Matthews Real Estate Investment Services is a commercial real estate brokerage founded in 2015 by Kyle Matthews. Headquartered in El Segundo, California, the firm offers investment sales, leasing, debt and structured finance, equity placement, and 1031 exchange services across the United States and Canada.
If you’ve been researching commercial real estate brokerages, you’ve probably come across Matthews Real Estate Investment Services. It’s one of the fastest-growing names in the industry, and for good reason. This firm has built a reputation for combining old-school hustle with modern technology, and that combination has helped it close tens of billions of dollars in transactions in just under a decade.
In this article, we’ll walk through what Matthews Real Estate Investment Services actually does, how the company got started, what services it offers, and why so many property owners and investors choose to work with them.
Who Is Matthews Real Estate Investment Services?
Matthews Real Estate Investment Services is a national commercial real estate brokerage founded in 2015 by Kyle Matthews. What started as a small team of fifteen people has grown into a firm with hundreds of agents and employees spread across dozens of offices throughout the United States and Canada.
The company is privately held, which means it isn’t publicly traded on the stock market. This gives leadership more freedom to make quick decisions and invest heavily in growth without answering to outside shareholders. That freedom has clearly paid off, since the firm now ranks among the largest privately held commercial real estate companies in the country.
Kyle Matthews still leads the company as Chairman and CEO. Under his direction, the firm has expanded from a single office into a nationwide operation, adding new service lines and hundreds of real estate professionals along the way.
What Services Does Matthews Offer?
Matthews built its business around a few core services, and each one is designed to help clients buy, sell, finance, or lease commercial property with less hassle.
Investment Sales
This is the heart of what Matthews does. The firm helps property owners sell commercial real estate, including shopping centers, multifamily buildings, industrial properties, and net lease retail sites. Agents handle everything from pricing the property correctly to marketing it and negotiating with buyers.
Leasing Services
Matthews also works with landlords and tenants to fill vacant spaces. Their leasing team focuses on finding the right tenant mix for a property, which helps owners keep their buildings profitable over time.
Debt and Structured Finance
Buying commercial property often means securing a loan, and this is where Matthews’ financing arm comes in. The firm connects clients with lenders and helps structure financing deals that fit the specific property and investment goals.
Equity Placement
For larger deals, investors sometimes need outside equity partners. Matthews helps arrange these equity placements, connecting property owners with capital sources to get deals done.
1031 Exchange Services
One of the more specialized offerings from Matthews is its 1031 exchange program. A 1031 exchange lets an investor sell one property and reinvest the proceeds into another, similar property while deferring capital gains taxes. Matthews markets this as a real-time execution program built specifically for retail commercial brokerage clients, which is a fairly unique offering in the space.
How Matthews Uses Technology to Stand Out
Commercial real estate has historically been a slow-moving, relationship-driven industry. Matthews has tried to change that by leaning heavily into technology and data.
The firm uses proprietary data platforms to track market trends, property values, and buyer activity. This helps agents give clients more accurate pricing and faster answers, instead of relying purely on gut instinct or outdated comps. Marketing teams at Matthews also use tools like HubSpot and Power BI to run targeted campaigns and analyze performance, which helps properties get in front of the right buyers faster.
This tech-forward approach is part of why the company has grown so quickly. It’s not just about hiring more agents. It’s about giving those agents better tools to close deals efficiently.
Which Property Types Does Matthews Specialize In?
Matthews organizes its brokerage teams around specific property types, and this specialization is a big part of the firm’s strategy. Instead of having generalist agents who handle any type of deal, Matthews built dedicated divisions for different asset classes.
These divisions include shopping centers, retail properties, multifamily housing, industrial buildings, healthcare real estate, and self-storage facilities. Each division is staffed with agents who focus almost exclusively on that property type, which means they understand the specific challenges and opportunities within that niche.
This focused structure tends to benefit clients because their broker isn’t juggling five different asset classes at once. Instead, they’re working with someone who spends their entire career studying one corner of the market.
Where Is Matthews Real Estate Investment Services Located?
The company has moved its headquarters over the years as it has grown, with offices historically based in El Segundo, California, and more recent reporting pointing to a headquarters presence in Nashville, Tennessee as well. Regardless of the exact headquarters location at any given time, the firm operates dozens of offices across the United States and Canada, with a workforce that has grown from just a handful of employees to well over a thousand.
This expansion has followed a pattern of moving into new metro markets as demand grows, rather than trying to cover the whole country from one central office. That local presence matters in commercial real estate, since market knowledge tends to be very city-specific.
Why Do Investors Choose Matthews?
There are a few reasons Matthews has become a popular choice for commercial property owners and investors.
First, the firm’s rapid growth speaks to strong client satisfaction. Brokerages don’t expand this quickly without repeat business and referrals, and Matthews has consistently added new agents and offices year after year since its founding.
Second, the specialized team structure means clients typically work with someone who genuinely understands their specific property type. A shopping center owner isn’t paired with an agent who mostly handles industrial warehouses.
Third, the firm’s investment in technology gives clients an edge when it comes to pricing accuracy and marketing reach. In a competitive market, having better data can be the difference between a property sitting unsold and getting multiple offers.
Finally, having services like debt financing and 1031 exchanges under one roof means clients don’t have to coordinate between multiple outside vendors. That kind of one-stop convenience can save a lot of time during a transaction.
A Few Things to Keep in Mind
No brokerage is a perfect fit for every client, and it’s worth doing your own research before signing with any firm. Matthews is a large national company, which means service quality can vary depending on which office or agent you’re working with. It’s smart to ask about a specific agent’s track record with your property type before moving forward.
It’s also worth noting that Matthews operates primarily in the commercial space, so if you’re looking for help with a residential purchase or sale, this isn’t the right firm for that.
Final Thoughts
Matthews Real Estate Investment Services has grown from a small startup into one of the largest privately held commercial real estate brokerages in the country in less than ten years. That growth has been driven by a mix of specialized agent teams, strong technology investment, and a broad service lineup that covers everything from investment sales to 1031 exchanges.
If you’re a property owner, investor, or tenant looking for help with a commercial real estate transaction, Matthews is worth considering, especially if you want a team that focuses specifically on your property type. As always, it’s a good idea to speak directly with an agent about your specific goals before making a final decision. That conversation will tell you more about fit than any overview article can.
