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Why “Free and Clear” Can Kill Returns: Leverage, Creative Mortgage Strategies & Cash Flow w/ Matthew

By October 22, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Matthew Victoria, a creative financial specialist with a wealth of knowledge in mortgages. Matthew shares his journey from being a mechanic to a mortgage expert, emphasizing the importance of creativity in financing. He discusses the significance of having good systems and processes in place to ensure smooth operations in the mortgage industry. The conversation also touches on the challenges faced in the path to success, the value of delegation and team building, and the power of relationships in business. Matthew provides valuable insights and practical advice for listeners looking to navigate the real estate landscape effectively.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Matthew Victoria (00:00)
    people don’t think that about 401ks, just like people who own properties free and clear. That’s the worst thing to do because you can take that money and you can wind up parlaying it into two or three properties. You know, if we’re doing an investment podcast, that’s what I’m talking about. Like cash, like having your house is paid off. It’s like a concrete piggy bank.

    Your money’s stuck in there. What does it do for you? Nothing to go and make it more money. Then people say, what does it cost? No, no, no, no. What does it make you? Would you rather buy one property 100 % or would you rather have mortgages on three properties? I know me, I’d rather have three.

    Quentin (02:09)
    Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. If you’ve watched me before, if I had the pleasure of being a host that you watch, you know what I’m about to say. I’m excited. Excited to be here. Excited about my guests. My guests always have a way of just getting me fired up, getting me focused, because they have so much wealth of knowledge and nuggets that they give. A lot of times I have to hold them back a little bit and say, wait a minute, we want all this to translate into podcasts.

    This guy’s so different because he has a wealth of knowledge. He’s serious about what he does. I quoted him here. This gentleman is a creative financial specialist. So listen, if you need a creative way to finance, find cash flow, this is your man. And I’m so happy that he get to talk to you about it. So I’d like to introduce you guys to Mr. Matthew Victoria. Mr. Matthew, how you doing, sir?

    Matthew Victoria (03:04)
    I am excellent, thank you for having me on today.

    Quentin (03:06)
    Absolutely, man. Did I frame you well? I? I I didn’t over I didn’t over ⁓ try to oversell that. We’re going to deliver. mean, what I said is who you are. ⁓

    Matthew Victoria (03:18)
    That is correct, yes. You did a very nice job. I appreciate that. I’ve been called a lot worse, so thank you for that.

    Quentin (03:19)
    Hehehehehe

    You

    the beep machine on me, so I don’t want to start calling all those things. We’re going to keep it professional. We’re going to keep it casual, you know? But no, man. Listen, I’m glad we can laugh, but I’m serious, man. I’m excited to just see things through your lens. You know, you have a wealth of knowledge you can give to people. And so to be honest with you, man, I want to dive in with Matthew. ⁓ I want you to tell people, kind of immerse us into your world. Tell us the things you are involved in with your main focus. If you want to tell us a little bit about how

    Matthew Victoria (03:35)
    Exactly.

    Quentin (03:57)
    you got into the space that you’re in. I would love to hear that. And also tell us what market you’re operating in. But the floor is yours, Mr. Matthew.

    Matthew Victoria (04:06)
    Sure, I appreciate it and thank you again. So I’ve been doing mortgages since 2012 and like the tagline says, you know, I’m a creative financial specialist. I really want to put on my business card. get shit done, but I just haven’t gotten that far yet. Somebody said, Hey, that’s a one to use. So I was like, you know, I like that. But you know, I’ve been doing this since then, but prior to that, my first life, I was a mechanic. So I actually fixed construction equipment out on the job sites.

    Quentin (04:21)
    Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (04:34)
    So I was out by myself. I didn’t have a shop. I didn’t have a team. I basically had to figure out things for myself. So my scientific method and my logic process got honed very well because I didn’t have a choice. So it was, it was me and a phone. And back then, like you’re talking about the early two thousands, like cell phones weren’t even that good back then, you know? So I was lucky when they worked. And then my next life, my family had a bridal magazine.

    Quentin (04:47)
    Yeah, yeah.

    Yeah. Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (05:02)
    So I wound up actually doing sales and advertising for that. So that gave me my next piece, which is sales and marketing. Right? So when you put scientific method together with sales and marketing, it kind of creates the perfect opportunity for what it set me up for next, which was doing this. And I was refinancing my house at the time. My mother had passed away and the internet just came in and just clobbered print magazines.

    So at that point I said, all right, I think it’s time for a change. And I was like, well, I definitely don’t want to go work a job being a nine to five behind a desk. It’s just not me. And everyone’s cut differently. So for some people work like my wife, works for her. She can’t do what I do. She told me that she’s like, absolutely no way I couldn’t deal with that crap. And for me, I say the same thing about what she does. So that’s why we’re different.

    Quentin (06:27)
    Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (06:38)
    And so I was thinking about getting my real estate license. And then I figured out I really don’t want to drive people around every day and show them houses and deal with all of that. So I used to have to chase people to get paid for the magazine ads. And I said, well, wait a minute, if I do, was refinancing my house at the time. So I said, well, if I do mortgage, people have to give me their documents. Like they need me. So it now becomes a bit of a different relationship. So that’s when I wound up getting my license right in Sandy. Sandy hit.

    Quentin (07:02)
    Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (07:07)
    back in August, I think, or September of 2012. So I wound up getting my license in November or December of 12. So it kind of part of laid me into all of this. So, but I like being a creative person because with mortgages, I deal with primary residences, I deal with second residences, and I deal with investment properties. And a lot of times, and I do commercial loans too. So a lot of it kind of intersects and crosses over with each other.

    Quentin (07:35)
    Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (07:35)
    Because

    sometimes somebody needs to take a loan out on their primary to go and buy their investment property or they may need to take a loan out on their investment property to go and buy a commercial property like a mixed-use property. So they cross over so much or sometimes people just don’t know what they want and then I got to help them figure it out. Like I had one guy who he had bad credit. His wife made the money but his wife had good credit but she didn’t make much money. So he was having a baby.

    So I said, well, wait a minute, you you want to buy a house, but you don’t have the income. So we can’t use you to get what you want. So what we wound up doing was we bought a small condo and not such a great neighborhood because at a one year old, they’re not worried about school systems. Right. So we wound up buying a small condo. And then that was going to turn into a rental property, which now made him an investor. Right. So you cross over and then they were going to buy their house that they wanted, which was going to be their new primary. So now they wound up having two houses at that point instead of just the one.

    Quentin (08:22)
    you

    Yes, sir.

    Matthew Victoria (08:34)
    So it’s figuring out what do you have, what do you want, and how do we get there? Like if you’ve ever read The Alchemist, ⁓ the journey’s there, or the destination’s there, but sometimes the journey changes a lot. So it’s not always A to B, sometimes it’s A to E, and we need B, C, and D to figure out how to get there. It could be two or three, four steps.

    Quentin (08:53)
    Yeah. Yeah. So listen, man, I hear you. I hear your process and it makes total sense when you say science, sales and marketing. It makes total sense why that has cracked you to be the creative financial specialist that you are. Because I see it. I see you running in place. I see the systems that you’re putting in place and I see the service that you provide for your clients. You’re going to find a way for them to get what they need. It’s just all about being creative and that’s what make you who you are, man. And I appreciate it.

    And I know you make it sound easy, but I know it’s not always easy, especially in this climate. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

    Matthew Victoria (09:32)
    Well, you need good systems and operations, you know, without that, like everyone thinks it’s all about rates and it’s really not, you know, because think about this way, right? You have speed, you have quality and you have cost, right? So pick the two that are most important. Right? If everything’s going to be about cost, you’re going to wind up giving up someplace else, whether it’s going to be speed or quality. So for me, I’d rather be about quality and speed. So then your cost factor.

    So it all depends on what’s different for people. But for me, it’s about having the right processes because most people get bottlenecked somewhere. You know, ⁓ the loans taking 60 days. It’s still not close yet. Like we get tons of people that are calling us up for loans that they need bailouts on because the other one took too long. Maybe they missed something. Maybe there’s a lack of communication like working with some of the big places like, you know, like the internet companies that are out there. You know, it’s like if you call up there first, you’re not going to get them on the weekends.

    I answer my phone seven days a week because this is all that I do. And then every time you call, you get a different person. You ever tried calling up for service on your laptop when you had a problem with it? It’s not the easiest thing in the world. It’s the same kind of thing and they go by flow charts. I don’t have a flow chart. Me, I know lot of the guidelines in my head. So that’s why for me, it’s like I’m your therapist or your attorney. The more information I have, the better I can help you and the better I can figure out a solution.

    for what it is that you want. Like I ask people, do you want to own investment properties? know, what do you want to do? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that? Well, we have to kind of figure out what’s your time frame. What kind of money do you have access to? You have

    people don’t think that about 401ks, just like people who own properties free and clear. That’s the worst thing to do because you can take that money and you can wind up parlaying it into two or three properties. You know, if we’re doing an investment podcast, that’s what I’m talking about. Like cash, like having your house is paid off. It’s like a concrete piggy bank.

    Your money’s stuck in there. What does it do for you? Nothing to go and make it more money. Then people say, what does it cost? No, no, no, no. What does it make you? Would you rather buy one property 100 % or would you rather have mortgages on three properties? I know me, I’d rather have three.

    Quentin (12:24)
    No, man, I love everything you’re saying. Concrete piggy bank. I put that down. Never heard that before. if you see me and I’ve dropped my head, this is because I’m writing down these nuggets that you dropped in these quotables. And so ⁓ I love it, man. I love the way your brain works. I love the way you talk about processing. And I kind of want to go here because, you know, we talk about the success. You’re successful at what you do. You got it nailed down.

    but there’s also a journey, a process to success. So I kind of want to appeal to your scientific mind because you know, then you got to prove your theory, right? You got to work this thing out to make sure you got an orange-clad system that you can run. And so I want to talk to you about the process to get to success. Because people that’s watching, they’re at, you know, different journeys within their walk in this real estate, you know, space. And so there are moments when things get real, right? When deals go sideways.

    There are times when we have to pivot fast. And so I would love because you are an analytical guy that you can show people sometimes the process it takes to get to success, overcoming adversity, overcoming trials. So I would love if you could speak to that for a little bit.

    Matthew Victoria (13:38)
    Well, the first thing is that when you have a problem, you deal with it. Right? Most people don’t, you know, if you’ve ever like I went and saw, I think 2015 was I saw Tony Robbins and I went to unleash the power within it was at the C and C caucus at the convention center. So it was on one level. The guy was literally 20 feet away from me. He’s got these huge hands. Like he’s a big guy. And what he talked about was execution.

    But what he also talked about was always checking back in on your progress. Like a lot of people never check in, right? So it’s like, all right, well, I did this. Okay, well, what was my result? Did it work? Do I need to tweak? You know, because think about an airplane, right? An airplane takes off from New York, right? They have to keep readjusting their course. Otherwise, if they don’t, they’re going to end up in Alaska someplace. So a lot of it is always looking at what you’re doing and figuring out like tweaking along the way.

    And mistakes happen, but as long as a mistake is a learning opportunity for you, then it’s never really a mistake.

    Quentin (15:26)
    Absolutely. I love that. I love the airplane analogy. One of my favorite books is Atomic Habits. Not sure if you heard of it, but Atomic Habits by James Clear. And he talks about, like, just like you talked about the airplane, putting in your coordinates, right? Knowing where you’re going, where your destination, where you’re trying to go. And putting in the right coordinates because if you don’t keep, like you said, readjusting or making sure you’re on course, just the slightest degree of, like you said, I have you in Alaska.

    Hawaii, have you, and Dubai, like, you gotta make sure.

    Matthew Victoria (15:59)
    might be a place

    you want to go to, it definitely wouldn’t be the place you were trying to go to.

    Quentin (16:02)
    They,

    and listen, part, listen, once we get there, we make it make some stuff happen. But like you said, that ain’t where I was trying to end up. And so I love it, man. I love, you it’s all about being, you talked about systems, like running the right system, being focused on where your destination, where you’re trying to go. And so I’m glad you spoke to this because this is what separates people that from just dabble from people that’s in it for the long term that gets to the destination that yes, success, we’re going to get to success.

    Matthew Victoria (16:11)
    Exactly. ⁓

    Quentin (16:32)
    But making sure the process, checking your systems, checking the coordinates, making sure all that is in play, that way you can get to where you’re trying to go. And so I love it, man.

    Matthew Victoria (16:40)
    Well, the funny thing

    is that systems translate to it doesn’t matter what you do, right? Like I do mortgages, you know, we’re talking to people who are investors, you know, whether you’re a flipper, whether you’re a wholesaler, you know, whatever it is that you’re doing, whether you know, you’re buying notes and selling notes doesn’t make a difference. Whether you’re a realtor, you know, anything like that. If you don’t have systems and processes, you’re never going to be able to scale because you have a ceiling, right? For just like people who are like, like a contractor.

    Quentin (17:06)
    Ooh, ooh.

    Matthew Victoria (17:10)
    Right or whatever it is that they do if they’re doing all the work themselves. They have a ceiling Because you can only have so much time. It’s like Robert Kurosaki, right? If you ever look at the the quadrant that he has You know, the quadrant is the left side is a business owner. The right side is a worker, right? So somebody who’s self-employed still trades their time for money Right. So Robert so when you’re a business owner you trade money for time So that means offloading the things that you don’t want to do

    Quentin (17:31)
    Yep. Yep.

    Matthew Victoria (17:39)
    Right. It means having VAs. It means having an administrative assistant, whatever it is that can help you to scale and take off the things that don’t make you money. That’s the stuff that you get rid of and give to somebody else. So that’s what they do here. We have VAs. We have a fantastic processor. We just hired a business development manager. So this way they do all the things that don’t make us money, which for me, working on my loan doesn’t make me money.

    getting loans and doing things like this is what makes me money. So I don’t have to do that part of process.

    Quentin (18:11)
    Yeah, nobody love it.

    No, man, you’re hitting a nail on the head. wish I would have wrote down, just like talking to people like you, you just pick up on stuff that people said, and I was talking to a very successful guy, and he said, you delegate to elevate. And that’s exactly what you just described. You delegate, you let people take care of a part that they can take care of, that when you can take care of the part you need to take care of, which elevates your…

    actually your viewpoint, your level of thinking, and it will elevate the business to success. And so I hear you loud and clear,

    Matthew Victoria (18:46)
    Somebody gave me this one, I don’t mean to interrupt, somebody

    gave me this one and I’ll give it to you. You write small checks to cash big checks. Small checks are the things you pay people to do, right? If your hourly rate is $200 an hour and you’re doing work that’s $20 an hour work, well that’s not a good use of your time. So you write the small checks and this is something people have trouble doing because they want to control everything themselves or…

    Quentin (18:55)
    Ooh, yep, I’m gonna that down.

    Matthew Victoria (19:15)
    Nobody does it as good as me. They don’t have to do it as good as you. They just have to do it well. ⁓ There is no such thing as perfection. Perfection only exists in your mind, and that’s it. I tell my wife, there is no such thing as perfect. As long as it’s done well enough for you, and if it’s not, then you have to either retrain them or get rid of them and get somebody else who’s the right fit that’ll take pride in it and do it. So it’s those small checks. If you want to get to the next level,

    Quentin (19:20)
    That part. That part.

    Matthew Victoria (19:43)
    That’s what is you have to delegate and you have to offload. If you don’t, you’re just going to hit your ceiling and that’s going to be it.

    Quentin (19:49)
    man, you hit the nail on the head, delegate, automate, or eliminate. You know, that’s what it boils down to, so no, I hear you for sure. So listen, let me ask you this. What are you guys most focused on scaling or solving next? Like, what’s the next real goal?

    Matthew Victoria (20:06)
    Well, like I said, we hired a business development person to get us into in front of more people. The systems are automated. Like we just cleared out. We just cleared alone in like four or five days, which is unheard of in the mortgage business. So then at that point we have to wait because it’s legally it’s, it’s a 10 days you can close alone. So now we’re just sitting around waiting, you know, so all of those processes have been automated, but now it’s cleaning it up. Sometimes there’s a bottleneck someplace, you know, so the workflow gets tweaked.

    But right now it was hiring that person. And now that he and I teamed up together, we can now go out and build the team bigger because I handle the team and he handles the development opportunities, getting in front of more people. So now we can scale and bring in more business.

    Quentin (20:50)
    Listen, man, I love it, sir. I absolutely love, I love what you’re doing. I love the team that you’re building. I love the divide and conquer, but also the partnership together. And I guess that’s briefly what I want to talk about is relationships, right? Because everything I’m hearing you saying, you understand the value of not doing everything yourself, right? Making sure that you have a good team in place. And that’s what you are. You handle the team. You are in charge of people. So listen, when it comes to building relationships,

    and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

    Matthew Victoria (21:25)
    For me when I meet people I try to ask them three questions. Who are you? What do you do? And how can I help you? So I try to focus on the how can I help you part So and then it’s finding out how can I help them? Well, then when I do ask the next person Well, are they a good introduction for each other for me? I also try to ask my clients like hey who’s a good person because some of them are self-employed I asked them when ⁓ obviously part of it is finding out what they do

    Quentin (21:32)
    Hmm.

    Matthew Victoria (21:51)
    you know, hey, you’re an electrician, can you use an introduction to a contractor or to an architect or somebody else? So for me, I try to develop that part of it, just like I started my own networking group. In six months, we grew to 30 members. ⁓ It’s a tip group, so it’s like B and I. And then we just started a divorce group ⁓ four months ago, and we’re already at 15 members on the divorce group too, so.

    Quentin (22:17)
    Again, you know the value of building a team, building a group, putting people together. We’re better when we do it together, you know? And so ⁓ I tell people all the time, relationships is everything. No one person is islanding. So I love it, man. I love everything you’re building. Are you serious? Yeah, see? Boom. There you go. Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (22:34)
    I say that all the time. I do. No

    man is an island unto himself because you can’t do everything yourself, nor should you. That’s the other thing is you shouldn’t do everything yourself. The team is there for a reason. it’s like, there was an example somebody said at a seminar I went to a long time ago. He’s like, well,

    Quentin (22:48)
    Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (22:59)
    you i was trying to get this appointment with this doctor and somebody else said no i i got an appointment with them he’s like would you make it with the doctor no i made it with the receptionist but she’s part of the doctor’s team so it’s it’s making sure that the people you deal with know that the team are an extension of yourself

    Quentin (23:15)
    Mm. Yep. Ooh.

    That was so good, man. That was loaded pulling nuggets. I hope everybody got that. I hope everybody got that. That was good. I can’t even, it would take me too long to explain the nuance of what you just said. I hope those that got it got it because that makes so much sense. Because sometimes people try to leapfrog people without realizing their importance of connecting with that person. Because if you connect with that person,

    that person can connect you with their system, team, their inner circle. So really focusing on the relationship that’s right in front of you is gold. so, man, yeah. So well said, sir. I appreciate you, Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (24:00)
    Well, it’s the warm handoff, like Pam is our processor, right? So

    at that point, I tell my client, hey, by the way, Pam’s gonna be taking it from here. She’s the next step. But I talk to her all the time, so she’s part of the team. So anything that you need, you can either ask her or you can come back to me.

    Quentin (24:14)
    Mm, I love it. I love it. Now, man, this has been good. This has been great content, good nuggets. Listen, man, listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,

    Matthew Victoria (24:32)
    Well, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram. It’s matts your mortgage guy to tease. My cell phone’s 908-296-8904. You can call me, text me being in sales. We always pick up phone numbers. We don’t know. You know, that’s just the way it goes. And I, I do a whole big different thing. So, you know, residential mortgages for primary, for second homes, investment properties, renovation loans, 203 Ks, VA, whatever it is, if it’s a loan, we can do it. And like I said, they tie together.

    Quentin (24:44)
    Yeah.

    Matthew Victoria (25:01)
    between primary and investment properties.

    Quentin (25:04)
    Yeah. Well, there he is. Mr. Matthew Victoria, sir. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective. Thank you for the nuggets. Thank you for the one liners. And once you can see my paper, I got all kind of quotes, quotes, this and then quotes. So yeah, man, I appreciate you coming through, and bringing so much value to the, to the platform, sir.

    Matthew Victoria (25:28)
    Well thank you, I appreciate having me. I always love doing things like this with great people. You’ve got a great energy about yourself too bro, so I appreciate it.

    Quentin (25:32)
    Yeah. Man, I appreciate

    that. I really, really, really appreciate that, sir. So thank you again, man. And everyone else, listen, y’all got the value. Y’all heard Mr. Matthew. Y’all know we’re going to continue just to bring on amazing people just like him. So just go ahead and subscribe. That way, the alert go off, you can just come in and check us out. So Mr. Matthew, I thank you so much. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.

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