How homeless criminal Mat Steinwede became one of Australia’s top real estate agents

Mat Steinwede has gone from being homeless and on Australia’s most-wanted list to amassing a multi-million-dollar real estate empire. So how did he do it? Photo / Instagram - @matsteinwede

Mat Steinwede has gone from being a homeless drug addict on Australia’s most-wanted list to amassing a multi-million-dollar real estate empire and becoming one of the country’s most successful real estate agents.

It’s a rags-to-riches story that feels like a plot ripped from the pages of Underbelly - an Australian true crime/drama series.

Steinwede, 50, started working the centre of Sydney’s party culture on Oxford St in his late teens as a bouncer, where he quickly found himself embroiled in the drug culture.

Before long, he was injecting speed and hopelessly addicted to cocaine and pills - turning to crime to fund his spiralling drug addiction.

Steinwede admitted that he lost his identity to the addiction.

“I became a drug addict, a drug dealing drug addict that was controlled by the drug,” he revealed.

The drug addiction led to Steinwede getting embroiled in the criminal underbelly of Sydney, and eventually, he hit rock bottom when he lost everything.

“I ended up homeless, living in an abandoned building in Camperdown,” he admitted.

For Steinwede, he felt like he was stuck in an unwinnable situation - addicted to drugs and involved in criminal activity, with no clear path out.

However, a chance meeting on the Central Coast turned his life around.

He was visiting Terrigal to help with the opening of a brothel when he met a woman named Karina and a man named Dino.

He was immediately taken with Karina and asked for her number, but also struck up a friendship with Dino.

When he returned to Sydney, his life turned for the worse again.

“My whole life was in the gutter, I was in trouble with the police, and warrants were out for my arrest.”

So, he called Dino and asked for help.

“I rang him and I said, ‘Can you come to pick me up, or I’m going to end up dead or in jail’.”

In a display of epic mateship, Dino offered Steinwede a place to stay at his parent’s house on the Central Coast and came and got him.

Steinwede stayed there for nine months, but was still profoundly in his addiction and experiencing side effects like psychosis, spending hours upon hours drawing stick figures.

Eventually, he realised he had to do something with his life and decided to dive head-first into the world of real estate - despite having no experience.

“I grabbed the Yellow Pages, and I rang every real estate agency on the Central Coast and asked if they had traineeships, and they all said no, except one lady,” he revealed.

When he started, he didn’t even have any clothes to wear, so Dino bought him two polo shirts, and Steinwede would spend his days knocking on people’s doors, asking if they wanted to sell their houses.

Things started to take off, Steinwede secured himself a room and got engaged to Karina, who had been a steady positive force in his new life, and then an ex-heroin dealer rang him up with some devastating news.

“He said, ‘Mate, you’ve just been on Australia’s Most Wanted’, and then Karina’s dad turned up on the doorstep, and I had to go and hand myself back in,” he said.

Steinwede admitted he thought it was the end of the road for him - and contemplated taking his own life. The only thing that stopped him was Dino making him promise that he wouldn’t.

When it came to sentencing, Steinwede was shocked when the judge not only showed mercy, but kindness.

“The judge looked at me and said, ‘Mat, I see some good in you. You should be going to jail, but I see some good in you’.”

He was granted a second chance.

When he was outside the court, he rang Dino and made a promise.

“I’m going to become Australia’s number-one real estate agent - and I have never forgotten that promise,” he explained.

Steinwede didn’t get off completely scot-free; he did community service for over a year and it took him eight years to pay off the fines he was issued, but none of that stopped him from working towards his real estate dream.

Steinwede found a different high to chase - the high of selling houses.

These days, he makes around $7 to $8 million in fees annually and takes pride in his work.

“I enjoy it. It’s like a sport - I see myself as a corporate athlete, and it suits my personality,” he told news.com.au.

He also loves the art of the deal: “I enjoy that it is like dealing drugs but legal.”

None of this success happened overnight - it took him over 15 years of hard work to get to the top of his game, and he stays there because he is so disciplined about it.

He doesn’t drink or do drugs and he deeply cares about the people he works with.

“When I sell someone’s home, I really protect their position. I’d rather lose the sale than not get the price for the person,” he explained.

He has also amassed his own real estate empire, owns five homes on the Central Coast, and admits he could have bought more, but prefers to sell them for other people than buy them for himself.

As for Dino? They remain best mates, and their friendship has seen Steinwede through three marriages, six children and plenty of business highs and lows.

“Dino picked me up out of the gutter, [has] been the best man at my three weddings, and is the only person I call if I ever need advice.

“He has never asked me for anything, but he has been there with me the whole way. He is a true legend, and I love him.”