There are occasional pinch-me moments, and then there’s Rachel Grunn’s life.
At just 31 years old, the Flower Mound-based residential, land, and commercial real estate expert has juggled a career as one of North Texas’ top-producing agents with being a globe-trotting high-fashion model, actress, aspiring equestrian, investor, devoted wife, and role model mother. She’s confidently walked runways for Dior, Valentino, and Gucci in picturesque fashion capitals like Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, and Rome—including one show where the iconic Roman Colosseum served as the perfect backdrop to the runway.
Her acting career includes roles in “Law and Order,” “American Horror Story,” and the lead in “The Sound,” a soon-to-be-released film. Her lifelong love for horses (she owns a Thoroughbred named Ringo) has led to equally extraordinary moments, like a photo shoot at King Ranch in Corpus Christi, where she rode across sand dunes and hillsides—creating images as breathtaking as the experience itself.
Oh, and let’s not forget the time she met Tom Cruise at Victoria Beckham’s studio in London, her brief encounter with Lady Gaga, and the night she rubbed shoulders with celebrity elite at Paris Hilton’s Alice in Wonderland-inspired 32nd birthday bash in Los Angeles.
And that’s just the opening credits to a life story still being written.
“You talk about pinch-me moments, and there’s already far too many to count,” Grunn said. “I can tell you that I’m extremely grateful for all of it—my real estate career, the acting, modeling, and, of course, my family. It’s a busy lifestyle—I joke that it’s not the car’s age but the number of miles on it, so maybe I’m ready to retire. But I somehow manage to keep all the plates spinning at the same time.”
She added, “I’ll keep doing all of it until they decide to stop calling me.”
With an almost too-good-to-be-true backstory like Grunn’s, it might be easy to lose sight of what has endeared her in the eyes of her loyal clients: that she’s an exceptionally talented and forward-thinking real estate advisor and investor. Her award-winning career beyond the runway includes a versatile 9-figure portfolio of land and ranch deals, commercial properties, new construction, AirBnBs, long-term rentals, fix-and-flips, and even first-time homebuyers looking for a starter home in Denton County.
As a lead advisor with Reflect Real Estate, Grunn approaches her job with the same passion, confidence, and precision that propelled her to success on the runway and screen. As a result, Real Producers Magazine awarded her the Top Dallas Agent distinction for 2024. She is already on pace to repeat that honor in 2025, and to add icing on the cake, one of her properties (an 18.5-acre ranch in Van Alstyne that doubles as a popular wedding venue and AirBnB) will be showcased on an upcoming episode of “Property Brothers.”
Rachel’s grandfather, the renowned Dallas news anchor John Criswell, and her grandmother, Elizabeth Criswell, a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA), greatly influenced her. In the 1980s, her grandmother founded the Deaf Action Center in Dallas to serve the underrepresented deaf community in the DFW Metroplex. Rachel was raised within the deaf community, is fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), and is passionate about representing those without a voice. She has proudly served many deaf clients throughout her real estate career.
“I’ve done a lot of different types of investments and real estate transactions—commercial, residential, new construction, farm and land, etc. I bring that experience in commercial and residential real estate to the table with my clients, and that sets me apart,” Grunn said. “Your home is the largest investment you’ll make in your lifetime, and if your agent isn’t approaching it from an investment standpoint, they are doing you a disservice.
“I’m asking my sellers and buyers, ‘Does it make sense to buy this home in this neighborhood based on your goals?’ I’m also asking, ‘Do you want to sell in five years?’ ‘Are you looking to expand your family?’ ‘Where is this neighborhood going in terms of direction and development?’ I’m looking at these things before they even put an offer on the home because I don’t want to put them in a situation where they aren’t making money on their sale in five, seven, or 10 years. You can’t teach that. It comes with experience.”
While Grunn has only been a licensed realtor since 2021, her versatile experience in the real estate and investment world surprisingly intersects seamlessly with the early days of her modeling and acting career. As the story goes, she was only 15 when a talent scout spotted her hanging out with friends at Stonebriar Mall in Frisco and asked if she’d ever considered modeling.
On a whim, she signed with the Campbell Agency and went on to do small jobs for Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, and other prime brands.
At the time, Grunn had no clue someone could travel the world as a model. But that’s precisely what she did a few years later when she got the opportunity to take a gap year from college and fly to Paris to be a fashion runway model.
Needless to say, she never went back to school.
“My career took off as a model and an actress, and I truly saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Grunn said. “My dad went with me for a little while, then he came home and I stayed to travel the world. I was making quite a bit of disposable income at a very young age; my mom had a deep background in real estate and said I needed to start investing in properties—even if it was small stuff like flips and rentals. So, I did and ended up amassing a pretty nice investment portfolio by the time I was 27.”
Like a sponge, Grunn soaked up everything she could about the market and its ups and downs. She was a quick study and perfected her eye for the right deal and quality passive income. In the meantime, she juggled her newfound passion with being a preferred model for Dior and Valentino. She met her husband, Dylan, in 2018 while filming a short film together. They moved to Los Angeles the following year and returned to Texas after the COVID-19 pandemic to start a family and regroup.
“Even with all the acting and modeling, real estate had been a huge part of my life. I knew it was something I was good at and passionate about,” she said. “So, I got my license in 2021 and have continued to juggle all these plates ever since. I was recently gone for a month filming a movie in Las Vegas. Dylan was amazing and held down the fort at home with our daughter, Willow, and I could rely on my awesome team at work to keep everything going smoothly. I was still negotiating contracts and closing deals while on set. It’s been an amazing journey.”
More like an amazing reality check.
“And it’s still being written,” Grunn said.
Contact Rachel at rachelgrunn.reflectrealestate.com.
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