How Zachary Kepes Overcame the Recession and Built a Real Estate Empire

Zachary Kepes is the founder of Zak Ventures. From nearly broke in 2007 to owning more than 150 single family homes a decade later, he’s built a real estate empire by purchasing, renting, and flipping distressed and low-income property.

In his 17 years in this industry, he survived the Great Recession of 2008 and emerged on the other side of it to see a massive opportunity in single family homes - but it wasn’t easy.

Today, Zach joins the podcast to share the story of his journey through the real estate boom and bust of the 2000s, why so many real estate investors set themselves up to fail, how to build and expand your professional network, and the advice that has helped him through both good times and bad.

‍In this podcast interview, you’ll learn:

• How Zachary came from a family of entrepreneurs and began his real estate career - and the moment he knew entrepreneurship was in his blood.
• The moment Zachary realized that the recession was going to do serious damage to his career, why attempting to diversify his portfolio ended up hurting his net worth, and what kept him going through this difficult time.
• Why you need to be open and honest with your business partners to build a sustainable, scalable business.
• Why Zachary finally adopted social media - and how he stays active on new platforms while staying humble and authentic.

If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to rate and review, and send us all your questions at questions@bayntree.com - it may become the topic of an upcoming episode!

• Zachary Kepes (LinkedIn)
• Kelley School of Business: Indiana University