How Bill Clark Built Wealth with Creative Real Estate Investing in Michigan

Bill Clark (00:00)
Back in the day,

I’ve literally had banks give me homes,

quit claiming these properties to me, gave me a warranty deed on them.

sold for 20 grand

Dylan Silver (01:40)
folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a Michigan based full cycle real estate investor who’s been active in the business since the eighties. Please welcome Bill Clark. Bill, welcome to the show.

Bill Clark (01:53)
Thank you very much, Dylan.

Dylan Silver (01:55)
It’s great to have you on the show here. We were talking quite a bit before hopping on about a number of things, but I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Bill Clark (02:06)
I don’t know if we have enough time to talk about it, but no, it’s, I’ve always heard about real estate, know, kind of share a story real quick. I’ve always heard about real estate and you know, I used to see those infomercials on TV. You know, big Dave Del Dato.

Tommy who if you remember him, you probably don’t, but these are the guys and legends that kind of started the infomercial industry. And I’d see about these people making all this money on TV and I’m like, you know what, I’m gonna pick up the phone and I’m gonna make that call. So I made the call and bought the Dave DelDotto program. And it just so happens a couple of weeks after I bought the program, he was gonna have a seminar in Chicago. And I’m like, I think I was like 21 years old, I’m like, what the hell? I have no direction where I’m going in life other than where college was gonna take

me because I was going to be a social worker which really I didn’t want to be that guy. so I ended up going to the seminar and I was listening to all these stories, these testimonials of people making all this money and like this is too good to be true. It can’t be true. And I actually physically talked to these people and I mean

I was astounded because a lot of these people couldn’t beat themselves out of wet paper bag. And I’m thinking, they’re making this kind of money? I said, I gotta do it. So I jumped into it. I took a leap of faith and I jumped into my first home, bought a HUD home. And from there I renovated it and refinanced it out and bought another one, bought another one. Then what happens, the bank says, okay, after five houses, they’re not gonna loan you any more money. And I’m like, what the hell? thought my real estate was done.

Dylan Silver (03:32)
Hmm.

Bill Clark (03:35)
I’ve continued to further investigate going to seminars because that’s where I learned a lot was going to these seminars. Anymore today it’s just the podcasts that you’re learning from and these videos programs that they offer. But I like going to the source. I like going to meet the person and meet other people. I hope they engage back into doing physical seminars.

Dylan Silver (03:47)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (03:55)
And I’d learn a lot, you know, but you got to kind of be careful these two. A lot of it’s lot of hype. You know, there’s a lot of hype. You spend a lot of money if you don’t be careful because just on books, tapes, courses, I’ve spent over 250,000 over my career on just educational programs. And that’s saying I regret it because it’s taken me where I’m at today. And as I mentioned earlier,

Dylan Silver (04:11)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (04:17)
that if someone would have told me when I was 21 years old where I’d be at today, I’d say you’re full of shit. Because honestly, I never thought I could be where I’m at today. And I’m so blessed and thankful for the people I’ve met, the knowledge I have in this industry. And it’s truly not a job. It’s a hobby. I come and go as I please. I make my own hours. I show up when I need to. And it’s just one of the best things I think I’ve ever done is real estate investing.

Dylan Silver (05:32)
I

want to ask you about the the regionality if you will of real estate. So I’m a Texas licensed realtor. I now do this remotely but wherever you are in the country it’s got a different set of rules different set of people different set of you know cultural even and so Michigan is an area that I know very little about and I’m curious getting started in Michigan.

Were there specific deals that worked well in Michigan that didn’t work well in other areas of the country? And then how is it since grown and scaled being an investor out there?

Bill Clark (06:03)
Well, mean what real estate in Michigan, I think it’s a lot it’s less expensive. Let’s say compared to Florida and in reference to the language or let’s say that the rules and regulations because I’ve been invested in other states not only in Michigan. You’ve got stuff in Atlanta have stuff in Florida. I never ventured in Texas where you’re from.

but I have in other areas. And the laws and rules are very similar. And the thing is, you just don’t want to break the law. That’s the thing. You don’t want to break the rules. I mean, there’s gray areas of real estate that you can kind of venture into. speaking with people across the country, real estate in Michigan is still cheap. mean…

Matter of fact, we have a lot of Cuban families that are moving to Michigan because it’s half the cost of what it is down in Florida. mean, the Florida market just kind of went nuts. so a home in Florida, let’s just say if it’s a $500,000 home in Florida, you can buy that same home for 250 in Michigan. I just think that Michigan to me is a growing market because especially with the remote, when they had the COVID and people can

Dylan Silver (06:53)
It is.

Bill Clark (07:10)
be more remote and

the computers and they do jobs from their home and people can kind of relocate where they really want to go. And if you haven’t been to Michigan, I’m telling you the great lakes around Michigan are like oceans. I mean, they’re just miles and miles. can’t see the other end of the, you know, it’s not a lake. You know, people think that, you know, like Michigan or the lakes that we have are ponds. They’re not, these are huge lakes and they’re like oceans. And, and, you know, the great thing about us, I was sharing with one of my workers that come from Florida and I just said, we don’t have sharks,

in

water. We don’t have alligators. I just said that we don’t have hurricanes, which is kind of nice too, but it’s gorgeous. If anybody ever gets a chance to come to Michigan, come and check out the Great Lakes. It’s one of the greatest places you think. It’s like an undiscovered area in the United States because we have crystal blue water. I mean, water where you can see 40, 50 feet down. Yeah, it’s gorgeous. mean, the…

Dylan Silver (07:42)
Great.

Really? Like glacier water,

basically.

Bill Clark (08:05)
it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. And there’s a lot of people starting to migrate in this area. I kind of get off a little tangent, but I just am.

Dylan Silver (08:15)
No, that’s okay.

have more questions now. want to ask you pivot a bit here and ask you about the Great Lakes because of course I know geographically about the Great Lakes but have never been up there. Shame on me. I need to go especially after talking with you here. I’m curious folks who may be looking at different asset classes for investing and they may be looking at short term rentals, long term, mid term, know, corporate housing. They may be looking at multifamily.

If they’re investing in the Great Lakes area, are you preferential towards one of those types of asset classes?

Bill Clark (08:46)
When you buy property on a lake, that’s less to depreciate compared to the inland. You’re to spend a little bit more, but you can make a lot more money with it as well. I have a lot of condos that are in the water, and they’re kind of BBROs, which when people go on vacation and want to be in the water, in many cases when you come to Michigan.

And, but in regards to, you know, one specific, whether it’s a rental, BBRO or fix and flip, I like to do a variety. Okay. A variety of, you know, like have rentals, have lease option, have land contracts, do some fix and flips. And also,

as I mentioned to you earlier prior to the podcast is that, you know, it opens up opportunities which I’ve got into commercial as well, because that’s the next big thing is getting into commercial. That’s where the big, big money is. I mean, you’re, you know, I had the opportunity years ago to meet this multi-multi-millionaire and he just said, you know, the difference between you and I is that you’re running around getting all your money at different places. He says, kind of look at it this way. You have all these boats out in the ocean.

Dylan Silver (10:10)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (10:25)
And he says, but I have one big ship. I go to the ship and get my money. You have to go to each little boat to get your money, which makes a lot of sense. And he’s more or less talking about commercial, talking about getting into the apartment complexes, getting into just various retail centers, things like that. But he’s always talked about warehousing, to get into warehousing. So back in…

Dylan Silver (10:44)
I love that,

yeah.

Bill Clark (10:45)
So back in 2004, bought my first commercial warehouse. And it’s been a blessing ever since. And so that’s been really big. We’re doing a lot of commercial flux building, which are basically you’re just building warehouses out of metal.

You see a lot of commercials called General Steel and you buy it, you throw it up and these things rent. I mean, they go like hotcakes. And I like dealing with those a lot better versus rental of houses because as we know, these rental houses could take you down to rabbit hole if you have to take them to court and all that and get them out of there. Versus I’ve never had ever to evict any of my storage renters out of the commercial end of storage.

So,

we got a big project right now going, it’s like a three and a half million dollar project, and we’ve already got deposits, and this thing’s not even completed. So, I mean, I encourage people, you gotta get started into something that usually houses the least expensive, but if you have the opportunity to get into commercial, do it, because there’s bigger money there, I find it being easier.

Dylan Silver (11:45)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (11:56)
And I think there’s just more opportunity. because it’s just phenomenal. I just love it. And yeah, I don’t regret it.

Dylan Silver (11:59)
in the commercial space.

I want to ask

you about getting into the commercial space. mean, you mentioned really had quite extensive experience before getting into commercial for folks who may just be getting started. Is it even possible for them to get into commercial without, you know, lots of people propping them up, maybe friends or family who are in the business? Or do you have to have that experience prior to when single family or in a different asset class before you go over to commercial?

Bill Clark (12:15)
Sure.

No, not necessarily. mean, because, you know, the thing is what kind of feared me when I first got started is that, you commercial, it’s more expensive. OK, so you’re dealing, you’re adding zeros to the numbers that you’re working with now. So a house, let’s just say you buy it for 150. You may spend one point five million for a building and you’re thinking, you know, got one five, one point five million. And there’s so many deals. you think about this, there’s so many deals that you can create creatively on a land on a land contract because you have

many people that own these buildings.

They truly don’t want to get cashed out of them because then they’re going to pay the capital gains and they don’t want that. So they’re very receptive to doing land contracts, owner financing. You have a better opportunity to buy them with little if no money down. And because when these people get to the point, they’re ready to retire, they just want to kind of chill out, they don’t want to deal with it no more. You know, they’ll listen to creative financing. You know, compared to when you’re going after homes, these people have to sell their house

Dylan Silver (13:25)
Yeah, true.

Bill Clark (13:30)
in order to use that money to buy their next house. So it’s a little more, it’s more difficult to buy a contract with houses compared to commercial properties. you know, and don’t be afraid to these people are just like you and I, they’re no different than you and I because they have.

you know, assets. I mean, these people are receptive to listen to what you have to say because they want out. You know, and this is way I always looked at it is that they want what you have and you want what they have. And you just got to be a transaction coordinator to coordinate this deal to where it’s a win-win for both parties. And, you know, so I just, I encourage people just don’t stop it, you know, buying housing, look at the financial limit as well.

Dylan Silver (14:53)
Yeah.

The creative portion of it, you mentioned people who want out and you have what they have, they have what you have. For folks who may be listening thinking like, what do I have that they would want? I mean, they’ve got the large property, they’ve got the commercial warehouse. I’m looking at that deal. What do I have? Break this down for us. What is it that we have to offer these folks?

Bill Clark (15:12)
Yeah

is you have the money to buy it. Not cash, but you’re gonna be able to make them that monthly payment. They want the freedom, they wanna walk away from the deal. They just like to look, okay, I’m done. Okay, so the thing is, is that’s what you’re giving them. You’re giving them a sense that, I’m gonna take care of this building, I’m gonna buy it from you, okay? So it frees them from having to deal with it anymore, okay? And because many people, and even in the housing industry, I mean, if you think about there’s some times that you have a car,

Dylan Silver (15:36)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (15:41)
or you have something you just want to get rid of. It’s just been a problem to you. Just get rid of it. Just give it away. I mean, you just want to get rid it. But you’ve got someone that’s willing to pay for it. And people are like that with houses, and they’re like that with commercial buildings. Because it costs money, especially an empty house and empty commercial building. That costs these guys money. They’re paying insurance. They’re paying tax on it. And they don’t want to pay that because it’s digging away at their net assets. It’s digging away at their money.

And so they want to, you know, get rid of this thing. If they can get an income on it, you got what they want, which is, hey, you’re going to give them money on a monthly basis because you don’t have the 1.5 million. And so they’re receptive. I mean, like I’ve shared with you prior to the podcast, I’ve bought so many homes and buildings with zero money down and people like, how do you do it?

Dylan Silver (16:33)
How do you do?

Bill Clark (16:34)
Back in the day,

was just kind of like, because I was mentioned to you that when I first started, I bought five houses, banks said no. So I had to figure out how I’m gonna buy more houses. so I learned how to do land contracts, owner financing. Well, what happens there, you’re giving 10,000 down, you’re giving 5,000 down before you’re run out of money.

Dylan Silver (16:52)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (16:52)
So then

you run out of program that you can do with no money down. And I’m like, how do you do that? You know, I just couldn’t fathom it. And so I went to these programs and I learned it, man. And it’s so easy. And people think, you can’t do it.

I’ve literally had banks give me homes,

banks. Okay, because they didn’t want to deal with it. The housing.

They weren’t the greatest place, this probably, this particular deal, there was a bank out of California, there was a couple of houses, and it was going back to the bank. And they didn’t want to deal with it because they have to pay tax on it, they have to pay insurance and the liability. So I just said, listen, I convinced them that these properties were worth nothing.

Dylan Silver (17:22)
Yeah.

Bill Clark (17:28)
Okay, shame on me for not misleading them, but I said there was virtually nothing. I said, you’d be lucky to get five grand. said, but I’ll do your favor. I’ll take them off your hands. I said, you want to deed them to me, quit claim to me? I said, then you have no liability. have to worry about them.

within 30 days

quit claiming these properties to me, gave me a warranty deed on them.

And then I turned around and sold them back then I think

sold for 20 grand

So it’s just like, and there’s those stories I could go on and on about these stories. I mean, it’s crazy how you can make these deals happen. And honestly, I’m not BSing anybody. It is the truth. I mean, there’s times that I get people to throw in cars, boats when I see these homes and they’re just,

Dylan Silver (17:49)
a great strategy. I love it.

Bill Clark (18:10)
sitting

there it’s like, well I don’t want to this one straight would take forever but throwing you know all the furniture in the house they threw in a four-wheeler it just it was just it was a beautiful thing and you know and literally this whole thing was a no money down deal and then I turn around and reassigned my contract because there you go there you go it’s just it’s just crazy so ⁓

Dylan Silver (18:19)
Yeah.

I will sell gold.

That beats any

of the stories that I have. I’ve done ⁓ deals, or I’ve seen deals where I participated in where there’s been pool tables, where we’ve gotten some furniture, but boats and cars is pretty impressive as wholesale gold. that’s, I’ve actually, there’s one deal that I had, didn’t end up going through where I was offering people flights if they wanted to go to a destination. I said, look, I can’t increase my offer by several thousand dollars, but.

If you’d like, can book a flight for you somewhere destination you’d like to go to. And they’re like, you do that? And I say, well, this is a win-win. we are coming up on. Go ahead. Go ahead. I cut you off.

Bill Clark (19:01)
Great.

cost you money to buy their flight. I’m cheap to where I don’t buy anybody flights. It’s like, I’m going to buy your house, I’m going to take over your house payment, and then you’re going to buy me a flight, you know? And then give me the car that’s sitting on the side of the house, that old antique you have sitting there. You know, and this is what I’ve learned too. And if you don’t ask, you’ll never know. Okay? And don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.

Dylan Silver (19:12)
Hehehehe

True.

Bill Clark (19:32)
to go for the throw, go for the juggler, because all they can say is yes or no. And you’ll be amazed that some people will say yes because they’re so motivated and they’re so like, look, I just got to get out of this situation. I need out. I want out. I don’t want the house. I don’t need the house. And, know, and it’s primarily just motivated sellers. You’re not going to get just, you know, your average person that’s selling your home. They don’t take your deal the first time. You know, what I’ve learned too is that time and circumstances

changes people’s minds. Okay, so what I’m getting at is that I offer, let’s say the guy has a house for 150,000, I offer him 100,000. Okay, and he’s like right now he’s not interested, not interested because he wants to make his 50,000 or whatever he’s got to make, you know, because he owes 100,000. I made the offer of taking over his mortgage basically, and so I’m gonna give 100,000 for it. And so he’s not motivated right now.

30 days down the road, nothing’s happening. Another 30 days, you know, they’re getting a little antsy. I gotta do something. When they call me back, okay, now I know that they’re serious and they’re ready to make a deal. And my deal changes because I had offered him 100,000 basically take over his payment, but now time has changed and now you may have to give me a couple thousand dollars, you know, to take over your payment. And people will pay you

to get rid of their situation. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. ⁓

Dylan Silver (20:58)
That is amazing, I never even

thought about that, I’ve thought about the other side of it, but yeah.

Bill Clark (21:02)
Yeah, yeah, because people want out, man. And if they’re that motivated, it’s like, look, I don’t want to deal with this thing. It’s been a headache for me. people will, if you just listen to what they’re saying, they’ll tell you more than what you should know. And then you use that as bargaining tools. I mean, you use that as to help you negotiate the deal. I mean, honestly, I’d probably negotiate it. mean, gosh.

probably over 50,000 different deals I’ve negotiated. Not seeing everyone went through, ⁓ but I really believe that I’m a transaction coordinator and that’s what it takes to make this happen. But it’s gotta be a win-win for all parties. It’s gotta be a win for them, a win for you, and you make sure it’s legit. You don’t cheat people. mean, when I tell them these are things I’m gonna do, I will do it, okay?

Dylan Silver (21:32)
What? Yeah.

every step.

Hashtag.

Ryan.

Bill Clark (21:55)
Where you get yourself in trouble is let’s just say if they assign you know if you say look I’m just give me your payment booklet quick claim the property to me I’m gonna make the payment where I’ve seen some people they don’t make their payment okay and so that creates a problem you know and they yeah and you know but in if you’re upfront with everything

Dylan Silver (22:13)
because it’s in their name, yeah.

Bill Clark (22:19)
That’s the most important thing is just being upfront and put it in writing. It’s gotta be in writing that these are the things you’re gonna do because people have amnesia. I didn’t know you said that. I don’t remember you telling me that they have amnesia. Make sure it’s all in writing because if not, you sometimes put yourself in a bad situation.

Dylan Silver (22:31)
True.

Bill, we are

coming up on time here. Where can folks go, maybe if they’ve got a deal in the Michigan area that they’d like some feedback on, or if they’d like to get in contact with you?

Bill Clark (22:47)
Well, you know what I do for people, mean, because there’s a lot of people that don’t know how to create the transaction.

Okay, and I’m willing to help people. I want to help. I’ll be part of the deal. And the deal I’m gonna be part of, I will guarantee you we’re gonna make money because I’m not gonna waste my time. So, I mean, if you want help, if you need help on a transaction, let’s just say it’s so convoluted because you know, got, you know, it’s a divorce and you know, the husband’s not gonna sign off on the house. There’s ways of making this happen, okay? And there’s ways of putting this deal together. Don’t walk away from a juicy deal. I can help you get across that

finish line. Also there’s people that maybe are new in this industry that they really just don’t feel comfortable. We’ll do it together. We’ll do a plan, we’ll do it together and we’ll be 50-50. There’s times that you have a deal, you don’t have the money.

Okay, I have the resources to make this deal happen for you as well. If I can’t negotiate the deal for you to where we can get a better deal, and it’s gonna require hard cold cash, we can make that happen as well. you can reach me, I’ll give you a couple resources. You can reach me at my cell phone number. It’s 810-730-8500. Call me personally if I don’t pick up, just leave a message. Or you can email me.

Dylan Silver (23:50)
Ciao.

Bill Clark (23:59)
And that’s bill at BillClarkRealEstate.com. And you can reach out to me there as well. don’t let these deals get swept under the rug because honestly, I think I’m one of the best transaction coordinators in this country. putting sunshine on my butt, but I’m just telling you, I can turn lemon into lemonade. for sure, can. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (24:21)
Amen. Bill, thank you so much for coming on

the show here today.

Bill Clark (24:27)
man. Thanks for having