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Today’s guest knows a thing or two about overcoming challenges as an aspiring figure in the real estate industry. Bennett Clark is a Realtor with RE/MAX Creative Realty and the Owner of Bennett Clark Properties, LLC. In this episode, he joins Bill Risser to share anecdotes of his career journey, their shared love of sports, his life in Kentucky, and how he got his start in real estate. Bennet shares the obstacles he faced as a young realtor and offers advice for those aspiring to enter the business. Tune in for expert tips and insights to help you get ahead!
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Bennett, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You and I are Vegas buddies because every time we’ve ever met in person or seeing you in person we're in Las Vegas in multiple events. We ran into each other for the first time at an Inman conference. I saw you there in the last couple of years. COVID hits, and we lost touch with you. Sure enough, I'm back in Vegas. We're at the R4 RE/MAX Conference. I hear someone say, "Bill," and it's you. That was cool. I love being able to walk through those aisles with people left and right and be able to pick out people, especially from years past. It's because you've been in RE/MAX your whole career. I've been with RE/MAX and licensed for many years. You got a lot of connections and referral partners you've built at those conferences, right? Absolutely. The more you can go to those conferences and spread out your network, the better. You live in Lexington, Kentucky. I think you're a native Kentuckian. Yes. I grew up in Danville, Kentucky and I've lived in Lexington since 2006. I like asking people this question. I've had a guest or two from Kentucky before. Give me the pros about living in Lexington or growing up in Danville. What are the negatives, if there are any? Lexington in Central Kentucky is one of the most beautiful places around. A lot of times, I tell people who don't know much about Kentucky that it's like Scotland or Ireland of North America. Around here, we have four very distinct and full seasons. You get that changing every couple of months. It's always pretty, no matter what time of year it is. In general, it's a nice area with friendly people. We've got a lot of big businesses coming in. It's a great place for investors and homeowners. We have a lot of fun additional things that come along with being in Kentucky. A lot of that is around the University of Kentucky and the horse racing industry. There's a huge bourbon industry that dominates tourism here. I can vouch for that because I was in Louisville for another conference and had my first bourbon tasting. It was very cool. I'm a convert. I had a couple of different ways to drink it, whether it was neat, on the rocks or old-fashioned. It's pretty cool. There's no wrong way to enjoy bourbon. You just need to enjoy it. I’ve got to ask you the question. You're in Kentucky and there are two big schools in Kentucky. One of them is you mentioned the UK and there's also Louisville. Where do you fall? Not many people like Loserville. We've been trying to give it away to Indiana for years, but I guess they don't want them either. The state, in general, is heavily Kentucky fans. It’s probably 90%. The Louisville fans are either in Louisville or scattered here and there. Even in Louisville, it's probably 50/50. I know the Wildcats, but the Blue is everywhere. I know that. I got to see that myself firsthand. I have to ask you this because this will lead to the next question. For you, is it Djokovic, Federer or Nadal? You’ve got to tell me because I know you're into tennis. Which one? [bctt tweet="The power of before and after pictures is huge. People love that. Even from a marketing standpoint, that helps." username="billrisser"] It's Nadal all the way. Primarily that's because he reminds me of Andre Agassi. That was my idol growing up. It's the playing style, like long points, hustling to every ball and wearing people down. I've always either had Agassi equipment. I always use those head rackets, or later I started using any of the Babolat rackets that Nadal used. I did start liking Federer a little bit more over the years, but I've never liked Djokovic. Let's talk about you. You went to college. Where did you go to school? Centre College in Danville. You played tennis in college and did some coaching right after. It's a big sport for you. It ended up being my favorite sport there at the Centre. I played three, so it was a lot on my plate, but tennis ended up being the primary one of the three. Shortly after graduating, I ended up going back and coaching for another five years. What are the other two sports you played besides tennis? Football and basketball. I'm going to guess you're the only guy at the time you were in school that played those three sports. Yes. There are a couple of two-sport athletes and there's only one other guy that I knew that did three at some point. He was a football, basketball and baseball. You're talking about a full year when you're going in early before everybody else in August. You don't get finished until about a week before finals and maybe in May. Not a lot of days off, weekends off and a fair amount of travel. It was fun. It was great. I wouldn't change it. You're either playing, practicing or studying. It’s one of the three all the time. Before I wrap up on the history of Bennett Clark, give me your favorite distillery. There are so many that I get to see. I looked at a map and it's incredible. What's happening there? Do you have one you like the best? There are many to visit on the Bourbon Trail that I haven't been able to go to all of them. We take for granted being from here not visiting some of them. I became a bourbon steward, which is to help educate on the truths behind bourbon and what it is, the different variations of practicing whatever Bourbonism, if you can call it. If I were going to tell anybody coming here, I would make a stop at Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve because you're going to get a little bit of sense of the true history. It takes you back in time. You see how it was done. If you go to Maker's Mark, it's like a little Sherwood Forest type of place and you get to dip your own bottle. It's very different. It's a pretty unexpected experience for most people. It's well-known. Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve are two of the most commercialized and marketed. In my opinion, they may not be the best, as far as taste or profile, but there are so many popping up. Luckily, I've been a part of a new one that was resurrected by RD1 Spirits, the first registered distillery in Lexington. The first product they put out is Old William Tarr, one of the original owners. [caption id="attachment_4217" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
RE/MAX Creative Realty: We have an obligation as fiduciary to do our clients right by what a fiduciary is. We have an ethical commitment to other agents to do the right thing.[/caption]
That has since been backed by Coach Mark Stoops, the Kentucky football coach. With his backing, the team doing well and the fanfare that goes with it, that has taken off. It's also a good bourbon. They're coming out with new variations as much as possible. There are so many good ones. Willett is one of my favorites. I like good rye. There are so many. It's hard to pick one. Buffalo Trace is awfully popular.
I learned so much. It's hard to have enough twelve-year-old bourbon on hand because years ago, who knew it was going to blow up like it's blown up now? Some of those things are hard to find. When you find them, they're not cheap.
People need to watch the Bourbon Heist on Netflix.
Tell me, what is your first gig out of college? I always like to ask my guests that.
I was sitting around my senior year, wondering what in the world I was going to do. At the time, it was on Yahoo, not Google. I put in sports and development. On the third page, I came across the Golf Course Architects of America website. There was one guy in Kentucky. I called him up and said, "How do you get going in this business?" He said, "You have interesting timing. I want you to come up and interview." For a little bit less than a year, I did an apprenticeship for that guy and was able to work on some interesting courses and at least see him work on courses that were being revamped and renovated, which included notable ones like Colonial, Southern Hills, Baltimore Country Club and a lot of interesting places that host big tournaments too. To go through and continue on that, you'd have to get an Architecture degree, which is another 4 or 5 years of pretty specific type stuff. It was a very fun and interesting first gig.
Let's talk about you getting into real estate. What happens there?
My father has done quite a bit of development. As a kid, I was always following him around, looking at land, going to auctions, being around it. This was July of 2007. I was going to be doing industrial and commercial development. As soon as I got licensed, that changed. I was young and naive enough to not even know that once you pass your test, you have to put your license with a broker. I went with a company in my hometown named Coldwell Banker back home. I got into residential because that was pretty much the only thing going on. It took a little while to get going.
Even then 2007 and 2008, I was 23 and the next youngest person in the office was 45. We still had to go to each office and physically get the key. The old school real estate was still in play, but not for long. That all changed very quickly. You started to see the actual Bluetooth lockboxes and the different MLS feeds and Zillow popping into the world. It changed quickly and I changed with it. I was approached by a developer who wanted to build some new construction in a golf course community. That led to getting into new construction. I ended up building about ten new construction homes out there in Georgetown, Kentucky. I transitioned from there into renovations with a specialty in historic properties.
Tell me how old when you say historic because I grew up in San Diego and historic means 1930 or 1940. How far back are we talking?
The house I'm living in is the 2nd or 3rd oldest house in Lexington. It is dated 1792. When it was built, it was part of Virginia for a couple of years. That's the oldest one that I've done, but it so happens to be the one I'm living in. I've done the 1880s and 1900s, several in that range, all the way to the 1950s.
I want to ask you a question. You mentioned the age difference. That's a huge advantage for you. People who get into real estate at an early age and understand the potential can move quickly. Some of those changes you said that occurred that all of a sudden tech became important and Zillow pops up. Some of those older agents probably either said, "Whatever," or they couldn't handle it. Talk about that. I'm sure that you had an advantage over others. Even though they might've had those years of experience, you had something else.
[bctt tweet="Documentation of everything you do helps." username="billrisser"]
I ended up getting the boost early on once the recession was over because people gravitated towards the new technology and the want of instant gratification that has become the normal part of real estate in this market. Although I'm not the techiest person, I was much more advanced than the general agent. Now, it's gotten a lot younger and more techie beyond what I understand, but it helped early on. I capitalized on using some of the lead generation sites to introduce myself to people.
Especially if you're young and you look young, like I did, it was hard to get your general 55 or 60-year-old man to work with you. If you could use and utilize tools that would then show a different type of expertise or help you in your performance, then it helped break down some of those barriers. Since then, it's changing again.
I'm trying to always do the opposite almost of what the crowd is doing. This 2021, I've been writing tons of personal notes, having conversations, and not buying leads like I used to. That's more sowing the seeds and waiting to see what pops up. It will prove to be good, especially if we see a lot of agents jump out of this industry in the next few years.
I have always been a fan of agents who look at a relationship as a very powerful piece of the puzzle. When it comes to building a business, it's going to be something that keeps growing and growing. Not only did you have this age difference, but your ability to look at a property for a buyer or even for a seller and your knowledge about construction, renovation and all that stuff. Once again, a lot of realtors can talk about it and maybe gloss over it, but when you're the person who's done that work and still does that work, it has to be another huge advantage.
In certain situations, it has helped. One of the biggest assets I can bring to people is to help see what can become of something. A lot of people can't see through walls, and I can. The best example I have of this is as far as from a sales aspect. I had a lady call me and ask me to renovate her home, which was going to be a big project where she ripped off the roof and was going to go to a lot of costs.
I put the realtor hat back on and said, "You're not going to get your money back out in this neighborhood if you do this, at least for a long time. What's the reason you're going to be doing this?" She said, "My mom's going to be moving in with us." I said, "Would you take X amount for this property? Where's your mom live?"
She lived on the other side of the town. I ended up listing her mom's house and then sold them a property nearby but in a neighborhood that could support that type of renovation. I did the renovation for them. That was one that happened to be two listings, one buyer representation and then another fun project.
The ability to see through walls is awesome because you take that in a lot of different levels just seeing through the walls. Some of those walls are people's hesitation in doing something different or they're nervous about it.
It's not always something that you happen to have. I've had a lot of help. A program that people can use and look into is Houzz. A lot of times, I get one of those Home Depot or Lowe's buckets and sit in the corner for 30 minutes and stare at something in a certain room, flip through and create an idea book of similar shaped or similar style projects that people have already done. I use ideas from that along with sitting there, staring at these spaces to create a good plan of action.
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RE/MAX Creative Realty: You have to have a good reputation and make sure that you've taken care of clients.[/caption]
I saw some of your work on a website, RenovateLex.com. It looks like it's in conjunction with Houzz. You've got some of your idea books or projects or whatever they call them there. I remember looking at one kitchen that was pretty ugly. It had some color in it. You probably know what I'm talking about. It had some weird pop-out. Maybe there's a fireplace on the other side or something, but it became this beautiful granite and all kinds of great stuff happened in that kitchen. That's been a huge help.
In that specific website, there are different functions. You can post your projects like portfolios. The power of before and after pictures are huge. People love that. Even from a marketing standpoint, that helps. The mention of the idea books, that's a separate part of what they do. You can create your own and even go in and see mine. If somebody wants to see the evolution and inspiration over time, you can say, "I see where you got that from." They can copy that and do the same thing and create their own idea books, whether that’s an outdoor patio, a new garage with an apartment above it, interior, exterior or whatever it may be. It covers the whole spectrum of remodeling. That's a good fit.
Early on, did you realize the importance of taking photos during the whole process because sometimes people don't do that.
When I first started building in 2010, I ran across a program called Photosynth. I only used it for a short period of time because it was clunky and took a lot of time to piece things together. Over time, I would always stand on a certain manhole in the street and take the same picture every day of the construction, so you see it being built from the foundation to the roof and then the brick and whatever. You then use this program to do a very quick build-out of the project. Instead of 180 days, it might be 18 seconds. That was the start of it, but I had abandoned it because it was a lot of work for a little reward. I've always wanted to use the before and afters, especially in the renovations.
I always have taken a lot of photos along the way. It's important for different aspects. If I got something, I want to see where certain plumbing or how certain walls are supported. A lot of times, I'll be talking to an electrician or a plumber. Three months later, they say, "Where did we put this?" I've got that with the wall open. There are a lot of different reasons, but documentation of everything you do helps.
When we chatted at R4, a marketing director was with you and we chatted a little bit. It's so important to know what you're good at and what you're not so good at. Is that a fair assessment? I'm the same way.
For sure.
Talk about having that piece of the puzzle to your business.
He's come into our office not by me but by other powers of brokers or owners, and he's changed the face of some of the marketing. I'm guilty of not using him as much as I should. He's much more...
