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Meet Michael Cameron of Cameron Real Estate Services in Del Mar

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Cameron.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born in NY and grew up in Arizona. My mother was a nurse and my stepfather were in finance. As kids, we all got stock certificates for Christmas! Sounds like a bummer for a kid, but it helped shape who I became.

When I was in my early 20’s, I went to school to be a teacher, and got a job as an Aide for SD Unified. After several years of working in a classroom, it was clear that wasn’t my path and that’s when I set out into the world of finance. However, I didn’t have the background for it so it took time. I applied to all the biggest companies on Wall St. – Merrill, Smith Barney, PaineWebber…and got rejection letters…a mountain of them! I still have them today as a reminder to never give up.

After many months, someone gave me a chance. I was hired as a broker by Dean Witter in La Mesa and was sent to NYC for training at 2 WT Financial Center near Wall St. They threw me a phone and a list of names and said “ok – get started, let’s see what you’ve got”! Over the next 7 years, I worked my way up and gained the title of VP of Investments managing nearly 90 million dollars of client assets at the height of the market, before the dot.com bust. But it wasn’t the Bust that took me out of investments!

In 2001, while working as a Financial Advisor, I co-founded a software company that created a solution for the financial services industry. It was a back-office accounting software that set out to literally change the way the industry had done business for decades. The application was called NetBasis, and we sold the software to the Internal Revenue Service, many of the world’s largest banks and financial services companies, and the oldest and largest clearing company on Wall St – The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. At that point, we started gaining traction and we were getting noticed…and it was at that time that we were faced with a decision that would change the course of my life forever! The firm I was with at that time came to my partner and I and said “are you going to be Brokers or Software Developers” …so we took a chance and got out of stocks and bonds and ran the software startup full time. For the next four years, we lived off a vision and hope. I had saved a significant amount but we were burning through capital, and a few years later it was clear something needed to change. It was at that time that I started making real estate investments to build up my savings again. So I started investing in rehabs and rental properties in markets I know well – Phoenix and San Diego. At that time, real estate was exploding. Needless to say, it was a good time to be investing, so I jumped into real estate and launched our family-based boutique real estate business here in San Diego. That was in 2004, nearly 14 years ago.

As I started to develop the real estate company, I didn’t want to be the guy on the park bench or late-night infomercials, so I put on my Financial Adviser hat, took on the role of consumer advocate and put together a series of educational workshops for consumers. Together with some colleagues, we developed a non-profit organization dedicated to speaking and counseling and I authored several workshops on various topics of real estate. Home Ownership & Financing, Real Estate Today, Housing Market Trends and Real Estate Investments were born. To date, I have hosted more than 600 live events and spoken to tens of thousands of consumers who have attended my workshops – more than any other Realtor in San Diego. I’ve been invited to speak at several hundreds of our cities largest employers, such as: City of San Diego, Poway, Encinitas, and Escondido; Cal-Trans, The San Diego Zoo, The Wild Animal Park and most recently it was an honor to be invited in the San Diego Padres Organization. We’ve also been out to our thriving medical, tech and biotech companies, at companies such as Dexcom, Sharp, Scripps Institute, The Burnham Institute of Research, ViaSat, Cymer, and hundreds of others. I speak about once a week throughout the year.

In addition to the workshops, I was invited to join an elite group of professionals and host a monthly spot on the American Dream TV Show with host Craig Sewing. On the show, I talk about the local market and economy, feature amazing homes and estates, and talk about some of the amazing things happening in our local economy today. It’s a fun aspect to what we do every day.

Throughout the last 14 years in the real estate business, I’ve owned and operated my own office, acted as the Broker to an office of several hundred real estate agents, trained hundreds of Agents and other business professionals, and recently had the joy of assisting several family members in the business.

Today, my wife, Amy and I run our family owned and operated business, with a few agents and wonderful support staff, out of our two offices in Del Mar/Rancho Santa Fe. We live just a few miles up the road from the office, with our two dogs – Fifi and LuLu. Our 4 children are grown and two of them, Rio and Jasen, have their real estate licenses and work in the business.

Over the last 14 years, Cameron Real Estate has grown in many ways, and we’ve been very fortunate in my home town of San Diego. This year, we’ll sell help clients with about 40 transactions and nearly $25MM in sales volume.

Although I haven’t been involved in the software company for many years, the company accomplished its goal of changing the industry, and still exists today.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been smooth, but I’ve embraced the failures as learning experiences and persisted forward each time. I’ve had many different types of struggles along the way…there have been financial struggles that resulted from shifting gears and taking on new challenges into unknown territory. I’ve had amazing moments of joy and success, but also difficult moments of transition and the isolation that comes from making choices that others may not have anticipated, and been happy with. I think part of success comes from trusting your instincts in the face of adversity. Pushing forward with a vision that others may not see or necessarily be on board with. I had struggles that come with working with family members, and sometimes working with family can backfire, unfortunately. Challenges that come with working in a market of great competitors, and an industry that is rapidly adjusting and changing with technology. Our industry is going to change in the coming years. Agents aren’t likely to be replaced anytime soon, but the business is going to look a lot different in 10 years.

Cameron Real Estate Services – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our niche is helping clients achieve their real estate goals with a financial planning perspective. Often, we’ll help families complete a sale/purchase at the same time, perhaps they are downsizing or they have a growing family and want a bigger home. Selling a home and buying a home, and making that happen smoothly on both sides with both transactions closing at the same time, takes the utmost care, handling and skill.

As a resident of the city for more than 40 years, we have a unique understanding of the different communities, pockets and neighborhoods. We understand how values change among different areas and are able to help clients identify value, or avoid marketing overreactions.

We help clients sell their homes for more money, save buyers from over-spending their money and protecting each of our clients on both sides from the inherent risks associated with buying and selling real estate.

I’m most proud of what we have accomplished over the years, the team we have today, and the principles that we operate within. We are dedicated to staying on top of our constantly changing profession and dedicated to our clients 100% throughout the day. Real estate is not the business most people think it is. We wake up in the morning and go to bed late at night, taking our clients calls and concerns with us. We work weekends, nights and holidays, during the time when most of our clients are logging on to address their real estate issues. I’ve been in real estate and investments for nearly 30 years, and we set ourselves apart with our knowledge of the local market, national economic trends, and ability to navigate and negotiate successfully for our clients. I’m known for the workshops and work I’ve done within the community, speaking and counseling at no charge to thousands of local consumers every year. I’m proud that we have developed the role of consumer advocate for our clients and the fact that we’ll always put our clients ahead of our sales statistics and egos.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Watching my wife and my daughter, who both completely resisted in the beginning, flourishing in the business years later. I’m also proud of the agents we’ve worked with that are doing well, it’s great to see your training take root at blossoming. I’d also say, some of the best moments have been working with clients who had a challenging situation that they overcame, and have done well since. One example I talk a lot about is a woman named Martha. Martha is an immigrant to the U.S. and a single mom who worked at the San Diego Zoo as a landscaper during the day, and she also cleaned homes at night. Her dream was to own her own home in San Diego, but she never thought it would be possible for her family. After meeting her at a workshop, Martha came in and we developed a friendship. Over time, she slowly took steps to start the process of buying a home. We finally got her financially prepared and she decided to make the leap. When we started looking at homes, she was picky! She knew what she wanted. Together, we looked at more than 100 homes over the course of 12-18 months. Finally, in 2009 she bought a house on the top of a hill in Paradise Hills, with a beautiful yard and an ocean view! Today, that home is her home, and the value of the home is up more than $250,000 more than she paid for the home. I tell the story a lot, and it always makes me smile! Go Martha!

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