Evicted From His Apartment… Then Bought the Building | Old-School Real Estate Lending

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, Mark shares his extensive experience in real estate lending, emphasizing a hands-on approach and a commitment to supporting borrowers. He discusses his unique journey into the industry, the importance of faith and character in business, and strategies for scaling and improving business practices. Mark also highlights the streamlined lending process his company offers, which focuses on efficiency and effective communication with clients.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Mark Wallace’s Phone Number: (773)617-2042
    • Mark Wallace’s Email: [email protected]

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Mark Wallace (00:00)
  it took you know some ups and downs and some hiccups and some… A couple of times I came close to being evicted from my apartments and I actually was evicted from my apartment once.

  But the day that I got evicted, I had just closed the largest deal, real estate transaction, that same day that I was evicted. And I came back home and all of my things were out on the front curb. when I came back, I had a pocketful of money.

  And I told the landlord that I had all of his money I gave him his money. He had his people to move all of my stuff back into my apartment. I ended up buying that building from him two years later,

  Quentin Edmonds (02:18)
  Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And listen, I think this is the first time I can say this on this podcast. This gentleman here in front of me has 45 years of experience, but combined with his partner, they got 75 years of combined experience. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before. So you know what that means. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been in it for a long time by his own admission. They’re old school lenders.

  They got away they like to do it and they stick to it and it’s been working and so I’m so excited for us to peek through the lens and get to know a little bit better Mr. Mark Wallace. Mark, how you doing today sir?

  Mark Wallace (03:00)
  fantastic. Thank you for having me.

  Quentin Edmonds (03:03)
  Absolutely. Thank you for being here. And this is Mr. Mark. I kind of just want to dive in. I want you to tell the people, you know, what’s your main focus these days. Maybe if you want to give them a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got into real estate, you know, how you got passionate about it. We would love to know that. And then let them know what part of the world you’re in, man. So Mr. Mark, sir, you have the floor.

  Mark Wallace (03:24)
  Well, thank you. Listen, I have a very unique or interesting story as to how I got into real estate. I actually got into real estate on a fluke. It was nothing that I had any ambitions of, it was nothing that I knew anything about. I was actually working for a lawyer while I was in college down in Miami, which is where I’m from. And I was in college and I was working for a lawyer that was putting together a real estate magazine, a for sale by owner magazine at the time.

  And unfortunately that lawyer had some other issues and his company got raided by the feds and we, the employees were kind of sitting there wondering what to do next. And so there was a lawyer who that particular lawyer was renting space from that came over and introduced himself to me.

  and said, you know, well, what are you going to do next? I said, well, I got to get a job. And so he said to me, he was, he’s a taxation attorney, but he also was involved in real estate. But he said to me, do you know anything about real estate? And I was like, no, I don’t. He said, would you like to learn? I said, well, does it pay? He said, yeah, if you do a good job. I said, well, I need a job. And so he took me under his wings and

  He taught me how to put together commercial transaction, commercial acquisitions. And I learned that pretty quickly and went to work for that firm. And then I ended up becoming the vice president of their commercial acquisitions for their clients, for the firm. So that’s how I got involved in real estate. And then after I graduated from college,

  I moved to Chicago for another job opportunity. so I worked for that company for a very short period of time, but I fell in love with the area. I fell in love with Chicago. And so at the time I said, I have to be able to pay for myself, you know to make a living, to be able to stay here. So I told my mother that I was going to branch out on my own. I’m going to try it.

  to see if I could sustain myself. And so my motivation was that I wanted to stay in Chicago. In order to do that, I had to be able to afford it.

  it took you know some ups and downs and some hiccups and some… A couple of times I came close to being evicted from my apartments and I actually was evicted from my apartment once.

  But the day that I got evicted, I had just closed the largest deal, real estate transaction, that same day that I was evicted. And I came back home and all of my things were out on the front curb. But the good thing about it is the landlord had his people to stay there with my property until I came back. And so when I came back, I had a pocketful of money.

  And I told the landlord that I had all of his money and someone in the background said told him to help me out. And he did. I gave him his money. He had his people to move all of my stuff back into my apartment. I ended up buying that building from him two years later,

  almost a month. so I went on to do great things. I operated a mortgage company for about 23 years.

  while doing some investments and then got out of that and then started doing some developments. And so my partner and I, we did some developments here. And then when the market crashed in 2008, we decided that we’re not going to do any more acquisitions, but we still have to make a living. So what we started doing is we started doing private lending. And so

  We did that and we have been doing that for the last 15 years.

  Quentin Edmonds (08:08)
  Yeah, I love it, Mr. Marks. Thank you so much for the story. Fascinating story. I mean, just I love it. I love how you talked about, you know, of course, starting it out, talking about the rage, you know, working for a lawyer in college and then VP acquisition, so being evicted, then buying a building that they try to evict you from. That’s awesome. So I kind of want to pick into you as your personality, right? What

  are some identifiable traits that you know this that has helped you be the successful man that you are? Like what makes you very good at what you do? Can you tell me if there’s some identifiable traits that you know help you be who you are today?

  Mark Wallace (09:26)
  Yeah, well, first and foremost, I am a person of faith. My mother started ingraining faith in us since we can remember being in the world. So she would get us up every morning to and put us all around the bed on our knees. And so we would have prayer. So first and foremost, I am a person of faith. My faith is very important to me. You know, people would call me a Christian. I call myself a follower of Christ, whatever label that somebody wants to put that on.

  I think that the thing that is most important to me is character and having the courage and the conscience to do the right thing. So I think that that is the most critical thing that drives me every day and that I don’t know that it sets me apart, but it certainly sets the foundation for everything that I do.

  Quentin Edmonds (10:18)
  Absolutely. So hopefully I get this story right. I get the characters right in the story. But when you be talking about your mom putting you guys on your knees, think that there was a story of Martin Luther and I think, you know, one of the great revivalists. There was a tour of I think a house like where he prayed in, believe. Hopefully I get the, I got the main points right. Hopefully I get the people.

  But they had a tour of young people that went to where he used to pray. And so when they went into his room, you know, as a tour, they could see like the knee prints in the ground. And so a young man kneeled down in those knee prints and he started to pray. And people had went in, got on the bus and they noticed that he wasn’t there. So one of the faculty went back and said, Hey, you know, you know, we got to go. And so years later, we found out that that person that was kneeling in those same kind of knee prints.

  was actually the great revivalist, man, I just blanked on his name, but Billy Graham. And when I’ve been a young Billy Graham, that was playing right where those knee prints were. So it’s just interesting when I hear you talk about your mom putting you on your knees, it just goes to show the power of prayer and how later on prayers can manifest into something very big and give you so much clarity in your life. And so pass off to your mama, you know, for,

  but it’s in faith into you. And I’m so glad to see the man that you are today. So I appreciate you sharing that about yourself, about faith being one of the biggest things that really helped power you in your life. I appreciate that.

  Mark Wallace (11:54)
  Absolutely. Thank you.

  Quentin Edmonds (11:56)
  Yes, sir. So let me ask you this. What are the next real goals for you? What are you looking to solve or scale next?

  Mark Wallace (12:03)
  Well, you know what, we’re always looking to see how we can scale up our business, how that we can grow our business and that we can help others to grow because we have the resources available. So how can we match up our resources with investors

  who are out there and have the wherewithal, they have some equity, but they don’t have that supporting equity to help them get from point A to point B. And so that’s why we call our company Chicago Bridge Loan. And so that we are a bridge from point A to point B to get you to that point to where hopefully we can do multiple projects

  with them and then at some point you won’t need us any longer. So just, you know, that is the key. I believe in life that you don’t have to make big adjustments in order to make large improvements or gains. So, minor adjustments in being able to be more effective and always looking for

  that way to be more efficient about what we do. My partner and I both challenge each other, right? Challenge each other to be better at what we do. We are not a large operation, but we have what we consider to be a very tight knit process that is not one that is bogged down in paperwork because we believe that that

  is a part of the bottleneck. So we’ve eliminated that portion of our business, which is why we are so hands on. You call me, give me the bullet points of your business and then or your project. And then we set up an opportunity or time to meet at that project to see what we can do to if this is a good fit and then go to the next stage stages of closing that.

  to get you into funding so that you can get your project out of the way. So those are the things that we are always in business, you’re always looking to scale up. You’re always looking to do more quality funding. And I look at it as every project that I’m able to fund is a project that we are able to create an improvement of the community and available housing for some.

  family to come, as well as helping somebody to create security and wealth.

  Quentin Edmonds (15:12)
  Absolutely. I love it. You mentioned your business partner. I love how you talk about impacting the community and helping people. So I want to talk a little bit about relationships. What is your perspective on relationship building? Is it important? Has it benefited you? What is your lens when it comes to it? So how do you feel about relationship building? What’s your perspective on

  Mark Wallace (15:34)
  think relationship building is a critical component just in life in general. ⁓ Is that nobody lives on an island unto himself. ⁓ And so we’re all made better by having people who are sharper around us. The Bible says that iron sharpens iron, so one man to another. So ⁓ there’s no ego in this thing for us. It is that we want to work with people

  who have positive ⁓ outlooks ⁓ and people who want to do ⁓ good jobs. And so I think it’s important to establish relationships because there are different areas that people have expertise in. But I think it’s important to have a relationship because in having relationships means that the people that you are working with

  identify with what you value and you identify with what they value. So I think relationships are really important.

  Quentin Edmonds (16:41)
  I absolutely love it. That’s a great Bible verse actually in the Amplified Classic Bible. It says that our shopping is on and it happens through discussion. So just another translation. But like that our shopping is on because of the discussions that you have and the relationship that you build and the correspondence, the communication that you have. And so I absolutely love that relationship, just like you said, or absolutely everything.

  Mr. Mark, let me ask you, is there a topic that we have not touched, something that you wanted to talk about that we haven’t talked about yet, or is there any kind of words of encouragement, motivation, education that you think people would actually benefit from? If it is, I would love to hear it from you.

  Mark Wallace (17:20)
  Yeah, what I would say is that for people who have ambitions to scale their business up is that to always continue to study, always continue to look for ways to improve your process, improve your quality of execution. Because in this business, time is very critical. Time management is very critical. So look at

  every day as to how you are approaching a process in terms of your time management, that you’re getting your reports done or that you’re not putting off tomorrow for what you can do today. And really looking at making those minor adjustments that can make great improvements into getting the job done because we’re all responsible.

  to someone else in this real estate business. I know that people like to say, well, you know, I work for myself. Well, there’s really not a such thing as working for yourself because if you provide a product to someone, then you are working for that person because you are responsible for making sure that they’re getting a good product. And that goes down the line. So making sure that ⁓ you evaluate your projects

  and that you’ve really done the analysis of your project. First, you know, what it’s gonna cost to purchase a property, what the real numbers are that it’s going to cost to renovate the property, not pie in the sky numbers, not numbers that you think is going to favor a lender. Some people make that mistake thinking that, you know, they’re gonna buy a property and it may cost $150,000 to renovate. And they think that it’s better for them to tell the lender that it’s gonna cost $50,000.

  But when the lender gets out there, the lender knows, and certainly when you do the analysis, no, this is not gonna cost 50, it’s gonna cost 150. That is not a good thing for a lender to see because the lender is not sure that you are capable of doing this because your analysis was way off. So the important thing is to be very, very forthright with whatever the information is so that

  you can make a determination on whether or not that is a good project that is going to be profitable and for you to do. If it’s not on the paper and the real numbers, then you know you don’t have to make that mistake.

  Quentin Edmonds (19:57)
  Absolutely. Listen, Mr. Mark, I appreciate you, sir. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

  Mark Wallace (20:07)
  Yeah, you can reach me directly. I always tell people you can call me direct at 773-617-2042, or you can email me at [email protected]. That’s [email protected]. I’m always available to answer calls. And one of the other things that we talked about earlier is that we have a very streamlined process. There is no applications with us.

  You don’t have to fill out any type of application. All you have to do is call us after you’ve done your due diligence on any project. Tell us how much it’s going to cost you to purchase the property, what it’s going to cost to renovate the property, and what that property will sell for after the renovation. Those are the three critical things that we need to know. If those numbers make sense, then we make the determination to set an appointment to come and see you. Paperwork is not something

  that we load you up on the front end to make a determination on whether or not there is a project. We believe in what I say, the old school way of doing lending is so effective that because again, time is always important. So we are trying to streamline the process to get you from point A to point B as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

  Quentin Edmonds (21:33)
  I love it. Well, listen, Mr. Mark, sir, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective. I appreciate you coming through and really adding value to the people that’s listening. So thank you so much for being here today.

  Mark Wallace (21:47)
  Thank you very much for having me

  Quentin Edmonds (21:49)
  Absolutely. So listen, y’all got the got the nuggets from Mr. Mark. You can’t tell me you didn’t get the value. So definitely check him out. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because you do not want to miss out on these valuable, encouraging conversations that we’re going to continue to have with people just like Mr. Mark. So sir, thank you again. And everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.