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.