Updated Oct 21, 2022
When people talk about prominent figures in any industry, you’ll hear about Ford, the Rockefellers, Einstein vs Tesla, etc. Within each business scope, there’s the one guy who’s the cream of the crop.
For us in real estate investing, that prominent figure, that man, myth, and legend is Ron LeGrand.
If you’ve been in the space, then you know the name, but if you’re new to real estate investing or wholesaling, you only have one question:
Jamil, who the heck is Ron LeGrand?
He is, essentially, the Godfather of Real Estate Investing.
How Ron LeGrand Became A Well-Known Figure In Real Estate Investing
What would you do if your washing machine broke down and you couldn’t fix it yourself or afford to have someone fix it for you?
This is a familiar scenario for many of us and for Ron, it was a career changing moment.
Working as a mechanic, he discovered that the low pay and long hours weren’t allowing him to purchase even the functional necessities of life, let alone earn enough to enjoy the fruits of his labors.
So he decided to make a change.
Hearing that real estate investing was something that normal people, like him, could do in order to get ahead in life, Ron made the decision to give it a shot.
In his first five years as an investor, Ron began with troubled homes in problematic areas and dealt with problematic tenants. This effectively meant he spent more of his time and energy trying to get tenants to pay rent instead of actively building up a portfolio of properties.
Now, in those five years, Ron did make a few profits and it was definitely more money than he had been making as a mechanic; that was the reason he decided to keep going.
And once he kept going, he went above and beyond.
Entering his sixth and seventh years as an investor, Ron began making 400 deals on a consistent basis. As he continued to find and close deals, Ron made the decision to share his experience with others.
Between the years of 1997 and 2018, Ron has written eight books on how to get started in real estate investing and how to do it in a way that will give you more money without taking up so much of your time.
The Reinvention of Real Estate Investing Then and Why It Matters Now
The success that Ron has inspired others, including yours truly. Ron was one of the first people that was using wholesaling and fix and flipping as a method for investing.
With a growing transition towards online training, Ron now runs his own training course, which focuses on a few different topics including:
How to get started in real estate
How to quickly flip houses
How to get into real estate wholesaling
Locating and talking to prospects
Constructing offers
Closing your deals
I was incredibly honored to be on his “The Mentor Podcast” with Pace Morby and explained how much his own path influenced my own. You can check out the first part here:
As one of the leaders in this business, there’s a reason why people look to his model and methods and why we follow them to this day.
Anyone Can Succeed in Real Estate
One of the biggest things that Ron showed was that anyone could not only get started, but could actually succeed in real estate.
In the past, the thought was that the only way to get into real estate was to come from a wealthy family or to have an inheritance; basically, you needed to have a ton of money to even consider thinking about being in real estate.
But as Ron showed, you could start from a crummy 9 to 5 job and make a profit in just a year. He went from being unable to repair or buy a new washing machine to making seven figures with real estate investing.
Maintain Cash Flow by Selling Quickly
“If you can’t pay your bills, you can’t build wealth.”
One of Ron’s favorite sayings, this takeaway is something every investor should keep in mind. What it means is not to get so focused on maximizing deal value that you end up running out of cash, because in order to maintain your cash flow, you need to keep part of your portfolio for quick selling and turnaround.
This is something I’ve also seen, especially with new investors, but established ones as well.
Ron noted that he might earn less profit on a specific deal, but he’d make more overall because he’d use his healthy cash flow to do more deals without getting stuck in the weeds.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Expensive Homes
As a beginner investor in real estate, the default response is to avoid homes and other properties that carry a high price tag. The reality is the more expensive the home, the more money you stand to make.
This is about confidence, and it’s understandable that new investors might not have confidence when starting, but going after the luxury homes can be incredibly beneficial because:
Luxury homes don’t require a ton of rehabbing.
Buyers will usually come with more cash on the table.
Buyers and sellers are less nitpicky over little things.
Ron’s experiences and methods have been both an encouragement and a master class on how to approach real estate investing – something that has only grown since he started.
As mentioned, Ron was a big inspiration to my own approach once I restarted my career in real estate, and his experience echoes for a lot of people who got started from the ground up.
And it plays a lot in my AstroFlipping course, where I teach new and seasoned investors the fundamentals and strategies of wholesaling. That idea of teaching what you know and helping others succeed is one of the reasons I’m successful today.
So, thanks, Ron!