How Jake Clark Built a $25M Commercial Real Estate Brokerage in Nashville

Jake Clark (00:00)
Yeah, I think the first thing is you got to put yourself out there and like, even though you might be fearful of like the unknown and rejection, the first thing I did was I mean, I just met with everyone, went to like every single real estate event in Nashville and just really put myself out there. Like there were a couple of times I was sitting in the car. It’s like, I don’t know any, I’m not going to know anyone here. And, you know, so I don’t know if anyone’s been in that position, but you’re sitting in the car at an event and you don’t know how it’s gonna go.

Issa Hanna (02:02)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna and today I have a broker who’s rocking the Music City. Ladies and gentlemen, I wanna introduce everybody to Jake Clark. Jake, welcome to my show.

Jake Clark (02:15)
Thanks, he’s so happy to be here.

Issa Hanna (02:17)
Well, we’re happy to have you. And ⁓ for those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about by rocking the music city, Jake, ⁓ let everybody know what I’m talking about over here.

Jake Clark (02:27)
⁓ You know, ⁓ I’m just trying to just boost up the business and deal flow here. ⁓ Focused on the multifamily world ⁓ in the Nashville MSA, figure a two hour radius around Nashville. ⁓ Strictly on the investment sales side. ⁓ And I’ve done about, it’ll be about a little over 25 million over the past two and a half years in volume.

Issa Hanna (02:53)
That’s really good, especially in two and a half years. I know a lot of brokers who’ve been in the game for like ten years, twenty years, they haven’t even done that kind of volume. So that just shows what kind of hard work you’re putting in. And then also twenty five million gives you a lot of knowledge. And I I was reading ⁓ about you earlier and I seen that you mentioned house hacking. People hear about house hacking, they don’t know about house hacking, and that’s kind of like your side hustle, I hear. ⁓

So break down what house hacking is.

Jake Clark (03:22)
Yeah, so it’s basically offset your living expense by either renting by the room or buying a multifamily property and renting the other units out. It’s just a way to offset and capitalize on your housing expense. And it allows for more income to reinvest into your business or your more active income bucket, which is what I did. And then, yeah, happy to walk through my house hack, but yeah.

Issa Hanna (03:49)
⁓ well, even not just house hacking for your own house hack, ⁓ you can buy a house and and kinda Airbnb it by the room too. That’s another aspect of house hacking, correct?

Jake Clark (04:00)
Yeah, you can do that. Yeah, in here in Nashville, you can get an interactive by permit. It’s definitely easier to get than a non-uneractable by permit. There’s different zoning requirements. But yes, that also is another strategy as well.

Issa Hanna (04:12)
Nice. And multifamilies, ⁓ break down your investment strategy. What’s your plan right now? ⁓ as far as multifamilies.

Jake Clark (04:20)
Yeah, so in terms of the house hack, Issa or the broker side.

Issa Hanna (04:25)
On the broker side of your grand scheme, the big plan. That was kind of the you know, the minor thing. let’s get into your your big your big plan.

Jake Clark (04:33)
Yeah, so we’re more focused in the middle market. Multifamily is a figure anywhere from 10 to 100 units is kind of the focus. Occasionally we’ll work on some 100 plus, but really we try to plan that sub 100 game. in terms of a strategy, know, I’m in, you know, I’m kind of the front lines and a of these deals, we do a lot of marketing towards owners and sellers of multifamily properties in that segment.

in specific sub markets that we target that we think are high growth for a couple different reasons. ⁓ you know, the strategy, especially as a broker, you know, obviously we take a commission on this, but, know, I’ve been talking with ⁓ several sponsors and some are larger syndicators. Some just have a couple JV partners, maybe do a small raise. ⁓

and just rolling commission in as an LP. And that way I can keep it passive while focusing most of my time on the brokerage side. A lot of times too, I my plan is, we source a lot of deals off market. So, as we’re bringing them a deal, depending on the sponsor, I think you have to be really selective. But again, we only wanna work with good sponsors who can close to begin with.

any ways in that we trust. So it’s kind of the strategy in terms of, know, maybe over the next couple of years is to be more of an LP, maybe before ⁓ I take down my own deal. But that’s kind of where I’m at currently.

Issa Hanna (06:08)
Nice, nice. So that’s where you’re at currently. And we all didn’t start in real estate ⁓ at you know, at twenty five million under their belt. So how did a young Jake get into real estate?

Jake Clark (07:06)
You know, I think it goes way back. My dad had a home inspection business up in upstate New York and Buffalo, and he’d have me do the demo work and stuff. he would flip houses too. So he had a home inspection business and he’d flip and, you know, I became a good painter from it, but I wish I hung around him more, but I saw what it did for our family. So, you know, I think I just, by being near him and growing up with it.

and not really understanding really what he was doing. And then as I went to college and I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and maybe started talking to my dad more, sort of a little more curiosity. And then, you know, after I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and the four hour work week and just some other business and real estate books, probably similar to a lot of different people, I knew I wanted to get into commercial specifically. And as I started to talk to

You know, just people who were light years ahead of me, they all were affiliated with real estate in some way. ⁓ And it was just kind of a good fit. I think I like the tangibility of it mixed with the financial side of it. I have a finance degree and then mix that with, you know, the people side and sales side. So it’s like kind of a good blend of everything that like I like. yeah, ⁓ yeah. And then worked in private equity. ⁓

Shortly after college, that wasn’t the exact route, know, graduating with a finance degree. All of my friends wanted to go work on Wall Street and go to the investment banking route. And I decided, I’m like, no, I want to go, you know, maybe more capital markets route, for example. COVID kind of put a wrench into some things in my journey and kind of, that’s how I ended up in Nashville. And then when I got to Nashville, I got my license within…

you know, a month to two of moving here. ⁓ So I started working with some like wholesaler buddies I made friends with and helping them flip and I list their houses on the backend and be helped them find, you know, just, just heavy distressed properties. ⁓ And I got linked up with this ⁓ private equity firm on their acquisitions team. And I kind of led the Southeast acquisitions.

⁓ They brought us on just to source off market. Think of like medical real estate deals we bought like outpatient surgery centers and medical office. We were pitching deals every single day to the investment committee and that’s where I got my masters in real estate is at that firm. I know it’s pretty green going into the commercial world. I had a good understanding of the residential world. ⁓

So that’s really where, you know, I did about 52 million of volume for them in about the year and a half that I was there mixed with, you we sent about, I personally sent about a billion dollars worth of LOIs. ⁓ So, and that was right before the market, you know, shifted when interest rates that summer, when interest rates hiked up, while still broker and deals on the side. That’s kind of how I had really got into it.

Issa Hanna (10:18)
So you brought your your knowledge in finance and then also as as a kid, and I can relate a little bit ’cause I I grew up like that too. My dad was a construction guy. Two things that I always found go hand in hand with real estate is somebody who knows finance and somebody who knows construction. So the fact that you you have that, you’ve seen it, you’ve put eyes on the construction. I also ⁓ wish I would have learned more from my dad, but ⁓

Then the finance aspect, that’s that’s even huge. So the fact that you merged all this together and now you’ve got this plan to basically well, you’re already kind of building and and taking over Nashville. I mean, two years and you’ve already did you’ve had your hands on so many million dollars of deals. So kudos to you, man. That’s that’s huge. You’re you’re definitely a go getter. And then dig only get your license in what is it, two months, you said?

Jake Clark (11:06)
Yeah, I just knocked it out in two months. Yeah, don’t want to any time. I was, you know, one part of the story is right when I graduated, right before I moved to Nashville, I was working for like a financial, as a financial analyst and in a job, you know, I didn’t really want to be in just for the, just to bridge the gap. And, ⁓ you know, I put in my two weeks and I was like, okay, so I have to pass this or else. Cause if you don’t pass the

the first time, I think you get maybe two strikes and then you have to wait 30 days to take it again. So my back was, essentially my back was against the wall and I was like, have to like do this now. ⁓ So yeah, I burned the boats, that’s for sure.

Issa Hanna (11:49)
Yeah, you definitely burn the boats. but it paid off and and that goes to show, man, when you believe in yourself and you work hard and you you have a goal in mind, you have a a a plan of attack, you can get a lot accomplished. You know, if you stay stagnant and and that kind of stuff, you know, I know people that take six months to get their license. So that’s crazy. I mean, that’s definitely the best plan to do. Burn the boats and go for it. So ⁓ great piece of advice, Jake. ⁓ so

With that, every single real estate investor, including myself, has a real estate nightmare that they had to overcome. ⁓ care to share one with us?

Jake Clark (13:01)
I mean, like on the broker side, know, I mean, deals go sideways all the time. mean, like you can never count your chickens before the wire hits the bank account. I mean, you know, one in particular, ⁓ like my largest deal to date, ⁓ not only did it take two and a half years to close, it took pretty much my whole…

I vended brokerage full-time. I went into brokerage full-time in January two and a half years ago and my first call was February, like mid-February to him, a month in and I was working on it for two and a half years. We just closed it in March a few months ago. But we were under contract twice on that. And it was more so a nightmare of just thinking that things are gonna go through and thinking you have everything lined up and then…

all of a sudden, you know, something comes out of the woodwork and it’s like, oh, this isn’t going to work. One in particular, I mean, an example on that deal was I had a client who was in the 1031 situation. had to sell, you know, quite a bit of, was selling a single family portfolio to then acquire this property. And we found out basically there was an HOA involved. So we were thinking of, it was tied to the entity that owned the asset.

Uh, you know, we had the LOI sign and moving towards PSA and, um, obviously you can’t 1031 into, um, an asset cell because that’s where we were exploring that because, um, the HWA was tied to the entity. But if we bought the entity, we’d get like essentially grandfathered in, um, some other risks associated with that. Um, so that was like the first, you know, as a green broker too, I was like, oh, this, you know, this could work.

And then, you know, the third time is we came back around and then just financing. You know, it’s just your capital stack is crucial, especially on the front end. You really got to have your ducks in order. And as a broker, you know, even we were doing even a deal, I had a deal die last week because of financing. And it’s mainly because, you know, we try to mitigate

as much unknowns as possible upfront, whether that’s the condition of the property, especially even the current financials. I sometimes owners, maybe their expenses aren’t the best, they don’t have to keep the best records or hopefully they’re not hiding anything. But so I think the way to mitigate a lot of those nightmares, and I wouldn’t say I went through detrimental nightmares.

But it’s more so I try to really address things up front as much as possible to avoid any nightmares. But I’ve had a lot of deals die, especially in the early stages, just for not uncovering those unknowns.

Issa Hanna (15:55)
No, definitely, man. And when things go sideways as a broker, especially a green broker, they they don’t teach you how to deal with cer a lot of these problems in real estate school. So that’s where you go to the school of hard knocks and you learn how to, you know, you get that experience under your belt. As a broker, Jake, do you recommend or or do you prefer listings or do you prefer ⁓ working with buyers? I know we can we take all, but

Jake Clark (16:21)
Yeah, I mean, definitely work with both. I I think right now the value is in the deal. ⁓ And so I primarily am working with, you know, I go for the listing side and the sale side. ⁓ One, you know, as a broker, there’s a saying, you know, if you list you last and there’s some truth to it because, you know, there’s a lot of buyers out there right now, at least in this market, it’s tough to find like, like stuff just doesn’t pencil right now.

It’s tough to get deals through. There’s usually a lot more buyers than there are sellers, at least there has been over the past couple of years. ⁓ And also you have a lot more control over the deal when you’re on the listing side. So a broker’s lens, you you set the tone in terms of the process. You know, if there’s a call for offers date, for example, like you set the tone for how to ⁓ manage the deal process. Like it’s kind of…

you have a lot more control versus if you’re in the buyer’s seat as a buyer broker, which I have done a few times, you’re kind of at the mercy of, you’re competing more with other buyers, maybe other brokers, than if you’re on the listing side. If we get an offer on a listing and it doesn’t work out, like, well, we’ll probably get one down the road. yeah, mean, look, pros and…

cons and working both sides. Primarily I’m hunting down the deal because I think that’s where the value is. Right now.

Issa Hanna (17:51)
yeah. And and that’s just saying that it’s been in our business for a long time. You list, you last. So I’m with you on that for sure. Jake, in ten years, ⁓ it’s what, two and a half years full time as a broker, you’re making like I said, rock in the music city. In ten years, are are we gonna be on Broadway and see ⁓ one of your places on Broadway or or where do you see yourself?

Jake Clark (18:56)
Well, I guess one I definitely will probably still be in Nashville. I absolutely love it here I think it’s a great place to like establish your career, especially if you’re you know in your your mid 20s and early 20s or out of college I think it’s a great place. There’s a lot of opportunity here ⁓ in terms of like competition to like You know, we’ve got all the big players I’m with SVN and we’re you maybe top seven in the country, but you know, it’s not as

competitive as like a Chicago or a New York and these more established cities even that even a Dallas so they’re still like Nashville still in the early stages of growth. So I think for one, yeah, I’m definitely still gonna be here. And then two, you know, it’s hard for me to think even 10 years ahead, but I do run my business in terms of decades when making decisions. ⁓ Definitely, you know, the plan, even over the next six

to eight months is to slowly build a multifamily team here. ⁓ Taking on a junior broker, I’m kind of slowly refining my systems and processes in terms of how I’m prospecting and marketing myself, building my newsletter and just internal processes. I mean, I’ve got a 10 year mindset, Issa. ⁓ I have no idea where I will be in.

in 10 years, I know I’ll be in Nashville, the fiance wants to live in Franklin. So probably focusing on, you know, maybe I’ll be the Franklin guy. But for now, you know, it’s still just I’m to be doing I’m only dialed in on what I’m doing right now for the next 10 years. That’s my plan with with some LP investments to ⁓ would love I guess the goal, you know, would be to have at least 20 LP positions.

⁓ combined with maybe own at least, I mean, 10 years, you can do a lot in 10 years, know, maybe I’ll put a dollar number on it, maybe 35 million of real estate owned by me in 10 years, I feel like I do a lot.

Issa Hanna (21:11)
it would definitely do a lot and ⁓ I can see that happening for you. Definitely. I mean you’ve got the you’ve got the mind, you’ve got the plan of attack and you’ve got the background, you know, in the financing and you know the you’re a Buffalo guy. ⁓ so you know the construction had to happen in the winter sometimes. So that made you even tougher. ⁓ so I I definitely can see that happening for you. Now for people who are green and just getting started, ⁓ you’re someone that’s been able to

cultivate a lot of business relationships already. You’ve you’ve gone to a new city, you’ve built. ⁓ Give these new people some advice on how you’ve been able to do that.

Jake Clark (21:50)
Yeah, I think the first thing is you got to put yourself out there and like, even though you might be fearful of like the unknown and rejection, the first thing I did was I mean, I just met with everyone, went to like every single real estate event in Nashville and just really put myself out there. Like there were a couple of times I was sitting in the car. It’s like, I don’t know any, I’m not going to know anyone here. And, you know.

So I don’t know if anyone’s been in that position, but you’re sitting in the car at an event and you don’t know how it’s gonna go.

You’re the kind of the one that sticks out, right? Because you’re new to town, you’re new to real estate. And you just gotta open the car door and walk in the door and just be yourself and be, even if you’re not that outgoing, mean, everyone’s there to do the same thing. So everyone’s there to meet people. So.

You know, and definitely ask and learn about others. I think that’s the other thing too, is just have like a curious mindset going into any interaction actually with anyone. You could learn something from anyone. That first event I went to, I basically met like my earlier mentor who walked me through like my first three broker deals and kind of took me under his wing when I was working part-time. And like, I wouldn’t have met him

I just happened to sit next to him at the event and that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t go and put myself out there. So that would be the first thing. And then terms of getting going and brokerage, ⁓ you’ve got to make the call. I literally called anyone and anything and just every single day, made 50 calls a day. I had a dialer and I was just ⁓ calling.

every single day for two, three, four hours until I could really get traction going. And there were many late nights at the office and there were definitely days where I felt really lonely. You know, I was just so determined. So, I mean, I would say like those two things, like really putting yourself out there. The other thing is, you know, you really got to take the initiative. I’m very much of like a self-starter.

My drive visa, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but ⁓ I got laid off from that private equity job. a part of my, so I already had my license and I was already doing stuff part time. So I’m like, I’m just going to do this full time. And so part of my driver is that I never want someone else to be in charge of like my time, my day and money ever again. you know, maybe I had, so I guess it’s another thing to ask is like, what’s your driver?

You know, especially earlier on that was my driver. I was like, I’m never going back to the corporate world. It was embarrassing getting laid off. All my goals for the year were set around achievements at that company and a lot of my friends were there. So when that got stripped away from me, was like, wait, I have like, that was like my wife, right? So it was a wake up call, you know, personally too, where it’s like, it’s also not only about work too.

So kind of all those things. I mean, I could go on and on in terms of advice in the early days, but my motto, Esau, and my motto was you can’t lose if you never quit. And there are a lot of moments where I was like, this is like, am I ever going to get my first deal or like, you know, I didn’t really know what I was doing per se. So that would be maybe another piece of advice too, is like find someone that you can.

kind of go under their wing, like someone that you look up to in the business or is where you want to be and learn from them. I mean, that’s the best way. So whether that’s joining a team or I’m in like a broker mastermind, ⁓ that’s really accelerated my growth as well.

Issa Hanna (25:41)
definitely. And networking and and having that mentor ⁓ is super important when you first get in the game. And you’re never gonna get it if you’re too afraid to put yourself out there. So that was great advice. How about when choosing a brokerage? somebody just getting out. ⁓ how do you how would you choose your first brokerage?

Jake Clark (26:01)
I think the first thing I would look at is who’s running the brokerage. ⁓ Forget the end of the day. mean, sure your brokerage name might matter, but really people wanna work with you and you’re building your name and your brand. So the brokerage matters to a degree. ⁓ I guess it just starts with what route do you wanna go if you want.

But I guess even before that though, I really would look at like who’s running, who’s the managing director of the brokerage? Do they have a good reputation in the marketplace? Are they closers too? And do people speak highly of them? ⁓ Do they like add value to the community in other ways? do they, my brokerage for example, like we volunteer in Nashville and ⁓ they have really good training too. ⁓

and they just had a really good reputation in the marketplace. not even, I mean, the firm does, but I mean, the individuals. you know, ask around. mean, just ask people who maybe are one or two connections away and say, hey, what do you think of, what do think of Esau as a broker? Like, they a good guy? you know, if there’s even any doubts or any, you know, speculation, like, oh yeah, you know, he’s all right. He might’ve, you know, I heard he screwed me on this. And it’s like,

That’s a red flag for me. I would only want to learn from someone who’s ethical and has a good reputation in the business. That was priority number one for me. ⁓ And then secondly, it’s like, what route did I want to go? I could go to the top three and work as an analyst for three years and then maybe start to do my own deals and maybe I’m working on bigger deals. Or do I want…

free range as to what I can work on and like, you know, the ropes a little looser and ⁓ you know, I can broker really whatever I want and kind of build the business around like what I want to build and not some corporate structure. Because there is some corporate type of feel at these other shops sometimes ⁓ and nothing wrong with that. That’s actually a good way to learn. But just the position that I was in.

it made sense for me to go somewhere that was a little more flexible.

Issa Hanna (28:17)
Definitely. with the different types of commercial background you had in the finance and all that. ⁓ being in a corporate structure probably didn’t fit you as well. And and there’s nothing wrong, like you said, with with the corporate structure. ⁓ if it’s the right fit, it’s the right fit. So ⁓ great, great advice we’re getting from you. So Jake, ⁓ I’m in Nashville, right? ⁓ or you know, I’m a guy in Nashville. I want to buy a house, I wanna invest.

I hear this podcast. I say, man, that guy knows everything. I wanna I want him to represent me. Where could they get a hold of you?

Jake Clark (28:49)
Yeah, I’m pretty active on LinkedIn. You just type in Jake Clark, SVN, Accel Commercial Real Estate. I should pop up pretty quickly. I post a few times a week and I post a lot of data-driven insights on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn definitely, via my email and phone number are on there as well. So I would definitely say LinkedIn. You could also go to our website.

at www.accelcre.com and you can reach out to us via that way. And I can drop my email. My email is [email protected].

Issa Hanna (29:27)
Definitely. when somebody’s as motivated as Jake and has the knowledge and different aspects as Jake, ⁓ make sure to call him if you’re in the Nashville area because he’s gonna get you the best deal. With that, Jake, thank you so much for coming on the show, man. I love picking your brain about Nashville, about how how you’re building your business, and what you’ve done already. So thank you so much for coming on.

Jake Clark (29:50)
I appreciate that, so thanks for having me.