What can a conservative approach to multifamily investing teach you about surviving a changing market?
In this episode, I sit down with Nick DiLeone, Managing Partner and founder of Leone Real Estate Partners, a Dallas-based firm focused on value-add and core-plus multifamily, RV parks, and warehouse and industrial investments. With over 20 years of commercial real estate experience, including senior asset management roles at Nuveen Real Estate and Berkeley Partners, Nick has closed 14 GP deals and now stewards over $100 million in assets under management.
We talk about how his institutional background shapes the way he buys, why a loan assumption helped him get ahead of rising rates, why he diversified into RV parks and triple net, and where the multifamily market really stands today.
Timestamp
00:00 Intro
01:00 Nick DeLeon's journey into real estate
03:22 Why conservative investing shaped Nick's strategy
04:03 Creating value through asset management in Waco
04:41 The risks of floating rate bridge debt
05:24 The Waco deal and navigating rising interest rates
06:53 Knowing when to sell and lock in returns
08:28 Why Nick invests across multiple asset classes
12:10 What effective asset management really looks like
15:55 In-house vs. third-party property management
18:14 How Nick sees today's multifamily market
25:53 Building relationships through real estate networking
What We Cover
- Nick’s path from finance and IT into institutional real estate and eventually his own syndication business
- Why a conservative background shaped his approach to leverage and deal selection
- The Waco deal and what true value add looked like in practice
- Why loan assumptions became a smarter play than floating rate bridge debt
- How and why Nick diversified into RV parks and triple net alongside multifamily
- How Nick approaches asset management and works with third party property managers
- What is actually happening in the multifamily market right now and why deals keep falling apart
- Nick’s DFW meetup and current investment offering
Key Takeaways
- A conservative underwriting background, even sixty five percent leverage, can set the tone for how you evaluate every deal going forward
- True value add often just means fixing the basics an owner never did, protesting taxes, bidding out insurance, and pushing rents
- The Fed telling you rates are going up is a warning worth listening to, even if you do not know exactly how high they will go
- Committing in advance to punch out once you hit investor return targets removes emotion from the exit decision
- Diversifying into other asset classes can make sense when your core market becomes overpriced, but only with the right specialized partner
- Treating a third party property manager like a partner instead of a vendor leads to better communication and better outcomes
- Real estate has effectively been in a recession for multifamily for three years, and prices are only now starting to truly reset
Connect with Nick DiLeone
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasdileone
- Email: nick@leonarepartners.com
- Instagram: @nickleonepartners
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🌍 Website: https://www.apogeemfc.com/
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