Texas Real Estate Investing The 9 To 5 Exit Strategy
In this interview, Toby from Global Integrity Finance talks with Shanoa Grove, co‑founder of the Texas Real Estate Investment Association (REIA) and Texas Wealth Network, about their 15‑plus‑year journey in real‑estate investing. The conversation begins with the origin story: Phil lost his corporate job, met Shanoa, and together they transitioned from full‑time employment to buying distressed properties, focusing on short sales and fix‑and‑flips. Shanoa recounts their first deals in Austin, highlighting the importance of tribal knowledge and avoiding costly mistakes. Around 2009 they began offering coaching and training after a colleague invited them to teach a short class, which evolved into a larger educational platform. They discuss the philosophy that their primary job is to prevent investors from losing money, emphasizing a service‑oriented mindset and the sharing of collective tribal knowledge through a network of members, power‑team partners, and a “collective brain.” The interview then covers the growth of their organization: consistent, statewide meetings (up to seven per month across Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio), a membership base of over 20,000 contacts, and a focus on Texas‑specific laws and contracts to counter out‑of‑state “guru” advice that may not apply locally. Shanoa explains how the REIA provides resources—leads, contractors, lenders—and how they maintain consistency and discipline rather than chasing shiny new trends. Over the past five years they have expanded from residential to commercial real‑estate investing, adding commercial training for students. Their long‑term motivation has shifted from personal income replacement to a “service heart” and legacy‑building, aiming to bless others and create a ripple effect for families and homeowners. The interview concludes with an invitation to attend any of their regular Texas meetings and a reminder of their commitment to teaching Texans how to invest successfully within Texas law. Key takeaways: the transition from corporate jobs to real‑estate investing; the value of early hands‑on experience and tribal knowledge; the evolution from deal‑making to large‑scale education and community building; the importance of a service‑first mindset; consistent, Texas‑focused operations; and the strategic move into commercial real‑estate while maintaining core principles.
Chapters
Hey everybody, this is Toby with Global Integrity Finance. We're here today with Shanoa Grove.
Hi everybody!
With the Real Estate Investment Association. Shanoa, it is such an honor to be here with you to talk about what you and Phil have done over the last 15 years?
It'll be 16 years in December.
Yeah, that is so awesome. So I want to talk to you about who you guys are, what you do, what you guys have done over the last 16 years, how you've evolved, and why you do all this. So let's just start with how did this get started between you and Phil?
So Phil lost his job in corporate America. Yeah. And, and that's actually where we met. We met in corporate America, and he started looking for different opportunities and different ways to replace income, different ways to build wealth. And he at one point decided, all right, we're gonna do real estate. And he's like, all right, I need you to, you know, go get your realtor's license. And I said, you want me to go do what? You go get your real estate license. Yeah, so there were some choice words in that moment, but we drew straws and I got the short straw.
He was an engineer, or is an engineer, so he had that set up just right in his hand.
Yes, yes. So he started investing before I did, and then he left corporate America before I did, and I kind of transitioned about 6 months or so behind him. And I was still working my full-time job while I was doing real estate. For me, what that really looked like was I had my first shift, which is my regular job, my regular W-2 job, and then I started my second shift, right, which was from 6 until about 10 or 11 PM, which was my real estate investing job. And I think a lot of people kind of make that transition kind of slowly like that, so they want to keep that security blanket that is that full-time job and then see, does this real estate thing really work? And once I figured out the real estate thing number one really worked, but number two, my regular job was costing me money that I could have been making, yeah, much more. So eventually I transitioned and left my full-time job and did real estate, started doing real estate 15 times full-time, and that was in 2004.
So now when you guys said you started, so basically you and Phil just started buying distressed properties?
Absolutely.
Doing the fix and flip?
Yes. Yeah.
So you weren't doing all the events and all the coaching?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So, so for us, um, and you know, it's kind of funny because we do a lot of training and coaching now, but when we first started investing, we always looked down on, you know, sort of these out-of-state gurus. And you know, we were like, oh, we, you know, we would never, we would never be one of those folks. And then one of our colleagues—
what you wish for—
yeah, exactly. And then one of our colleagues said, you know, hey, I do some teaching on the side. You know, they had been investing for a long time, and they said, hey, you're an ex- expert in one of the strategies that we were using at the time, which was we were doing a ton of short sales.
Okay.
And they said, "Hey, will you just teach for 4 hours? You know, create a presentation, teach for about 4 hours and show people a little bit of the behind the scenes, what it's like to be an investor." So it started with a, you know, 4 hours and then that investor kind of said, "Well, let's partner on this. Let's do this together." It was also a local Texas investor. So we started to add, in addition to our real estate investing, add a little bit of coaching, mentoring, training in roughly 2009. So we've been coaching, training, helping other investors for about 10 years now. Yeah.
So let's, let's go back to the early days when you and Phil were doing the fix and flip.
Yeah.
Let's talk about that first deal. Do you remember it?
I do. It was easy, right? It was Hornsby. The street name was Hornsby. I won't forget it. Yeah, I remember the name. So that was Phil Phil's first. Mine was on 8th Street.
Okay, this was in Austin?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
Yeah, so that Phil's first deal was actually a short sale turned buy, fix, and flip.
Okay.
And what I— here's one thing I remember about it, and just kind of one of the things that we like to talk about a lot is tribal knowledge and sharing some of that tribal knowledge. Like, oh yeah, I've invested in that neighborhood, here's what to look out for. So this neighborhood was in a transition from septic systems to city sewer. So what that is as they're rebuilding and adding that infrastructure, you have a house that has like, you know, trucks and all sorts of activity parked in front of it for a while. So that was one of the—
No marketability.
Yes, right. So that was one of the things that was a surprise, right? So one of the things that I really enjoy doing and I feel is of incredibly high importance is, you know, everyone comes to the Real Estate Association thinking, Shanoah, your job is to teach me how to make money in real estate. And I accept that as my job.
As a tagline.
I accept that as my job. But I always say that my job zero is to make sure you don't lose any money in real estate investing. It's just as easy to lose as it is to make. And I want to be able to share all the information.
You don't lose money on the first 3 or 4 deals, you're way ahead of the game.
Yeah.
If you can break even or make just a little bit, you're way ahead of the game.
Well, I mean, I, I, so I, I will slightly, just slightly disagree with that. I mean, I want everyone to get out there and do a deal, but I have heard some investors say, well, on my first deal I got this experience, right? Uh, and education, and they'll say like, but, and I didn't, I didn't lose money. And I'm like, no, but you lost 6 months or more of your life time, and that is very valuable. And what I've found as investing in real estate is real estate is not is not necessarily a mile deep, but it is a mile wide. So if you say, "Oh, I got this experience," or, "I learned this," what you learned on deal number 1, you may not see again until deal number 121. So I don't want any investor to be going out and collecting their own experiences. I really want them to leverage the experience of others so that they don't make mistakes, so that they don't lose money. So that they can get to, as quickly as possible, the job of making money as a real estate investor. And that's what we do in our association. We share that tribal knowledge, whether it's investing in certain areas, hey, here's what to look out for. And then we bring, you know, because we have an association of other folks that we bring in that will also share their tribal knowledge, that tribal knowledge builds really quickly. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] And I have people that I can call on all the time to be able to ask questions questions to. And the people who are part of our organization, our students, you know, they call me all the time. They're new and they'll say, well, where do I get this? And I always kind of joke, sometimes I feel like I'm a 1920s phone operator. Oh, you need what? Oh, well, hold on, let me connect you. Hold on, let me connect you. And I feel like, I mean, I'm in the business of connecting people in a way so that they can leverage the experience that I've built up and so that they can be successful in their investing as well.
That's awesome. So at what point in time, now you went with this partner and you guys did some of your own individual training presentations, but at what point in time did you and Phil say, hey, this can be bigger than what we're doing now?
It was kind of a slow evolution. So, and I think what happens with a lot of investors when they become successful and when they, for example, go to a REIA meeting and say, hey, I've got money, I've got resources, I've got contractors, I've got knowledge, I'll partner with you 50/50. But now everyone wants to kind of get a little necklace with you that says BFF, best friend forever, right? And for a long time, you know, because, you know, Phil would make these announcements just exactly like that at the meetings, people would come up to him and say, hey, let me— would you mind if, like, could I take you to lunch? You know, can I just pick your brain? And over a period of time, like Phil was going out to lunch with somebody and having his brain picked, if you will, for 2 to 3 hours a day, every day. And I told Phil, you know, I love what you're doing and I think it's of service to other people, which is important to me, but it's really taken away from our business. I want to still be able to do this and offer help, but let's get some economies of scale.
Correct.
Let's bring everybody together and then we'll be happy to train them, help them. And so it just kind of evolved like that. Yeah, and it was never something that we set out to do, never even something that we necessarily wanted to do, but there is a need in the marketplace. And, you know, for us, and, you know, being a, you know, Texas investor and understanding Texas, and, you know, you see people coming in from out of state all the time trying to teach people in Texas how to invest in real estate. And Texas is a little different, just like every state is a little different animal. And And it was always upsetting to us and a little annoying when someone would say, "Oh, well, this guru said this," and it's like, "Oh no, that's illegal here." Right, yeah, that's okay in California, Florida, Oregon, but not here. Right, so feeling the kind of need to make sure people didn't make mistakes, right? And putting kind of the Texas spin on it with the Texas tribal knowledge, the Texas contracts, and, you know, being a licensed realtor and broker in the great state of Texas. That all those things together help to make sure people stay, you know, on the path that they need to stay on. Most people want to go from point A to point B, and they kind of go like this, you know? And I want them to go from point A to point B as quickly, as straight a line as possible. And then, so with the network that we've built up, and it's kind of self-building now, so, and it's really beautiful to see, you know, it's like, I will, you know, people will come to me and say, ask me a question expecting me to be the expert, And I will tell them, you know, here's my answer, but hey, we've got what I call the collective brain, the other members of our network who, let's go and ask them as well. So that has been incredibly powerful in terms of creating a great offering for our students throughout Texas and is something that is a big differentiator for us. And some of the out-of-state gurus, as I'm sure you know, you know, I kind of always joke, that you see them one time for 3 days and then you never see them again.
And you can't get a hold of them.
Right. So, but with Phil and I, well, you're going to see us again whether you want to or not. Right. I mean, one thing you know about us is we're incredibly consistent.
Very consistent on the streets.
And that's, and that's, and that's, um, that isn't— that is an important attribute, I think.
So I've been involved in a multitude of different associations, and I will say over the last 5 years that I've known you, the RIA Dallas, the Dallas-Fort Worth RIAs, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, those are on time every time, in the same way. Yes, rain, sleet, snow, you know, we did one in Grapevine, it was like 12 degrees, snow, like 30 people showed up, but you guys were here.
Yes, yes, yeah, and we were committed.
Yeah, and we're like, oh my gosh, this is unreal. But you got— and, and we applaud you. I guarantee you, every one of your members, every one of the big dogs and all the coaches, they applaud what you guys have set down in a foundation and have stuck to over a period of 16 years now.
Yes, I— that's a long time.
Last I checked, and I'm sure you can correct me, you have a little over 20,000 members?
We have many members that are part of our organization, so we have a huge mailing list of just people who sign up to just come to our meetings. You know, some of those—
multiple levels.
Yeah, yeah, and some of those people come to our meetings Some of those, you know, join us, some in a very small group decide to join us for individual one-on-one hand-holding coaching, etc. But yeah, we've built up quite, you know, a list of investors, lenders, buyers, contractors, you know, other resources. Yes. And it takes quite a big power team in order to really be successful in real estate. We've accumulated that for ourselves and we get to share that with the people that we get to bless in our lives as well, which is fantastic.
Is there any gap in the real estate arena that is still missing with your organization?
Hmm, golly. That's a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats conversation. That's right. You know, I would say probably just like with any other real estate investor, You can always be better at marketing, right?
And marketing is the key.
Marketing is the key to life, right? To life. Especially if you are an entrepreneur. But, you know, we always like to meet people before some of these out-of-state gurus do. Just so it's easier to set someone on the right path initially than have to course correct something that was said that might not be might not be applicable. Like a lot of the, you know, a lot of other out-of-state folks will say, oh, just get your leads from your realtor. And I'm thinking, yeah, if you want to go broke, you know, sure, yeah.
Everybody can get those leads from their realtor.
Yeah, so, you know, and, you know, for me, and you may know, I am a big student of the market. I'm invited to do market updates for other organizations, in fact, even competing organizations. To me, one of the sayings that has really rang true is actually from Wayne Gretzky. So the great one, hockey, hockey, hockey and real estate, right? So he says, he says, you don't, he says, I don't skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck is going to be. And for us as real estate investors, as we're investing today but not dispositioning that asset for another 6 6 months or 6 years, we need to know where that puck is going. So, so for me, being a student of the market and being able to translate that into actionable information that, that other investors can use and use in their business to be successful is, is always important. So we're always looking to find where that puck is going, uh, and, uh, adjusting our strategies and teaching those adjustments so other people can, can learn from, from that as well, right?
It's no different than anything in life. I mean, you can't just look at where you're at today and expect to be there tomorrow, right? Or if you are, you're going to be way behind.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
So I love that strategy. I did see the quote the other day you posted on Facebook, um, and I got a chuckle out of it because I did not know you even knew who Wayne Grigsby was. So that was awesome. But, um, so the real question that everybody always asks you know, and you have all the positives and negatives, but really from you, and you said this last time we talked, why do you and Phil spend so much time doing what you do? You could still go back to doing your own deals instead of being here. Right now you're going to be at 4 shows this week, this month, or 3?
We'll do 3. So usually do, yeah, yeah, you're going to be at a show.
Yeah, that's taking away from your family.
It does.
From your time. Why do you guys do this?
—So, for the reasons have changed over time. So, and I'll tell you that, like, when I first got started, when Phil and I first got started, we joined our local Real Estate Investors Association. And it was there that we got a power team. It was there that we got new friends who thought like we did, who were trying to educate and achieve the same goals. It was there that we got access to to money, to leads, to deals, to contractors, to tribal knowledge. And for us, you know, over time it has been, at least for me specifically, it has been paying back that debt that I would not be successful as a real estate investor if it were not for the local RIA who pointed me in the right direction, who shared that tribal knowledge with me. And, you know, as— after I started joining this association, the president of the association said, "Shanoah, would you like to be our membership coordinator? By the way, there's no pay for this job. We're going to give you free RIA membership," which is $100, right? Don't spend it all in one place, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I jumped at the opportunity. And the reason why is not because, you know, I looked at the dollar per hour that I would be making in that one piece, but I was not— I didn't want to be short-term greedy in my decisions. I wanted to be long-term greedy. So being the membership coordinator allowed it in that initial REIA, and I— they asked me to do that in 2004, so just after I started investing. I knew everyone who had deals, I knew everyone who had money, I knew everyone who was— I didn't have all the answers, but I had the resources, and I knew that that was going to put me on a path to get more success. So I was willing to be humble. I was willing to kind of be open to seeing what opportunities existed beyond that. And, and it was through that that I was able to leverage that into so many other things that I've done as a real estate investor. And being able to pay back my debt to that association by creating other associations and be of service to the members of of my group and helping them with sincerity and integrity and kind of motherly love is something that's very important to me. And it's not just, I will tell you that when I first started investing, it was just about the money. I just, I had to replace an income, right? And now it has developed into something that I never would have imagined. And so now it's not just about the money for an— as an investor, it's not about the money for being a coach. But I get to— so I get to take this knowledge. So God has blessed us all, right, with these big brains and with this body. And, you know, we need to honor and respect and serve that by continuing to feed it, continuing to educate ourselves. And it is also our job to take these blessings that we have I received and to bless others. And for a long time, it became about blessing others and watching them be successful and watching them make money. And now it has even evolved again to where it's watching that blessing bless the investors that I work with, and then they touch every single homeowner that they work with, and that affects their financial lives forever. Forever. It's a legacy. And it's like, oh my gosh, That feels like, that makes me get up in the morning and be ready to rock. And I have always kind of joked that, you know, when some of my coaching students come up to me and they say, hey, Shanoe, today was the last day that I wore my employee badge. Oh, wow. Yeah. Like I've said, I always say like, I want that employee badge. Like, I want a Christmas tree that is just everybody's employee badges, that everyone that I've helped is like that. Charges me in a really big way, and that's what gets me up in the morning. And watching, you know, these people grow and, and impact their lives, their family's lives, and then other families' lives. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's become my why over time, and it's, and it's very rewarding.
You had said something last time we talked that you had told all your coaches and all your team leaders that if you're not here to make a difference in somebody's life, we don't want you here. Yeah. That's what I took from it, but you quoted it a different way.
Yeah, yeah.
If you're not here to be a servant, I think it was. Yeah, yeah.
So I— you will hear me say— yeah, you will hear me say all the time, you have to be in service to others. You have to give before you get. And so many people change that to where they have to get something before they give anything. And in my life, what I practice, what I try to practice every day is being comfortable giving before I receive anything and knowing that it's coming. But not expecting it. But not expecting it. But being open to that mindset and having a service heart. So if you do not have a service heart as a real estate investor, you're going to get some deals, right? But you're never going to knock it out of the park. Sure. It is, you will miss deals to other people who have a service heart and who will do what it takes to help people change the world.
You have to have a service heart to be a part of us, be part of our leadership, our coaching. You must have a service heart. So what's next? Where are we going? I know you're always doing the market updates and all that, but that's the same old same old. What's the next, uh, big thing of Phil and Shanoa?
So that's, that's a great question and something that we talk about not infrequently. Yeah. So when we first started investing, we were specifically investing in residential real estate. Over the last 5 years, we've transitioned more into commercial real estate investing. And we've created some additional commercial training for our students and are able to share that with them. Our students are able to now get a wider variety of deals and options for their investing, and it's nice to be able to provide that to them as well, and kind of see that evolution happen. And, you know, I will say, I don't think that there's anything necessarily revolutionary that we are changing. And I'm actually, and I don't want to say proud of that fact, but what I find is a lot of people are always chasing like this, Oh, we've got to go right turn and go over here and go over here. And what they find is, and I've seen many investors do this, like, well, 10 businesses later, they're back to the thing that they were originally doing. And I'm not going to, that's not how we're, but what we are set up to do that most investors cannot do, or most people that even teach about real estate cannot do is we're We're committed to being consistent. Yeah. And not chasing the shiny new penny, right? But it's not to say that we're not in a growth mindset. It's not to say that we're not paying attention. But it is to say that this, that consistency and that discipline to remain consistent and to be a student of the market and to be open and help others is, is always going to be the touchstone from which we operate, period.
Yeah, that's great. Um, anything else you want to add?
Um, uh, so yes, um, for the folks that are here, I'd love to invite you guys to one of our meetings. Uh, so we have multiple meetings every single month.
I guarantee it, anywhere in Texas you're at, they're having a meeting. Any given Tuesday, any given Thursday.
Yes, yeah. So we have up up to 7 meetings every single month, uh, in the Austin—
4 weeks in a month. Yeah, remember that, it's 4 weeks and 7 meetings.
So, so in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. So whatever market you are in Texas, uh, we are major market, we're there. Uh, love for you guys to join us. Uh, you can get more information about our groups, our associations at thetexaswealthnetwork.com, texaswealthnetwork.com. And just to To kind of say the Texas thing, we live here, we work here, we invest here, we know the laws here. We always say about our associations, this is Texans teaching Texans how to be successful in Texas using strategies that actually work in Texas. So that's what we're committed to.
And that's your foundation. It is.
And, you know, too many people try to be too many things and then can't be that one thing. We are deep in Texas, and that's one of our, I think, our core strengths as well. So love to have you guys at one of our future meetings. You'll see Toby and his group there as well as sponsors, vendors, just even there networking. So it is fun for us, it's profitable for us, and it's a great way to meet other people. And I always say Every time I do a meeting, I get either a new source of capital, I get a new source of leads, or I get someone else, something else that I can add to my power team, add to my resources to further build what I'm able to do for myself as well as share with others.
We have personally seen over the last 5 years a multitude of people come out of working class America into real estate investing and have always touted, you know what, Phil and Shanell told me this, and I did this and blah blah blah, and you say, you know what, you learn by example, you lead by example, you do by example, and it has been an amazing story to hear people talk about that. So it's been my pleasure and honor to know you for the last 5 years.
Thank you, Toby. Mine too, mine too.
Lovely to be here. Thank you everybody for being here today. If you have any questions, you can reach me at 214-548-5190 or go to our website. Globalintegrityfinance.com. You'll see this video and you'll see this wonderful, amazing individual, Shinoahe. Thank you so much, Shinoahe.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for having me.
