Steve DeLeon’s Real Estate Investing Advice: Why Smart Investors Don’t Follow the Crowd

Steve DeLeon (00:00)
And I’ll give you an example. You know, we put two properties under contract this past week and over the weekend. And all of them were protected. I’m like, you pick the date you want to close and the date you want to move and we’ll make it happen. And so for both of these families, it was about moving once school ended.

Scott Bursey (01:50)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And today we’re kicking off another high octane episode with a guest who is bringing the kind of strategic thinking and discipline execution that lights up a whole market. Our guest today is Steve DeLeon from MCM Real Estate Services, and he is bringing the fuel of calculated scaling and rock solid asset management. Get ready to download some serious wisdom because Steve is here to share the blueprint

Steve DeLeon (02:13)
you

Scott Bursey (02:20)
for thriving in any economy. Steve, we are so pumped to have you in the house.

Steve DeLeon (02:26)
Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Look forward to this podcast. I know it’s been a little bit time coming for us to kind of connect and definitely been looking forward to it. Happy to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:36)
Awesome. It is just excellent to have you here, Steve. And for those of our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how did your career begin and what is your main focus now?

Steve DeLeon (02:49)
Okay, great question. How it began, was at the age of 21, I had the opportunity to work as an intern for a real estate investment company. And I was in college at the same time and working as an intern. One, I spent one semester there at that with this company. And I thought to myself, this is what I want to do. This is what I would want to do. And I actually never went back and finished college. I just stuck with the real estate, stayed with them.

for a couple of years, learned as much as I could. And then at the age of 24, I just decided to go out on my own. And on March 9th, 1988, I bought my very first investment property and have been at it ever since.

Scott Bursey (03:30)
⁓ awesome. What a great journey. That is awesome. And it kind of lays the foundation for what we’re about ready to dig into. But I want to touch on this, ⁓ your university, MCM Real Estate University. Could you elaborate on that for us?

Steve DeLeon (03:46)
huh.

Sure. We started about five, well I should say we started the actual MCM University about eight years ago. And it was primarily focused on continuing education hours for realtors. ⁓ And it was more about how to, for them to grow their business. ⁓ And so we created some different courses for them to take. From then it went on, we had several people reach out to us about

coaching and mentoring them because they were wanting to get involved in investing. So about five years ago, we kind of pivoted a little bit and we started a coaching and mentorship program, which we have about 27, 28 individuals ⁓ enrolled into the program from all walks of life. A lot of them are not even real estate savvy. All they bought was their very first home, but they knew they wanted to build wealth or get involved with

with flipping. ⁓ And since then, since we did that, then we started pivoting more towards education and providing really more in-depth details to those investors that are looking to really build wealth, to really, you know, source their own properties, to be able to identify and basically what I like to call cherry pick what they’re going to flip, cherry pick what they’re going to be able to build a rental portfolio with. And so we’ve been pivoting through that education.

So

Now I feel like we offer education to the all real estate professionals that are involved in real estate in one way or the other, to have them be involved, you know, as far as like what they’re wanting to learn or how they’re wanting to grow their business, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s scaling. And so we’re very selective of who we allow into the program ⁓ because we want to make sure we’re actually working with founders and, you know, ⁓

⁓ the people that are really truly investing for the long term

Scott Bursey (06:31)
MCM University. How cool. That’s outstanding. And Steve, I gotta ask you, what is the single biggest operational advantage MCM Real Estate Services leverages today that other pros may be overlooking in your eyes?

Steve DeLeon (06:50)
Well, the thing is is that you know, think for us, know, we obviously would you know, like I said, I started in 1988. So we have we’ve built a lot of relationships over the over that time period, right? So I think that that gives us an advantage over newer investors that are trying to get into our market or our area. Not that there’s plenty of business to go around for everybody, right? I mean, there’s there’s niches everywhere and every, you know, and so

anyone that’s interested in becoming a true investor and basically perfect their craft, ⁓ I would say that they would definitely need that education because the education piece that we provide is not out there in the general public. We’ve seen and we’ve heard even some of our own mentees have gone and joined other groups, other ⁓ bought other systems and those types of things. And they keep coming back and saying, hey, you guys are just so different because you’re hands on.

You you take a hands-on approach. And so our goal is for everyone to really exceed in what they’re doing. To me, it’s not a number of how many we have enrolled in a certain program. It’s the quality of what they’re able to learn and take with them down the road for them to be able to build their futures and that generational wealth that they’re looking to do.

Scott Bursey (08:11)
that hands-on personalized approach is what I’m hearing from you.

Steve DeLeon (08:16)
Yeah, absolutely. It’s important. you just can’t put something together and expect somebody just to, you know, go there and it, you know, go running with it. They’re going to need some instruction. They’re going to need some guidance, some direction in order to be able to help that. And that’s really what’s missing from our ⁓ industry as far as investors. There’s a lot of systems out there and there’s a lot of different things, but there’s not any one that’s really saying, hey, look, let me…

connect you with this person. Let me connect you with these individuals or this lender or this title company. Let me do take those extra steps in order to be able so that you can be successful.

Scott Bursey (08:58)
Absolutely. And on that note, Steve, what common blind spot do you see most real estate pros fail to address right now?

Steve DeLeon (09:08)
⁓ Right now, that’s a good question. think a lot of them are probably ⁓ spending money on marketing dollars that are wasteful, wasteful dollars. get, ⁓ and I just to give you one example, I know that using virtual ⁓ assistants to make your phone calls is a big thing, right? And a lot of investors are doing it. I get calls on properties that I haven’t owned in three or four years, and I’m like,

What list are you working? You know, and then I would say a good 50 % of the time I can’t even understand the individual that’s what they’re asking me, you know So I think that that’s there’s a lot of things that we want to automate But you can have to go dig a little bit deeper into that automation to make sure that your message is clearly being Communicated to the other party. You could be a lot more successful. I mean

you have an automation company or an automation process and let’s say you’re making five that’s can make 5,000 calls a day well that doesn’t mean anything if all I have to do is make five call five calls a day rather than 5,000 and I can buy five properties versus you making 5,000 and maybe spending all the money to be able to do it so I think automation sounds great in some in some markets in some aspects but I think it’s really overblown as far as the

the rate of return that you’re going to be getting and really the business that you’re really losing because your communication or your message is not being communicated correctly.

Scott Bursey (11:21)
Yes, running efficiently is so key. If your strategy hasn’t shifted in the last 18 months, you’re already behind the curve.

Steve DeLeon (11:24)
Yeah.

Right, yeah.

Scott Bursey (11:31)
And Steve, what do you feel is one of the biggest market opportunities right now for your company?

Steve DeLeon (11:39)
⁓ I think from an investment standpoint, I think from a house buying standpoint, I think that there’s still a lot of good opportunity there. There’s a lot of properties that ⁓ we typically don’t buy ourselves off the MLS. But I was talking to a couple of other investors and they’ve been able to pick up a few properties off the MLS because they’ve been sitting on the market a little bit longer. And so if I was a newer investor that’s trying to get started, I probably wouldn’t ignore the MLS right

you like normally like you normally would, right? I think there’s some opportunities there for sure. ⁓ And then I think a lot of it too is that when you’re marketing and ⁓ you’re doing your emails or even like direct mail, for example, for those that are still doing direct mail, I think vetting out and doing the research of who you need to really be sending those emails to or the direct mail to.

It’s so important. ⁓ If you’re just sending it to a zip code, you’re just throwing money away. But if you’ve targeted that zip code and did some research with that zip code, it’s a different story. If you know who you’re targeting in there, then I say you are going to spend less and you’re going to see a better response on your direct mail.

Scott Bursey (13:01)
Steve, are you seeing a specific niche or a geographical area heating up?

Steve DeLeon (13:09)
You know, it’s funny because it’s easy to point out the ones that are kind of like fading, right? You know, the Airbnb, you know, people would get Airbnbs. Now you see that kind of fading back out, than the more populated or touristy areas, right? If you’re on the beachfront, in the cabins, in the mountains or something like that, you’re always going to have people that are going to be attracted to that. But your neighborhood Airbnb is not, but I think

one area that I think a lot of people are missing out on are the short-term rentals. And when I mean by short-term, I say mid-term, I should say, not short-term. But there is a high demand for the medical field, construction companies, to come in, lease a home, a furnished home for three months, six months. And I think that that’s a niche that I think that’s probably a little bit underserved for the area.

in our family, a little bit of personal experience with that. My wife did some travel nursing ⁓ when she first became a nurse and she was able to stay at different apartments that were furnished for three months, 13 weeks, 16 weeks, whatever. So we have a little bit of knowledge of that. have ⁓ a couple of investor friends that are here in the Fort Worth market and they basically, their rentals are all those midterm rentals.

to construction companies, to ⁓ in the medical field. So I think that’s something that, if it was something that where I was gonna build on looking for that next niche, it’s a little bit more stable than an Airbnb would be something like that to where you’re doing the midterm ⁓ rentals. And so most cities have adopted that 90 day rule that where you need to have, it can be considered a

midterm rental if it’s been leased for 90 days or more. So you don’t have to necessarily do a year’s lease, know, or two year lease. You can do that 90 day lease and still be in a be within the restrictions of a city.

Scott Bursey (16:03)
You bet. And Steve, that was a brilliant surgical breakdown. And this is the question that our audience, our listeners want to know. Beyond the deals themselves, what is the secret sauce in how MCM builds and motivates its team to maintain such a high standard of service and growth?

Steve DeLeon (16:08)
Ha

I think for us, it’s really about relationships and community. ⁓ We’re involved in ⁓ community aspects. I sit on the board of our Fort Worth Metropolitan YMCA. Our company’s actively involved in a Thanksgiving project with Catholic Charities every year. So we give back to our community. I think being involved in a lot of those nonprofits and kind of giving back.

people see what you’re kind of what you’re doing. They’re like, you know, he’s not just a typical investor. He’s not doing just this or that. I think, you know, the key thing that I think a lot of us miss out is that are you bringing value back? And that’s where our value driven core value comes in. Are you bringing value back to your industry, whether it’s through education, whether it’s if it’s stepping in to help a fellow person that’s

you know, trying to figure something out, trying, you know, what, what do you, value are you bringing back? What part of the, of who are you collaborating with the right people that can help you grow your business? And I think that, that approach for us, it comes down to those two things of community and relationship. And that’s to me, you know, Warren Buffett has that one quote, takes you 20 years to build a reputation, but five minutes to destroy it. It’s so true.

So if you operated with that mentality of, this is all about building my reputation, who I am, how I want people to see and understand how not only how I conduct myself, but how my staff, my business conducts itself, it’s so important. It’s more valuable than any dollar that you could ever make.

Scott Bursey (18:16)
Steve, thank you so much for those insights. They were fire. Now we’re at the part of the show where we look to unlock a pro secret. The market is characterized by price discovery right now, Steve. We gotta know, what is the single non-obvious negotiating tactic that you’ve used recently to successfully bridge a significant valuation gap and get a marginal deal across the finish line?

Steve DeLeon (18:26)
Okay.

You know, it’s a good question because I think for us, it’s, you know, our approach has always been, ⁓ how can we make the offer appealing to the, to the seller? What is it that we need to solve for them? And so that’s our other core value being solution driven, right? So it’s not about when I want to take possession. It’s not about what, you know, when I want to close and those types of things, it’s letting the seller or their realtor, let them figure out what’s going to work best for them.

you come back to me and then we make it happen. Right. And I think just the key point there is listening to what the seller truly needs and wants. That’ll take you so much further than you being more robotic in your offers and saying, this is, I’m going to close this date. I possession this date. And this is the way it’s going to happen. I think when you find that you’re, you’re more of the listener than the talker, you’re listening more towards.

the seller is going to tell you what they need, right? Where they may not tell somebody else because no one asked them what’s more convenient for you. When do you want to close? How long do you need a lease back for? What’s, know, what, you know, those types of things. How can I help you? Is it, you know, there’s a lot of different things that aren’t in a contract per se that you can, you can help an individual out. And then again, you’re, again, you’re bringing that a total solution for that individual.

rather than just a number, a date of closing and a date of possession and you kind of wash your hands of that transaction. ⁓ It’s just a different approach of just having to listen ⁓ to individuals.

Scott Bursey (20:31)
if I’m hearing you correctly, listening, caring, and then solving.

Steve DeLeon (20:37)
Yeah, exactly.

And I’ll give you an example. You know, we put two properties under contract this past week and over the weekend. And all of them were protected. I’m like, you pick the date you want to close and the date you want to move and we’ll make it happen. And so for both of these families, it was about moving once school ended.

Right. And so we all know school is going to end at the end of May. And so I said, well, what if we did this? What if we just closed, you know, ⁓

first two, one week of May, second week of May, I let you have lease back until the end of May. That way you’re not rushed to move out or whatever. And so they picked our offers just because of that one, because we were willing to wait to close, extended closing, and still be able to give them possession afterwards. And they’re properties that are really nice homes ⁓ in really good neighborhoods, in really good areas. So, you know, it’s…

you know, another investor probably would have said, no, need to, you know, I need to close it quicker and I need possession as soon as we close. And that’s just not the way we operate.

Scott Bursey (21:41)
That is just an exceptional example. And Steve in closing, is there any gold nugget or some words of wisdom that somebody that’s been in the business with the tenure that you’ve established wants to, what would you like to leave with our listeners here today?

Steve DeLeon (22:00)
I would say don’t follow the crowd. know, I was, you know, don’t, don’t follow what everybody else is doing. You have to figure out how to separate yourself. ⁓ and so that people look at you differently today, you use the word, you tell somebody I’m an investor. All of a sudden it’s like, they, kind of back off of you a little bit, right? Because a lot of times people have been burned by investors in the past, you know, and so

You know, it’s a lot of it has to do with just being, you know, if you follow the crowd, you’re just going to end up where everybody is still confused, still not doing the business that you’re wanting to do, still spending tons of money on different systems, on different things that don’t work. Right. And so for you, have to figure out what it is. What are your core values? What is it that you want? How do you want people to envision doing business with you?

If you were on the other side, what are the things that would be important to you? And I think you build that business around those core values that you’re thinking about for yourself. If it was a family member that was being approached by an investor, what advice would you give that family member? What would be the ideal situation? So I think to me, there’s so many people that are just kind of following the crowd, and they’re just all ended up in the same place where

they’re all struggling, And then they’ve got all this money out of pocket. So we help individuals remove themselves from those crowds and we teach them what we’ve accomplished over the last 38 years of being in business through MCM University. the thing is, is that we’re not the gurus that are in some other, you

We would never go and try to market in another state, for example, ⁓ because we know Texas, we know I buy in Austin area, I buy in lot of different areas. And so we know our state and the way things operate and we know what works here. And so I would just say, try to separate yourself, create your own identity, your own values as you move forward.

Scott Bursey (24:19)
Steve, your depth of knowledge is fantastic.

Steve DeLeon (24:26)
Well, I appreciate that. You bet.

Scott Bursey (24:26)
Thank you for that. Thank you for those

golden words, the golden rules right there, everybody. And I know our pros, it really is. And that is why you’ve been able to achieve the success that you have. And I know our pros have gotten massive value from this conversation. And for our listeners who want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Steve DeLeon (24:32)
Yeah, it really is. It really is.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I hope so.

Well, they could always follow us on Facebook. My Facebook identity is basically public, so Steve DeLeon. They could follow us through our group page at MCM University or MCM Vice Houses as well. So they could follow us through there, send me a message.

That’s really the simplest ways ⁓ to get a hold of me. ⁓ we talk to investors all over the state. And I have investors friends that are all over the country as well. And we’ll bounce some things off of each other in different stuff, things that are going on in different areas. ⁓ it’s great. I admire the people that buy from one state to the other.

as far as what they’re doing. ⁓ But I’ve always found that Texas is so big, right? We have so many great markets here, there’s really no need to go and buy out of state. So we’ve been really successful here in our state of Texas.

Scott Bursey (26:12)
Steve DeLeon everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today, Steve.

Steve DeLeon (26:16)
You bet my friend, it’s a pleasure to be with you and hopefully maybe we can come back and do this again sometime.

Scott Bursey (26:24)
And to our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ve got more exceptional guests, just like Steve, who are making huge moves in the market. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.