Inspiration…

It comes from mysterious places, doesn’t it? I had just enjoyed a movie with my 9 months pregnant wife when I happened to notice a facebook message on my blackberry. My inspiration came from a simple reply to a status update in which a friend of mine was sad because her husband had gotten home from work after 10 PM. You see my friend’s husband just happens to be in management for a competing title company in the Chicago area, and yesterday was the famous Last Day for a Refi to Close and Fund. So, what was the reply that was the inspiration for this blog post? The reply read, “Gotta love the title business.”

Is this what the Title Business has become? Since when did we have to work 60 or 70 hours in a week to insure first lien? Shoot, is insuring first lien even what this is about anymore? I don’t want to be part of a business that forces us to work like dogs for our nightly bowl of kibble. The title business isn’t and shouldn’t be preformed in sweatshop like conditions. I’m ashamed that a small group of companies have changed the perceptions of an entire industry. I can’t tell you how many title company owners I have heard utter the phase that they are, “a family first company.” I guess that by “family first” they must mean their own. How can the ownership expect their staff to work from 7 am to 9 or 10 pm and still have a family life? Shame on you…

I remember the title business used to be about doing a good search of the public land records, providing an accurate commitment, closing and funding a transaction as per the lenders instructions and providing a clean title policy to the Lender and/or Owner. Now it seems as thought the business has changed into doing a quick search on the Internet, providing a clean commitment no matter what, waiving exceptions via credit reports or just because you don’t want to upset a client, preparing deeds and legal documents even thought it’s the unauthorized practice of law in Illinois and very much illegal, and finally closing whenever and wherever we can… Then maybe, once it’s all over with, you might get a policy a year or two later. Does this sound familiar to anybody? Shameful and sad.

I do love the title business, but I refuse to accept that this is what its become. Maybe I’m a dinosaur, maybe I’m out of touch, but maybe, just maybe I like going home to my family just as much as my customers do.

Choosing your Title Insurance Provider…

I have come to accept that I work in an industry that nobody really cares about. We toil away in the shadows, doing mundane work to insure that the very unlikely doesn’t occur. Most people don’t know what we do, they think we are useless at best or a fraud at worst. I have dedicated many an hour trying to make my friends and loved one’s understand what it is we do and how we fit into the American Dream. My friends, I give up… I am not going to try to explain it anymore. Here’s what I will say... Do you know how to repair a transmission? No. Do you need a working transmission? Yes. Then just shop around for a good price from a local shop you trust and leave the work to the experts in the field.

We my friends are the experts in our field. We are the transmission repair shop of the Real Estate industry. No matter how pretty the paint job is on the home, if the title isn’t clean, good luck getting that closing out of Park. So... Loan Officers, Mortgage Processors, Attorneys, Realtors, Buyers and Sellers please choose your Title Insurance Provider with the same care in which you choose your Auto Mechanic. You wouldn’t entrust your vehicle to a shop you don’t trust and who you don’t feel is on the up and up. Why leave your Real Estate Transaction in unqualified or uncaring hands. Trust your local Title Insurance experts and they’ll get you up and running at a very fair price.