Avoid Contractor Nightmares: How Orange County GC Clark Brooks Protects Real Estate Investors

Share via:

Subscribe via:

In this conversation, Clark Brooks discusses the comprehensive approach his company takes in the home buying and construction process. He emphasizes the importance of being a one-stop shop, providing in-house design and engineering services, and streamlining the permitting process to ensure efficiency and reduce delays. Brooks highlights the significance of thorough planning and collaboration with various professionals to minimize corrections and enhance the overall experience for clients.

Resources and Links from this show:

Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

Clark Brooks (00:00)
If they pick the wrong GC, that’s ⁓ a big issue because I’ve taken over a couple projects from GCs that mess things up. There’s guys who are unlicensed, they say that they are, and the homeowner didn’t do their due diligence to actually check them out and make sure that they have the proper insurance and everything. ⁓

heard these horror stories of homeowners giving $50,000 to a contractor and they just took off. Those kinds of things. So educating them upfront about the selection process for a general contractor. And it kind of ties into the former question about pitfalls. Identifying those things and just giving them fair warning about kind of what to do and how to do it right regarding selecting somebody. And they really like the device and they usually hire me because I’m aware of those things and they were not aware at all.

Michelle Kesil (02:15)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to connecting with, Clark Brooks, who is a general contractor in the Orange County area. So, excited to have you on the show today, Clark.

Clark Brooks (02:32)
Yeah, thanks for being here.

Michelle Kesil (02:33)
Yeah, absolutely. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching creating a one-stop shop with your contracting business, so let’s dive in. First off, for those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is these days?

Clark Brooks (02:54)
main focus is basically remodeling in Orange County and we can also build homes with ground up. done that. So mostly residential construction.

Michelle Kesil (03:02)
awesome and what have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to be able to run smoothly.

Clark Brooks (03:12)
Well, ⁓ we have a pretty good echelon of management regarding site supervisors and foremen and we’ve pretty much been able to dial in the building process with subcontractors and in-house tradesmen. So we’re able to control cost, speed and quality. So that’s been pretty good for our operations. And an extensive network and networking with realtors and other people related to the real estate industry and word of mouth, combination of word of mouth and marketing has been helping so.

Michelle Kesil (03:39)
Absolutely. How did you get started as a contractor?

Clark Brooks (03:43)
Well actually, ⁓ when I graduated in September 2008 from Boston University, I graduated into the Great Recession.

With a dual degree from corporate finance in corporate finance corporate entrepreneurship from BU and so that was kind of difficult I did land in finance for about three years. I was a financial advisor and I had my series 7 6 63 all that stuff and But it was struggling It’s very difficult when you’re 22 to try and sell somebody in their 60s or just lost millions of dollars to Help them with their financial planning and then I had a girlfriend at the time and her mother was going to remodel her house and she

came to me basically and asked if I’d be interested in remodeling her home because I was looking to get out of finance, it just wasn’t working and I said sure and so I figured it out. I physically worked with the tradesmen that I was hiring, the subcontractors and started figuring it out from there and just kept taking it forward and forward and now we’ve built homes, we do major remodels and I my license and everything.

Michelle Kesil (04:36)
Awesome, that’s so cool that you were able to learn a new skill just like that.

Clark Brooks (04:41)
Yep, pretty handy.

Michelle Kesil (04:43)
Yeah. So what are some of the ways that your specific company is unique compared to other contractors?

Clark Brooks (05:39)
Yeah, regarding here in Southern California, a big thing that we’re pretty good at is hillside work. So that’s the first bullet point of about three or four. Regarding our specialties, a lot of GCs don’t like doing that stuff, or they don’t have the subs, or even the experience doing it. So whether it’s caissons and drilling and retaining walls and grade beams, we’re pretty good at that stuff. And there’s a lot of good views here in Orange County. So probably 25 % of the homes or more are on a slope.

So that’s pretty unique that we offer that service and we’re doing that. Then also value engineering is a big thing that we do.

So value engineering is the concept or idea of controlling costs and quality together. So we work very closely with the engineers and the architects from the beginning. We’re very heavily involved in the beginning of the process before permits during the design to control that cost, speed, and implementation so that there are less hiccups down the line. And we can actually get more construction from my company than we can with others because of that value engineering. Then we can stretch the dollars more. So clients really like that one.

And then also we’re a one-stop shop. There’s some companies that claim to be design, build, one-stop shop, but a lot of them kind of fall short on that concept. But from just the initial idea of even a siting a property, whether it’s land or home, we can be involved in the beginning and done that many times, all the way to turnkey projects being done, handing them the keys to that project. So that’s a lot of clients like that. And then also that I’m the main point of contact.

So as owner of this company and the prime general contractor that’s very rare, usually clients get passed off to a project manager, project coordinator, where I am the single point of contact. I’m always around, constantly there with clients, so they really like that as well.

Michelle Kesil (07:13)
Amazing. That is pretty awesome that you guys are able to offer such a unique approach to the contracting work that so many people that I talk to on this show often struggle with finding the right contractors. seems to be one of the bottlenecks for investors, so it’s good to hear that you guys are able to resolve a lot of those issues.

How do you work with investors in particular?

Clark Brooks (07:40)
Well, you know if an investor comes to me and they want to flip a home then we’ll do a job walk obviously and then we’ll sit down together and I will write up, know, the general scope of work and where I see the pricing generally landing for all the trades and then I can actually advise them.

hey, you it’s not worth doing an ADU over here, put it over here, it’s not on a slope. So I started advising them where to put their dollars to get the most bang for the buck, let’s say, and highest rate of return. And they like that because GCs don’t really offer that.

and they’re not too savvy with construction. I mean they’re familiar with it, but really you know is it outdoor kitchens that gets the most rate of return? Is it square footage that wins the day? Now they know those things to a degree, but implementing it is kind of its own process and I started advising them on the construction, the timeline, all that, so they like that comprehensive approach to ⁓ putting their money in the most efficient place. So it’s kind of flippers and then also land developers, I’m talking to two right now, about some sizable developments over a hundred homes in each of those.

and advising them on the utilities, Southern California Edison, the waste management, getting all of the MEPs there before they even break ground and then doing a three tiered analysis, A, B, and C, of the viability of building single family homes, town homes, or apartment homes, and which one would really work. And that’s advice that they say they’ve never even received. So that’s kind of cool to able to work with them and get that positive feedback.

Michelle Kesil (09:03)
Yeah, that’s great to be able to consult with them and support them with the right advice on their journey. Are there any particular education gaps that you often find that investors aren’t aware of that you see yourself supporting them with?

Clark Brooks (09:19)
Yeah, maybe California specific things regarding employment law, you know if they hire just a handyman if they give them over $600 They’re supposed to have a license so I kind of tell them about potential pitfalls of them avoiding those things and being able to vet the right tradesmen whoever they are with a handyman or GC or whatever So they they like getting that advice and yeah, because they’re not too familiar with it

And so, yeah, I’ve seen we’ve gotten some positive feedback telling him about pitfalls, about employment laws, kind of the big one.

Michelle Kesil (09:50)
Yeah, absolutely, that makes sense.

What are you most focusing on solving or scaling to next in your business?

Clark Brooks (10:34)
Mmm Well ⁓ We have pretty good capacity. We could do five to six multi-million dollar projects at once So we’ve got that pretty dialed in ⁓ You know, my dream is to do ⁓ a hundred million dollars a year in 15 to 25 custom homes if that’s where we land or we’ll do intermittent commercial stuff So that’s my dream. So scaling to that point is gonna take a while, but we’ll be able to do it So yeah, what was the second part of the question

Michelle Kesil (11:01)
What are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Clark Brooks (11:05)
Yeah, so that kind of answers the scaling part. So solving is, well I mean it’s kind of a constant thing, always finding good tradesmen. And we have a really good depth and breadth of quality subcontractors already. But if we’re gonna start scaling, that’s a problem that’s gonna start popping up. Then we’re gonna have to find more guys that are qualified. And I say that’s kind of a current problem, you always finding good subs. And…

getting the phone to consistently ring and go through projects but we have the building process pretty dialed in. It’s kind of the marketing thing that we’re really trying to solve right now.

Michelle Kesil (11:37)
Yeah, absolutely. What are some common obstacles that most people find themselves in once they start working with contractors that you kind of support people with and guide them through on this journey?

Clark Brooks (11:52)
If they pick the wrong GC, that’s ⁓ a big issue because I’ve taken over a couple projects from GCs that mess things up. There’s guys who are unlicensed, they say that they are, and the homeowner didn’t do their due diligence to actually check them out and make sure that they have the proper insurance and everything. ⁓

heard these horror stories of homeowners giving $50,000 to a contractor and they just took off. Those kinds of things. So educating them upfront about the selection process for a general contractor. And it kind of ties into the former question about pitfalls. Identifying those things and just giving them fair warning about kind of what to do and how to do it right regarding selecting somebody. And they really like the device and they usually hire me because I’m aware of those things and they were not aware at all.

I give them all the documentation right up front so they like that as well.

Michelle Kesil (12:38)
Yeah, that’s important. What are some things that ensure a project goes to plan and runs smoothly?

Clark Brooks (12:46)
That is the number one thing is change orders just chew up tons of time and tons of money and then when we’re going through the entire project the clients wondering why it’s costing so much and I document all those things and then hand them the change orders as to why and so they know

That is like the number one thing that just adds a lot of time and money, but with me specifically we’re actually able to Nowadays reduce a lot of that by doing 3d renderings up front They see it in full color in artificial intelligence is helping with that as well So they know and they can see what’s going to be built and that reduces change orders then also there’s a company here in Orange County that provides walkthroughs and it’s a huge warehouse and they put the floor plan on the floor and the clients can walk the entire home to feel the space if it meets their needs

So that reduces change orders dramatically. So kind of those two, really being able to see it visually and then being able to physically walk it before anything is built, that’s huge.

Michelle Kesil (13:42)
Yeah, that’s really cool that you can do that with technology these days.

Clark Brooks (13:47)
Yeah, oh yeah, and also virtual reality glasses, the Oculus glasses. We have those too and they can actually do a flight, so I’ll call it a fly through. They can go through the entire home as well. So we do that also.

Michelle Kesil (13:56)
Awesome.

So, what are, like I know you mentioned you’re a one stop shop, what does that actually mean? Can you expand on that?

Clark Brooks (14:03)
Yeah, so if somebody is, I actually have a potential client meeting tomorrow, the guy hasn’t bought the home yet, he’s putting in an offer on a house in the city of Orange, and I’m gonna walk through with him and his realtor and advise him on what can be done, the cost, the duration, all that, so that they can stay in their current home while the work is being done. So, ⁓ one stop shop, that’s literally in the beginning. They don’t even have the house, the parcel, the land, nothing yet. And then I’m going to do all the permits, I’m gonna bring all the engineers and architects and designers on board that we need.

⁓ Lots of in-house design as well, so we have the capability. And so every team member that’s needed, the geologists, the MEP engineers, the energy engineers, I have all those resources available and we’ve done it enough times that we know how it goes. And so it’s very important in the beginning process with the design and the permitting, also with my experience, I’m able to identify things that the cities and the governments are going to want to see on the plans. And I heavily scrutinize those plans as I’m involved the whole time, developing them with everyone.

and that reduces corrections because corrections with the city permitting department take forever. So you want just maybe two back and forth, two to three or so, that’s about it. You want the shortest list possible. So that really beginning stage is really big for us being a one-stop shop and then we’ll do the obvious actual construction and then we can also help with the furniture at the end. We have moving companies, we can get all that stuff in there. From start to finish, we can provide everything.

Michelle Kesil (15:29)
Amazing. That is so helpful. Yeah, I’m sure the less touch points the people have to go through, the easier and simpler it becomes.

Clark Brooks (15:39)
Yeah, construction doesn’t have to be painful.

Michelle Kesil (16:22)
Yeah, I know you are particularly in the Orange County market. Why would that market be the right fit for investors that are looking for new projects?

Clark Brooks (16:33)
Mmm investment here is a little bit tough. You know the Pacific Palisades fire actually created this big migration and It displaced over 400,000 people and it added additional pressure into the real estate market for quite a while and they’re still here So, you know, they obviously lost their homes. So Pricing here in Orange County has increased But one good actually a couple bullet points that are good about Orange County is there’s a lot of aging homes

So a lot of homes are built all the way from the early 1900s up until the 1970s. Even the ones in the 80s now that were developed by the Irvine Company, they are aging. And their useful life is hitting its peak. So I would say that the age of lot of the homes around here is helping to spur investment in remodeling, basically. That’s one thing. ⁓

There’s also a lot of realtors per listing. So I’ve heard this statistic, I don’t know if it’s true, that there’s up to a thousand realtors per listing in Orange County, which is a lot. But what that also means is that you have a lot of people to contact that investors could really talk to a lot of realtors. ⁓

and they’d have their ear to the ground to be able to identify a property that’s maybe a pocket listing, that’s not on the MLS yet. So I’ve done a couple of those and that worked out pretty well. So whether it’s pocket listing, lots of realtors they can talk to, the homes that are aging in place, ⁓ I would say that kind of those factors are adding into the viability of investing here. And also ⁓ clean streets, low crime, ⁓ good governance helps because bad governance is actually a tax.

So since we have really good governance here, that helps a lot in the investment ⁓ arena regarding real estate, because then people actually want to live here. So it makes it more popular when you remodel a home and invest in it.

Michelle Kesil (18:14)
Yeah, amazing. Thank you for sharing that. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, and that’s kind of a struggle with what happened with those natural disasters, but hopefully things start to balance out soon.

Awesome. When it comes to growing your business, whether that’s through networking or relationship building, what are some tools that have made the biggest difference for you?

Clark Brooks (18:40)
Yeah, big one is relationship building

So as an example, I offer a 10-year workmanship warranty on all of our projects, which is ⁓ not required by the government or anything. That’s only a one-year requirement. offering that 10-year warranty, clients like, and we don’t have really any quality control issues with our projects, but if for some reason something goes wrong, they can call me, I answer the phone, I schedule the repair very quickly at no cost to them. So they like that. And that ties into the relationship building that I have relationships with clients for the long term.

They’re almost like family. It’s where if we joke around and we have a good time and they’ve invited me to personal events and everything and it’s great. So good relationships with our current clients and ⁓ gonna be future clients and then relationship building with kind of realtors and these associations. I’ve joined about a dozen of them this year in 2025.

and starting to foster those in-person relationships ⁓ seems to be working. So they are referring me to ⁓ projects. So I’m seeing that work for the first time. That’s very interesting to do that.

Michelle Kesil (19:40)
Yeah, that’s amazing. Relationships are everything in this space and it’s really cool what kind of connections you can make from just going out and meeting the people in your in-person network.

Clark Brooks (19:51)
Yeah, it’s definitely interesting. Everyone has a very interesting perspective on real estate, so it’s good to see.

Michelle Kesil (19:57)
Is there a common perspective that you see, I guess, for where things are currently?

Clark Brooks (20:04)
Yeah, one thing that keeps coming up is affordability. Everybody keeps talking about it because I’m a millennial, so I’m interacting with other millennials and I’m wondering if they can ever be homeowners and we’re discussing what can be done about it, how to address it, how to control it. That comes back to the value engineering concept of construction anyways. ⁓ then also ⁓ interacting with lot of realtors about the pocket listing idea that it’s not a feeding frenzy in the bidding. You don’t get into a bidding war, so kind of knowing…

Michelle Kesil (20:07)
Mm-hmm.

Clark Brooks (20:32)
Realtor’s is helping with that and be a little bit more affordable, but that seems to be the common thing that everybody’s Interested in solving and they keep coming up as a pain point with everyone. Yeah, I kind of almost no matter what their age is So that was a common theme I keep seeing over and over and I’m providing some solutions to a degree and Maybe with these bigger investors with these land development things We’re trying to see if it’s possible to build homes that are semi custom But they kind of look custom that are just not a thousand dollars a square foot

couple hundred dollars and we’re trying to work on that.

Michelle Kesil (21:03)
amazing. That’s a good opportunity and something that’s really needed.

Awesome. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, collaborate, learn more from you, where can people find you?

Clark Brooks (21:16)
yeah, my website is ⁓ icraftsmanship.com so Innovative Craftsmanship. And so that’s our main website, I put a lot of time into that one. But also I’m on almost 50 websites now, so I’m all over the internet. That’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, all the social media stuff, including Howes.com and other ones. So pretty easy to find me. So they can find me the internet and my phone number’s on their email, so pretty easy to contact us.

Michelle Kesil (21:43)
Well, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. Thank you for being here.

Clark Brooks (21:49)
Yeah, thanks for having me. This was great.

Michelle Kesil (21:51)
Of course. And for the listeners tuning into the show, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Clark who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on our next episode.

Tags:

Investor Fuel

Avoid Contractor Nightmares: How Orange County GC Clark Brooks Protects Real Estate Investors

Show Summary

Resources and Links from this show:

Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

Tags:

Ready to take your business to the next level? Take the next steps below