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as an individual augmentee with an Army Civil Affairs Battalion when he attended a financial planning semi- nar. With his financial house now in order, he was ready to make another $25,000 investment. Unfortunately, Stuart had stumbled into what can only be described as a Ponzi scheme at great loss to himself. Undeterred, he refused to give up on his vision to own a piece of America. Fast for- ward to 2018 and he had gone from nearly losing the sum of his $25,000 investment in 2008 to owning a real estate portfolio of over $600,000. A few short years from retirement, he was in command of his own military transition. That’s when he discovered Andy Williams and reached out to pursue a shared vision. VETERANS BUYAMERICA Having been featured on HGTV, An- dy’s star was rising and his mission to lead other veterans to buy Amer- ica was gaining momentum. He was able to take his hard-earned expe- riences and share them with Stuart while learning about Stuart’s equally
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One Marine, One Navy Pilot and One Vision to BuyAmerica A UNITED REAL ESTATE VISION BRINGS TWO VETERANS TOGETHER.
impressive path into real estate. Stuart embodied exactly what Andy was looking for in a fellow veteran. For Andy, blazing a path for veterans to buy America wasn’t about charity. This was capitalism at its finest and
he didn’t breach the door to massive capital opportunities by begging for a handout. Nor would he have that for his fellow veterans joining him in his mission to buy America. With Veteran’s Buy America on a mission, Andy is looking for other like-minded veterans to follow him down this path. The entrepreneurial approach is designed to empower veterans to start, grow and scale their reach and influence in the real estate industry. This was about taking those who risked it all for America and bringing them home to own a piece of the land they defend- ed. With the beacon lit and the rally point established, Andy is charging into 2019 leveraging all the resourc- es he acquired asking one simple question: who’s ready to buy a piece of America? •
by Jeff Edwards
W
hen U.S. Marine veteran Andy Williams met Navy pilot
side him wasn’t quite content. Look- ing back upon his years of service and the lessons he learned from his military transition, he couldn’t help but ponder the fate of his brothers in arms facing the same transition. In his mind, those who fought for Amer- ica should be the first to own a piece of it. Veterans Buy America was his vision, and in Stuart Grazier he found a fellow veteran doing just that.
the United States Naval Academy in 2002 just as America was stepping into what would be more than a decade-long war on terror. It didn’t take him long to realize that owning a piece of the land he was defending was a smart investment. In 2003, with only a $5,000 down payment on a $50,000 investment, he was able to double his investment in only nine months thanks to rising land values at the time. As the demands of deployment and military service took over, it would be 2008 before he would be able to make his next move. He found himself near Basra, Iraq,
Stuart Grazier, it didn’t take long to realize they were two men with the same vision. Andy, founder of Recon Real- ty, had blazed a path through real estate ever since purchasing his first property while deployed to Iraq. He had breached the door into the elite boardrooms of America and was even featured on HGTV’s "Flip or Flop Fort Worth." With access to all the capital he would ever need to grow his real estate portfolio, America was his for the taking. Yet, something in-
Jeff Edwards is a Marine veteran and contributing writer for Veterans Buy America. Find out more about the initiative and stories of transition at
BUILDING HIS OWN TRANSITION PLAN Stuart Grazier graduated from
VeteransBuyAmerica.com.
12 | think realty magazine :: march / april 2019
thinkrealty . com | 13
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