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He'd surf all day, sleep in the car and pick the oranges off people's trees come mealtime. After washing up in the Hadley Orchard Cafe, he'd avail himself of its free samples to supplement the fruit.
Then, at 17, Nordine met the woman who would become his first wife. He took a series of odd jobs to help support her and her child and -- encountering difficulties working for someone else -- was summarily fired from each of them.
When she became pregnant again, he set his sights on real estate. Much to his surprise, he had a natural gift for pricing and timing the market. Within three years, he opened his own business and has run things his way ever since. He began specializing in selling bank-owned properties in 1990 because, he says, that's where the market was headed.
Nordine's business model is E.T. Surf, the Hermosa Beach surf shop he frequented as a kid. He recalls how owner Eddie Talbot "always treated us with dignity, let us hang out like little sponges just soaking up the surfing atmosphere."
Nordine treats his own clients with the same respect. He understands that homeowners may regard him as the devil incarnate, the guy tasked with selling their homes -- sometimes out from under them.
He's fine with it. "Whether I sell their houses or not, they are getting foreclosed," he said. "I negotiate the best deal I can for them . . . cash for keys."
Nordine knows that anybody can fall victim to hard times. And the last thing he wants is for his youngest son, 6-year-old Nate, to think things come easily in life.
To that end, when Nate was just 2, Nordine took him on an outing to Watts. On the subway, Nate saw a homeless man whose disheveled appearance and erratic behavior scared him to the point of tears.
When the man exited the train, he paused by the boy, put his hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm sorry I made you cry, son. "Nate will always remember," Nordine said, "that not everyone is as fortunate as him." Nordine has made his own fortune not only by selling homes but also by investing shrewdly.

In the 1980s, he bought about 20 properties, most of them single-family homes in Torrance. He sold them off in 1990 and '91 when he anticipated a bust was coming. He dived back into the market in the mid-1990s -- this time apartments in Santa Monica -- and sold off most of them in 2005.
Today, he and his second wife own a 22-unit complex and a 12-unit complex in Santa Monica; a single-family home and a four-plex in El Segundo; nine bungalows and a four-plex in Torrance; a five-plex in Redondo Beach; and the house-office in Hermosa Beach.
But being a dad and husband is what it's all about for Nordine. His is the first face his son Nate sees every morning when he wakes and the last one he sees at bedtime.
So what advice does Nordine offer those concerned about the real estate market?
Don't sell unless you absolutely have to. Don't buy until 2010, when prices should be at 2000 levels. And apply every spare nickel to paying off your debt, including mortgages.

They acquire the property under market because they have no competition. Then there are the semi-legitimate trustees that at least answer the phone, but play the same game, not giving any information about their sales. These "trustees" are also active real estate investors, often silent partners of the foreclosing note holders. Also, lenders who hire honest trustees often get shortchanged. The buyers at the auctions all know each other. Instead of bidding against each other, they'll often partner up to keep the price down. Two, three, four, even five or six partners on one property. One of them will be the official buyer, whose name shows up on the trustee’s deed, and the rest will be silent. I could give more examples, but you get the idea.

The problem is that anyone can conduct a trustee sale, with no license required, and no regulation. It's the Wild West, and there's a lot of cowboys. I've explained this to the D.R.E., the Corporations Commissioner, and the California Attorney General’s office. All were indifferent. If mortgage brokers have to have a real estate license, why not trustee sale companies? This should have been done decades ago. The D.R.E. should do this to protect the public and institutional lenders, as well as improve the reputation of the real estate industry.

South LA is dead. Anywhere prices are under $400,000 is really, really hard to sell right now."
He predicts prices will fall 65% in some areas of the Inland Empire, and sees the market hitting bottom in 2009. "There's one buyer, maybe, for every 20 houses for sale in Riverside," he said.
"We're not gonna bottom out until 2009 -- because they were doing so many crappy loans in 2006 -- even until March of '07. It'll be a while before those loans start defaulting. I hope I'm wrong. But I'm not wrong." In a declining market, it makes sense to get a house on the market as soon as possible. For that reason, banks often speed the foreclosure process by paying defaulting homeowners cash to vacate the house -- "cash for keys."

The going rate is $1,500, but in a sign of how quickly the market is deteriorating, some lenders are now paying up to $6,000, he said.
Banks and lenders are finally realizing how weak the market is, and slashing prices. "Just in the last month, they finally woke up -- we're getting $50,000 price reductions all over the map."
How bad will it get? "The banks will start selling houses in bulk -- very quietly, they'll sell off, say $20 million worth of loans. That always happens at the bottom. I arranged a couple of those deals (in the last down cycle), and my clients made a ton of money."

6.75% to 8%, they're not going to buy. The high end is gonna die now."  "Mortgage brokers are going crazy. Their hands are tied. They're looking for jobs. It's a disaster."
"I''m selling bank foreclosures that are the best-priced homes in the market, and it's very tough going right now." Nordine says he has about 50 active listings, more than that in eviction now and coming soon. He says he is not looking for more listings.
"When the time is right, I'm not negative. In '95 I was scraping every penny I could find to buy as much as I could, like a gambler in Vegas. I'm not always like this."
"The next two years are going to be brutal. ... The buyers are wise. They know where the market's headed. There's no reason for them to jump -- they can sit there and watch the market go down."

"It's gonna take a couple of years. I don't think there's much the government can do right now." Nordine does support simpler mortgage loan disclosures: "When you sign loan docs, there ought to be one page on the front that has all the terms. They need to make this stuff really simple. Put it all in the front so buyers know what they're getting into when they buy a house."
Tough stuff from Leo. As we said, he is among the most bearish industry players we know, but he is a straight shooter and he sells a lot of houses.

 overrated. It doesn't matter what houses were selling for a year ago or three months ago -- the "solds."
What matters is the "actives" -- what's for sale in the area right now, whether your house stands out, and how your price compares. "The 'actives' are cheaper than the 'solds' right now. Don't even look at the 'solds.'"
Clean House: "An empty house is the easiest house to sell. Staging is so stupid -- it only makes sense on a multimillion-dollar house.

And cluttered houses just don't sell in this market." Get the Word Out: Don't worry about reaching buyers -- worry about reaching buyers' agents. "Join a minimum of three or four MLS services."
Don't Be Shy: In your listing, find a lot of positive things to say about the house, and take lots of flattering photos. It makes a difference.

a receiver on each ear to seal deals. "I'm always telling people it's not that hard, but they don't believe me."
Leo Nordine Realtors is a small shop, There's Leo, Molly and clerical staff. Despite ribbing from his family and friends that he'd never succeed given his quiet demeanor, he earned his license in 1987 and closed eight deals the first month and more than 80 in his first calendar year.
In 1990, after brief stints at two prominent South Bay firms, he struck out on his own, and his business continued to grow.
As he added clients, his footprint widened. Today it runs from the South Bay to Woodland Hills.
Nordine refuses to be a niche player, a role many in his profession embrace. His listings include a $139,000 home in Compton and a $3.9 million mansion in Bel-Air. "If it's priced right, and I can drive there in a reasonable amount of time, I'll take it," he says.
Last year he sold $60,000,000 worth of real estate. Because he only represents sellers, his commissions run about 2.5 percent. "It's exactly like playing Monopoly", he says.
Sticking to sellers is the key. Sellers require less face time because you don't need to visit houses with them. But he insists his clients get the attention they need. To prove it, he'll hand you a list of his 300-plus clients from 1999, challenging a random call to anyone on it.
Try it and you might reach Rolling Hills Estates resident Fred Akhavan. He'd talked to several other agents before settling on Nordine to sell a house he built in Lomita last year. It sold in 16 days. Was he satisfied? 'Extremely practical'

"I have more than 25 years experience in real estate building and selling homes and I was so pleased I told him that I want him to sell my house, too," Akhavan says. "He's extremely practical. There's no BS. No nothing. He just gets right to the point. The others, they really waste your time. They're pushy and aggressive. He's in some kind of class by himself."
Nordine hopes to retire before he turns 40. Molly hopes he will, too.
If all goes well between now and then, he'll pay off the homes he owns now, and sell any outside the upscale section of Manhattan Beach where he grew up. That money will go into buying what bungalows are left in his old neighborhood, which he'll save from the developer's wrecking ball by renting them out and living off the rent.
Then he'll move away from the over-built landscape of L.A., taking his faded polo shirts and the Duster with him. Maybe up the Oregon coast, to a cove with a great little break in the surf.

down to about 20 seconds. “I wake up at 5 a.m., and then I go downstairs and start working. At about 8 p.m., my wife calls me to come upstairs and get dinner, and then she calls again at 8:30 and asks where am I, and then I go up,” he said.
Nordine, 36, has 10 assistants, but he is the only broker in his operation, which moved an estimated $50 million worth of property last year. To achieve such volume, Nordine only represents sellers - thus he doesn’t have to drive buyers around to show them property.
“He’s on top of things, it’s a one-call situation. He knows what we want, and he gets it done in a timely fashion,” said Wade Brandenberger, a real estate consultant who works in the Miracle Mile headquarters of People’s Bank.
Nordine stumbled upon a career as a real estate broker after a nasty experience working for other people following graduation from high school.
“I had a lot of really bad jobs. I didn’t go to college and I seemed to have personality conflicts with my bosses. I couldn’t get along with anybody,” he said. “I wanted to do things my own way.” But while watching the movie

“The Falcon and the Snowman” in 1986, he noted that one of the characters in the movie lived well. “She was the bad guy’s mother, and she lived in Palos Verdes in a nice house,” Nordine said. “In one scene, she says, ‘I have to leave, I have to show a house.’ I thought that was great. Just show houses and make money. It looked like easy money.”
Thus inspired, he started Nordine Realtors in 1987. In the movies, being a real estate broker might have looked like easy money, but not in real life. Since 1991, vacations have not been part of Nordine’s life. “The most I can do is take a long weekend here and there,” he said. “And I work on Saturday mornings.”
Nordine is uncertain of his future plans. He is thinking about moving into the higher end of the market, and has started to represent commercial and industrial properties. “I don’t think I can sell any more homes than I do now. I can’t keep up this pace,” he said.

- Benjamin Mark Cole

As a boy growing up in the South Bay, Leo Nordine had not one but two paper routes. “I had built up a large bank account by the time I got out of junior high,” he said. “I always wanted to work hard.”
He got what he wanted. Today, Nordine is owner of Redondo Beach-based Nordine Realtors, a one-man concern that sold 302 homes in 1999 - more than any other single broker in Los Angeles County. “I think the only reason I sell so much is that my hours are so ridiculous,” Nordine said.
Indeed, the entire Nordine lifestyle is designed to squeeze in as many working hours as a day can allow. Nordine and his wife Molly live in a bachelor apartment atop the Nordine Realty building. That cuts his commute time

For the second year in a row, Leo Nordine brokered the most residential real estate deals in Los Angeles County, selling 304 homes, just shy of his 1999 record of 308.
His top-ranking status means the 38 year old broker and die-hard surfer (who lives in a one bedroom apartment overlooking the beach) hasn’t taken a vacation in 10 years.
“On one hand, I am really focused on my business; I work from 7 to 7 during the week. But I'm equally focused on my health. It's a nice atmosphere here. We don't get stressed out."
While Nordine sold about $62 million worth of homes last year, he still doesn’t live in his own home. He and his wife, Molly, who works with him handling all the escrow details, have been renting their Redondo Beach apartment for 11 years now. It is conveniently located above Nordine’s office, which is literally

on the sand, where he employs six full-time workers. It also just happens to overlook his favorite surfing spot. There is no computer on Nordines desk, and he doesn't know how to use one. He spends 90% of his time on the phone, taking calls from agents about his listings and putting deals together. He also eschews voice mail, with a live person answering the phone 12 hours a day. "This business is about customer service. Agents who want to increase their business should focus on taking more care of their clients and less on their image. Nobody cares if you have a fancy house or car. Just be yourself."  While the Nordines don’t live in their own home, they've spent 14 years worth of commissions buying up over a dozen

beach bungalows and renting them out to save them from being razed by developers. Most of them are now owned clear. When business slows down, Nordine wants to build a small contemporary two bedroom house with a pool and a giant basement to warehouse his 100 vintage surfboards.

- Deborah Belgum

Surfer Magazine January 2002

Leo Nordine was 23 years old when he broke the news to his family that he wanted to get into real estate. They tried their best to take him seriously, but envisioning their ultra-reserved, painfully shy Leo trying to sell real estate was enough to make them clutch their guts in laughter. After all, at the time Leo was floundering around with no college degree, spending his days surfing and his nights delivering pizzas. He simply wasn't pushy, cunning or obnoxious enough to be a flashy sales agent.

meeting Nordine. "I was shocked when I found out what he does." he says. "It doesn't match his whole vibe. The guy's just one of the mellowest guys ever, plus he rips the Breakwall."

"I remember that day," Nordine counters. "It was a couple years ago. I thought Greg was going to be mad at me because I burned him on a really good one… I actually still feel bad about it to this day," he laughs.

"I REALIZED EARLY ON THAT YOU CAN HAVE JUST AS MUCH FUN SURFING 10 HOURS A WEEK AS YOU DO SURFING 20."

But Leo quietly insisted that real estate was the perfect career to compliment his love of surfing. Having grown up in Manhattan Beach, California, in the early 1980s alongside South Bay standouts like Ted Robinson, Kelly Gibson, Chris Frohoff and Steve Machin, surfing was a passion he knew would never fade. "That was a special time to be a surfer. The equipment was changing a lot, and we had some great El Nino winters," he remembers.

But as magical as his youth was in the water, at home his family struggled. "We were priced out of Manhattan early on," Nordine admits. "We couldn't afford the rent. When you grow up barely staying afloat, you value wanting to get ahead in life."

The blow of moving to nearby Torrance hit him hard. In junior high, while his friends were off surfing, Nordine was usually held back with the responsibility of two paper routes. The same went for high school, where he worked every job he could: surf shops, washing cars, delivery boy. But while his work ethic was never really an issue, getting ahead was. Finally, still spinning his wheels at 23, he made the leap into the real estate knowing full well his surfing might temporarily suffer. "I knew I wanted to be able to provide for a family, so I became a weekend warrior. But I realized early on that you can have just as much fun surfing 10 hours a week as you do surfing 20."

Today, 15 years later, Leo Nordine's life reads like a success story from a self-help infomercial. For the past four years, the National Association of Realtors has ranked him the No. 1 real estate agent in LA County - a stunning accomplishment considering there are 55,000 competitors. He earned the ranking by selling more than 300 homes each of those years. All the while, Nordine has managed to keep his spot in the pecking order at his favorite spot, the Redondo Beach Breakwall. "No matter what deal is on the table, I still drop everything when the swell is up," he explains.

Greg Browning, who became one of the South Bay's most prominent pros in the 1990s, remembers first

Nordine's soft-sell approach is even more surprising in the flashy business of real estate, where he maintains his low profile. When viewing homes, he whisks his clients around in his 1972 Plymouth Duster instead of some fancy S-Class Mercedes. He hates the computer, refuses to get voice mail and spends his entire day on the phone. Despite his wealth, he still rents a tiny apartment above his office, which conveniently overlooks his favorite surf spot and is littered with boards.

"I'm honest with my clients, but even more importantly I think I'm honest with myself, and I think that's why I've been successful. There are a lot of used car dealers in this business, and they'll say anything to close the deal. But that's just not me. I'm brutally honest even if it costs me the deal, and people respect that."
The 304 homes he sold last year prove that.
'It doesn't even seem that hard," he laughs. "I mean, I've put twice as much energy into my surfing that my business."

Today, Nordine makes more money than he ever imagined and has accumulated a few homes in the process. "I started buying beach bungalows a while back just to keep them out of certain builders' hands. They'd come in and build these big, huge monster houses with no yards and no charm, ruining the neighborhoods." At last count, Nordine has collected about 14 of them in the South Bay alone. Since they've roughly quadrupled in value over the years, he has no plans on getting rid of them. "They're my retirement plan now. I just rent them out, and I will give them to my kids down the line."

Speaking of which, his fourth lucky child is due to arrive any day, at which point Leo and his wife, Molly, will finally move into a custom-built home of their own in order to accommodate the 100-plus surfboards he's collected. "We've set ourselves up pretty nicely after working so hard, and my family is really happy I didn't listen to them."

-Chris Mauro"

The September 2001 issue of the National Association of Realtors' "Realtor Magazine" features the "top 100 mega producers" of the industry, and Redondo Beach agent Leo Nordine is ranked #17 in the country. Nordine has sold over 300 properties a year for 5 years in a row, and over 2500 since 1987. He runs his own small company with his wife Molly, and is continually proving agents don't need to work for a large company to be successful. The National Association of Realtors has 760,000 members in the United States. Nordine was ranked 1st among 55,000 agents in Los Angeles County and 3rd in California. 9 other California agents were among the top 100 agents in the country. The #1 agent in the United States was a condo specialist in Philadelphia who also owned his own firm and closed an almost impossible 754 deals last year.