Guru Clark Giles with Your Realty Link

Rick Ripma: 0:00

Welcome to Indy's Real Estate Gurus. were recorded today from advisors Mortgage Group studio right here in downtown Carmel. And I'm Rick Ripma, the hardworking mortgage guy, and I've been in real estate mortgages for over 34 years I've helped over 5200 folks finance their homes, my team and I believe in custom tailored loans, not a one size fits all approach. We believe there is the right mortgage for you, and we believe we are the team to deliver it.

Ian Arnold: 0:28

And I'm Ian Arnaud part of Rick's hardworking mortgage team. I've been in the financial industry for 15 years helping people either rebuild their credit or even just get their credit a little higher to get the better interest rates. My I have a passion and trying to help you increase your overall wealth and create generational wealth for you and your family.

Rick Ripma: 0:48

And if you have any questions on Indy's Real Estate market or mortgages, please go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com Or you can call 317-672-1938. That's 317-672-1938.

Ian Arnold: 1:06

So Rick, just a few minutes ago, some guy was just knocking on our door. He said he wanted to come and he had something to tell us. Who is this gentleman?

Rick Ripma: 1:15

Clark Geils. Clark, and he's with your Realty link. Correct? Yes. And it's Giles Giles. Yeah, no problem. See, I shouldn't have some everybody else is the only one I've ever gotten right was one last

Ian Arnold: 1:27

Smith. Yeah, Smith as well. That's an easy one.

Rick Ripma: 1:30

I have trouble with Ripma.

Ian Arnold: 1:32

What are you gonna do? Your mom still says You pronounced it wrong.

Rick Ripma: 1:36

Yeah, well, not anymore. Mom passed?

Ian Arnold: 1:41

Yes, or something. Now I feel bad.

Rick Ripma: 1:45

So you're you're not only a real estate agent? You're also a real estate attorney.

Clark Giles: 1:51

Yes, that's correct. Correct. Yes. That's,

Rick Ripma: 1:53

that's a that's I'm kind of I'm an example threat that yeah, double threat. Yeah. And that I think really gives you a lot of great information that most people don't, don't have. So you can I'm sure your guidances is critical. And you probably you help other agents when they you know, when they're looking at?

Clark Giles: 2:13

Yeah, frequently, I'll have agents that just from my office, or just other offices that will just call me up. And you know, I, I always tell them, I'm happy to like, you know, if they just want to bounce something off of me, you know that the clock doesn't start, you know, they're not going to pay something for just like a phone call. You know, I'm happy to talk about it at a very high level, have to do a conflict check first, of course. But you know, at a very high level, I'm happy to always answer your question, if I know it, and then you know, if I don't, I'm happy to go try to find the answer. Because I like it. When someone asked me a question that I don't immediately know the answer to, for so many years probably doesn't happen very often anymore. It doesn't happen very often. But it can. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 2:49

So what would somebody come and ask you questions about let's Yeah, so for somebody who doesn't know, yeah, generally

Clark Giles: 2:56

with often with real estate brokers, it's, Hey, we think this transaction may be falling apart for reason X or reason why, like, we're gonna have a fight over the the earnest money. You know, like, what do you think what is Indiana law say about that, or sometimes it'll be just about an interpretation of one of the standard purchase agreements or addendums, or amendments that all of us Realtors tend to use here.

Rick Ripma: 3:21

So I want to know, which came first real estate as a real estate agent or real estate law? Yeah, so

Clark Giles: 3:28

I was a broker first, come from a family of realtors. So when I went to college, just right out of college, of course, my my mom has been a realtor for geez, I don't, I don't know over so long over 50 years, so long. I don't even charge her for her my board dues anymore. She's a mare tie. Oh, wow. So coming from family realtors, I got my real estate license right out of college, about 2122 years old and did that for a while and didn't actually go back to go to law school, even though I plan to do that right out of undergrad didn't go back to law school until I was 36. And became a lawyer right before my 40th birthday. So I've been practicing law now, about seven years.

Rick Ripma: 4:10

And that had to be a lot of I mean, when you're getting your law degree, you're you're a real estate agent working full time. Yes. And then you go to get your law degree. Yes. It's also a full time job. Yes. At night. Yeah. That's, you had to really put a lot of effort into this.

Clark Giles: 4:27

Yeah, it was a lot of effort. It really, I had to have a discussion, you know, with my significant other at the time of like, Hey, I'm going to do this. You may not see me for a while. And like, I swear it will be all worth it. You know, like when I when I get out. Ironically, my lowest grade in law school was in real estate. Really? My professor told me at the time, they're like, he's like, Oh, you're a realtor. You're gonna hate this class. Oh, really? Yeah, cuz it's kind of comes down to I don't know if you ever saw an old movie Back to school. with Rodney Dangerfield, he's like a business guy. And in the business class, it was a lot like that, you know, I was like, Well, that would never actually happen in the real world because this is what would actually happen. But I tried to give the book answer but and when I say low grade, I still gotta be plus, but

Rick Ripma: 5:15

Well, that would have been my high grade. So yeah, the back to school. I don't remember what he called it, but we're Where are you going to build that?

Clark Giles: 5:25

Yeah. It's like fantasyland.

Rick Ripma: 5:28

Areas. That was a Rodney Dangerfield is a funny was a funny, funny man. He was he was he's great. I love that. So before real estate before, where did you go to college?

Clark Giles: 5:40

Yeah, so I went to college in Indiana University. Bloomington, okay. Went down there. Graduated, right. Right with the internet boom happened. So I also have like a background in it. So I jumped into it for a while did it in real estate. As I tried to build up my real estate career, got into the music business for about a decade, kept saying I was gonna go back to law school kept doing real estate. Finally, when I'm in my mid 30s, I was like, if I'm going to do this, I need to do this now. Or else it's going to be too late. And the return on investment is not going to be worth it to pay the law school to do that. So

Rick Ripma: 6:16

I decided to go back. Yeah. So what did you do in the music industry? Yeah, so

Clark Giles: 6:22

everything wore many hats. Much like the realtor and the lawyer thing. I was a tour manager for a band, ran a record label, put up some records, for a while played in a band did some distributed work from distribution. I was always a realtor while I was doing that, because the music industry didn't pay. But you know, it was it was a fun time. I'm glad I did it. I got to meet a lot of people got to go to every state in the union. People often say like, you know, it's nice that you got to travel around, you see all the cities and I said, Yeah, but I saw the worst part of every city, because we were playing in a band. You know, and we were there for about 24 hours. But yes, it was nice.

Rick Ripma: 7:01

Yeah. Yeah. My, my nephew is in the band Emery. Okay. He's a drummer. Okay. They've kind of now they're, they just go on tour. But they'll have normal jobs. Right. Yeah. But when they go on tour, they, I guess a really big in Europe and Australia.

Clark Giles: 7:19

Okay. I know, a few bands like that, that like, you know, they'll play here and it's maybe 4050 people, but then they'll go to Europe and play in Germany. And it's just like a stadium show.

Rick Ripma: 7:28

Yeah. Yeah. That's they have huge shows. And, and those areas, it's, it's amazing to me, so they still do it. Yeah, it's profitable. But they'll have to have jobs that they none of them are real estate agents that I know. But that's, they're all. They all have jobs that have to have flexibility. Yeah, yeah. So how did all of that experience that you that you have gotten over the years and all the different jobs that you have? How does that relate or help you in real estate?

Clark Giles: 7:56

I'd say it actually builds your emotional intelligence a lot. Because you're dealing with so many different people you're dealing with, like, on like, in the music industry, you're dealing with the the quintessential artistic temperament. You know, where it's maybe not always about numbers or rationality, sometimes it's about the passion of the project. But then other times when you're dealing with the club owner, at the end of the night, you're talking cold numbers and cold, hard cash and return on investment. And so it's all the jobs I've ever done has kind of built that emotional intelligence and knowing kind of like, who before you stand, you know, who, who you're standing in front of and like, what's going to be a priority to them, and how you can best serve them as an agent.

Rick Ripma: 8:39

Well, it sounds like you've had a lot of exciting things. So now now you've gotten into real estate. And what would you say, you know, is your favorite part of the job?

Clark Giles: 8:50

Yeah. So I think actually, my favorite part of the job is working with first time homebuyers. I've always like said that like to steal a line from Dave Ramsey. Like I have a heart of a teacher. And I love to teach about real estate to individuals. So I love it when someone comes into my office and says, Hey, I want to buy a house. I don't know where to start. I don't know anything about mortgages. I don't know what kind of mortgage I need. I don't know how much money I need down. I don't know the process. And I love just talking them through that. And then at the end of the transaction, like when we close for them to say like I feel like I actually understood, I felt confident the whole time that we're going through this and you know, like even if I had any anxieties you kind of assuage those fears and I feel like I somewhat know what I'm doing now and I'd feel comfortable doing it again.

Ian Arnold: 9:39

That's That's awesome. So is it was it hard to go from real estate to do it all your other stuff and then your family still does real estate and then you trying to get back into it was that struggle or were they just kept nudging you? Hey, you need to get back into

Clark Giles: 9:57

this. No, I think a lot of it well, a lot of time was whenever, you know, I would go off and do something else, like what my mom would always say to me is like, well, real estate's always gonna be there. You know, like, you always have that to fall back on. I'm a very risk adverse person, you know, so I always have to have like multiple backup plans to things. And she would always say, What are you talking about? You're a realtor, you can do this. Anytime you have a wide network of people. Go try it, you know. So I think it actually like, encouraged me to take a little more risk and go try to do some fun things and jump in a van with some guys and go play a show because I knew I could always come back to that it wouldn't been the same if I was working a corporate job where I was trying to get the gold watch at the end of 40 years, you know, like, it's, it's not worth it to take that kind of risk. So

Rick Ripma: 10:43

he's risk averse. Understands I am too, I am very risk averse. Yeah, some people would say you've kind of taken. It's not a risky way necessarily, but as self employed is considered kind of a risky way. And you're a self

Clark Giles: 10:57

employed, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm self employed by wear many hats and that self employment. Yeah. But also, like, you know, I'm risk adverse, but I also value freedom and being able to kind of be my own person and have a little bit of an authority problem. I don't really like being told what to do. Yeah. So I'm not like that at all. being self employed is great for that.

Ian Arnold: 11:19

And Clark, if somebody's looking to get a hold of you, what's the best way So really,

Clark Giles: 11:22

the best way to get a hold of me is through email, which is just Clark CLA RK. At your Realty link.com. You can also go to the your Realty link.com website and get to me that way. That's really the most effective way to reach me. And awesome and

Ian Arnold: 11:38

Rick, how would they get ahold of you? Or if

Rick Ripma: 11:40

they go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 31767 to 1938, that's 31767 to 1938. And on the website, just you can find a lot of information but you can also find all the contact information for Ian or I. Thanks for listening to indies real estate gurus, the gurus we interview share valuable insights they reveal their strengths, personalities, and how they'll work for you. While we hardworking mortgage guys, security, your best mortgage, real estate gurus work hard to they avoid problems the amateurs don't see They listen. They find unrealized opportunities. If you're buying or selling a home, a real estate agent is a valuable asset. If you're even thinking of buying or selling a home, keep listening and definitely call one of India's real estate gurus.

Ian Arnold: 12:32

All right, so before we get to the question of the week, we're going to find out what is his superpower?

Rick Ripma: 12:40

We're gonna change it up a little bit. You are changing up, I'm not ready.

Ian Arnold: 12:43

I gotta keep you on your toes you're doing? Well. Go ahead. All right, Mark, what do you think is your superpower?

Clark Giles: 12:50

So I've already mentioned the emotional intelligence and to an extent, so I'm not going to fall back on that answer. But I, I would say that is one of my superpowers. But also I just say just my deep experience, being able to be a real estate attorney and a real estate broker I've seen, I've seen it all from all sides of the all sides of a particular transaction. And it's rare to me, I'm solution oriented. So a lot of times, you know, you'll run into in a transaction, there's been some that like, agents have said to me in my office, like, if you were not the broker on this transaction, this would not have gotten done. You know, like, because you thought up a creative way to get this to the closing table that a lot of other times people would have just thrown up their hands and said, hey, it's impossible. And so that's, that's really, I think, would be a superpower of mine.

Rick Ripma: 13:42

That's an important one too, to be able to keep those, you know, keep everything together and figure out ways to make it go through it. I don't know why, but it's one of those things I like to do.

Clark Giles: 13:51

Yeah, I enjoy it. I don't like it at the time when the problem happens. But like when you can get to that closing table with the help of the other agent on the other side. And the lender and the mortgage people and, and the title company, and you get there and you get it done. And everyone's like, wow, we can't believe we pulled that off. Yes. That's a great feeling. Yeah. And it's so valuable for the customer. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 14:13

Obviously, that's a big piece of of why somebody should work with you. But how big a piece Do you think having your the the real estate law background helps your clientele when they're looking to buy a home? Yeah, I

Clark Giles: 14:27

think so with a lot of the first time homebuyers. I think it helps when, with a little bit of the authenticity and gravitas or authority that you can bring to it. You know, like every real estate agent, I think out there has been in the situation where the parents come to the home inspection, and they're walking through and they're looking at you like, you know, is this used car salesman trying to like take advantage of my poor child, convince them to buy this house. So like being you know, being a lawyer and I Think helps, helps with that. And, and I think once they meet me, they, they understand that like, I really just want the best for the client. And, you know, there's been multiple times where I've walked to house for the first time homebuyer and said, I don't think you want to buy this house, like, I think that it's going to do too much work for like what you've told me that you want to do or that you're willing to do. I don't think it makes sense, or I don't think it makes sense for the situation that you've told me. I want them to be happy at the end of the day. And I frequently tell my clients, I'll show you a house to the end of time, you know, like we'll keep looking at, we're not going to try to buy the first house that we necessarily look at. Right, you find that you want to find the right house, I want to find the right house now if it happens to be the first house. Great, right. But sometimes it's not. Yeah, sometimes it's the 10th. And sometimes

Rick Ripma: 15:44

you don't know it's the right house. Yeah. Because you have you know, sometimes you have to look at a few more just to make sure you know, that you're buying the right house.

Clark Giles: 15:53

Yeah, I've we've done that before, to where we've looked at one house, I'm like, This is great. Let's schedule a showing for two more houses, just so we can say that we've looked at three and you feel like, you know, like it's you've gone through the process and looked at what else is out there. But then we'll go back and write an offer on this one. Because I think it's a great, great fit for you. Right? Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 16:12

I will say this though. When my wife and I bought our house, we real estate agent do the same thing you're doing you don't realize, and I've come from a sales background. So I'm looking at a realtor just like you're just trying to sell me, we looked at a couple houses. And she goes, Yeah, you don't want this one. I mean, she goes based off of your situation. You guys want kids later and stuff, this house isn't going to do it. And she told us the reasons why. And we're like, Oh, we didn't think about that type of stuff. Yeah. And then we're like, oh, she liked looking out for us. This is. So our fences and gates went straight down from that point on, and it was much easier, I would say and I wasn't thinking of Sears trying to sell me so she can get a commission. So yeah,

Clark Giles: 16:53

I mean, I know how it is, when you first start out, it's very feast or famine, you know, you have to you want to make your commission because, you know, it's hard if you don't have that referral network built up. But I think the the truly the agents that think about it strategically, will get things and they say like, Hey, someone's going to buy like two to three houses in their lifetime. If they really liked me, and I treat them fair and honest. And with authenticity, they're going to come back to me when they're ready to sell their house and buy their next one. Right. So

Rick Ripma: 17:21

plus, they have a lot of referrals. Yeah, you know, if you do a great job for somebody, they want their friends taken care of their friends and family taken care of just like they were, you know, so it, it's very valuable. And I've noticed here, the the top agents in the city like yourself, the people who are gurus that are doing huge volume and have done a great job. They care about the client more than they care about the deal. That's the if part of what I want to make sure people understand that real estate agents should have, they should be respected. The top agents should be respected for what they do, because they do care. They're there to really help people get the best house for them. Just like you said, you want the best house for them. You want them happy. Yeah.

Clark Giles: 18:07

I'm sure you've had this experience, too. Like, you take care of a client and then suddenly, you're doing a mortgage for you're selling a house to everybody at their work. Yeah. Because you know, the because that's the best kind of referral you can get as the word of mouth like, Hey, I use this guy or uses woman. And they did they did a great job for me. And they were honest. And I trusted him and they did me right.

Rick Ripma: 18:28

Yes. And you never know who that's gonna be. Yeah. Some people refer as other people don't refer anybody. They love you. Yeah, they're just referral type

Clark Giles: 18:35

people. Yeah, they're just introverts. Yeah, I can get that I can deal with that. Or I can understand that. Yeah.

Ian Arnold: 18:39

All right. So now let's get into the question that we and the question of the week is sponsored by Hey, Rick and I the hardworking mortgage guys, where we believe in helping and supporting you and your realtor by sending constant updates on your loan. Contact us today at HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com All right, so here you go. What was your first car?

Clark Giles: 18:58

AMC Eagle. Oh, Eagle. Yep. That was more wheel drive.

Rick Ripma: 19:03

Four wheel drive. Yeah. Was it the station wagon?

Clark Giles: 19:06

No. Well, it was like a I don't know if if you would call it a station wagon. I wouldn't call it a station wagon is like a mini it kind of looked like a station wagon that was shrunk

Rick Ripma: 19:15

okay yeah. So more like a more like what they call today like the super ruse yeah SUV yeah doll but yeah, exactly. I know exactly what you're my first that my first but the the place I when I was in car sales. Last place I was at I was a general manager of the store and that was a Jeep Eagle store. Okay, they were great cars. Yeah.

Clark Giles: 19:37

Is a good car. Ironically. My next car after that was a white caprice classic stationwagon. And so that was the great white.

Rick Ripma: 19:45

There's a big difference inside. Yes. Those two cars well the

Clark Giles: 19:48

AMC Eagle was hard for me. I know they can't see me on the radio but viene six, four. It was hard for me to fit in the eagle. station wagons more my style. Yeah. And you called it a what the? It was a great white the great one. Yeah, okay.

Rick Ripma: 20:01

And you so it sounds like you'd like that car better than the eagle.

Ian Arnold: 20:05

I did. Yeah. But it was more like because you know, is like you could fit eight people in the car. It was more like it was more of a party like the band. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And for shorter people out there on six, three, Rick, you're close to 63464. So you don't realize how much different cars when you sit in them. They change. Like my parents. My mom and dad are only five, six. My grandpa was six too. So that's where I got it. But it's interesting because they when we were shopping for cars, I'm like, I don't like this car. They're like, why I go because one the seat doesn't go far enough back my knees feel like they're on the steering wheel. Or you get in a car and you turn and all you're looking at is the pillar. Yep. Like you can't see. I'm like, you wanna talk about blind spot? I can't see anything. So I do. I do have feelings when it comes to searching for the right car and not sitting in the right car. Poor people. It's a hard thing to understand it is.

Rick Ripma: 21:05

Well, you realize in this group, you're the short guy, right?

Ian Arnold: 21:09

Yeah, but it's interesting. I play a lot of basketball and yet I'm still one of the tall guys. It's weird.

Rick Ripma: 21:15

All depends on the group here. Yes, it

Clark Giles: 21:16

was a crazy now as all the kids are taller. Now I'm used to being the tallest person anywhere I go. And now when I go to anywhere with like, 20 year olds, or, or less, like, I feel like I'm average or the short guy. Yeah, it's weird how I don't know what's happened. Definitely as little vine growth hormone and milk or something.

Rick Ripma: 21:35

I heard that's what it is. But I wouldn't. I'm not saying that. I'm not

Clark Giles: 21:39

a scientist.

Rick Ripma: 21:42

So when when you're looking, if you had a friend going to buy a home, and that let's say they're in some other state, you can't help them? What advice would you give them on how to pick the right, agent?

Clark Giles: 21:58

Yeah, so I would fall back on the old canard that I've already used I'd like, you want to talk to somebody that's been that's willing to explain things to you like that, that's willing to, to teach you and to basically approach it as if, like, if a lot of times you can go into somebody and they're condescending, you know, they go in and they're like over explaining to you, you want somebody that's that's willing to, to explain and go into detail, but also doesn't make you feel stupid when when you're doing it. Now, of course, referrals are great. You can look on the internet and kind of see the ratings that agents get that's, that's okay. But really nothing's like word of mouth from somebody that you actually know, like empirical evidence from somebody. And I feel like to that just like to trust your gut to like, there's just been transactions in the past, not necessarily real estate, but just any transaction where I've been like, I don't know, I get a weird feeling about this person. And they're saying all the right things, but it's just something off. And the times I haven't listened to my gut, and I've just moved forward that I've always regretted it. Yeah,

Rick Ripma: 23:07

having that. That obviously makes a big, big difference, but having that rapport with somebody that where you get along with them. I think that's a big piece of like, when you meet somebody, for us, you meet somebody, and you're talking to them, you want to get along. Yep. Right. And they're and you just don't everybody just doesn't mesh together, right? Yeah, that's okay.

Clark Giles: 23:29

Yeah, sometimes I'm not. I've told clients potential clients before that I'm not the right agent for them. Sometimes, sometimes I'm like, I think you need, you know, an agent's more like this, and I'll refer them out. And I have no problem doing that, you know, it's sometimes the right agent isn't going to be the right agent for everybody.

Rick Ripma: 23:45

Now, I am sure your mom was was a big mentor for you. I'm just guessing. Yes, absolutely. How has she helped you? And then how about other mentors? Or how have you mentored others to help them?

Clark Giles: 23:56

Yeah, so she's. So there's hardly ever been a question that I've called called her to ask that she hasn't known the answer to or hasn't run into it. And I kind of feel like, I've now assumed that mantle. It's been great with other attorneys in my office, like, my law partners or other attorneys that work as of counsel for us, they'll frequently come to me with a real estate question. And I'll say like, Okay, well, what hat am I wearing when I'm going to answer this question for you? Because the answer is going to be different if I'm answering it as a real estate broker or an attorney. So let me answer it as an attorney. First, I'll give you the attorney answer. And then I'm going to tell you what's actually going to probably happen as a real estate broker, and walk them through it and walk them through about the situation, the different options, and at the end of it, they're usually like, wow, that's, I would have never thought to do it that way. It's like,

Rick Ripma: 24:47

well, I've got this question being in the back of my head that I think I should have asked, What instrument do you play?

Clark Giles: 24:53

So I did play bass? Yeah, but I haven't played it in a long time, probably like 15 years. So

Rick Ripma: 24:58

you're not going to give us a little I Have not okay. So you have attorney do you have? Do you have a law practice? Also? Yes.

Clark Giles: 25:06

So I have a law practice that's on the east side of Indianapolis and is in a stork Irvington, we do real estate and business. Most of our clients are real estate investors, or other real estate brokers. We do a lot of 1031 exchanges to for anyone interested in that, and investors interested in talking about that. But we also do business law. So I say that, like our core kind of demographic is we're focused on creatives and creatives I defined very broadly, you know, that can be everything from a Python, develop programmer developer to an artist out there, both my law partner and I, our background is in intellectual property. So now we've kind of defined ourselves as property attorneys broadly defined, okay, you know, intellectual and real, you do both. So we do both. We don't do any criminal law, family law, or any kind of family drama, stuff like that, where we kind of stay focused very narrowly to business and real estate.

Ian Arnold: 26:02

So Well, hold on, I think we need to get his information out there. So people probably do. Yeah. So if somebody wants somebody wants to get in touch with you about that, yeah, hold

Clark Giles: 26:13

good. Oh, yeah. So for law matters, it would be Giles Law Group G. It's pronounced like a J. But spelled je, je i Les law group.com. And you can always email me at Clark at your Realty link.com. And even if it's a legal issue, I'll I'll probably respond you from my lawyer email address, but that they'll get to me

Ian Arnold: 26:36

perfect. And Rick, how would they get ahold of you or I

Rick Ripma: 26:38

just go to HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com, that's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com. Or you can call 317-672-1938, that's 31767 to 1938. And on the website, just you can find our contact information. So you can contact us from there. Or you maybe find the information you're looking for on the website,

Ian Arnold: 26:57

or go to indies real estate gurus podcast, and just subscribe and you'll have all your information. Absolutely. So I know you're going through you were talking about that with your mom mentoring and everything like that. So as I know, you got back into it, what hurdle? Or do you think you wish you would have done differently? To get back when once you got back in?

Clark Giles: 27:22

Yeah, once I got back in what hurdle? I would say that like something that I've really seen the value in, in the last 10 years that I did not do when I first started out was having like a customer relation, Ship Manager kind of database and doing those like follow up touches, and, you know, it would be kind of like, hey, we closed the house, it was a great transaction. Thanks, call me if you need anything else. And I just wouldn't follow up or talk to the person ever again, until they called me, you know, hopefully, for the next time to buy the house because I was in my 20s. And I just didn't understand the value of staying top of mind to people, right. So that's something that like, so when I got back into real estate, I was kind of like starting back over, I didn't have my old Rolodex or, or anything. So now that's what I try to do, I try to always reach out even after close a transaction, try to send the holiday card, just touch base with people, like even if I know that they never intend to buy another house again, you know, it's like, you still get those referrals from people that they know, and I just touch base with them and remind them to, you know, if they refi their house to file their homestead exemption again, and just the things that I can help them, you know, anything that I can think I can be a value add for. I tried to do, and I didn't do that in my 20s.

Rick Ripma: 28:38

Yeah, I believe heavily, and follow up. And I think that it's, first of all, I think it's, it's you have to do it because your customer deserves it, your your, the your client deserves that. They spent a lot of money, but you also spend, especially in real estate, and you spent a lot of time and you get a relationship. And it's it's always weird to me, it's like, you have this relationship and you're and you're you're seeing each other, you know, three, four times a week, you're talking on the phone, they buy a house, they close, and then it's over. Yeah. And it shouldn't be over. So I commend you very much for doing the follow up. I think that we do a lot of follow up. And because we think it's valuable, we think it's important, we think it's fair, it's what you should do to honor your customer. You know, if the customer says hey, don't do this anymore, then you don't do it. And I've had customers say listen, I just, I'm fine. And they still come back. And they still send referrals. But a lot of people do want to talk to you. Do you find they want to talk to you, they they're happy when you call them or

Clark Giles: 29:46

Yeah, yeah, they do want to talk to me and a lot of times they just want to like kick some ideas around. They're just like, hey, how do you think the markets doing or, Hey, the market is kind of crazy right now or what do you think about this new law that's been proposed or what do you think? just kind of like to get my take on things. And it's, it's nice, but I like feeling like I'm looked at as an expert or someone that whose opinion matters?

Rick Ripma: 30:09

Well, you have a little extra. Yeah, because of your law degree and because of being an attorney that that gives you, in my mind a little extra where I may not call a, you know, an agent for for a legal matter. But if you're my real estate agent, I'm probably calling you and just asking just to see what I need to do, right? We get I get calls all the time, have a call the other day asking me a question that I really don't want to answer, because I'm not an attorney. And but as an attorney, that you have that advantage, I would say,

Clark Giles: 30:43

Yeah, I'll give a little disclaimer, you know, like, Hey, I don't know all the specifics of it. And this isn't, you know, necessarily legal advice, you know, depending but, yeah, I'll give you my hypothetical answer.

Rick Ripma: 30:55

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Because, yeah, obviously, it's just like trying to help somebody buy a house, if you don't have all the information, you can't help them buy the right house. Yeah. It always it's kind of surprising when people don't. And I think it's the value of showing multiple houses, you know, we talked about maybe it's the first house, maybe it is, but showing multiple houses, lets you know a lot more about what they like and don't like and what they're looking for and not looking for, correct?

Clark Giles: 31:18

Yeah, I always use a nerdy Star Trek reference, I always tell people like I'm like, I'm like the Borg I get better and better with each like house that we look at, like, I know, like, by the third or fourth house, I know when when we walk in if they're gonna like it or not, because I know their aesthetic tastes. I know what they're valuing what they're trying to look at. You know, there's even been times where I've shown like, three or four houses for person, and then maybe another house comes on the market, and they can't go see it that day. And I say, hey, I'll go look at it for you. And I can be like, you'd hate the kitchen, you know? Or I think you'll actually like this one. And we go to a second showing. And they're like, Yeah, you're right. So it's, yeah, there's a lot of value in that. And just listening to the client. Have you

Rick Ripma: 32:00

had one where you've that you've gone and looked at you took them to a house that they would have never looked at, but because of what they told you and they love the house? And that's what they Yeah,

Clark Giles: 32:10

absolutely. They also just been like, Hey, I think you're really gonna like this area based on what you told, like what you told me and I know, it wasn't on your radar. I know, it's a little bit out of the parameters. You told me, but just trust me, let's go see it. And they've been like, Yeah, this is great. I would like to thank

Ian Arnold: 32:25

you for the ratings boosts anytime you mentioned a Star Trek reference, I guarantee we're gonna get tons of Trekkies coming in. So thank you for the rating most. But what would you think would be one of your most memorable deals?

Clark Giles: 32:36

Oh, geez. Well, we I did have a, I'm not gonna remember all the specifics of it, because it happened like 15 years ago, but I had a quadruple closing one time, where it was literally like, it was like just a cascading chain of closings from sales, purchases and sales of the property. And on one of them, I was a dual agent. So I was doing both sides. And so there's literally four closings I had to stack up and around during that day. So that was a great day to win. But stressful, but very stressful. Because anyone in that chain fell apart. It would have we would have had to reschedule everything.

Rick Ripma: 33:13

Yes. Yeah. No, that's that's the thing. That's so to me, so important about getting, you know, as a lender closing the loan on time. You close a purchase on tie? Yep. Because the effective the ripple effect that can have is tremendous.

Clark Giles: 33:28

Yeah. And what's crazy is like, no one remembers that. It was like, not your fault. Sometimes, like, even as the lender or the real estate agent, it's like this was completely out of our control. X happened, right? You know, but it's it didn't close on time, right. That's what matters at the end of the day. So kind of going back to that risk adverse thing, if I tried to build in a lot of buffers, you know, I try to like, make sure that everyone's responding to the mortgage broker right away. Did you get everything direct?

Rick Ripma: 33:53

If it's, it's critical? Yeah, it's critical.

Clark Giles: 33:55

Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 33:56

Yeah, I've had some where I've had, I had a, I had one I remember. And it was I told the real estate agent. I said, Listen, I'll do this. But you have to understand this is a risky deal. i This may not close, and it may be at the very end because of the situation. I said, but we think we can do it. But I don't want to do this and lose your business. Because it doesn't close. Yep. It didn't close. And I lost his business for exactly why. And it's that risk adverse, I should have said, go somewhere else. Let them not close it. Yeah. But every indication was we could close it at the time, but things happen that made it on closable. So it's I agree with you that I'm terrible at it, though. I want to help. You may do that. Same thing. I want to help so I want to make it work and 99% of the time, I figure out a way to make something Yeah, you the same way.

Clark Giles: 34:50

Yeah, there's a constant tension between like managing expectations and then wanting to help you know, there's there's been some times where I'm like this is a hopeless cause like I do not See any way this could happen? But I want to help you Yes. Like it's but like, also I want to try to manage your expectations. And just as over time on that spectrum, I've gotten more to the I can't help you and refer you out kind of thing because I want to help you. But I don't want you to hate me at the end of this right. But that was another thing that I did early on is just like if I thought there was a 5% chance, you know, I wouldn't be managing expectations all the time and telling them to disclaimer, but we try to move forward and now I've gotten more and more risk adverse as I've gotten older.

Rick Ripma: 35:31

Yeah. And you know what happens even though it's a 5% you warn them the whole time. They're still upset. They don't remember. So what's your your makeup of your real estate team?

Clark Giles: 35:40

Yeah, look like so. So it's a family owned brokerage. So we've got approximately like 2022 agents out of our office on the south side. It's in Greenwood, South Port Road. For my, what I would call my team, it's, it's me and my law partner. We're on the east side of Indianapolis, we mostly work within the 465 area. Okay, so like I will do stuff in like Carmel fishers, Westfield, things like that. But generally I'm downtown and historic Irvington would replace that that area of town near north side. So it's, it's really just me and Jordan, my law partner, who's also a realtor, and we just kind of it's us against the world down there.

Ian Arnold: 36:26

So, so Did your mom when you are deciding where she's like, No, I have the South Side you gotta choose somewhere else?

Clark Giles: 36:33

Well, I so I've the South sides, the only side of town I've never lived on. So I have sold some real estate down there. But generally, like I kind of staked out my territory on the east side. And just luckily, just no one thought before it

Rick Ripma: 36:49

was a great area. I

Clark Giles: 36:50

love everything. I'm formerly on the Irvington development organization board, my partner's actually the president of the board right now. And so like, we're always trying to attract and retain business to the Irvington neighborhood, and just we're very into placemaking, and trying to make it a great place to live. Yeah.

Rick Ripma: 37:06

So I know you work with first time homebuyers, do you work? You know, what other? Like, what is your basic clientele? I know, there's always outliers.

Clark Giles: 37:16

So I'd say my two basic clienteles are one is the first time homebuyers or people that have been very intimidated about buying a home or maybe got burned in the past 20 years ago. And they're dipping their toe back into the water to try to do it again. And they want somebody to kind of hold their hand through it and make them feel secure. So that's one kind of segment I deal with. And then the other segment is the complete opposite end of the spectrum where it's real estate investors. So that's the where, with the first time homebuyers, I have to like kind of drag them along a lot of times and say like, Hey, it's gonna be okay. With the other side of the spectrum. It's an interesting thing, because that's me kind of grabbing the reins and being like, whoa, slow down, please don't make three cash offers, you know, on three different houses, all on the same day with no contingencies, you know, so it's, it's, it's interesting to kind of, you know, to see the spectrum and the different approaches to the different segments that I serve, but I enjoy both. And I love working with how is the

Rick Ripma: 38:20

investment? A quality? I guess, I don't know, what else to Indianapolis in the surrounding counties.

Clark Giles: 38:26

Yeah, so there's still so it's, it's not the same as it was last year, where, you know, you could put pretty much any property on the market and have 20 offers on it, no matter what condition it was in, investors are getting a little more discerning now, we're seeing a sell off of some of the the assets, especially assets that were financed through like private loans, or private investors, we're seeing a lot of that kind of sell off, because the investors are seeing the mortgage rates going up and saying, like, Okay, I don't like the downside of this, like, I need to unload some of my portfolio. But there's the quality still out there. And I tend to like to work with buy and hold investors, I will work with any type of investor, but really, most of the investors I work with are the type that want to want to put some money into the home, know what they're getting into, are comfortable with what they're getting into, do the work and either want to rent another long term tenant, or want to hold on to it and kind of do that placemaking in the neighborhood that I was talking about and build property values up.

Rick Ripma: 39:28

So you know that I know there's it's a big difference to between somebody who is buying and holding than somebody who's buying basically, you know, just buying and fixing up and selling Yeah,

Clark Giles: 39:41

yeah, so I do work with some flippers I do not work with a lot of out of state investors, just kind of like the institutional portfolio people where it's where they've never even seen the home. It's just a line on the spreadsheet. And they're buying it like that saying, you know, I'll I'll talk to anybody and work with anyone but that's generally not who I am. I've been focusing my marketing efforts to try it. I don't feel as fulfilled doing that. So I'm trying to get it from, you know, investors that like enjoy the assets that they that they own and want to like, be a value add to the neighborhood, whatever neighborhood they're in.

Rick Ripma: 40:14

I was talking to an investor and he has 100. I think it was 110 properties. And he said, the vast majority of he's never seen. Yeah, because they're all over the country. And he does property managers that take care of it. And he never sees them.

Clark Giles: 40:26

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it works for a lot of people. Like I own a fair amount of property. And that would not be my approach, just because, again, it goes back to that risk adverse thing, I have to be able to drive by it and see it, or I have to know if there's a problem that I can drive to it in 30 minutes, but it works for other people. And, you know, good for them.

Rick Ripma: 40:47

Because you own property. If you if you had let's say there's somebody out there, they're thinking about buying and buying rental property, but that they're new to it. Yep. Do you think there's some value in them working with somebody like you, who knows you've done first you're an attorney. Secondly, you own your own rental property, you own your own rental property? So you kind of you can kind of walk them through? It seems like it

Clark Giles: 41:09

yeah, absolutely. Like, well walk a house. And, you know, a lot of times they'll say, Oh, I think this needs about 10,000, you know, of work to get it up to where it's rentable, and I'll say, No, it needs about 25. You know, he's like, 30. And that's like, bare bones, you know, and then I can share with them some of my spreadsheets and say, okay, you know, like, it's not just about the amount of rent that you can get, because you've got things like, you know, insurance, you've got things like property taxes, you can't just like, look at what your mortgage payments gonna be. And just because you are, you know, your mortgage payments, 900, and you're renting it for 950, and you're making 50 bucks a month, you're probably not actually making, you're probably not netting any money when you take taxes and insurance into it. And then the repairs you got to make, and if you're using a property manager, so I can kind of walk them through a property managers work and you know, like, whether they want to do it themselves, I can sometimes tell them the hard truth of like, Yeah, you think you're going to do all the repairs yourself, but when you get that call on Christmas Eve to fix the toilet? at two in the morning, you know, you're gonna think about maybe hiring a property manager, or it's not going to be you're not going to love being a landlord.

Rick Ripma: 42:13

Because the person flushed down the toilet, they should yeah, you know, yeah, I had rental property years ago. And what I learned is, I should never be the manager of a rental. It's not my thing. I'm not good at it. I believe people, I think it's a thing in sales, you tend to believe people, you, you want to think the best of everybody. And so when you're given the sob story, you just so I think having I think rental property is a great thing to do. But I think, for me, somebody like me needs a property manager. I can't I couldn't do it. The only time I ever made money is when I hired a property manager. That was that. That was the only time. So what do you look at any real estate business? What are you looking at? And going, you know, man, we need to I want to make a change here to improve my business in the next. This, you know, maybe this year?

Clark Giles: 43:00

Yeah. So I really like now that we've built kind of the system and the process, I just kind of want to scale it a little bit. So I'm interested in. I love teaching real estate. I love teaching real estate to clients. I also kind of wanted to build my team out now is what I've been kind of looking on focusing on the next one to two year roadmap, maybe get one or two more agents and interested in some agents that just want to learn the realities, the goods and the good and bad of real estate and build the team out.

Rick Ripma: 43:32

Right. Well, you know how to do it. You've done it. You've been in a long time you have your mom whose you said how long? 60 years? She's

Clark Giles: 43:39

been in over 50 years. 50 years? That's

Rick Ripma: 43:41

incredible. Yeah. That's, that's incredible. She has to have tremendous knowledge. Yeah. And she is really is this. She still works in it?

Clark Giles: 43:50

Yeah, we're the I'll still call her occasionally and ask her a question.

Rick Ripma: 43:53

You know, we'll take your calls. Yeah, she does. Yeah, you should just call her and ask questions. Even if you don't have sometimes I

Clark Giles: 44:01

have to call from my law partners phone. So she picks up. But she does take my call.

Ian Arnold: 44:07

So she's still top dog, though. Yeah, she still is the most she still

Clark Giles: 44:10

so I think we may have one agent in our office that sells more but she's she's still beats me most years. Yeah, she's got that referral network of, you know, like, you just can't beat No, yeah, after that long. Yeah. I mean, I have a good referral network. But she's got a couple more years on me. So

Rick Ripma: 44:27

yeah, that's, that is hard to beat.

Ian Arnold: 44:30

That's all right. That keeps Thanksgiving dinner. She's like, Can you pass the turkey? You know, I sold more. Right? Yes, mom. So how are you seeing the indie market? And then let's say the next year to five years?

Clark Giles: 44:46

Yeah, so depends on who you are, I guess. So I always say for real estate agents. I don't fear like bear markets because for real estate agent, you know, it's like, well, I'll just sell the property that people want to sell off, you know, like so. I'm not intimidated by a downturn in the market, I think it's just a matter of positioning yourself. For your average homebuyer, I think, you know, the home prices that are that have been going up kind of rocketing up, which is never something that's really happened in Indianapolis, we're seeing that. I think that's going to slow. We're seeing that already. I still think it's a good time to buy. I think mortgage rates will hopefully level out, you'd probably be able to better expert at that than I would. But I hope that they're going to kind of level off and stop going up. It's the boom is over. But I don't think that we're sliding into a recession or anything yet. And as far as real estate goes, Yeah,

Ian Arnold: 45:42

I think our biggest issue and Rick and I have talked about this is inventory.

Clark Giles: 45:46

Yeah, that's really the biggest issue like and I think that could solve so many things, just having some more inventory on the market, whether you're talking about new builds, or just inventory of, you know, existing property?

Rick Ripma: 45:58

Well, we believe that rates are going to come down. And they've already done that some, the, you know, the big negative to interest rates is inflation. And inflation has come down. It's just it's there's lagging indicators that are keeping it a little higher than it should be. So we think we think this summer, I actually believe that later this year, maybe an end of next year, we're going to be significantly lower in interest rate. I'm not saying we're going to get to where we were. Yep. But if that happens, and there's no guarantees, because none of us have a crystal ball that we can see it. But if that happens, we still have an inventory problem. So I don't see how we don't go back to the way it was.

Clark Giles: 46:44

Yeah, I agree. And I think to that, just put some context of time, like I bought my first house, I think I was 21 years old when I bought my first house and my mortgage rate then was higher than it is they are now. You know, so like I at least have the content. And my mom will always say like, Oh, when I bought my first house, my mortgage rate was in the double digits, you know, so I think it's still a good time to buy a home, I think it's always a good time to be in real estate. And real estate isn't necessarily tied to the stock market. So again, goes back to that risk adverse thing, if you can diversify a bit, not saying put everything into real estate, just like I wouldn't say not put don't put everything into the stock market or Bitcoin or whatever else is out there. But like to have a diverse real estate portfolio, I think is a responsible thing to do for an investment. Yeah, I

Rick Ripma: 47:31

agree. So if somebody has any real estate questions or any, you know, real estate law questions, what are the best ways to get a hold of you?

Clark Giles: 47:39

Yeah, so email is the best way. Clark at your Realty link.com You can also go to Giles Law Group gi Le S. law group.com, or your Realty link.com. And that will get to me as well.

Rick Ripma: 47:54

And we're at the end of the show. We really appreciate you joining us today. Thanks so much. Yeah,

Clark Giles: 47:59

thank you and I'd say it's it was really surreal after hearing you on the radio so much to see you do it in person to hear the voice we I know that voice so that we're listening

Rick Ripma: 48:09

and to get a hold of Ian or I, it's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com That's HardWorkingMortgageGuys.com or 317-672-1938. That's 31767 to 1938

Ian Arnold: 48:21

a reminder if you know any friends family or coworkers looking to buy sell refinance, contact Rick right, and we'll be more than happy to help them.

Announcer: 48:28

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