How Insurance Saves Real Estate Deals (Multifamily + Refi) | Matt Sutika

Matt Sutika (00:00)
For years, I pitched to my clients, like, don’t shop me, don’t leave me, all these things, right? Because I’m a partner on whatever. But I maybe wasn’t actually being a partner. What I was really trying to do was like a guilt trip, right? And so we’ve had to live it, right? And so the reason why, and I’m not perfect at it,

Quentin (00:12)
Yeah.

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m excited to be here. I’m excited about my guest. I’m excited about the topic that he’s going to talk about. I think, not I think, because we’ve been talking about it. We kind of have a kind of archaic, and that’s to use his word, kind of mindset around this topic. And I know for me,

just interviewing different people, I’m starting to think about it from a different perspective, but I definitely know I was fixed in a way when I thought about this specific topic and how it can really help within the real estate space. So I’m so glad he’s here, because I believe he’s going to bring a ton of value and really enlighten us on thinking about this differently. And so I’m so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Matt Why Mr. Mr. Matt Sutika. Sutika. Look at him! Yes!

Matt Sutika (02:43)
You got it, you got it, you got

it, you got it. Like I said, always think of the Phil Collins song, know, and you you know, you’ll get it every time.

Quentin (02:46)
So I wanna put some respect on that name. Absolutely. Yeah.

So I was gonna marry a girl named Sutika. And so that’s the way I think. it’s spelled, the spelling is in your name. And I think that’s what my mind drifts to. So.

Matt Sutika (02:58)
you

That’s actually

the number one I get is Sutika. That’s usually and that’s when I know it’s a cold call or

Quentin (03:08)
Yeah,

Look me. Listen, man, I’m so glad you’re here today, man. And I’m gonna be honest, brother, because I want you to shine a light on this topic. So I want to dive in, man. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. Mr. Met, I would love if you can give us like a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into this space. And if you don’t mind, man, tell them what part of the world you’re in. I know people love to know if people is kind of close to them, maybe they can reach out.

Matt Sutika (03:14)
Yeah, I’ll see you Sutika.

Quentin (03:43)
get in contact with you. So let them know what you’re doing, the origin story of your journey and where you are in the world. So Mr. Matt, sir, you have the floor.

Matt Sutika (03:52)
All right. All right. Well, I’ll start with the fun part. I’m here in sunny Florida. I’m not sure if my camera, we might on the one side right there. It looks like there’s a little palm tree you can see. So down here in, down here in Sarasota, Florida, I’m a, I’m a Michigan Chicago guy born and raised, but been down here about the last four or five years since the pandemic. And I will tell you that I wish I would have known that you can live in Florida my whole

Quentin (04:02)
Yeah, I see it, yeah, I see it, yeah, yeah.

Matt Sutika (04:21)
I thought it was only where you went to retire or vacation and now living down here. I won’t even go into the no taxes and some other things, but ⁓ you know, it is great. So I love Florida. This is our new office. Actually, you can see behind it. We just moved in a few weeks ago. It’s very bright. so if you’re in the area, stop by. ⁓ My business is called Nimble and you know, really we are 100 % concentrated in the multifamily insurance, apartment insurance.

Real estate insurance, you know, there’s so many different ways to classify, but ultimately we write a lot of insurance for people who own one to 400 unit per location apartments across the country is to kind of give some

Got into that over time. I’ve been an insurance nerd my whole life. Started working at my dad’s state farm, you know, early on, opened my own state farm right out of college. I was about 21 years old, 22 years old. And through that, my journey really

to real estate was I eventually helped build an insurance company for Century 21 real estate firm. Through that, I started seeing that I’m like, I really like this whole S-Girl billing home dynamic where I grew up in the auto space, which is transactional and tough, especially with the little gecko and flow coming in and saving you 15 % in 10 minutes. makes it tough to compete, right?

⁓ in the technology. you know, through that journey, ⁓ randomly, I mentioned the North, I went to Michigan State, ⁓ you know, shout out to my departments this weekend, the tournament, but ⁓ my college suite mate got into buying apartments through like a syndication ⁓ company. And we did a first apartment. was like, man, I spent the same amount of time writing this apartment, right? Dealing with like a business owner as I would writing a homeowner’s policy and the income is

30X, you know, on the revenue. So yeah, that got me interested. And then from there, my journey has just been simple. I’ve done the insurance on the multifamily space, used some of those proceeds or some of my earnings to invest back into the space. And I didn’t realize it when I started that journey, but it really has made me better on the insurance side, every deal I do on the real estate side and every clearly deal I do on the insurance side allows me more opportunity to invest.

you know, back in the real estate. And that’s really how Nimble was born over the last five years, you know, is that, ⁓ we, you know, my team speaks the language. always say we’re kind of got that Rosetta stone, type of feature where we can talk to our insurance nerdy people on our side with the carriers and then kind of translate that over and talk per door and cap rates over here and NOI and kind of, you know, really help bridge the gap. our principle of our company now is really getting people to understand that.

You know, and even for me, used to be all about money and savings and I’m going to try to quote you and all whatever. And now I really are approaches, you know, how do we use insurance as a tool to affect your NOI, your closing, your proceeds in, you know, in a positive way, right? And really not be about coverage and all those things that like my team’s got to do. We’ve got to cover you correctly. The lender is going to make sure you’re covered correctly. But how do I use it as a tool to make sure you close on time? You are hitting your numbers. You are maybe not having to bring proceeds on a refi.

⁓ You know, you’re not getting proceeds cut last minute, right? And then how to use insurance upfront compared to a savior on the back end. So that’s where we’re at today. You know, we specialize in that space across 50 states and we’re very honed in. We’re not doing auto, we’re not doing florist shops or workers’ comp here. This is what we do and it’s really our expertise.

Quentin (08:57)
Absolutely, man. Love it, man. Love it. Listen, Tom Izzo is probably one of my favorite coaches, man. So yeah, I love Tom, man. I love the green and white. So absolutely, brother. I appreciate you bringing that up.

Matt Sutika (09:02)
Y’all.

It’s a good week. It’s a good week.

have Michigan State plays UConn in basketball and the Sweet 16 and our hockey team also plays UConn. And then we got opening day for my Detroit Tigers. I don’t know how I’m going to get work in this week with all the sports I’ve got to watch.

Quentin (09:27)
Yeah,

yeah, exactly. Leave me alone. I’m busy right now. ⁓

Matt Sutika (09:30)
I did the podcast right now because the rest

of the week is booked with my TV and my sports.

Quentin (09:38)
Absolutely. I love it, man. And I’m going get back more to Nimble. I want to peek into you a little bit, man, because I just love the way you think, I have a 20 years in the insurance industry. I love the way you think. love the way you are causing other people to rethink about the insurance space. And I have a saying, Mr. Matt,

where I say destiny has no wasted moments. Right?

So meaning like, no matter what we go through on this journey called life, we borrow from moments that make us who we are today. And so sometimes like we reflect and we can see, sometimes see the lead up to why I love helping people. I love how you talked about the way y’all changed philosophy. And now it’s like, you know, how can I save you money so you don’t have to go into your retirement? Don’t you have to go into like these different areas? And so I see the philosophy change and I see how you’re really trying to help people.

let them know, hey, let’s use insurance as a tool. But I just want to know where does this mindset of kind of rethinking insurance come from? So my question is, throughout the moments, throughout the years, 20 years, what have these moments taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resiliency? Has it taught you to like just look at things and life differently? Like what is these moments in this journey taught you about yourself?

Matt Sutika (11:37)
Yeah, you know, first, I think any entrepreneur that survives five years, let alone 20 years that’s watching this, you have to be resilient. mean, I would love for everybody to tell me as an entrepreneur that they had no hard times and they’ve had no bad moments. But I mean, I’ve had two cents in my bank account to make payroll. You know, I’ve cried at the desk. You know, I’ve had

you know, what’s called lawyer stuff. I’ve had partners leave, partners come. Well, you know, I’ve had it all, right? And I probably have had one tenth of what the next guy or gal has probably had too. But I think the number one thing is you just got to be resilient. have to, you know, be able to handle an immense amount of stress. And I think the more important thing that I like to share is, and I didn’t realize this until I started getting married and having kids, is that

you know, how much you have to have that under control for your family, right? And I think that’s the biggest impact that I care about more now when I talk to people. used to be like, hey, you know, I’d immediately sit down and like, talk about your PNL, let’s talk about this, right? Now it’s like, you know, my questions are more like, what do you got going on at home?

because that has actually been the hardest part of my journey as an entrepreneur. It was easy when I single, and it was easy when, even when I first getting married. But when that first kid came, that was the first time in my life that when I wake up on a Saturday, work was not the first thing I cared about or thought about, right? And so that was unique for me, right? Because I used to be the guy that my parents would get worried about, like, hey, you work too much, know, that’s all you, or I’d be sitting at dinner with my parents and I’d be just still thinking about the P &L and,

and whatever. So I think those are the things that you go through is it’s not only the journeys you have to battle, you know, as you, you know, just develop your companies and you do things with customers and all that other stuff that you got to do when you’re at the desk. But it’s if you’re an entrepreneur, how and you have to grow.

you know, as a person along the way and all the things that change for you on the personal side that are just, they’re right in your business. know, out of the corner of my eye right now, I got the wife with documents in her hand because I got to sign something or whatever and she doesn’t know I’m recording this podcast and she’s up here because she’s the real boss, right? And you know, so she’s probably sitting out there so mad at me that she could have to wait because I see my one team member out in the corner telling her like, he’s on a podcast.

you know, that’s the real life, right? Like that’s the real that, know, if I wasn’t recording, my butt would be out there signing whatever she wants me to sign or do. It’s probably like a kindergarten field trip release or something, you know, that was so urgent at 11 o’clock, but you know, that’s what you got to do, right? Because that person allows me to, last night I was out with Carriers to One, you know, working on a program, you know, and different things like that. And, you know, she’d take care of the boys. So that’s the…

Quentin (14:26)
Yeah, yeah.

Matt Sutika (14:37)
That’s the real stuff that a lot of entrepreneurs just don’t talk about. They just wanna talk about the P &L, right? How things are going or their next series A, know, things like that that makes the CNBC headlines. But it’s all that other stuff that really, I think, makes the success.

Quentin (14:53)
Madman, thank you for bringing that perspective in, bro. I appreciate that. When you was talking, it reminded me when I was younger, my dad has a

where he would say, I pay the cost to be the boss, right? That’s what he would say. And I really thought when I was younger, it meant like, yeah, you know, I beat my chest. I pay the cost to be the boss. The more I started analyzing what my dad did, I understand what he meant. My dad was a nurturer, hard worker, but…

Matt Sutika (15:47)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (16:03)
His presence was felt like me and my wife, have a saying where we say, your presence is a present, right? I’m 44 and my dad is still a father to me. And what I realized when he was saying I paid the cost to be the boss, it’s the sacrifice of love that he had for his family to put everything in perspective, to put work life in perspective. My dad, he’s a pastor, so he’s been a pastor for 40 years.

So that’s kind of like a business in itself, right? And so I watched him make, you know, business and financial decisions, but I watched him do everything from a place of love for his family. And when he said, I paid a cost to be the boss, he means, I love you so much. It’s that I’m going to do whatever it takes to sacrifice. And in return, we honored him. He didn’t have to squeeze us into submission. It was his love that really made us honor and reverence everything that he did.

So I love that perspective, man, that now that you’re talking to people about how’s your family, you’re really getting to know them because that’s the engine. That’s where everything pulls from. This is why we do what we do. It’s for our family. And I love that perspective. I love you brought that. And I asked that question because I want to get perspectives just like that. Because I tell people, I tell every business owner, whether it’s business, whether it’s real estate.

Matt Sutika (17:01)
Absolutely.

Quentin (17:30)
The one constant thing in this is you. You’re the constant in your business is you. And so you have to have something that grounds you. You have to have a perspective. You have to know your why. And so, man, I’m so glad you brought that perspective in this conversation.

Matt Sutika (17:45)
No, I appreciate kids. It goes back to the business. You asked the question of really why I changed this dynamic of looking at things as a tool compared to a line. And that’s part of it, right? Or the reasoning with it is that…

For years, I pitched to my clients, like, don’t shop me, don’t leave me, all these things, right? Because I’m a partner on whatever. But I maybe wasn’t actually being a partner. What I was really trying to do was like a guilt trip, right? And so we’ve had to live it, right? And so the reason why, and I’m not perfect at it,

Quentin (18:17)
Yeah.

Matt Sutika (18:24)
I hope my clients think I am, but you know, I’m not perfect. It’s like.

I had to find ways to give them value that wasn’t putting some quotes together. And so we had to change our mindset so that they could change their mindset. So when I really do talk to my clients now and say, hey, over five years, there will be a time. I’m always gonna give you good quotes. I’m gonna be competitive 90-some percent of the time. Will we have the best quote 100 out of 100? Probably not. There’s always a…

Random local, you know kick or whatever but nine out of ten times we’re gonna be We’re gonna be competitive for you and we’re gonna get you through but here’s the real thing Over five years one property ten properties you have there’s gonna be a time That’s more important than the thousand savings here or the two thousand savings here. Well, you’re gonna really need a real effort on my end, right to

cut commission, make a change, call a favor, split something, do whatever it is that you need, right? To get through a refi, right? We just had some tough years where people really hard to, people were losing their loans because they couldn’t get the refi out, because they couldn’t raise the proceeds, right? Like that they needed to get there, right? And that’s when you’re gonna need me, because all of a now you’re supposed to bring, you know.

$300,000 to the table for closing and now you come to me and it’s like look I can find 15,000 30,000 in savings because I’m gonna do this and this and that at a 10 multiple would say Now I cleared your proceeds now. You don’t need to go raise capital now You don’t have to go ask your other GPs for more money or maybe half the money, right? You know

Quentin (20:05)
Yeah.

Matt Sutika (20:09)
And that’s really the game of life. And then through that, I got to be able to build some relationships as much as I can. And truth be told, that’s gotten tougher and tougher as we’ve grown because…

I would love to sit and talk to every one of my clients every single day and I can’t. But the thing that’s been of value is that I’ve built this team that’s been with me. On average, I don’t have anybody really too much less than 10 years on average that’s been with me. And they talk like me. They’re better looking than me, of course. But they have the things where there’s not that drop off, right?

Quentin (20:44)
Yeah.

Matt Sutika (20:44)
And that’s been the establishment over last three years is that I got to get my team to be able to talk to my clients and give them the same value, be able to give them the same security, you know, that historically someone always wants to talk to the boss, always wants to talk, ⁓ let me talk to Matt. You know, I love what you’re saying. I’ve worked with you, but I still got to hear it from Matt first. And that’s been the big transition the last couple of years is that I’ve seen these clients that now I’ve trusted my other team members, partners at the business. And that’s really

taken us to the next level because we could be more for our clients that way, right? The fact that they trust more than just me, right? Who just cannot talk to everybody even though I would love to, like it’s just, it’s impossible, right? It’s the same with doctors or any of that, surgeons or region surgeons aren’t, you know, put the IV in and whatever, like they gotta do as many surgeries as they can in the day, right? And so as you establish that team, I think that’s also really helped be able to go. And then the last thing, if you have the team, you have the trust,

and then you have the experience, that’s when you really see how dynamic you can be. Because now you’re hitting on all sides, right? People trust you that you’re going to do the right thing. You have the experience to do the right thing. And then you have a team who can execute in a very efficient and quick manner. And that’s where we’ve really seen us in just the last few years really take that next level up, which has been cool.

Quentin (22:10)
Yeah, I told you, I knew he was going to come back around to this, man. I knew he was going to come back around and talking about relationships, right? And when we was talking earlier, the word that popped in my head was actually the word community. And I say on this part a lot is that community is common unity, right? It’s people doing common unity, pushing a vision forward.

Matt Sutika (22:19)
Mm-mm.

Quentin (22:38)
the same way, doing different things, right? You got different people that doing different aspect, but we’re pushing this community effort toward and forward in the same way. And I think what I hear you saying is that you built a culture and a community and people, they talk like you and it sounds like you are empowering them to be who they are at the same time. And this is what I say, Matt, and I firmly believe this, healing happens in community. When you build an ecosystem where everybody’s thriving,

with people feel empowered, with people feel safe, when people feel like there’s trust, healing happens. Like there’s less mental baggage because there’s trust there. Sometimes it transfer to the physical because you feel good mentally, you feel good physically. And so when I say healing, mean that word healing means to be made whole. Like people feel a wholeness within the ecosystem because

It’s common unity. Everybody’s thriving. We know we’re doing for our clients. The clients feel it because when they talk to you and talk to somebody else, it’s the same thing they get in. Like it’s like a revolving loop of conversation, a revolving loop of trust, a revolving loop of concern. And so when I hear you talk, man, I hear that you built a culture and a community at Nimble. That’s what I hear.

Matt Sutika (23:57)
I appreciate that. actually one of the first times you guys are chatting through as you get to know me and we build on our relationship. I mentioned the office behind here. We don’t have a lot of clients that visit our office. Not in a bad way, just most of my clients are all over the country and we do a lot of our communication at events or calls or emails, whatever. So we really built our office here, which is really cool and near and dear to me.

for the team, right? So we have about 90 % of the team here in the office. Everyone, for the most part, just, you know, not really planned or anything, has young kids and the amount of kids, you know, are coming in here on their days off or records day and they’re working here. And so that’s the culture that I, you know, and I’m glad to brought that up is that I really do want, because I learned so much sitting in the back of my dad’s office, right? About life, about accounting, about real stuff. And so,

have I think it’s close to about like 14 kids you know all under the age of like 10 or 12 and it’s so cool to see them come in we got the desk set up and everything like that. Now mind you everyone tells me I’m recruiting the future team but ⁓ you know maybe a couple maybe a couple but but you know but in general it’s good right and that bleeds through bleeds through to our social media bleeds through and

Quentin (25:10)
You master strategist, I hear it.

Matt Sutika (25:24)
It’s one of my most favorite things that I get online is when people in the business world comment about my kid, comment about what we did at the office, all those things like that because my mission and insurance has been very simple since I was very young at my state farm was it’s a liking contest. It’s not a, you know, I want people to like me. They will know that I do insurance, right, and have that expertise.

and they will eventually want to do business. I’ve never been that.

call me for a quote, like, you know, whatever, because I don’t think that sells, right? It’s, I wanna be there and I wanna kinda be a little like in your mind so when you have something happen, you think of, you know, I used to, it my State Farm pitch when I was young, was like, you know, I would tell people, I had it memorized over and over again, I don’t know if I’m as good at it anymore, but I’d be like, I want you to think of Matsutaka State Farm, you know, and it was like that repeatable thing, but it was really what I set out to do. I never asked anybody for a quote, I just.

Quentin (26:22)
You

Matt Sutika (26:28)
wanted to meet 10 people a day, 100 people a day, whatever it was. Cause I was like, I knew that when they have a claim or a bill goes up or whatever, I just want them to think about Matsumika State Park. You know, like back in my younger salesy days, right? But that was the pitch. It’s the same thing now. It’s just that I want to build a community for the team. You know, I want people to see what we’re doing and everything like that. And then when they have a need, you know, they’ll feel comfortable coming and that, that branding and that, that, ⁓

Quentin (26:38)
Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Matt Sutika (26:56)
to your community, everything you mentioned has been not overnight, right? You know, it’s taken a while, but we’re there and it’s really cool. And I love sharing now this experience with my, you know, four and two year old, which is just absolutely, you know, the best thing about it.

Quentin (27:13)
Man, I just want you to realize how rare, of course I haven’t took no poll, but I’ve talked to a lot of people. I do a lot of shows and I just want you to know how rare it is to hear about a culture where kids are coming into the office. So I just want you to realize there’s something special that you’re building. so, I mean, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you and I love because you are part of the engine, if not the engine, part of the engine that make Nimble run.

Matt Sutika (27:32)
appreciate that.

Quentin (27:42)
But also before we get out of here, I do want to leave in people’s mind about Nimble itself. So I would love for you to tell me what’s the next real goal that you guys are looking for? What are you looking to solve at Scale Next, man?

Matt Sutika (27:54)
Yeah, the biggest thing for me is to bring some technology. always joke, you know, not Elon Musk technology, because we’re, our industry is a little bit still Stone Age, right? But I want to bring some more technology. You know, I’m very interested. We’re working on and should be launching our digital quote through our platform here soon, which is, again, not Elon Musk technology, but for our space, it’s a next step. It’s helpful.

I’m very interested in AI and you know, there’s probably a hundred people out there in the insurance space that know more than me and then probably a thousand that pretend to know more online, right? But figuring out how this AI and Claude and know, ChatChickT and all these things, right? And there’s just like so many sound bites and information overload online and gurus trying to tell you, but there’s definitely a place for that in the insurance world, especially in our business and you know, in our company at Nimble.

Quentin (28:32)
Right.

Matt Sutika (28:50)
And so those are the things that are, I would say the next thing that I’m really wanting to establish in our business is just more on the technology side. We have a lot of good processes, good clients, everything like that. Now it’s like, how do we just enhance that, make it better and not get stuck in a time where we know this AI and all this technology is out there. so yeah, that’s what I spend a lot of time on right now is making sure I’m starting to at least get my hand dipped into that ⁓ space.

Quentin (29:20)
Absolutely. Man, I can do this with you. I know easily another 25 minutes. mean, we, it’s so many different turns we can take, just talking and having conversation. ⁓ But unfortunately I got another podcast right after you, but, ⁓ man, this has been truly a pleasure. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, man?

Matt Sutika (29:50)
I think the easiest, if you see my name on the screen, I say this every time I do a podcast, I believe I’m the only Matt Sutika in the world. ⁓ I always say please screenshot if you ever meet another one and send it to me, but if go to any of the social media, Facebook, know, X. ⁓

Quentin (29:59)
Yeah, yeah.

Matt Sutika (30:10)
LinkedIn and look me up, shoot me a message, say you saw me on podcast, I’m pretty quick on responding. That’s probably the easiest way because black people are listening to their cars or whatever, they can’t write stuff down. So screenshot this and then just go to your social media, shoot me a message. Probably use my email and my phone or on some of those. that’s better for you. that’s the, I know how it is when you’re listening to podcasts, you’re not usually with pen and paper in hand a lot of times. So I think that’s the easiest way to get ahold of me is on the social media,

Quentin (30:36)
Yeah,

Matt Sutika (30:40)
of the unique last name is easy to find.

Quentin (30:45)
Got you. But Mr. Matt, let me say three things to you sincerely, man. Three things. First, thank you for your time. You could have been anywhere in the world, but you’re here with us. I know the boss lady is on his side like, come on now, wrap this up. listen, listen, what they say, give me hand signals if you’re okay, you know? I’m, you know, if you’re being hell-hastish, but now I’m joking. Yeah, right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, right.

Matt Sutika (31:00)
yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Below the screen I’m like giving, yeah. And I know the Navy SEALs signals are right here.

Quentin (31:15)
But man, no, seriously, I appreciate your time, Time is our most precious commodity. So I know we did a podcast altogether. That’s cool. But really, I appreciate your time. You did not have to be here, but you are. Secondly, man, thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your transparency and vulnerability. I’ll put a premium on stories. I believe stories cut through to the soul,

And I believe you planted some seeds today that people really can take a hold of and allow something to grow within them. So thank you for your story. And lastly, thank you for your perspective, the way you think, your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you. Thank you so much, man.

Matt Sutika (31:56)
Back at you, I appreciate the time as well.

Quentin (31:58)
Absolutely, Well, listen, y’all hurry Mr. Matt, look in his show notes, check him out. His information is in his show notes, get in contact with him. Definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Matt. So sir, I thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.