean on her to offer some guest posts and maybe even make her asset management services publically available.

Our first commercial real estate investment was a $600,000 single-tenant office building that we bought with 100% financing.

When we get together we like to eat Mexican food and Protein bars (not at the same time), listen to Rob’s “beat boxing,” and see how late in the evening we can keep Roger awake.

Thanks for joining our blog – please say “hi” so we can meet you!

Meet Emily Cressey

Emily Cressey started her real estate investment career right after graduating from college in 2002.  After mastering creative financing and the rent-to-own business, she was hired as a real estate coach by the company that got her started!

Meet Rob Powell

Rob Powell’s life story and investment strategies have been written about in the followings books and publications:

* Maui Millionaires by David Finkel and Diane Kennedy
* Making Big Money In Foreclosures By Peter Conti
* Buying Real Estate Without Cash or Credit By Peter Conti and David Finkel
* Commercial Real Estate for Dummies By Peter Conti and Peter Harris

Who in the world is Rob Powell?
by Emily Cressey www.EmilyCressey.com/blog)

Rob coined the term “Wealth Lifelines” to talk about the special deep and transparent relationships he’s able to form with people he meets that often naturally turn into a strong and powerful part of his wealth-building strategy. Rob is a master and creating *connections* with people – without any pretense.

He works to SERVE first. He really cares about people. When people see how much passion he puts into getting to know them, and seeing them be successful, they are often drawn to find or invest ways to work with him. Business relationships often grow from those seeds of friendship.

Since Rob is such a popular guy, I thought it would be fun if EVERYONE could get to know him and his story a little bit better.

I met Rob in 2002 when we were both attending a real estate investor training put on by Mentor Financial Group. Rob was fed up with his job as a consultant and looking for something new. The business travel was wreaking havoc on his family life and he knew he NEEDED to change.

True to form though, he wasn’t suffering alone with these thoughts… he was hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, making friends (with me, my roommate at the seminar, and eventually some wedding guests he chatted up that invited him along to the wedding reception they were attending!)

I next saw Rob a few months later on a video put out by the real estate training company. He was one of their “success stories” – sharing how he had put 9 deals under contract in the few short months since we had left their 3-Day Intensive Training. I knew at that point, that he was one to watch!

Rob eventually was invited to be a coach for this training company (as was I) and we started hanging out and talking more. I knew that Rob was getting involved in commercial investing and that was a direction I wanted to go, too.

When I shyly broached this subject to Rob, he encouraged me to start looking at commercial deals and bringing him properties that I thought looked good, so that he could review them with me. (There he went again… always creating value FIRST in his relationships!)

A few months after that, we both attended another real estate conference in Maui and he and his business partner Roger Maupin approached me about working with them on some deals. That’s how Grassland Investments, LLC was born! Rob brought our team our first commercial deal shortly thereafter, and we were in business!

Because of all his personal success – his mentors started taking notice…

Rob Powell, referred to as a “corporate road warrior turned real estate investor,” by David Finkel and Peter Conti in their book “Buying Real Estate Without Cash or Credit,” was not only a successful investor, but started being asked to attend real estate conferences as a speaker and train other students as a coach.

His list of companies he owned grew… not only is Rob a co-founder and member of Grassland Investments, he’s also started TheREALWealthCompany.com to help spread real estate, business and financial information that works; founded Jaxon Texas Property Management to handle his and others’ real estate holdings; and has launched to great acclaim – the by-invitation-only Ultimate Challenge program which is changing people’s lives by helping them become accountable to their dreams.
Clearly – this guy is something special! It’s such a privilege to be able to work with him!

If you want to keep up with Rob’s thoughts (ponderings?) these days, one of the best ways to communicate with him is through his blog. He just started WealthLifelines.com detailing his real estate investing adventures, and exploring his (and his friends’) ideas on entrepreneurship and wealth-building strategies. If you comment on the blog – chances are he’ll write back!

If you want to work with Rob (who wouldn’t?) you can see if he’s got space available in the next round of The Ultimate Challenge or his commercial real estate investing mentorship..

For me, I can probably say that Rob Powell has been one of the top 3 business contacts of my life and has made a profound difference in the way I see myself, my investing, and my own business opportunities. I hope you take the time to learn more about this incredibly successful, and down-to-earth-nice guy through reading these books or his blog. If you subscribe to his blog (RSS), you can get his thoughts emailed to you every day. Now what could be better than that?

Sincerely,

Emily Cressey

Meet Steve Maxwell

Chief Executive Officer – Grassland Investments LLC

Board of Directors –

34501 Quincy LLC (and co-operating manager)

QFund LLC

Financial Educator –

Wealth Advisory Program
Fortune 500 Company – Wealth Trainer

Steve is a full time commercial real estate investor & financial fluency coach

Steve left his high-tech corporate position as a self-made millionaire after 19 years at Intel Corporation in engineering computer chip design and marketing/business development. From there he started in real estate, investing initially in dozens of single family homes, financing private notes as a hard money lender; and then focusing on investing in large commercial real estate projects.  He has both invested in and actively managed a variety of commercial real estate acquisitions including several large apartment complexes, a multi-tenant shopping center, commercial land, and several smaller commercial properties.

Steve also invests in and serves on the board for QFund LLC (a quarry project), as well as 34501 Quincy LLC (a 361,000 SF office/manufacturing complex with 955 acres of land) where he also acts as co-operating manager.

Steve is sought out for his real estate analysis skills and is referred to as a “deal analysis guru” by partners and clients. Steve also serves as the CEO of Grassland Investments LLC and oversees its finances.

Steve loves sharing the financial principles that have made him successful:

In December 2007, Steve was featured in a Readers Digest magazine article titled, “Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires,” highlighting the importance of financial education in building wealth. Steve is passionate about teaching financial fluency and over the past twenty years has counseled and mentored thousands of people on the topics of personal finance and wealth building. Check out Steve’s work-book “Wi$e Up – What You Don’t Know About Money WILL Hurt You!” at www.therealwealthcompany.com which covers the foundations of financial fluency. Or talk to him about commercial real estate or financial fluency coaching.

Steve is active in the community:

• Participates with Estrellas Para Ninos (www.estrellasparaninos.org), serving orphans and adopted his youngest son Benjamin from Cambodia.
• Teaching a home school class on business and finances to his teenage daughter and her friends
• Teaching financial fluency to corporations and individuals.
• Former President of HOPE Worldwide – Arizona (charity focused on serving the poor)
• Competes in triathlons and enjoys hiking, skiing, and spending time in the mountains.

A 7-time Maui graduate, Steve loves helping others and now shares his tremendous investing and financial background and skills with participants at Maui Mastermind™ as one of the Maui Advisors.

Meet Roger Maupin

Roger brings a wealth of hands-on experience and understanding to the team.  With a BS degree in accounting from Colorado University and 13 years of managing his electrical contracting business under his belt, Roger decided to retire for a year while he mulled over the direction he wanted to go next.  At the end of the 1980’s recession, he started buying single family homes in Denver, and for the next ten years he added to and managed his portfolio of more than 50 single family homes.

Living the life he’d envisioned – semi-retired, playing golf 225 times/year, traveling extensively, out of the rat race and living on passive rental income – Roger loved his job and his life.  He was on cruise control, as retired as he wanted to be.

Things changed in 2002 after our national disaster when jobs were lost, long vacancies became the norm and cash flow bit the dust.  Roger found himself wearing all the hats of the property management business, including managing the make-readies, marketing, showing units, and the leasing of his properties that still wouldn’t rent, overwhelmed with costs and the demand on his time.  He responded by buying more single family homes, which only exacerbated the situation.  Feeling trapped with no clear way out, Roger found working in the property management business tedious and frustrating.

And then……paradigm shift happened.  In 2003 Roger’s thinking evolved from the belief that he had to do everything himself to the realization that he could no longer operate as the Lone Ranger. He now needed outside help if his business were to recover and thrive.  Roger began to reach out to other investors, retained a property management company, and began to create velocity with his equity.

Many lessons later, Roger has now shifted to nationwide investing in commercial deals of all sizes, including self storage, over 375 apartment units, vacant land, shopping centers, commercial retail buildings, industrial buildings, offices and manufacturing.

Roger thrives on ‘digging in the weeds’, as he calls it, which involves gathering relevant data in a project, capturing the essence, and then integrating it into more efficient use and better solutions for a better future.   He plans one day soon to create more value by documenting this unique ability.

Roger is skilled in financial statement review and auditing, and in private money lending, as well as in the complete package involved in commercial and residential real estate acquisition: locating deals, deal analysis, financing, raising capital, structuring ownership, building the team, directing legal aspects (contract, private placement memorandum, title, closing), environmental phase I and phase II, environmental insurance, and managing and selling property.

In real estate development, he excels in land acquisition, syndication, obtaining construction and permanent financing, directing design and architectural drawings, general contracting and project management.

For the past few years, Roger has been involved in a simple business with an incredible product – MonaVie, a health and energy juice made from the acai berry. Roger and Becky are already able to use MonaVie for much of their cash flow, building a passive income stream for themselves and others. Roger’s commitment to MonaVie’s health benefits and incredible business model, with its low-risk minimal investment and the guidance of leaders of high integrity, is highly contagious!

Roger is currently the owner, founder, or partner of:

- Real Estate Opportunities, Inc., (real estate brokerage and property management)

- Capital Resources, LLC (private money lending)

- Grassland Investments, LLC,  (real estate investing and training)

- True North Property Management

- Bountiful Berries, LLC

- and multiple commercial real estate holding entities

Grateful for all aspects of his life, Roger is committed to making a positive contribution by sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with others as a coach or mentor, encouraging and advising others in their own quest for financial freedom.  He views attaining positive cash flow through multiple passive income strings as an opportunity available to many who wish to reach their vision of their own future.

Today, Roger is actively involved with orphanages and home building in Juarez, Mexico, and with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  He maintains a four day work week and enthusiasm for his many projects.   He and Becky have left the powder days in the Rockies behind for a new lifestyle in an Austin loft and plenty of sailing and family time.