Daily Inspiration: Meet Michael Glunk

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Glunk.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was never happy with the status quo of how to approach working and retirement. I didn’t like the idea of signing up for a 401K as my sole and long term approach as 401Ks were never created to be a sole retirement vehicle. They were created to subsidize dying out pension plans. I also didn’t like the fact that your money was locked away until you were older. I wanted to become financially free earlier in life. My goal in life was and has continued to be to have as much fun with my friends and family as possible and to travel. So I explored other options of achieving my financial freedom goals.

I looked into all sorts of options. Starting my own business. Buying a franchise. Real Estate, specifically rental properties. etc. I ended up trying a couple of things. First, I bought a rental property…and then a second. And in doing so, I got a feel for rental properties by self managing one of them and hiring out a property manager for the other. While I was doing this (along with working a W2 job) I also started my own business. An American Made outdoor apparel company I called Tarn. This was going well, but my wife and I had our third child and so I decided to sell Tarn and just focus on real estate as time had shown for me, that I preferred real estate. Specifically how passive it could be. I learned that it is just as passive if not more passive than any other vehicle if properly structure. i.e. I could eventually have property managers manage all of my properties so I didn’t have to do anything in the future. Yes, you of course should connect with your property manager(s). But I’d argue you should spend just as much if not more time connecting with a money manager and/or researching market dynamics on your own if you are investing in the market. So as it related to investing, I believe it to be one of the more passive options.

All I knew was that a W2 life wasn’t my long term goal. I wanted to reach financial freedom as quickly as I could so that I could be in the driver’s seat. Not my boss, or the company I worked for. It’s not as if they were bad people. I enjoyed my boss(s) and the companies I worked for. But in today’s world, I believe that when the rubber meets the road and a company needs to hit their numbers. You are expendable. And everyone is expendable in the corporate world. I didn’t like that. I wanted to gain control of my future. 

So I continued to buy rental properties. I had to get my wife on board and I ran into some headwind on this for a little while. In the end it was my fault because I was trying to explain the long term benefits of investing in real estate the way that I digested them. Not the way that she digested them. But once I figured this out, she quickly saw the benefits and jumped on board with my strategy. That strategy was to continue to conservatively purchase rental properties slowly over time until the rental properties replaced my W2 income. Then once I reached that point, I then had control and could decide to either stay in my W2 job or leave. I was able to eventually achieve this goal, but I did stay on at my job for a little while as I enjoyed what I was doing. Eventually that changed and I decided to leave that job and the W2 world.

Since then I have continued to purchase properties for myself slowly over time and grow my portfolio. I also obtained my real estate agents license while I was in the W2 world, so I also help others purchase both rental properties and homes. Along the way, I decided to share my journey, my story and my learnings so I started a YouTube Channel and Instragram accounts around Real Estate and Real Estate Investing along with a website to house all of my Real Estate related content. I’m continually asked about real estate deals, so I recently started a brand new instagram account called HiddenRealEstate where I share properties with hidden potential. 

www.youtube.com/@michaelglunkwww.michaelglunk.comInstagram: @michaelglunkrealestateInstagram: @hiddenrealestate

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely wasn’t a smooth road. To start, the general societal norm is to get a W2 job, work until you are old and then hope and pray that you have enough saved up for retirement at some point in time. Well, hoping and praying isn’t a good retirement strategy. So from my perspective, I was going against societal norms. And it’s only natural to question your approach when you are taking the path less traveled.

I also wasn’t initially sure how I was going to achieve my goal of early financial freedom. So I tried a few different things and they didn’t always work out and/or produce the results I was hoping for. It’s not that they were all bad choices and that real estate was is the only choice anyone should make. It’s just that they weren’t the best choice for me and my goals.

There was and is risk in anything. And in the beginning there is a bit more risk when you are just starting out. I was still figuring things out and when things didn’t work out, well it cost me money. It still costs me money today if something doesn’t work out, but I now have the benefit of multiple properties that can cover each other a bit if an unforeseen expense arises.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I refer to myself as a “professional monopoly player”. It’s just that for me, it’s not a board game. It’s real life. I’m a long term buy and hold real estate investor who owns both long term rentals and short term rentals. I’m a real estate agent and I help others find solid real estate investments that are sometimes also their dream homes.

I’m proud of the fact that I was able to achieve financial freedom on my own terms while also being able to be present and have a lot of fun along the way with my family and friends.

I’m a very analytical person who always looks at a situation from numerous perspectives. While this can be a negative in some professions, it has proven to be extremely useful in real estate. What sets me apart is my ability to see the hidden potential in real estate both for myself and my clients. I’m able to uncover hidden opportunities to either add value to a property or to increase it’s revenue to make it more productive then it’s current use. I’m also a data and research nerd. As a results I’ve very knowledgeable in many components of real estate which help both in uncovering those opportunities and also in negotiations when looking to purchase a new property for myself or a client.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I’ve always been close with my family and prefer quality over quantity when it comes to friends. I have a type A personality and always strive to get things as right as possible. At least right in my mind. I’ve always valued doing the right thing and would always consider the impact my actions would have on others. Some of my friends might say I missed out on some fun opportunities because of that.

I’ve always been very close with my family. Even spending time with my grandparents for a week or two in the summer. I was and am a big genealogy buff. I dug into my family tree back in highschool and have continued since. Not only did I trace my family back to the 1500’s but I also uncovered that I was born a duel citizen so my kids and I now have two passports.

I’ve always been into the outdoors + sports. Specifically soccer. I played competitive soccer my entire life back in Pennsylvania. It’s always been a passion of mine, one that continues to this day. I love the outdoors! I would explore the woods behind my house growing up. I would build forts and imagine living in the woods and off the land. One of my favorite books was “My Side of the Mountain”. A book about a boy who left home to go live in a hollowed out tree in the woods. I’m a hunter and fisherman and grew up doing this with my dad and my grandfather in Pennsylvania. And now in Colorado and across the West since I now live in Colorado.

I’ve always been a bit of an introvert, which I believe is part of the reason why I love the outdoors, woods and mountains. It gives me an opportunity to be in the quite. To just think in my own head a bit. This is when and how I do most of my thinking. It allows be to recharge.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.michaelglunk.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelglunkrealestate/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelglunkrealestate/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@michaelglunk
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/hiddenrealestate

Image Credits
All of these photos were taken by me or they are screenshots of content that I created. I have images from interviews I’ve been asked to do and also from content I created for BiggerPockets if desired as well.