Meet Grafton Sizemore, Hardin Local's New Co-Host

Key Takeaways

• Rachel Brantingham introduced Grafton Sizemore, a loan officer at Motto Mortgage, as her incoming co-host; his own segment, Money Moves with G, starts soon
• Phil Taul and Scott Lucas announced they are moving mostly behind the camera starting next week as Hardin Local adds more shows
• Grafton grew up in Hardin County from age six, graduated North Hardin, and eventually earned an MBA in finance at UK after a brief first year at U of L
• His stepdad, also a loan officer, spent years telling him not to get into mortgages before Grafton joined Motto Mortgage about six years ago
• Roughly half of Grafton's loans are VA loans, and the biggest misconception, he says, is that many eligible veterans do not realize they qualify at all

Summary

Rachel Brantingham spent the first half of this week's episode building up to one introduction. The person she calls for real numbers on every housing update, Motto Mortgage loan officer Grafton Sizemore, finally joined her at the desk, and Rachel confirmed what has been in the works for weeks: he is coming on as her co-host, with his own segment, Money Moves with G, starting soon.

It matters because the same episode carried a second, bigger announcement. Phil Taul and Scott Lucas are stepping mostly behind the camera starting next week as Hardin Local grows, and Grafton is the one filling the seat that opens up next to Rachel.

Full Article

Rachel made the introduction personal before she made it official. "Every week I come on here and I give you a market update," she said, "and every time I need the financing side of it, I call this gentleman." She said she uses him to find out what people can actually afford right now and what is happening with the money. That gentleman is Grafton Sizemore, a loan officer at Motto Mortgage who most people call G, though Rachel admitted she has her own nickname for him: Grafty. Starting soon, he has his own segment on the show, Money Moves with G.

Before Grafton "gets grilled," as Phil put it, Phil took a few minutes for news of his own. "Hardin Local is growing," he said. "We've got more shows than we've got nights, and the only way that works is if I get out of this chair and go build them." Phil and Scott Lucas are moving mostly behind the camera starting next week. "Nobody got fired. Nobody's mad. Nobody's leaving the family. I'm still here every week, you just won't see me as much." He was candid that the shift feels strange after building the show himself, but framed it as the natural next step. "You don't get to say you built something that lasts if it only works when you're the one holding it. So the seat next to Rachel opened up, and we went and got the right guy." Scott added his own note, calling the last several years at the desk a genuinely good run and promising he isn't going anywhere either, just moving to the other side of the camera to help build what's next.

With that settled, Rachel turned to who Grafton actually is. He is a Hardin County kid, not a transplant, arriving at age six when his mother, a teacher, took a job at West Point Independent Schools. Both of his parents taught, and the family put down roots. He graduated from North Hardin, made a one-year detour to the University of Louisville, then transferred to the University of Kentucky, where he earned a marketing and management degree followed by an MBA in finance. He worked as a teller at Cecilian Bank through college before moving into business banking locally.

Mortgages were not the plan. His stepdad, himself a mortgage loan officer, told him for years not to get into the business. "So, like I normally do, I didn't listen to my parents," Grafton said. He joined Motto Mortgage about six years ago after meeting owner Tracy Holzclaw through a referral group, right as she was opening the office. His stepdad, it turned out, came back around. "It's a really good career," Grafton recalled him saying. "I've told you my whole life not to do it, but it's made him into the man that he was."

Asked why he still does it six years in, Grafton gave the most personal answer of the segment. He did not buy his first house until he was 32, watching friends and his own brother get there sooner and wondering when it would be his turn. "When I see those smiles on people's faces, like the smile I had when I was 32 getting to the place I wanted to be, it makes every bit of it worth it," he said. "That's my why."

On VA loans, which he estimated make up roughly half of what he does in a Fort Knox county, Grafton did not point to paperwork or timelines. "There's guys out there, ladies out there, who have served for four years, and they have VA eligibility and don't even realize it," he said, adding that he regularly works with veterans in their sixties buying a first home with a benefit they never knew they had. He also flagged a detail fewer people know: a VA loan on a primary residence can buy up to a fourplex, letting a service member live in one unit, rent the other three, and keep the whole property as a rental once they move on.

Money Moves with G, he said, is deliberately not going to be mortgage-only content. He wants to pull in friends who are CPAs and financial advisors for broader topics, from budgeting to investing, while being upfront about his own lane. "I'm a licensed mortgage loan officer, not a CPA, not a financial advisor," he said. "We'll have all those disclaimers out there." His goal for the segment: "You don't have to be rich to start investing... this segment will be for everybody."

He closed on the show's tradition of a rapid fire round. No coffee. Best sleeper spot in the county: El Molino in Radcliff. And no, he will not be dancing, at least not in public, yet.

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