HEATHER EWING: The CRE RUNdown
Are you intrigued by Commercial Real Estate? Join Heather Ewing, CCIM each week as she dives into CRE trends, Deals, and Developments throughout Madison, WI. Learn the crucial role of Mindset in CRE and Marathons! Success leaves Clues.
HEATHER EWING: The CRE RUNdown
Ep. 59 Zane Schartz – The Legacy Ledger: Faith-Driven Wealth Through Real Estate
In this episode of CRE RUNdown, host Heather sits down with real estate investor and entrepreneur Zane Schartz to explore the deeper "why" behind wealth building. Zane shares how his mission to help others attain financial freedom is rooted in something far greater than money—his unwavering faith in God.
Together, they unpack the mindset, strategy, and purpose that drive Zane’s work in commercial real estate. From the practical steps to build a strong portfolio to the spiritual convictions that shape his decisions, this conversation offers insight for anyone who wants to align their business goals with eternal values.
Whether you're growing your first investment or seeking a clearer sense of purpose in your financial journey, this episode delivers clarity, encouragement, and inspiration to lead with both strategy and faith.
Welcome to Heather Ewing, the CRE Rundown. I am your host, Heather Ewing, and I have a delightful guest that you get to connect with today. It is none other than Zane Schartz. He is the president of Freedom Commercial Real Estate in beautiful Dallas, Texas. Welcome, Zane.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. Beautiful Dallas, texas, that's one way to put it. Beautiful from afar depending on what season. Yeah, exactly, if it's the summer, not so beautiful. If it's fall and spring, it's a good place to be.
Speaker 1:Definitely Well, we connected through LinkedIn and I absolutely love your posting style. I don't remember who it was that I connect with. That's connected with you, but then, as I look, there's a ton of mutual connections. But I love how you look at different properties and you break down your assessments and what's nice is that you really get into the nitty gritty that a lot of people keep on the back end. So, one, I want to congratulate that for you. But two, share with my audience a little bit more about you so they can get to know who Zane is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so thank you for the encouragement. First, I appreciate that LinkedIn has been very cool and there's been a ton of growth, and very thankful for how it's grown. But a little bit about me. I'm from Dallas. I grew up playing hockey. It's a big part of my story. I played at very high levels all the way up through college and then I played professionally in the minor leagues. I played in Europe and Germany, finland and Hungary and played in some NHL system. So that was a huge part of my life and a huge part of life before business.
Speaker 2:But I kind of came to a point in my life when I knew that hockey wasn't going to pay the bills as much as I would like. So I knew that I needed to plan for real estate. I ended up getting some internships in college at different development firms, private equity groups and brokerage firms in real estate and I really just wanted to learn kind of what realm of real estate I wanted to be in, ended up picking the private equity side. I worked at a private equity group for six years years and we grew from three employees and up to 20 plus we grew from $100 million of assets to $750 million. So tons of growth and learned a lot. And then about a couple of years ago, I said it was time to kind of spread my wings and fly. So I started Freedom Commercial Real Estate and it's been awesome and the name Freedom.
Speaker 2:I always like to kind of tell investors what the meaning behind Freedom Commercial Real Estate is. Number one we want to help investors on their journey towards financial freedom and we do that through cash flowing real estate. Everything we buy cash flows from day one. So financial freedom. And then secondly and more importantly in my opinion in my kind of life, is freedom is found through Jesus Christ alone, and my faith is the most important thing about me and I think that true freedom comes from the hope that we have in Jesus. So you know we want to help people on the investing side and also just life in general.
Speaker 1:Right, because life is not silos Right, and I want to congratulate you too, because I think it's such an unspoken especially in commercial real estate right to have faith with it. So I think that's really great. One, that you've identified that for yourself, and two, that you do live authentically and that's a big part of life, I think, is having that spiritual or belief in God and living in that way. That really keeps us on the track right. I think, especially with the stresses and some of the things that you experience from investing to brokerage, that there's many ways that you could get off course that are not advantageous, and so I think also having that faith first is really important as a guiding force.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot more to life than making money in real estate. You know, real estate is temporary. Making people money is fun and I love what I do. But, more important than that, what's going to matter and when we're all dead and gone, in 100 years, a couple hundred years, that's going to be the impact that we make and what we believe. So that's definitely my priorities.
Speaker 1:Kind of like with the statement of you know, create the ending before you begin. I've really seen that vision of the finish line, whatever. That is right, because at some point it's what's going to dictate all of our actions through the years and the decades, personally and professionally. So, backing up, you know I'm a big runner, so I love to jump in when someone is also well, you've performed at a very high level. Can't say I've been at that level, but I truly admire it and I think one of the things that fascinates me is just the integration of performing at elite levels like you have, or endurance sports. They really set up a lot of the different skill sets and, I think, work ethics for commercial real estate. What's your take on that?
Speaker 2:I mean, I couldn't agree more. I think there are so many overlaps from the attributes needed to be a high level athlete and be successful in business. I think high level athletes have a drive and determination to excel and to exceed and to be the best. And you know, same as runners and anything you, you're trying to beat your last time, you're trying to beat your last year's performance, you're trying to be better than the person next to you, especially in hockey, like it's very. Every sport is competitive, but you know, hockey was my world, so I was trying to beat out the person next to me and move up to the next level and beat out the person next to me at that level and move up to the next level. So it's very competitive.
Speaker 2:And then transitioning that kind of same mentality of how do I implement that into real estate?
Speaker 2:And it's like there's people all around me that are raising money to, you know, get investors to invest with them. So my mentality is how do I become the best investment for them and how do I create something that they'll want to invest with? Because I'm competing to get investors, dollars in our door? And you know, same with sports too, is like you have a specific piece of the puzzle, that you are on, a team or a specific niche that you, that you might have, and our our niche is cash flow. So we know that investors are going to have deals that don't cash flow and maybe they have heavy appreciation on the back end, and we know that they have deals that might only cash flow and no appreciation. So we wanted to build something for investors that was very stable, very consistent and kind of had the three big buckets of real estate investing, of cash flow, appreciation and depreciation. So that's what we've done and it's been very, very good ride up for us. We have 400 plus investors and 70 plus properties, so it's been fun.
Speaker 1:That's great. What's your target for the rest of the year?
Speaker 2:I mean the target is always hey, how do we get more investors in the door? Because the more investors we get means more properties we can buy, and that's what's fun for me is the portfolio management side. So I'd say our goals are more investors, and more investors equals more properties to buy. More properties we buy equals more diversification for investors, which means lower risk. So the more diversified you are, the lower your risk is. So, really, I think, just continuing to grow on LinkedIn, I've had pretty great success and great growth there and a lot of good feedback, and you know we're starting to raise a lot of money from investors on LinkedIn. I think in the past month alone we've had over a million bucks from just LinkedIn people who have found me on LinkedIn. So it's been pretty crazy. Yeah, it's been great. And then, yeah, I think we're just kind of doubling down on social media and pushing there from a marketing standpoint and getting more inbound leads.
Speaker 1:What would you say has helped in that conversion on LinkedIn for a hundred million?
Speaker 2:Not a hundred million yet in terms of bringing in that much money, but one day.
Speaker 1:I'm speaking it in for you, Zane. One day You'll call me in a couple of months and be like Heather you know when you shot out the 100 million. We've hit it now. I'll wait for that.
Speaker 2:I think the success has been a few things. One of it probably the most common feedback I get is the transparency that I have on the numbers, like you said a second ago, was. You know, I'm very transparent on the numbers and what we look for, like I don't hide any of the knowledge that I have. I have, you know, a lot of experience through private equity and kind of. I started as an analyst and grew into a chief investment officer and now at my own firm. So I have a lot of knowledge that I can share and I'm not greedy with it.
Speaker 2:I let people know what I look for in deals. I even let people know the deals that I'm looking at to potentially buy. And there's enough deals out there that if somebody buys it there's always going to be another and I have the deal flow that I can get more deals. I probably have 100, 200 deals a week that brokers send me off market, on market whatever. So there's not a lack of deal flow for me. So I'm not greedy with my information.
Speaker 2:And then from that an outflow or byproduct of that comes investors who I'm gaining their trust. They've been like, hey, I followed you for a few months and I like what I see, I like what you do. They understand the model and it's fairly simple and you know we buy brand names that most people know, like Starbucks and Dollar General and AutoZone, and everybody knows these brands, so they understand it and like to get in. And everybody knows these brands, so they understand it and like to get in. So I think the conversion rate is probably transparency and just comprehension of investors, and maybe just our follow-up process is pretty good.
Speaker 1:Definitely, so what would you say is your timeline for Madison Wisconsin?
Speaker 2:We don't own anything in Wisconsin, I know.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm saying it's a great place to visit during those really hot months for you in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 2:I know, right, I should pop up there. But I'd say, you know, there are some states that we like to be in more than others and the reason for that is kind of our exit is to roll up and sell to private equity groups or institutional buyers and they want to be in the Sunbelt. That's kind of what most of them like to do is Texas, florida, carolinas. So we focus on that because our end goal is to roll up and sell. But you know we also own deals in New York and Michigan and Ohio. But you know, more recently we've been focusing on Sunbelt. But Wisconsin's a great place. I almost went to. I was almost a Badger. So yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, you know, from a brokerage standpoint of how many deals are finalized at the Memorial Terrace, you know, at the Union. And it's one of those people always love going there. They either remember when they were in college or they visited a friend in college and things of that nature. So I think it has kind of a warm spot in people's hearts.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1:So, as we back further up again, what would you say were one or two of the skills that you learned in professional hockey that have helped you through some of the ups and downs in in the investment world?
Speaker 2:because as we know it's never dull you know I get this question a lot and I think the biggest thing that transitioned from the pro sports world to the business world is just learning how to lose. I think learning how to lose and not losing momentum from failure to failure. One of my favorite quotes is success is moving from failure to failure without lack of enthusiasm. And my entire life and my entire career I quote unquote failed in hockey, whether it be losing a game or getting cut from a team or getting traded, and I never it never slowed me down. It just gave me more motivation to make the next deal. So in real estate it's the same thing. There's so many deals out there that you're going to make offers on that. You know you might not get, that you're going to get to the closing table and something might happen, or that you're going to think that a property is going to work and it's not, and you know.
Speaker 2:I think just having the mentality of continuing forward, pushing forward, grinding through and having the end goal in mind is really big.
Speaker 2:So failures are opportunities to learn and I'd say that's number one, and number two is just for me and I think everybody who plays sports at a high level is just the ability to be the best. Like I just always wanted to be the best on the ice, I always wanted to put the extra work in, to be the hardest worker, to get to the next level, to play the most, to get the most points, and all of it's to help the team from a sports standpoint. And from a business standpoint, if you're an operator and your desire is to be the best, ultimately you're doing it for your investors. So if my desire is to be the best and create the best investment, it's going to benefit investors on the end, which will then, in turn, exponentially grow my business, because happy investors are repeat investors and happy investors are investors who tell their friends about the investment. So the better you are, the better investors are and the more you get to do. So those are probably two things I'd say.
Speaker 1:Right, and how do you de-stress?
Speaker 2:I work more than I should. Probably you know. I love spending time with my family. I love to travel. I just got back from New York visiting my brother. I'm going this weekend for Father's Day to hang out with my parents. That's a big thing. Travel is really big and important to me. I was in Germany for a few months to start this year. I love playing hockey. I still play. I'm kind of a nerd too. I play video games with my brother, since he lives in New York. I live in Dallas, so we play video games probably once a week for an hour or two, that's great, that's kind of.
Speaker 2:that's how I unwind.
Speaker 1:Well, don't you think life it's really about having that diversified portfolio, right? Because whether it's sports, whether it's, you know, fun things with family, like with your brother visiting them in person, the phone calls, all these different things, I think they really plug into what we do, then, whether it's the investment sales, whether it's brokerage, things of that nature, as I was sharing a little bit with you, I paint, so there's one of mine behind and then with the running. But I think, don't you think it helps you to think in different ways and you see different, if you want to say troubles or challenging deals, that you think of them in different ways and you also then cultivate different ideas to solve them, and I think that's been a huge plus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think, just having you can't have, you can't do only one thing in life and have diversified interest. It kind of allows you to see the big picture from maybe different angles that you wouldn't have if you were only laser focused, and then also just like burnout is real If you're too focused on one thing, and you're not taking the time to unwind and relax and do the things that you enjoy.
Speaker 2:in the end, you need to unwind and pursue what you're passionate about and have like a why. And if your why is just to make more money, that's going to be a pretty dismal ending. And you know I always post on LinkedIn. And this is how I really feel is we help investors get the freedom, the financial freedom, to do the things that they're most passionate about, and if that's spending time with your family, if it's traveling, if it's supporting certain causes, that's what we want to help them and we want to create more time and more freedom for them to have the ability to do that outside of their W-2 income.
Speaker 1:Perfect, and that ties in perfectly to my last question, which is how do you live fully?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I mean, for me, living fully is my end goal is to use the gifts that I've been giving in the business acumen to start a nonprofit that funds Christian missionaries around the world.
Speaker 2:So, if I can start an endowment or a charitable fund or some type of investment vehicle, that every single dollar from the cash flow or from the proceeds goes to fund the cause that I'm most passionate about, which is telling people and telling the world about Jesus and the hope that changed my life.
Speaker 2:That's what I want to do and right now I'm at the phase and chapter where I'm doing it for profit, but I'm learning and I'm learning what the future will be. And you know, I make it pretty known that this is my goal and my goal is to give away a billion dollars with a B and I want to give away a billion dollars to fund missionaries around the world. And you know, I think that that's my why and that's kind of that's my why and that's kind of that's the the why behind what I do. And, um, you know, like, like we talked about earlier, is money only has so much purpose and there's there's only so much that money can do for you. But money can help a lot of people and my. I want to be generous. I want to be known as somebody who's generous and who who supports people, and um is known as a generous person.
Speaker 1:That's great, and usually I end here, but I have to ask so what was the change point in your life that really shifted it, of your walk in faith? Right, because usually it's not a small story. Usually it's something that shook someone up right. What was? That experience, if you're comfortable sharing.
Speaker 2:I would love to share how God changed my life. For sure, it happened in college and I grew up in a Christian household and, by the grace of God, I was, you know. We went to church. My parents, you know, led me in a great way to follow the Christian faith and to kind of lead me in a direction. That was a great trajectory.
Speaker 2:But I went to Liberty University, which is a Christian college in Virginia, and it was really at that school that I was taking a religion class and we were going into all other world religions Buddhism, hinduism, mormonism, really other world religions and I was like every single one of these people, every single religion in the world, thinks that they're right. And I was like why do I think I'm right and why do these think that they're right? And it kind of hit me and I was just like I need to really not just be indoctrinated and be brainwashed by what I've been raised up to believe and I need to make this my own belief. So I started doing a bunch of like research and comprehensive analysis into really every religion in the world and just being like why am I lucky enough for lack of better terms to be born into a family that is Christian in Texas, the Bible Belt and everything. So the big difference for me was that every other world religion was about working your way to eternity and working your way to the paradise or the heaven or whatever their end goal is.
Speaker 2:And Christianity, and Protestant Christianity, isn't about works, it's about what. It's not about what we do, it's about what has been done through Jesus. So it's not about works, it's about faith alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. So for me it was like if it only relies on me to be good enough, like I'm going to be on my deathbed and I'm never going to know, I'm not going to have surety that I'm saved. So I always say this.
Speaker 2:I always say before I went to Liberty, I was a hockey player that just happened to be a Christian, and then, after Liberty, I was a Christian that just happened to be a hockey player, and now I'm just a Christian that just happens to do business. So my life really shifted at Liberty, uh, in college, and and it was, uh, definitely the turning point in my life where I was just like hey, like this world doesn't define me, nothing in this world defines me. Hockey doesn't define me, real estate doesn't define me. My family doesn't define me. What defines me is that I'm a Christian and that a million years from now, I believe that I'll spend eternity with the creator of the universe because of my faith.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you don't take anything else with you, right?
Speaker 2:Exactly so. I want the world to at least hear what I believe and they can come to their own conclusion, like I did myself. I did the research and I dug into other things and I'm never a hard sell pushing people to believe what I believe, because I don't put that on me. But I'm so passionate about it because my life changed and if something changed your life, you want to tell the world about it. It's like if you go and have these new running shoes and you have the best running shoes in the world, you're going to go tell everybody and say you have to have these.
Speaker 1:No, it's true, Things are meant to be passed on that, not kept captive. Right, Exactly Well as we wrap this up, Zane, how can people connect with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the best way to probably do it is through LinkedIn. Zane Sharts is my name and you can follow me there. You can email me directly at Zane at Freedom CRE dot net, or you can visit our Web site, freedom CRE dot net, and there's a lot of info on there about what we do, how we do it, our current offerings. But, yeah, those are probably three best ways and very accessible through email or LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Perfect Zane. Thank you so much for joining me today it was a true joy to connect with you further.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:All right Thanks.