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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Dylan Silver sits down with Tristan Clark, a Kentucky-based entrepreneur, real estate investor, and founder of Clark Construction LLC. Tristan specializes in residential and commercial remodels, property acquisitions, and building long-term wealth through smart construction and real estate strategies.
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Tristan Clark (00:00)
Yeah. And I mean, in my opinion, that’s like, I mean, I like people ask, like, what I do for a living. And I’ll joke that like, I’m a I’m a problem solver. That’s my job. I’m a problem solver. That’s being an entrepreneur. You know, when you’re running a business, you know, the the best thing of you know, you’re the goal of being a someone wants to be a billionaire or be a millionaire or, you know, financial freedom for generations is to exit the business, start a business, get it up and running, get it healthy, exit to the next business.Dylan Silver (01:58)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Tristan Clark is a Kentucky based entrepreneur, real estate investor and founder of Clark Construction LLC. He specializes in residential and commercial remodels, property acquisitions and building long-term wealth through smart construction and real estate strategies. Welcome to the show, Tristan.Tristan Clark (02:00)
the first year in the US.Hey, what’s up, Glad to be here.
Dylan Silver (02:19)
Now, when we talk Kentucky real estate, what’s the market like for investors? Are there a lot of, you know, mom and pop investors out there in Kentucky?Tristan Clark (02:28)
Oh my gosh, man, we have a massive community. There’s a group chat called the the brig, Bluegrass Real Estate Investors Group, something like that. We call it the brig, all the locals do. I mean, there’s probably 13,000 people in that group chat and there’s like three or four of those. Louisville is a huge market, especially for rentals. Lexington’s a huge market for flips and rentals and then all the areas around it are a very aggressive area. I mean, down here, it’s speed.You look at a deal, you better submit an offer within the next two or three hours. That deal’s gonna be gone.
Dylan Silver (02:58)
Now, when we talk about speed and getting to, you know, be the first to make an offer on a property, how can people have that kind of speed? If many of these deals are, you know, either gonna be pocket listings or off market, do you have to have that strong sphere of like referral partners and realtors and wholesalers? What’s the best way to be the first one on those deals?Tristan Clark (03:24)
Man, word of mouth, you know? I push content out every single day. In my podcast, you know, it’s just coming out, so we won’t get into that. We don’t really have anything out yet. But I mean, I’m always posting. have deals. Every time I go to a deal, I’m recording it, walking it. So people that, you know, their grandparents might want to sell a house because they’re going to lose it and go bankrupt. They need some money. They’re going to sell that house. They’re calling me. They’re texting me on Marketplay or on Facebook Messenger and commenting on stuff. Hey, I might have a house you want to buy or hey, I think you should talk to this person. I think they’re trying to sell.And if you drive by a house and someone’s home and it looks like it’s in distress, knock on that door, Knock on that door and say, give you a cash offer. Walk around, give me 10, 15 minutes of your time. No obligation offer. If you like it, let’s do it. If not, I’ll be out of your hair. No sweat. People are going, all right, man, yeah, see what you’ll give me.
Dylan Silver (04:13)
Yeah, I mean, one of the interesting things when we talk about making cash offers is it’s a contact sport, right? You mentioned knocking on doors. I’ve done that. And a lot of people will find that an uncomfortable situation. And I can speak from personal experience. It can be tricky, right? mean, knocking on doors can be tricky.Tristan Clark (04:28)
You can.Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it ain’t easy. mean, buying a house, you know, is you’re buying something somebody’s living in. Where am I going to go? What am I going to do next? Like this house has been in my family for a long time. There’s lot of things you’re going to hear from people, you know, I mean, offer to help them find a rental. If you’re doing real estate, surely you got a rental, you know, or you know somebody else in the game that’s got a rental. They love to have a good tenant. You know, it’s getting ready to have some cash, pay the rent off. You know, hey, I’ll buy your house and pay your first three months rent, you know.
You’re gonna make 60 G’s on the house, 30 G’s. That’s a huge one, man. You can’t just go in monotone, hey man, I’d like to buy your house cash. Do you care if I make you an offer? You gotta be personal with it. I mean, I’ve done a lot of things to get someone out of a house. Look, you take everything you want, leave everything else, I take care of all of it. You know, because they gotta think, I gotta pack all this up. You gotta put yourself in the seller’s shoes if you’re doing direct to seller. But if you’re buying on marketplace, man, it’s all about name. People need to know who you are.
Dylan Silver (05:00)
That’s a huge one.That’s right.
Tristan Clark (05:27)
Put yourself out there, put your face out there, make videos, ⁓ comment on posts, be on Facebook, on them group chats. ⁓ And I bought a house off the market. I got a house right now in Winchester, Kentucky that I bought off market. It went live on Saturday. I was there Sunday, had it under contract by three o’clock.Dylan Silver (06:32)
Now, when we talk about going above and beyond, right?and enabling that further level of trust. One of the things that I’ve learned cutting my teeth in real estate wholesale prior to being a realtor is that you’re as much a almost a emergency triage coordinator, know, picking up the pieces of broken relationships and of, people who are, you know, going bankrupt and, and, know, fractured families and divorce and, know, someone passed away and the home’s going through probate and you’re bringing family members together and
Tristan Clark (06:53)
Yeah.Yep.
Dylan Silver (07:06)
the list goes on, right? You’re as much that kind of like emergency triage coordinator as you are like a deal underwriter. And I hear that in what you’re talking about. And one of the interesting things that I think often gets glossed over is that one of the ways that you’ll make money in this space is by having that human component to it where it’s like, hey, I may be trying to buy this real estate, but I’m also kind of putting the pieces together of this person’s life.Tristan Clark (07:07)
Yup.Yup.
Yep, that’s exactly right. You got to find Jerry Green. I’m in a group mentorship with Tommy Hart and Jerry Green out of Columbus, Ohio. They’re really big wigs into it. I mean, that’s one thing he goes over a lot is you got to find what’s their motivation. Find their motivation. Why do they want to sell it? Who owns it and who also it has an influence in that property being sold? Because a lot of times
This, let’s say Amy might own this house, but Amy runs everything by her sister, Janine. So you got to figure out like, hey, is there anyone else that should be here when I come and look at the property? Is there anybody that, you know, who, like who is the owner, you know, identify the owner and identify the motivation. I can’t think of a lot of the traits of it, but there’s a lot of traits and why they’re selling, whether it be distress, whether it might be just cause they don’t like it. And it’s, it, you’re keeping up with it, you know, cause
What I tell people is if you really don’t need to own a home, really it’s a renter’s market because when you own a house, if the gutters tear off or the windows leaking, you, you’re responsible for that. So if you’re living in it, but in the flip game and wholesaling, what’s their motivation? Why do they want to sell it? Do they want to sell it? Do they need to sell it? Identifying a lot of those key components is really what’s going to get you to get that house.
Dylan Silver (08:57)
That’s right.You know, when you talk about specifically understanding their motivation.
This was such a huge thing for me when I was in the thick of wholesale because there’s so many different situations. mean, one of the easiest ones to identify is if someone has a pending foreclosure auction date, they have to sell, otherwise they’re gonna lose their home, or they have to fix their mortgage back taxes situation. But there’s so many other reasons why someone might need to sell quickly too. I mean, you mentioned one of them. And then you also see situations where family disagrees.
Tristan Clark (09:24)
Yep.Dylan Silver (09:33)
One person wants to sell, one person wants to keep it. So you’re trying to come together and say, do we have the ability to maintain this home? Are we going to put in the maintenance necessary so that this thing doesn’t fall apart more than it already has? Or do we want to sell and here’s what that looks like? Hey, I can buy your home for you, from you, or you can list the home. That’s fine. understand that if you list the home, it’s going to need new roof. You have these foundation issues.Tristan Clark (09:47)
Yup. Yup.Dylan Silver (10:03)
that’s gonna need newer appliances. There’s homes, I’m sure, are being built by corporate builders out there in Kentucky that are cost effective. So it’s not like people don’t have options when they’re looking for new home purchases or newer home purchases.Tristan Clark (10:05)
Yup.Yep.
Yeah, a lot of times when we go and we’ll walk a deal, you know, and the seller’s there or rocking for the wholesaler is going over your scope of work. See, I have the benefit of owning a construction business. So I estimate jobs day in and day out. I have estimators that work for me. So when we go there, you know, we write down, you know, the things we look at, you know, she’s like, oh, you know, this house is in pretty good shape. And we’ll go in and see the windows looking. Okay. We’ll write it down. Oh.
write it down, you know, she hears these oohs and ahhs ugh, you know, and she’s thinking like, oh no, what was that? You know, like, yeah, you know, do you care if I talk to you for a second and we’ll go over, you know, yeah, you know, I mean, I’m looking at everything and you’re looking at like $60,000 in repairs right here, you know, like, do you have $60,000 to repair this? You know, if you were going to sell it on market, you know, if a buyer sees these things, I don’t think a realtor is going to be able to sell this. Now they want, oh,
Well, what are you thinking? Now they’re thinking. That’s a big thing, know, as myself as being able to paint that picture for them that you’re looking at some major repairs because you got to think a lot of nurses or on government aid or ⁓ school teacher, things like that, you know, a single woman or a couple that doesn’t, you they neglect their home because you’re there so much. lot of the, you know, the sore thumbs aren’t really sticking out, you know, to them.
Dylan Silver (11:57)
That’s true.Tristan Clark (12:15)
They’re thinking about their bedroom, their bathroom, and the kitchen. They’re not really thinking about their crawl space that has water sitting under it and all the floor is starting to get bouncy and things are rotting and falling apart. Under the windows are leaking down the wall and they don’t see those things until you come in there. Same thing with wholesalers. You lock a deal up for 120 and their ARV is 200 and they’re not really thinking. You’ve got $40,000 in repairs. They’re walking around and getting that deal, locking it up.Dylan Silver (12:17)
That’s right.That’s right.
Tristan Clark (12:42)
You gotta go in there, get an estimate together, show them, look man, it’s gonna take $60,000 to fix this house. I give you $90,000 for it. You know what saying? Now you’re all in at 150, you know, you try to add some things or you’re off from 80, you know, whatever the numbers are, I’m just throwing them out there. But you know, you gotta really paint the pictures when you’re going to these deals, man, to these wholesalers and sellers because they’re not thinking all the way through like a contractor, because you, the project manager of this flip, has to know these things. So when your contractor comes in,You’re not going over or you’re not selling yourself short also. You’re not thinking about all the closing fees and everything.
Dylan Silver (13:19)
No, you’re exactly right. And one of the things that people often neglect is understanding what the future pain will look like. So I just did a quick search and it looks like this is just from AI Google review. It says the average days on market in February, 2026 in Louisville.which of course is going to be a major area, is around 35 days. So if you’re in some area outside, not near ⁓ a city, what’s going to be the days on market view? Well, it’s going to be more than that. Well, what happens if you’re facing financial distress? Well, can you afford to have this home sit for four months? What’s that going to look like if the home is sitting for four months? And people can’t really future cash
Tristan Clark (13:45)
Yo.Yep.
Yup.
Exactly. Yup. It’s four mortgages.
Dylan Silver (14:09)
that well, exactly. And that’s where they end up running into trouble because they think, well, I can just list it when in actuality they might feel the pain after four months of listing it, but they don’t feel it right now.Tristan Clark (15:03)
That’s right. I you know, I don’t know what it is here in Richmond and Lexington, but I mean, you know, I got a house that’s been sitting on the market for about three weeks right now. You know, I’m getting ready to lower the price down tomorrow unless we have some more showings because showings are getting dry. you know, you just got to be ahead of the game. You know, you got to think ahead, especially as a seller. You got interest payments to however you’re doing the loan. You’re going to the bank, hard money lender, private money, whatever you’re doing. You got payments coming up, man. You know, someSome they collect six months worth of interest, 12 months, but you got payments. Whenever you’re getting money from somebody, they want them payments, banks or whatever, and they’re not gonna wait. They’re gonna come get that money. So how long am I gonna be in this house? How fast can I sell this house? And how much am I making? And how much is my lender making? Those are the four things that I look at.
getting money, you know, something else, you know, if we ever do a podcast in the future, something we’ll talk about, but you know, like, how long is it going to be on the market? You know, you’re there at a seller or a wholesaler, you know, wholesalers got 30 days to sell a deal. So, you know, the speed to get that money to that wholesaler is a way to get a deal from off market wholesalers, getting it from a direct to seller, like a wholesale lead, you know, how fat, like, can you afford this? You know, if you’re in distress now and you got back taxes and you’re about to foreclose,
Dylan Silver (16:10)
Yeah, I mean…Tristan Clark (16:28)
I’m gonna get you out of here in seven to 14 days. You ain’t gotta worry about this stuff no more. You start a new life. You forget about this home. This home is my new problem.Dylan Silver (16:34)
Yeah, I mean you hit the nail on the head, right? It’s solving a problem for people, eliminating the pain of having to go through it either alone or, you know, themselves without any type of assistance. And oftentimes, and I’m sure you’ve come across this too, there’s an element of like suspended belief, especially if people are going through a foreclosure situation. They just can’t believe in many cases that they’re losing their home. They especially can’t believe it unless someone shows up in like a police uniform, right? If it’s just someone showsTristan Clark (17:04)
YeahDylan Silver (17:04)
up in street clothes, right? Who’s saying, I’m going to buy your home. They’re thinking this isn’t real. Like, I’m not really losing my home. It doesn’t matter how many, you know, letters from the city they may or may not have gotten. I’ve even heard some people tell me that, you know, the city doesn’t necessarily send out, you know, letter after letter after letter in the same way that like ⁓ a creditor might because they might send a handful of letters out, but it’s not going to be like constant stream of letters from the city. What they will be seeing is a constant stream potentially ofTristan Clark (17:11)
That’s right.Yep.
Dylan Silver (17:34)
directmail from different investors who are targeting those foreclosures. So if they’re getting inundated with that, part of their thought process might be like, this isn’t real.
Tristan Clark (17:44)
Yeah. And I mean, in my opinion, that’s like, I mean, I like people ask, like, what I do for a living. And I’ll joke that like, I’m a I’m a problem solver. That’s my job. I’m a problem solver. That’s being an entrepreneur. You know, when you’re running a business, you know, the the best thing of you know, you’re the goal of being a someone wants to be a billionaire or be a millionaire or, you know, financial freedom for generations is to exit the business, start a business, get it up and running, get it healthy, exit to the next business.That’s what a lot of people do to get into real estate. know that, look, bank, I own this business. I’m making $10,000, $13,000 a month. And they exit out the business, get it self-sustained and whatnot. to me, that’s my job. I’m a problem solver. I own a construction business. So if we’re doing a new build or remodel, building a gas station or something, and there’s a problem, you know who they’re calling? If there’s a major problem, they’re calling me. I’m coming to solve the problem. So same thing with real estate. If you’re doing a flip,
Dylan Silver (18:37)
That’s right.Tristan Clark (18:38)
You’re running a flip, you got project manager managing it, and there’s a major issue that could cause the gala. They’re calling you. So you’re a problem solver. You might be on a golf course somewhere getting a call that ⁓ Karen over at 123 Main Street is not liking these cabinets that she picked out. You know what saying? So now here you are coming to save the day like Superman.Dylan Silver (18:57)
Yeah, I mean, it’s all about being able to connect the dots and being able to kind of inherit other people’s stressors and absolve, you know, resolve their own stressors and find a way to leverage that into a profit for yourself. We are coming up on time here though, Tristan, any new projects that you’re working on and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you or your team?Tristan Clark (19:16)
That’s fine.So right now I’m working with a guy out of Oklahoma. It’s been kind of iffy, but he’s a private money guy. He’s got millions of dollars he wants to invest in their real estate. Right now it’s getting my systems up and going better. I’m looking to hire some VAs, looking to hire some cold callers, ⁓ hire a couple more project managers and start buying more heavy and running a team for a flipping business and then branch off of that into wholesaling full time and start wholesaling full time.
Dylan Silver (19:49)
Tristan, thank you so much for joiningus
today. Thanks for taking the time.
Tristan Clark (19:52)
Facebook, Facebook,my bad, my socials. You can find me on Facebook at Tristan Clark, TikTok, the Tristan Clark, Instagram, the Tristan Clark, and then you can follow my podcast to see more of me at the Built for This podcast, and we’re out of Brea, Kentucky. So if you’re looking me up, you don’t have to look up Richmond, Kentucky, Brea, Kentucky, and you’ll find me, you’ll find real estate content, comedy skits, and then you’ll find a podcast that we bring a lot of people from different backgrounds, drug background, crime.
Dylan Silver (19:56)
Yes.Tristan Clark (20:20)
millionaires, billionaires, people that are financially free and don’t have to work at all.
