Latest / Mic Hamptons Podcast: Hamptons Real Estate & the People Behind It / Protect What You’ve Worked For with Nick Labella

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Protect What You’ve Worked For with Nick Labella · Mic Hamptons Podcast: Hamptons Real Estate & the People Behind It

• 0:00
  Mike Petersohn: Hi, I'm Mike Peterson from Brown Harris Stevens. The Hamptons runs on relationships and over the years, I've built a network of top tier professionals who operate at the highest level. Mike Hamptons is your access point to that world. The people, the insights and the opportunities behind it all. Hi, this is Mike Peterson.
• 0:27
  I wanted to welcome you to another episode of the Mike Hamptons Podcast powered by HNG, the Hamptons Networking Group. We are at Hamptons Networking Group approximately 30 folks. We meet every week to help promote each other, support each other. Varies from plumbers to electricians, architect, CAD design, and even an Allstate agent. So I want to welcome Nick Labella on board today.
• 0:57
  Welcome, Nick.
• 0:58
  Nick Labella: Thank you.
• 0:59
  Mike Petersohn: And so you own the Labella agency in Hampton Bays on '27?
• 1:07
  Nick Labella: That's correct. Yeah. With Allstate, you have ownership in your business. We have a tremendous amount of resources in the insurance industry. I've been doing it for over twenty five years.
• 1:21
  Oh, okay. The office has actually been there for over forty years. Oh, wow. And bought the agent had retired. I bought it from the agent that retired, and it's been going great, and it's a real pleasure to be part of Hampton based community.
• 1:40
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah. So going back now, so you are a Long Island boy. Can you where were
• 1:48
  Nick Labella: you I born and was born at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson.
• 1:51
  Mike Petersohn: There you go.
• 1:52
  Nick Labella: And I grew up in a town called Shoreham Wading River. And we had a great childhood, met a lot of great friends, a lot of great families. One of the reasons why I got into this business was because of my childhood and how much I enjoy my relationships with my friends and the local community. So yeah, that's correct.
• 2:18
  Mike Petersohn: Okay. Works for me. You think you just had one kid so far?
• 2:24
  Nick Labella: Yeah. I have a 10 old, Nicholas Joseph Labella IV. And my wife is pregnant. She's half baked at this point, and she's due October 1. Great.
• 2:39
  Mike Petersohn: Love to hear that. Good stuff. You've met my son. Mine are, I'm at the
• 2:48
  Nick Labella: far end of that whole spectrum right now.
• 2:51
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah. Enjoy the process. It's a lot of fun, and it gets better and better every year. So I guess I'm going to start off and ask you, what drew you to the business as far as making this a focus of life? Now I'm impressed that you own your own agency at such a young age.
• 3:12
  Nick Labella: Yeah, it's a unique story to my own. I met an Allstate agent. Actually, met the son of an Allstate agent, and his father, when I met him, had a great family. He was a family man, and he had money in his pocket. And when I met him and I saw how he treated his sons and his family, I said, that's what I want for my future.
• 3:40
  And that's how it all began. When they got introduced to me, I was probably 20 years old. I was still in college, and I had two opportunities one to potentially open up an Allstate agency and one to be a project manager at contracting firm. So I told you about meeting the Allstate agent. So I went all in on that, very green, kept my head down, and just focused on it.
• 4:08
  Had no doubt that I was gonna be an Allstate agent until one time when I was very close to getting that contract, they said to me, Do you still wanna be an Allstate agent? I was like, Of course I wanna be an Allstate agent. I got licensed. I got all my property and casualty licenses, my financial licenses. I had my college degree.
• 4:25
  So I got the contract and I was able to start my agency. So I incorporated in 2003 Nicholas J. Labella Inc. And that's really where the journey started. And it's defined me as a person, the business, because I've been able to work with many different businesses and many different families and be more of an advisor.
• 4:48
  And that has clearly defined me and my life. And I can look forward to my future working with HNG and the people of the community. Of course.
• 5:01
  Mike Petersohn: That's why the group is so special. Before we sat down, we were kind of talking a little bit about that, but I wanted to just I know that in the group, so many people have helped each other out. I think our plumber, Brian, has had business from apps. Every single person in the group has either used them personally or referred business to him. I think, you know, I know that you and I have been working together on a number of things.
• 5:31
  Maybe you could give a couple of examples to our audience about just whether it's Jason, the electrician, or whoever, like things that have crossed paths with you.
• 5:41
  Nick Labella: Yeah. One that comes to mind is Dennis, the roofer. I have clients that need to get new roofs to get insurance policies, or they do a spot inspection or they just reach out to me. I'm part of the community. I've referred a dentist, the roofer, to fix a roof.
• 6:02
  Another big one is Andre, the restoration company. I've been in the business for over twenty five years. So to be able to work with a local restoration owned by a local person that has their own family part of Long Island community is a big deal to me, and I'll get into that a little more. Referrals from you, Mike, for helping the new homeowners with real estate. The local mechanics we refer business to the local mechanics all the time.
• 6:38
  The local personal injury protection lawyer in the group Maggie. Maggie. Maggie Bob.
• 6:45
  Mike Petersohn: She's great.
• 6:47
  Nick Labella: Being able I had someone yesterday pop in. They got injured at the Riverhead Circle due to a car accident, and I was able to refer Maggie Bopp. Awesome.
• 7:02
  Mike Petersohn: I like the aspect of the group that we all support each other and push business towards each other as best as we can. It's more than just pushing business. To be a part of this group, you have to show up. You take a pledge. You're going to honor the prices that you quote.
• 7:23
  I very much appreciate that we hold each other to a certain standard. So that's my little plug for HNG.
• 7:31
  Nick Labella: Yeah, I love that. I'm a risk management specialist, so risk is always on top of my mind. To have relationships with talented contractors, real estate agents, mortgage bankers, it's important.
• 7:43
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah, absolutely. You touched on it before, but I was wondering if you could get a little deeper into where you sit in Hampton Bays on the main drag. I think I've been to your offices. Can you talk a little bit about your community outreach, how correspond with the community?
• 8:04
  Nick Labella: Yeah. I'm a business owner in the local area. So I'm an insurance agent, but I'm also a business owner in the local area. So I pay rent to have my office in the local area. I use the local oil company to heat my office.
• 8:23
  On top of that, I donate to the local elementary school, anybody that comes in looking for some sort of donation to support their program that they're sponsoring, whether it's the local rotary
• 8:43
  Mike Petersohn: or
• 8:43
  Nick Labella: other organizations, the local fire department, the local emergency place, the local police department. So we're always donating to them because those are our local communities. Those are the people that help the people in local communities. So that's how I do my part.
• 9:05
  Mike Petersohn: Great. Okay. Stands the reason. And you touched it a second ago. This is not scripted.
• 9:12
  I'm just trying to think in terms of different things you brought up. Talk about risk management. This made me think about just getting a little deeper dive. Obviously, I sell homes. Everybody that buys a home is required to have homeowners insurance.
• 9:27
  That's a logical extension. If you have cars or multiple cars, keep it at your house. Okay, that's a logical extension. Now, I know that you're multifaceted. You're a Swiss Army knife of solutions.
• 9:41
  Could you maybe enlighten this crowd as to how comprehensive your services are?
• 9:47
  Nick Labella: I love that question. And I just sent over an application this morning for a homeowner's policy. And it was unique homeowners that the person bought the house for $800,000 and he completely gutted it and put $200,000 into it, making the house round numbers worth $1,000,000 to replace it. So I wrote an insurance policy that also had a builder's risk endorsement on it where he could do all the work in the house. He still has a homeowner's insurance policy.
• 10:21
  When the work's done in the house, we take off the endorsement, and he still gets his homeowner's insurance policy. So it's a seamless process where he's completely covered, where we make another endorsement after all the work is done to properly insure his house. So that really helps people in the Hamptons who are buying a fixer upper, fixing her upper, and then maybe selling it or living in the house.
• 10:51
  Mike Petersohn: But I think there I'd like to know more. Think you offer life insurance policies.
• 10:58
  Nick Labella: Yes, there are more. There's more to it. So when you talk about life insurance policies and you think about homeownership, you can't help but think about mortgage protection, right? Sure, we're going to protect your home, but there's a couple of things that homeowners insurance doesn't cover, like flood insurance or the case that maybe you or your partner pass away unexpectedly, leaving one another with all this debt. So what we could do is we could write a flood insurance policy for you.
• 11:29
  We could also write a life insurance policy or death benefit for you and your partner to protect your debt. God forbid one of you should pass away early. You have a life insurance policy to cover that debt. Your family doesn't have to move out of the area where you live, change zip codes, sell your home, go to a different school district.
• 11:53
  Mike Petersohn: Got it. It's funny, going back to the flood side of it, this was a remarkably challenging winter, especially in the Hamptons. I sat with two feet of snow in my front yard forever. There are a lot of The Hamptons is unique in that a lot of people have weekend houses or summer houses. They're not here all the time.
• 12:14
  And it was cold, and it was cold for a long period of time. And I know the restoration folks out here are still playing catch up. It's been, you know, I'm sure tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of damage on the East End Of Long Island this year. And it was a unique year. It was one off, but I mean, the issues happen.
• 12:34
  But I love that you liaise so closely with Andre in our group, and Andre's out there. Then, you know, Andre will come in and he'll with an absolute disaster and then figure out, okay, I need these different subs. So he brings in our plumber, our electrician, and everybody else that you're working with as well. Yes.
• 12:59
  Nick Labella: I have unique opportunity in the H and G group as an Allstate agent. Like I said, the Allstate office has been there for over forty years. I'm not the first Allstate agent that has ran or owned that agency. I'm probably the fourth person. So you're talking about generations of generations of insuring families in the Hamptons area.
• 13:17
  So when they have claims, I've been able to coordinate with the H and G members like Andre, who runs a restoration company. And look, these insureds want to know, am I working with a local person? So there's a saying that when you start making other people money, you know, that's a real true sign of success. So me as an individual, I would never be able to pay them. But my resources with these insurance companies, with Allstate, I'm able to coordinate with these other professionals.
• 13:55
  And then they could coordinate with the electrician, the contractor. So that's been a true privilege for me.
• 14:04
  Mike Petersohn: So one of the things I wanted to ask you about is also, again, you guys are like I always think of you as like the Swiss Army knife. So maybe you could just elaborate on some other services that you provide. I know that you work really closely with our auto guy, Joe, but if I'm, you know, and I've got my auto insurance with Allstate, is there, what other, it's auto, it's life insurance, it's businesses, what do, please let people
• 14:39
  Nick Labella: know what you got. Sure. We try to tailor our services towards everybody, towards what's going on in their lives. And we know that budget is a challenge for everybody. So we try to tailor our products based on what they're going through, what their dreams are, what their challenges are.
• 15:02
  It just happens to be that that property is raising, right, and inflation happens. The price of property has gone up. So we want to tailor solutions to people to better protect their cars, better protect their property, better protect their houses. These are big investments. Better protect their family.
• 15:23
  And we are able to ensure more than ever we have a bunch of services, a bunch of options for our customers that we're really not we're not turning anyone down for insurance. We have tailored solutions for people. Regarding auto insurance, our auto insurance guidelines have really opened up lately so we've been able to bring on more people. We're growing. I have four licensed salespeople in my office.
• 15:53
  We have a bilingual salesperson there and they love working for Allstate. They love working for the local community and servicing the local community. Yeah. So specifically, it's auto, home, business, and life insurance. We're right there on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays.
• 16:15
  Mike Petersohn: I remember last year it seems to have died down a bit now but last year, there was number insurance providers were kind of backing away from the Hamptons. And it was really frustrating because prices were going up and choices seemed to be going down. Appreciate your consistency in that. Has anything changed there? Have you seen any
• 16:39
  Nick Labella: Yeah. I kind of break it up into what I call a hard insurance market versus a soft insurance market. A hard insurance market is where they're risk off. They're not taking on any more risk. Yeah.
• 16:52
  Where a soft insurance market is more like they're growing. They're taking on more risk. What happened in the industry is the large companies that you see in TV, the Allstate and the State Farms of the world, they insured so many things, and the property value of homes went up higher and higher. So you can't just have one carrier that's insuring auto, home, and business. So what Allstate did, which was absolutely genius, is they coordinate with other carriers.
• 17:23
  So they'll partner with the best in the business, the best companies that insure homes on the water.
• 17:29
  Mike Petersohn: Okay.
• 17:30
  Nick Labella: Right? Oh, so
• 17:31
  Mike Petersohn: you're almost like so you'll shop for the best policies, basically?
• 17:37
  Nick Labella: Yeah, we do. We shop for the best policy.
• 17:39
  Mike Petersohn: I'm with just Allstate.
• 17:41
  Nick Labella: Right. We have options. Yeah, you can't just be one company and insure everything anymore. So we partnered with companies underwriting syndicates like Burns and Wilcox or who specialize in insuring high value homes and the water. They have up to a $25,000,000 binding authority.
• 17:57
  But it's nice to give them options because either they have home insurance and their prices are raising, and what they're hearing is that you have no other options. Right? That's right? You have Chubb, and you're paying $60,000 a year, and so and they're saying, You have no other options. We have options for you.
• 18:18
  And it's something that we'll work through with you to explain.
• 18:22
  Mike Petersohn: So that just made me think. So if I a buy home and you shop for the best policy possible, and maybe that organization burns Wilcox, is external to, but you have an affiliation with them. Can I still wrap that into my umbrella policy with Allstate?
• 18:40
  Nick Labella: You could still wrap it into your umbrella policy with Allstate. So all these companies that I'm talking about, they have specific contracts with me and with Allstate. So it's not that I am independent. I'm going somewhere outside of my organization. They're the contracts with Allstate.
• 18:59
  And those contracts are the contracts that I have. So you could wrap it all together. It's all underneath one agent, my agency, and we're able to insure everything from the home to the auto to the flood to the life insurance, all under one roof. I'm a financial advisor. I have a financial advisor in the office that's housed in the office.
• 19:23
  But to answer your question, yeah, it's all wrapped in one. There's only one number that you call and it's our office and it's all included in the whole umbrella.
• 19:32
  Mike Petersohn: Nice. Got it. Stands to reason. So Nick, I want to thank you for coming in today. Really greatly appreciate your time.
• 19:40
  I always learn a lot from you. It's as we all do every single week, you stand up and give your update on all things Allstate and you. But I think more importantly, the audience wants to know where they can reach you.
• 19:53
  Nick Labella: I'm Nick Labella. You could reach me at the Nick Labella Agency with Allstate at 17 West Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays, New York 11946. The best contact number for me is (631) 728-2900.
• 20:09
  Mike Petersohn: And there you have it. So thank you for tuning into another episode of the Mike Hamptons Podcast. This is where we meet to introduce you to folks that can handle all your services. And this is all again powered by the H and G group. And a special thank you to Flying Point Media for hosting us every week.
• 20:30
  So if you ever need anything in The Hamptons, keep in mind, I know a guy. Till next week. See you. Hey, this is Michael. Thanks for listening to Mike Hamptons, powered by the Hamptons Networking Group, where the right people make the right things happen.
• 20:46
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• 21:13
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