How Fred DeFalco Built Wealth from $2.5K Deals to $5M Apartments

Quentin Edmonds (32:22.062)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the investor fuel podcast. I’m your host by now. You should know Q Edmonds Quentin Edmonds that everybody just called me Q and today I am excited. I am joined by someone who’s man Man, listen, I’m gonna call him a legend. He’s been around for a while. He’s done anything you can think of in real estate He’d had his hand in investments. I mean just anything you can think of like the whole list, right?

I’m excited. He got the 90 20 agent. I’m just excited for you guys to meet my friend. Mr. Fred Della Del Falco, Mr. Fred DeFalco, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate industry for a good little minute now. He’ll talk. He’ll talk to you some more about it. But Mr. Fred, how are doing today, sir?

I’m doing fantastic, Quentin. And you know what? I’m really surprised you didn’t add in there Baltimore on.

Listen, you know, I try to keep it. try to keep it, you know, copacetic. I don’t like to rep my city too much because everybody’s from all over the place, but you know how we do. Yeah. But you, but you, mean, from one boss warrior to another, you already know, sir. So absolutely. Listen, I know our listeners are really going to like your approach when it comes to real estate, when it comes to what you use real estate for, how you, how you view real estate to build.

I’m not gonna call it your initiative, but how you really try to educate people on how real estate What what it has really? Really been for them and it is for them if they can lay hold to it, right? It’s I don’t know how we’re gonna get into that But what I want to do I want to dive in I want to tee you up I am ready for the people just to get to learn from you So I would love to know, you know people don’t know you they want to get to know you So what’s your main focus these days?

Quentin Edmonds (34:17.621)
And if you don’t mind, like telling them what, what markets you’re operating out of.

Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, you know, the first thing I want to encourage your readers, mean, listeners to go to 920real.com or it all points to the same thing 920agent.com because there’s a poem on there that I’ve been using since I was a kid. I got into the real estate business. Actually quasi in the real estate business with my father because he started buying inner city rental properties. He was a was a garbage man in the city of Baltimore. Literally, he hired the garbage at the incinerator on Pulaski Highway after it was burnt. Right.

He was an Italian immigrant. You know, he only had a third grade education and he realized he could start building wealth by real estate. And he had found a savings alone, got him his first loan on his first house on Erdman Avenue in Baltimore. I’m going to use Baltimore folks. If you’re listening from somewhere else, know, Quintin, all these names, rings a bell and he’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. know, and buying houses for 2,500, 4,500, we’re talking a long time ago, right?

So 1969, I think it was his first one or something, 68, 69. But so anyway, when you’re talking about real estate and real estate investing, and I’m assuming a lot of your investors, most likely a podcast, I’m going to make some assumptions. They’re trying to get started, just got started, or they’re trying to pivot, know, pivot to one thing to another. So I encourage you to go to 920agent.com, print that poem, keep it up in front of you the whole time.

because the whole world is real estate. And where this whole thing has taken me in the last 50 years, quitting, I were just speaking, is that you don’t understand anything. You’re never going to understand anything until you have about 40 years into it. Life can only be understood backwards. It’s got to be lived forward. So always be in forward motion, not

Fred DeFalco (36:07.746)
Thinking about the future, the way you go into the forward motion is only in the present moment. If you’re thinking about, gotta get this deal, I gotta get this, I gotta blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you gotta do the very best you can at the very given moment, nothing else. I must do the most productive thing I can do at every given moment. And if you’re sitting there dreaming about the future, that’s not the most productive, right? You’re not, you’re not. So stop, relax, chill, okay?

And the opportunity is not what’s out there, it’s what’s up here and what’s in here. And that poem will absolutely keep you moving forward in the right way. It’s more than inspiration, it’s a direction. So that’s the number one thing. Look, if they go there, Quinn, we could end that podcast now, then the rest of Right?

Yeah,

You were asking some other questions, if I may, you were talking about, how did you get started? You know, my first investment property was a twenty five hundred dollar, you know, property that I had kind of inherited from my father, not inherited. He died. But he said, I’ll tell you what, you go ahead and try this one. Right. He gave me the mortgage on it and all. So, wow. Oh, these were inner inner city properties. But, you know, then then the next thing you went here, went there. Now, my career took a different turn. I got into sales at twenty three.

with a company called Russell T Baker in Florida that eventually was sold out. I mean, in Baltimore, eventually sold out to Coldwell Banker when Coldwell Banker was sweeping across the country owned by the Sears Corporation. So I had a very accelerated three years of selling, went into management in the Dundalk area of Baltimore where I was living at the time. Made it the number one office out of 13 in a very short time. So I just was a natural at management.

Fred DeFalco (37:56.362)
And because I committed myself to the industry, I took every course, I went to everything. read every book, took every designation I could take very soon on, and I got everybody else to do that. So then I went into executive management with Coldwell Banker when we got sold out at 29 years old. So my career took a whole different turn. So I stayed doing that for quite a while and I really didn’t come back to the investment. mean, fast forward, I then went to Florida in 86 from Baltimore and took over an area for Coldwell Banker down here.

After that, I started the consulting company, ended up with the consulting contract on the East coast of Florida. That was in 89 to 97. Then I became a consultant again in the industry for real estate companies. But then 2000 is when I went back, opened my own brokerage. And I would encourage people to do that. Get your license at the same time, build a brokerage, as well as invest. Sometimes it’s a conflict depending upon what you want to do. And I can help people out with that if they want me to advise and help.

But the main thing you want to do is just stay committed to the not grind shine. We were just talking about that. It’s not about the grind. It’s about always refining. Don’t grind, refine everything. Refine everything you’re doing. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. So keep moving forward. And then what happened to me was in 2000, I finally said, that’s it enough of working for anybody else. I don’t care how good the executive salary is, that, this, that.

And then I started investing again. And then that just started out with individual houses again. And then I got into new product. I was waiting for a builder to release a product that helped. And then I started going from there and I built up a nice portfolio of 15, 16 properties where I had cashflow. And then I started an LLC where I wanted to try to figure out how to get into commercial. And I’ll tell you how I got in. It was very simple. I had a found a property, a $5 million apartment complex.

And the guy didn’t want to sell down on the open market, open market. said, man, how could I do that? Five million. I’m used to buying $300,000 house and not five million dollar. So I said, I’m just going to do it the same way I do the house. I put a contract in. I said, I’m going to give you, you know, a small deposit, five thousand, fifty thousand and ten days. And I didn’t have a fifty thousand cash. I had family growing this and that. And I said, I’ll figure it out if they accept the contract. They accepted the contract. So now I had to figure out how to go get.

Fred DeFalco (40:19.182)
$50,000 deposit in 10 days. But as soon as I stepped out in faith, other people started believing the story. So I then started learning how to borrow money on notes. And I got people involved. Next thing I know, not only I didn’t have 50,000, I 350,000 10 days later. you know, then I had the bank, because I had so much cash down, they gave me a loan. And then my first property, big property was a five,

point three million dollar apartment complex and my appraisal came in at eight and a half million because the guy didn’t have it to market. So he’s talking about a hit. Don’t ho ho. Don’t start licking your chops. I didn’t even got that had I not put up with all the other stuff for the for 20 years before that. So there’s no. So the main thing is, is that, you know, don’t lose focus of the present moment. That’s the key. And again, I was telling Quentin, you know,

Life can only be, and I said it once, I’m gonna say it again, life can only be understood backwards, it’s gotta be lived forward. But always don’t be looking in the future, look at the present moment. What am I doing today with the 24 hours allotted to me? Do things in 25 minute chunks. Don’t try to challenge the whole day in one setting. Do the most important thing you can at every given moment and then you’re gonna succeed in real investment business. And you gotta educate, you gotta get information.

Now, a lot of times people will attend these podcasts and all because they don’t want to go do what they’re supposed to be doing. And that’s a hard work. So, you know, definitely attend this, but don’t just go to my website. good. Maybe there’s some secrets there. Nobody’s coming to save you. No one’s coming to make you rich. Nobody’s going to give you anything. You got to you got to just keep feeding this thing. Feed this right. And then go out and do the work, you know, and don’t put it off. Don’t put off the work.

So that’s my encouragement, man.

Quentin Edmonds (42:17.134)
Love it. So a wise man once a wise man once told me it’s not about the time that you put in, but it’s about what you put into the time. You ever heard that? ever heard that? A wise man told me that man. A wise man told me that. He also said, and I think you said it yourself. Like it’s, it’s don’t grind refine, like don’t grind refine. And so

What’s your secret to making what you do run smoothly?

I’m you said that. I’m glad you brought that up. This is really critical because I was ready to quit even though I was pretty good at sales because I, again, I, know, people don’t come from a perspective of wisdom. And even though I had some good people around some good mentors, you know, so, you know, keeping that courage is so important. But one of the things I developed this philosophy early on, and it just, you know, it was so important. And the way I developed it was a mentor taught me, says, Fred,

This was having to do with real estate sales as a young kid knocking on doors, right? And trying to get listings from four cell by owners and expires and all. And one of the things he said, Fred, if you want to succeed in this business, I don’t want you to ever, ever, ever look for any yeses. I want you to go out, look only for the no’s. You want to go knock on people’s door and you’re hoping they say no. You’re hoping they give you an objection. You’re hoping they tell you to go, don’t bother them because that’s where you’re going to learn the most. And he said, I promise you.

If you’re willing to go out take nine no’s, you’re going to get one yes every 10. So you just go, but you’d be more excited about every no. And he made it such a point. man, we didn’t have cell phones. We didn’t have fax machines when I was knocking on doors. mean, this is a long time ago. mean, look, and so this was all one phone call and then you had to go out physically and knock on people’s doors. And I mean, I could go on some really great stories, but that

Fred DeFalco (44:16.994)
philosophy, I, I be, and it actually became a manuscript. never printed it because long story wide, but, in the philosophy of success is the artful management of failures and setbacks. when a failure and setback are, you’re not going to have ever have a success. If you don’t know fall in love with failures and fall in love with setbacks, because every setback is there to give you strength. That’s the key to success. That’s the key to everything.

is to realize that all those failures are going to have and you’re going to experience. And I don’t care what business you get into. It’s the same thing. So that was one of the things Quentin that is really kept the fuel in the fire. That one poem that I talked about on my site, you know, the real estate poem that was written in the early nineteen hundreds.

I love it, man. I love it. There’s a book that I’ve read probably multiple times now. It’s called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. Are you familiar? And he talked about getting to the no. he because he knows he talks about negotiation. He’s an expert in hostage negotiation. But he always talk about, hey, let’s go ahead and get to the no. Let’s get to the no so we can get to the yes, right? So let’s talk about what you don’t want to do so we can talk about what you do want to do.

Right? So yeah.

And the other thing you’ve to deal with this idea of you’re not there. If you’re going out and grinding, you’re not refining, right? And so if you’re going out trying to make a sale, I hate that word sale. I want a service, right? I want to, can I help you today? How can I make your life better? Don’t get into business to make money, get in business to make a better life, not for yourself, for other people.

Fred DeFalco (46:08.398)
That’s all you got to do. Zig Zig will use to say it, you know, find a need and fill it. But he, you know, the key is, is that you got to understand is that, uh, and my mentor, Dr. Dennis Waitley, I was so fortunate to be on his staff. He wrote a book many years ago. Look him up. He’s about 90 now. Dr. Dennis Waitley, one N in his name, Dr. Dennis Waitley.

One more time.

Fred DeFalco (46:33.826)
Dr. Dennis Wately used to work with the Olympic athletes. He wrote a book called The Psychology of Winning. It’s no longer out there that much, but you can find it right on YouTube and you can listen to it free, The Psychology of Winning. And he used to say all the time, this decision of the buyer is based upon the value of the seller, the person bringing the product.

or the offering or the service. So let me repeat that. The decision of the buyer, if you’re trying to buy investment property, they’re still the buyer, right? Even though they might be the seller, they’re still the buyer of your services. So the decision of the buyer is always based upon the value of the seller, the person making the presentation, you know, because that’s the key. The decision of the buyer is based upon the value of the seller, the person bringing the product or service. How value

How much value do you put on yourself? much practice have you put in to your craft? How much do you really truly know your information? Right? Because if you’re going to out hustle, you’re going to get some deals. If you’re out selling, you’re going to get some deal that you’re going to get tired. You’re get tired. You’re not even going to like yourself if you’re just hustling, hustling. You might as do drugs. So go sell drugs. There’s a more money in it. Yeah. So faster. you’ll.

who does not approve the message of scenario.

I think they got the point. they got the point. We got to watch it get kicked off. Does this go on YouTube?

Quentin Edmonds (48:10.071)
This is happens when two Baltimoreans get together. See? See? We gotta kill this stigma. No, I got you. No. We get exactly what you need.

But no, point is, and I want to be a little dramatic because you’ve got to be dramatic in life. Go to my YouTube channel, Find the 10 Scrolls by Og Mandino. By the way, if you’re going to be in this business and you don’t read Og Mandino’s book, The Greatest Salesman in the World and master those 10 scrolls, and there’s no excuse, I put them in beautiful music and pictures for you, go to YouTube, look up Fred DeFalco, find the 10 scrolls.

They’re beautiful. put them in beautiful art because I wanted to get my salespeople to listen to them, you know? And by the way, I can help anybody if they want to be in the real estate brokerage business. You know, I can help them. I’m with the EXP Realty as well. I have a team. I can help you there. And you don’t have to go to EXP Realty if you like where you are, because I’m a big encourager. I have clients that own their own real estate brokerage company. Look up a company, Hustle B’s Realty on the Southwest Florida. This young gal is 32 years old. She sells

They sell this year. She’s going to hit. She’s going to break 500. She hit almost 500 this past year. 500 transactions, you know, as a little small broker, 30, 32 years old. So I realized the real estate business is nothing like it. Nothing like it.

I love it, man. I love it. you know you you’ve talked some some very real stuff And so I would love from your perspective if you can give out listeners If you don’t mind tell us a time where Like a deal kind of maybe went sideways. Maybe what you had to pivot fast Like you mind sharing one of those stories, mr. Fred

Fred DeFalco (49:58.094)
the

You know, I’m not pitching, pitching you at all. You know, you need a protection plan, but you want to get wise because, you know, hindsight, a lot of that came because I didn’t see my own value and I listened to somebody else. I didn’t trust myself enough. I trusted somebody else because they had a little bit more money. All right. Or they have more power and they have more value. Now it was negative value. It was negative value. They brought it to the table, but it looked like good value because they were so confident.

Why are you here,

Fred DeFalco (50:53.55)
And they were a con person, right? So I can go on and on with those deals and then sellers too. mean, I’ve had people, I had one seller. I killed myself getting a property. So no one else could sell it. I sold it. Then I saved their business. Then there was a state attorney got involved. He was entitled to 33 % of a business that was going to be worth about $4 million because they got him the 40%. I’m sorry. His fee was 40 % because he started straight. I jumped in. I went up against the attorney. I started, I saved them so much money, a couple million dollars.

And when I end up selling the one property, they refuse to sign the deal unless I would negotiate my commission with them and I would negotiate. had to sue that seller to get it. So he should have been writing me love letters and yet he made me sue him, you know, to get paid. So that’s all kind of thing. Look, don’t worry about those. Just be wise. Be wise, be wise, be wise and learn, study and you’ve got to know your own value.

You’re valuable. don’t care who you are. could be just starting out this business and you don’t have anything and you’re barring a down payment for your first house or first flip or whatever you’re going to do. But be bold, you know? It’s not rocket science. Real estate is not rocket science. It’s just knowing your information and study the facts, study the numbers.

Yeah, I think you talked about it, believing in yourself, putting the work in with self-development. You kind of didn’t say self-development, but working on you, right?

look, Jim Rohn, everybody knows the name Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn was Tony Robbins mentor, my mentor, a lot of people’s mentors, you know, because but Jim Rohn used to say very simple. says, you know, business is never good or bad out there. It’s always good or bad in here. Right. And then work harder on yourself than anything else. And everything else takes it much easier on you. So but no one wants to work on themselves. It’s.

Quentin Edmonds (52:28.906)
yeah.

Fred DeFalco (52:50.658)
You know, we don’t want to challenge our belief systems. I make my salespeople, they got to show me their calendar every Sunday. They better have 30 minutes blocked. It’s called Socrates and me. Socrates philosophy was the unexamined life is not worth living. So I tell them the unexamined business is not worth having. The unexamined calendar is not very powerful. So they need to block 30 minutes every week on a Sunday.

I don’t care what time of day, it doesn’t matter. It’s called Socrates and Mestan. They evaluate the week they just spent, how much time they wasted, how much time they just, what did it, how much did they really live life? How much are they really sincere to their cause they should have made? This, that, this, that. Evaluate your life every Sunday for 30 minutes. And then the Socrates and Mestan go, how am I going to do better this week? How am going to do better this week? And I have a mastermind with a

my one group every Monday morning at 7 59 AM and you better be there by eight four. You’re not getting in. And then there’s just consequences. so when they show up, they still, Hey, how’d you do it? Cause they have accountability goals. How’d you do with this? How’d you do with your database? Well, I didn’t quite get to it. Stop it. Stop it. Don’t even say it. Just say, no, I didn’t. And it’s okay, Fred. That’s what I want to hear back. Cause I’m going to try and do better this week.

You know, and then, you know, we’re just pitiful. Us human beings, we’re pitiful. But yet we’re not. We’re pitiful because of us.

we’re made with such power and you know, there’s a scripture. don’t care what your come on and Psalms and Psalms. You know, David said very what art battle man that you are mindful of me. god. He made us just a little lower than the angels. Come on. Okay. And you’re going to make up some pitiful shoes and I love when people say, I’ll go, what happened? I don’t know. What if you did though?

Quentin Edmonds (54:28.963)
Thank you sir.

Fred DeFalco (54:49.646)
I had one agent just not the other day and she’d been around me for a long time, almost a year now. And this happened, that happened about her deals and she didn’t get done what she was supposed to get done. I said, what happened? She said, well, I really don’t know. I said, you’re to tell me that you don’t know. What if you did know? What would you say? Act as if you were coached to yourself. What would you tell the you that just said that stupid thing? You don’t know. You do know.

It wasn’t important to you. And it’s okay to say that, but this week you’re going to make it important. I’m not here to tell you what to be. I’m here to tell you, hold yourself accountable. Don’t allow yourself to have excuses.

Listen, our time has been well spent. think I’m gonna get out of here. No, no, no, no, wait, up. Wait, I mean, I think I gotta go. Do you have to go? I?

Get your.

Fred DeFalco (55:40.238)
Good. got a one o’clock. Okay.

Perfect. just want to know what’s your next goal? What’s the next goal for you?

two two thousand thirty-five world peace dot org. I want to get people to live by two two questions two minutes a day. Two minutes two questions a day. World peace is the reason you don’t have world peace because you Quentin. It’s all on you. You were sent here to save the world my friend. And once you realize you’re the savior of the world then you you start taking things more serious. So two questions two minutes a day. Find it on two thousand thirty-five world peace dot org. It comes right off a book called A Course in Miracles. You know very simple.

Do I want peace or do I want conflict? Do I want to live in love or fear? Those two questions will save the world. They’re going to save the world. So 2035 world peace.org that came when I was in the pits of hell. You know, when my last granddaughter was one, I have eight of my last granddaughter was born eight, eight years ago and half years ago. And that’s that it says, and I says, man, I got to set a goal. That’s the other thing. I’ll give you this last one. You know, from a mentor mind, I don’t know where I read it, forgot who it was, but set a goal so big.

You’re forced to live and become that person to achieve it. So I was sitting there going, how the hell am I going to get out of this? I just gone through a hedge fund things. You know, the name soft bank, soft bank, just donated $200 billion or not donated invested soft bank is the largest hedge fund in the world. Well, they beat me out of my $35 million portfolio. and I was going through hell. mean, I death of a 36 year old daughter. can go on and on and on all within a four year period divorce after 40 years.

Fred DeFalco (57:16.75)
And now we’re back together after going into hospice long, but look, it came to me and it says, set a goal so big. And it came to me, says the Nobel peace prize, 2035, you’re going to be the Martin Luther King of Christianity, of Islam and of the Jewish people. I said, 2035 world people you talking about? Come on, So, but it stuck with me 2035. So that’s my whole life has become that in the last, you know, six years.

So that’s, that’s my goal. Not my goal. not my goal. It’s my life.

There you go. Yeah. So listen, just before we wrap, just want to get it, give it, get a clean, reach out contact point for you. Like somebody wanted to contact you collaborate with

So 920agent.com, 920real.com, fill out that form. When you fill that form out, be very specific, because I use Loom videos. By the way, everybody, you’re going to be able to save this, you need a subscription, not the free one, to Loom. I communicate with all my sellers. I’ve got right now an appointment right after this with a person selling a million and half dollar property for one of my agents, and I’ll close that deal on Loom. don’t ever lose. We’re doing right now a $2 million deal. I’ve never met the people.

And I do everything on Zoom and Loom.

Quentin Edmonds (58:35.662)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Zoom and loom. Listen, we over here at Vestafil are very familiar with looms, so I feel you, sir. So listen, yeah?

that you want to be real specific and I’ll send you back to loom. I’ll say, look, here’s my advice. You know, if you really want to do something and if you really are serious about your life and serious about really doing it right, go to my website, the Falco.com, go down at the bottom, take the habit finder assessment and you’ll get back a 44 page report. You’ll get back a 44 page report. Put that in the chat. GPT, after you get it back to what the heck are they talking about? You don’t even need me. Right. Yeah. But

If you really want to take it and get engaged in a six week, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s heavy. It’s heavy, right? It’s six week, go through the entire manual of the habit. Find yourself from the Og Mandino Institute. I’m certified in that science. It’s going to blow your way. It’s only 15 minutes. That’s free. And you’ll get back your 44 page report. That’s free. So take that. That’s important. Defalco.com down at the very bottom.

Yeah. Well, listen, I said, Mr. Fred Del Felco, man, I thank you for your time, your story. I appreciate you so much, sir.