August 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Kevin Alexander from Search to Close pulls back the curtain on what truly happens during real estate transactions, revealing why your choice of title company could be the difference between a smooth closing and a financial nightmare.
Title insurance isn't just another closing cost—it's crucial protection for what's likely your largest investment. Kevin shares eye-opening stories of homeowners who discovered someone else had legitimate claims to their property years after purchase. Without proper title insurance, these homeowners could have lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars settling these claims. Your title policy protects against ownership issues dating back up to 100 years, providing invaluable peace of mind for as long as you own your home.
Beyond basic title insurance, Kevin clarifies the often-misunderstood closing protection coverage. This additional protection (typically $40-55) safeguards against both theft of funds by the title company and ensures proper following of closing instructions. As Kevin explains, "It's all your life savings" for many people—making this small investment in protection well worth it.
The conversation takes a serious turn when addressing wire fraud, with Kevin warning that criminals now use sophisticated voice-over IP phones to impersonate sellers. Both hosts emphasize the importance of verification: always call your title company directly to confirm wiring instructions before sending money. Once wire fraud occurs, those funds are typically gone forever.
Working with local professionals—agents, lenders, and title companies—provides significant advantages. They understand local market nuances, can anticipate potential issues, and typically offer superior customer service. As Kevin notes, "I don't think anybody buying or selling a house should feel rushed through the process." Quality title companies view each closing as an opportunity to educate clients and build lifelong relationships, not just complete transactions.
Ready to buy, sell, or just explore your options? Contact professionals who value education, transparency, and exceptional service throughout your real estate journey.
Sarah Thress
614-893-5885
First Time Home Buyer course: https://sarahthress.graphy.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarah_thress_realtor/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SarahThressRealtor/
https://www.youtube.com/@LIFEINCOLUMBUS
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to
Find Out.
This week we are with KevinAlexander of Search to Close,
which is my absolute favoritetitle company to work with, and
I don't just say that becauseyou're sitting here.
Literally I use you as much asI possibly can because of your
(00:21):
customer service, and just youguys go the extra mile.
You make sure that everythingis done.
All the I's are dotted, t's arecrossed.
If I have a crazy situation,which we always do I can come to
you and you guys help me figureit out.
So thank you so much for takingthe time out to talk to us
today.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, thank you.
And yes, we do know this is abig moment in everybody's life,
so we try to make it as specialas possible, but also making
sure that it is a closing and,when we're all done, that
everything's done correctly.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, I love that, I love that.
So can you kind of walk methrough?
You know, obviously, buying ahome A lot of the people that
are listening are eitherfirst-time homebuyers or haven't
bought in years that they don'trealize that roundtable
closings, things like that,aren't a thing anymore.
But could you kind of just walkus through why would someone
(01:17):
want to use a title company atclosing versus just going and
signing the papers and justbeing like I bought a house?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
First of all, I'd like to say if you're not buying
a home right now, you're goingto be late.
Now's the time to buy.
Central Ohio, florida, allthese places are only
appreciating.
But yes, when you do buy a home, it's extremely important.
In fact, we actually don'ttransfer property any longer.
(02:01):
Up until about two years ago,we we are big believers in title
insurance, so a lot of peopletrust that the seller is a nice
guy or a nice lady or that theLLC is on the up and up.
But the beauty of titleinsurance is you're buying a
home with the peace of mindknowing that you have a title
insurance policy to coveranything and everything that can
(02:23):
happen that has happened overthe last up to 100 years, as
long as that property has beenin existence.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Wow, wow.
So have you ever had asituation where you know someone
bought a property and thensomeone else came along and was
like, hey, actually that's myproperty.
Would that be a good reason whyyou would want to have that
title?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
insurance and things.
Thankfully, it's been a longtime.
Okay, we went through some moredifficult times when search to
close was still growing, rightbefore the housing crash,
(03:06):
probably close to 18 to 20 yearsbefore we've had one of those
really gun-wrenching situationwhere the buyer calls and says
the person's knocking on my door, they're the rightful owner of
their property or they've comeback from being in the service,
which is one of the reasons thatwhen you have distressed
property with tax deeds orforeclosures that you really
really, really need to make sureyou use a title company,
(03:27):
because theoretically, somebodycould come back from combat or
being in the service for twoyears and just because they
haven't paid their taxes doesn'tmean they might not have some
rights to redeem the property.
Now, nine times out of 10, thetitle insurance underwriter buys
them out.
You know for their rightfulinterest in the property, but
(03:49):
you surely would not want to buya house and then have to write
a potential seller that wasmissed or a lien holder a check
for $25,000, $50,000, $150,000.
That's for our big underwritersat Search to Close First,
american and Stewart to Do,although they put a lot of trust
in us to make sure that theydon't write big checks.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Right, yeah, I was going to say I feel like you
guys are so thorough and I can'tsay that about every single
company out there but I feellike you guys are so thorough
and you know, I've even had youcome and be like, hey, I found
this, like does this seem normal, like you know?
Or we found this, or thingslike you know.
(04:30):
Just, I can't even think of offthe top of my head one of those
situations.
But there's been times thatyou've, you've asked a question,
that I've asked, you know, myseller, and they're like, oh
gosh, I didn't know about that.
Or oh, I totally forgot aboutthat.
And you know you guys uncoveredit and made it to where like,
ok, great, then we addressed it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It was a smooth years after closing and say I was a
little bit concerned as towhether I had parking at my
condo and how many parking spotsI had.
(05:10):
And now there's a big lawsuitgoing on which is happening here
in Columbus right now, wherethere's a big lawsuit going on
that some of the units have losttheir right to parking their
car.
So they're trying to figure outwhere to park.
So you bought a condo youthought you had your one parking
spot.
(05:30):
It's a little lower end condobut a pretty neat, you know,
starter condo for a lot of firsttime homebuyers and to find out
that a poor working person istemporarily being forbidden to
park their car can be astressful situation.
So the other thing we try totrain buyers is to you know, a
lot of times we take care ofmaking sure they're going to get
(05:52):
clear title and the commitment.
But not a bad idea to read yourtitle commitment but, more
importantly, even read yourmortgage location survey.
Some people move in thinkingthey put a fence in and it might
not be allowed.
Yeah people move in, thinkingthey put a fence in and it might
not be allowed.
Yeah, some people assume theycan take a fence down and they
don't ask the questions prior.
They take it down and they callus later because they realize
(06:14):
they actually just took theneighbor's fence down.
So there's a lot of I mean.
One of the my favorite things,sarah, of Columbus Ohio is
because we do a lot of business,as you know, in Florida and
Florida's got a lot of amazingagents in Tampa Bay, but it's a
bigger state.
There's a lot of part-timeagents and there's a lot of real
(06:37):
estate agents that just aren'teducated and they close one
transaction once a year or onceevery two years.
So people get a lot of baddirection.
What I really like aboutColumbus Ohio is we have a lot
of really good real estateagents and buyers are crazy.
(06:58):
We have a lot of really goodtitle companies.
We got a lot of really goodmortgage companies to choose
from.
As you probably recommend, likewe do, whenever a friend of
mine asks and they start talkingabout how they've negotiated a
great rate online from anout-of-state lender, we try to
convince them to talk to a localloan officer.
We always obviously convincethem to talk to a local real
estate agent.
So I think where people missthe boat when they buy or sell a
(07:20):
house is they don't utilize thefact that, yes, there's some
closing costs when you get tothe table, but nobody charges
extra for hourly rate.
Now, buyer's agents might hatethis because they've taken these
people to 50 to 100 housesright now, with the sometimes
hard to find the right house orget an offer accepted for a
(07:43):
buyer.
But you're crazy not to ask allthe questions you can from your
mortgage lender, your titlecompany and your real estate
agent.
You know most people don't knowthis.
You can even talk to oursurveyor if you have follow-up
questions after they've been outto the house, because they've
already taken pictures and donetheir measurements and done that
other stuff.
You can call your homeownersassociation.
(08:05):
They're not always easy to geta hold of, no, so there's a ton
of resources that you're reallycrazy to not take advantage of.
Yeah, and I think that's whatyou like about us and we love
about dealing with agents likeyou.
We don't view this closing roomor the whole closing process as
a time for you to just sign thepaperwork and get you out the
(08:26):
door.
We view you as a customer forlife and we view you even if
you're a buyer and you didn'tnecessarily pick us in Central
Ohio.
We want that to be a placewhere you leave the closing more
educated than you were beforeyou bought your first house,
your second house and somepeople have bought three and
four houses and they've stillnot had a great closing with a
(08:48):
great real estate agent wherethey've learned a whole heck of
a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And they get really nervous because it hasn't been a
great experience.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So, yeah, no, I totally agree, and I think,
again, that's where you guysstand out, because there's been
other title companies that I'veworked with in the past and I've
literally had them tell myclient like we only have an hour
for this closing, so like don'task any questions, and I'm like
(09:16):
like that is the most I mean.
I just I cringed because theyliterally said that to my client
who was a first time sellerfirst, and then like buying
another property.
And so she was like okay, butlike, but I have questions, and
they were like well, you shouldhave already asked them.
Like this is just for closingWhereas I've been here and you
(09:37):
know I've had some of yourclosing agents literally sit
with us for hours answeringevery question, you know, making
sure that they understoodeverything, and never once, even
if inside they were like, oh mygod, I have 17 other things to
do today.
They never let that show, theyjust were like, okay, absolutely
like, and they make them feelseen, heard, understood, like,
(10:01):
and to me that's huge um, sothat's why I continue to send
people here we appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I want to continue to come back.
I don't like when I get treatedlike that and rush through the
car buying process.
Uh, thankfully I haven't had tobuy one in a while, but, um,
and also I've grown to the agewhere I have friends in the car
business so I get a little moreattention, but um, at the end of
the day, uh, I don't thinkanybody buying or selling a
house should feel like you do.
(10:29):
Sometimes when you're buying acar and they're saying be ready,
the finance manager is going togive you his 15 minutes and you
got to get out the door and Ithink that's why you are very
particular on wanting to haveyour buyers use really good loan
officers who you also know aregoing to give them the time of
day as well.
(10:49):
We just had a closing the otherday where the mortgage company
forgot to put the mortgageinsurance on the closing
disclosure.
I brought it up at the closingtable and the buyer said my
payment looks too low.
I think it's about $80 too low.
I don't know what's going onand the loan officer sort of
chuckled it off like haha yeah,we're getting new docs sent over
(11:11):
.
I'm sorry that the $80 a monthwas on there, but he knew about
it, so we're going to add itback in there.
So those are the kind ofexperiences that if I was a
buyer even first time, orhowever many times, I'd be a
little concerned.
So, but I think overall I meanwhen I say those things that's
no discredit to how great ourtitle competitors are.
(11:35):
We've got bad ones and good onesbut so I think that would also
go by choose, choose your.
I think people think a realtoris a realtor, I think people
think a loan officer is a loanofficer and a title company is a
title company, and it couldn'tbe any further from the truth.
So you really do, especially intoday's market, you're going to
(11:56):
be up against.
If you're really in a hotschool district or a really good
neighborhood that is coveted bya lot of buyers, you're going
to really have to have a goodreal estate agent to make sure
that they're putting in thatoffer all the things they can to
make sure that your offer getsnoticed.
On a multiple offer situation,as you know, there could be home
inspections.
(12:16):
But, yeah, the title insurancepiece is the big part, but
making sure you do your researchand choose which.
Every consumer in Ohio and thefederal government always has
the right to choose their titlecompany and any agents they work
with, so nobody should everfeel forced into doing anything.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, Because they do have that choice.
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, at the closing table Iget this question a lot, you
know, because, again, you all dosuch an amazing job at sending
out all the documents beforeclosing so that they have a
chance to like kind of readthrough it and stuff.
And I always get the questionOK, what is this extra
protection, like, do I need it?
(12:56):
And you know, I always tellthem like I can't tell you
whether you do need it or don'tneed it, like it's up to you.
You do need it or don't need it, Like it's up to you.
But I will say at the lastclosing I did and you were there
, which also amazed me that likethe owner of the company is
doing our closing and you justact like it's no big deal for
you, which is awesome.
But I felt like you explainedit so well.
(13:16):
So if someone was to ask youabout that closing protection,
the additional protection, whatwould you?
You know, how do you explainthat to people?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, well, I think it was a seller, right.
So the buyers the buyers are,unless you're.
It would be a choice, if you'rea cash buyer, to get the
additional closing protectioncoverage, for I think it's $40
now.
But if you're a buyer, you dohave to purchase it on behalf of
the mortgage company.
So there's a misconception inour industry that you have
(13:49):
little to no coverage becauseyou're giving that money to the
guy that's going to steal allyour money anyway.
Right, when there's actuallytwo components to the closing
protection coverage for a seller.
Number one, they have thecoverage for the money of any
theft or appropriation by thetitle company and number two,
(14:10):
they also have following closinginstructions.
So there's two components inthat for $55.
Now, for a good majority of thepeople, the seller has a lot of
faith in their real estate agent.
The real estate agent has a lotof faith in their real estate
agent.
The real estate agent has a lotof faith in their existing
title relationship.
Your folks had alreadypurchased it and they were
debating on whether or not theyshould get get the money back
(14:32):
and get a refund, which we'dhave been happy to do so at the
closing table.
But, um, that was actuallytheir life savings.
I think they had told me theywere pouring all that money into
another house to buy, I thinkwith cash, I don't know if I
remember that correctly.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
You did yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And they had just heard a story of somebody who
had lost a tens of thousands ofdollars on another property in
Southern Ohio and the titlecompany, the underwriter, and
nobody was giving that moneyback pending the investigation.
They were saying, hey, we mightgive it back, but they were
(15:10):
unable to buy any houses untilthat money had been recovered
and there was no guarantee theywere going to get those tens of
thousands of dollars back.
So these people feltcomfortable enough and said no
disrespect to you, sarah, nodisrespect to you, kevin, but if
I'm going to get additionalcoverage from First American,
your title insurance underwriteror steward I can't remember who
(15:31):
it was in this policy, they'reboth great ones.
If it's all okay to you, we'rejust going to keep the $55, uh
item in place.
That figure was, uh put on thesettlement statement and that
coverage then is in place forthem through first American
title insurance company out ofCalifornia or Stewart out of
(15:52):
Texas that holds millions ofdollars with the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Um, the other thing I would give advice to too is
make sure you either send thecheck in in advance or make sure
it's on your settlementstatement so you have proof you
paid it.
Because if you just hand acrook a check and that check
never gets cashed, you reallydon't necessarily have and you
don't have a copy of the letter.
(16:17):
You don't necessarily have andyou don't have a copy of the
letter, you don't necessarilyhave coverage.
So we had some elderly folk.
An elderly woman had just losther husband and she asked if her
husband, if we had any ideawhen she purchased her and her
husband five years ago, if hehad placed any, you know, in the
event of his death.
You know mortgage insurance notthe typical mortgage insurance
(16:41):
cover the bank but my inabilityto pay the mortgage insurance.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I said well, unfortunately there's nothing on
your settlement statement.
You purchased a closing, whichwouldn't be normal, and if you
can't produce and find a copy ofthat policy and you're you know
you as a widow and yourdeceased husband's records
nobody's going to give you aninsurance policy unless you have
proof of coverage.
(17:06):
So the key to all that is toget proof of coverage.
Yeah, and when you show up at atitle insurance closing, you
should be having already in yourpossession a commitment to get
a title insurance policy whichcomes after the closing, just
like you would.
If you're getting ready to gethomeowner's insurance on the
house, the agent gives you adeclarations page to say as soon
as we get paid after theclosing, we're going to insure
(17:28):
the property.
So a title insurance commitmentis no different we're
committing to insure the policyas soon as we get paid for it
after we close the loan.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
And after we get your deed and mortgage recorded.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, I love that because, yeah, I would say
before you gave that explanationthe last time that we met.
I did always say you know, likeI can't tell you whether to
take it or not, take it.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
But if you do, you're basically paying the person
that you're giving your money to, that you're wiring.
You're paying them to not stealyour money, so they're going to
steal your money.
They're going to steal that too, because that was how I
understood it.
So I loved that you explainedit more, because it made me
think wow.
I think that it is a reallygood thing that people should
take, because I was always underthe impression I won't say I
(18:14):
was taught.
I was under the impression thatif you knew the title company
and they had been around, theywere established.
You didn't have to worry aboutit, because this all came about
from mom and pop.
Places that you know, back inthe day, were popping up
stealing your money and thenleaving town to because it seems
(18:36):
so more.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Here in Columbus we're a very trusting group.
It's a bigger town now with areal small town feel, and people
fall in that trap of who youtrust.
And the problem is this closingprotection coverage came from a
guy in 2007.
Everybody loved him, everybodytrusted him.
He was one of the mostwell-respected title agents at
(18:57):
the time until everybody foundout that him and his wife had
embezzled all the money andnobody got their money back.
That particular title companyand I think another one in
Cincinnati made it.
So the attorney general orsomebody at the time decided it
was important enough to createthe legislation, along with the
title insurance underwriters, toenact the ability to approve
(19:20):
closing protection coverage.
Now the one thing I guess toclarify yeah, the reason this is
important is your titleinsurance policy.
And this is for maybe a littleover the head of the first time
homebuyers that's OK, maybe notor seasoned people and maybe a
lot of real estate agents don'tknow this.
Your title insurance policy isjust title insurance.
(19:40):
It doesn't cover escrow andfinancial of the closing piece.
So remember, all title agentsare title insurance agents and
we're escrow agents.
That's why we have escrowaccounts.
So the closing protect thetitle insurance companies,
although they do get.
They have paid out for badacting title companies when
(20:00):
there's big embezzlement, sothey somehow get dragged in by
the state and by lawyers when atitle company embezzles a lot of
money.
Technically, a title insuranceunderwriter and a title
insurance agent only protectsthe title insurance for the
ownership of the home and allthose other pitfalls that can
happen.
And remember you buy it onetime.
(20:21):
You get it for as long as youown the house.
If you own the house for 50years, your title insurance is
still covering you.
The closing protection coveragepiece was enacted because there
was no coverage for losing aseller's money, losing a
seller's money.
And there was no coverage forwhen title and escrow or I
shouldn't say title companies,when escrow and closing sides
(20:42):
weren't following instructionsand, you know, harming buyers
and sellers because they didn'tfollow the instructions they
were given.
They were given instructions topay $1,500 in a rate on.
It was crystal clear they weregiving instructions or given
instructions to pay somebody offor move money that the seller
had agreed to pay for $25,000.
(21:03):
And they didn't followinstructions by the buyer,
sellers and the real estateagents.
And then they're tellingeverybody to pound salt because
they just screwed up but we'renot paying $15,000.
Grand, you've got some otherthings in that closing
protection letter also thatcovers you against a bad title
and escrow company.
(21:24):
I remember a long time ago wehad an employee who had bought
their first house.
They would not allow when youdon't use search to close.
I strongly encourage buyersthat are friends of mine to
spend the extra $20 if they'regetting a loan and go ahead and
get that closing protectioncoverage and purchase it in
advance, because our pooremployee who was also a buyer
(21:49):
about 10 years ago when heshowed me the settlement
statement they had somehow Ithink it was this poor lady's
first day the brand new titlecompany that the seller's real
estate agent wanted to use andthey had somehow done something
in the system and there was likefive things that got double
charged.
So they were double charged forthe survey, they were double
(22:10):
charged for the closing on thesame side and the same buy side.
So that was be more of theextreme, because most of our
title agents in Columbus arepretty good.
But we had a lot more peace ofmind knowing that we had
additional coverage because thisplace was under and it was a
nice human being over there, butthey had no idea what they were
(22:32):
doing.
So it goes back to your trustfactor.
Not that you shouldn't trust alot of people, but sometimes
there's overtrust.
I mean, we do have some wirefraud issue going on that's
rampant in America and I think alot of people have a little bit
too much trust.
They trust the email that cameto them a little too much.
Yeah, you know they trustsomebody that calls.
(22:54):
I think we're all onto the tollthing, but somehow people are
still victim of wire fraud as ofthis day.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah Well, and that's such a good point because I
always I probably scare mybuyers because I stress this so
much, but I stress it because Ijust want them to understand
it's so serious.
I always say I'm never going tosend you wiring instructions,
so if you get an email that itsays it's from me and I'm asking
(23:22):
.
You know I'm giving you wiringinstructions, like look closely
at the email.
It probably is like one letteroff or you know something, and
they're going to make it lookreal good because these
criminals use all their powersfor bad.
And you know, I always jokethat like if they would just use
their powers for good, we'dprobably have a cure for cancer
(23:42):
at this point.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
But instead-.
They're using phones now too.
Our last one that we caughtprior to closing we found out
the group is in Nigeria and theywere posing as fake sellers.
So they're actually even nowthis was kind of a new thing
recently using voice over IPphones to talk to buyers, talk
(24:08):
to sellers, call title companiesand because I think they are
onto the fact that people aregetting better at it and it's
like you telling their people tocall and verify.
So I think the key to this isalways's like you telling their
people to call and verify.
But so I think the key to thisis always trust who you're
working with to verify.
Yeah, and that's why, evenafter they get an email, a
secure email from our securelink at Search Close, they're
(24:30):
still supposed to call.
Yeah, that's in theirinstructions and we love it and
we're loving when they call andthey're verifying.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, when I love that you say that because I have
some clients that are like Ifeel bad.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Like I don't want to bother them.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I'm like that's their job.
They actually would love foryou to call, because if you wire
that money and you didn't call,that money's gone, like you're
never going to see it again.
And they're like, wait what?
And I'm like, yeah, this is whywhen you get the email, even if
it's, I was like and it's onlygoing to be like a few days
before closing, it's not goingto be.
You know, you're not going toget it the first week.
(25:04):
We're in contract and when youget it, I still want you to call
.
I want you to go to the bankand I want you to call the title
company.
You can even hand your phone tothe bank person if you need to.
And that way they can read offthe numbers and then we all make
sure that it's all correct andthey're like okay, and I'm like
I'm not trying to scare you, butthere are so many crazy people
(25:28):
out there that are gonna try andscam you, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, well, and that's kind of why we are still
proponents of title insurance.
Obviously, it's our number oneproduct in what we sell.
Yeah, proponents of titleinsurance.
Obviously, it's our number oneproduct and what we sell.
Yeah, but at the end of the day, um, even in the last housing
crisis, uh, banks struggled,mortgage insurance companies
struggled to pay out and titleinsurance stood strong because,
(25:51):
uh, we had a lot of problemsafter the housing crisis.
So, uh, title insuranceindustry was the one that was
there, we paid out and we madesure everybody was taken care of
.
So we're the behind the scenesand we're the ones that are here
to make sure that nobody hasthat nightmare.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, and there are certain parts of the state where
people don't buy titleinsurance.
Yeah, and you asked kind of fora story the other day, but I
remember we had a.
We had a closer in Dayton thatwe use because we're mainly
central Ohio now.
Yeah, we used to do a lot morebusiness across the state and he
(26:31):
called and said my cousin justbought this house and I know we
don't normally buy titleinsurance, but can you look at
the settlement statement?
Because Dayton normally doesn'tbuy Owners don't normally buy
title insurance, just the bankson behalf of their buyers.
And unfortunately he was stuckworking with the IRS and a
(26:55):
seller who was long gone andstill deal on the IRS.
We've also had great storieswhere people call and say the
IRS or the federal government'scalling or right now we're
having a lot of crazy stuffgoing on with, you know,
medicare liens and Medicaidliens and different stuff like
that, and buyers are stuckdealing with those until these
(27:19):
things get sorted out.
If you've got a title insurancepolicy, those are the things
that you can look at and gettaken care of.
Yeah, unless you're alreadypart of the family and then you
got to deal with your own motheror aunts or grandmas or whoever
inherited the property.
But if it's a bona fide sale,you have those protections in
place of title insurance whereyou don't have to hire an
(27:40):
attorney and still find outbecause love some people in our
government.
But if you lose money in wirefraud or you have a problem with
your house, they're going tosound very sympathetic on the
phone but there isn't a wholeheck of a lot that the federal
government's going to do for youon wire fraud or title
insurance claims if you don'thave it.
(28:00):
You know we kind of learnedthat through the Florida floods
that it's still a little bit ofyou being on your own.
Even though FEMA did step upand pay some of that stuff, you
still have to, you know, to makeyourself totally whole and get
everything back to where it was.
Some of that money is stillgoing to be on you as yourself.
So it's just another example oftrusting and verifying when you
(28:23):
buy and sell a house.
And I can't stress enough thatwhenever we have a problem,
sarah, it's usually because badrealtor, bad loan officer, bad
title company.
So but I know when we haveproblems with our files because
they don't all close perfectlyafter closing, it's usually
(28:45):
because somebody didn't tell usabout something or the realtor
knew about it and the realtorand the seller decided it wasn't
important enough to let anybodyknow.
Kind of back to your pointearlier.
Just say something.
Yeah, yeah, hey, we got aquestion on the HOA.
Um, the settlement statementsays it's $290, but the MLS says
(29:06):
it's $560 a year.
What do you guys think?
I mean, we'd rather have youtell us that we got bad
information for the HOA or wemade an honest mistake and, like
I said earlier, get itcorrected at the closing.
So don't ever think you shouldbe not asking questions at the
closing table before, during orafter, even if it's a day after.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
No, and I love that For your realtor if they're
working with title company thatdoesn't take your phone calls.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
After a closing or at a closing, or what you said
earlier, and says I only have 20minutes and we got to get you
in and out of here.
There's people waiting in thelobby, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, it's.
Yeah, I was very angry at thatone.
Yes, I've never had thatsituation with you all, though,
which, again, is why I willcontinue to come back.
But, yeah, to your point.
I mean it does.
It matters who you work with,and local lenders know what's
going on in central Ohio, andthey can, you know, like.
The other thing that I try andpoint out is that there are some
(30:11):
big companies out there I'm notgoing to use their names, but
there are some big companies outthere that do a lot of
advertising and they make itseem like they're going to get
you this amazing deal and thatyou're going to have this great
interest rate, this greatinterest rate, and then they
start working with them and theylearn that that, uh, what I've
learned about some of thesecompanies, um, is that they,
(30:32):
their agents get paid for eachmilestone you hit.
So, if you fill out anapplication, they get a bonus.
If you, you know, go throughthis next step, you get a bonus,
even though there's no wayyou're ever going to actually,
like, close those deals.
Uh, you know all the termsthey're telling you are actually
false.
So that's why I always try andyou know stress to people like I
(30:53):
would love for you to work withsomebody local.
I can't force you to.
Here's a.
You know a handful of peoplethat I work with.
I get nothing in return forrecommending them, just like I
get nothing in return fromrecommending you guys, except
for knowing my people are takencare of.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And five star.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Any return from recommending you guys except for
knowing my people are takencare of and five-star customer
service is huge to me.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So well, we appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And you're a very caring, unique agent that
doesn't get paid by titlecompanies, which we don't do as
well.
So we, uh, we pride ourselveson the fact that we are, you
know, referral only from listingagents or people who have
worked with us before, andnobody's picking search to close
because the real estate agent'sgetting paid, and which is, to
(31:35):
us, the natural progression, andwe do appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely Well.
Thank you so much for takingtime out.
Is there anything that maybe wehaven't said about search?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
to close, I know I've bragged on you guys a lot, but
is there anything else thatmaybe we didn't cover that you'd
really like to just give ashout out about Search, to Close
contract, to call and reach outfor help.
So we're a pay it forward kindof company.
(32:08):
We want you, we want somebodyto have their first closing with
us be the best they've ever hadbuyers, sellers, investor, real
estate agent and know that theycan call us for anything.
We got a lady who closed withus 17.
Me and Patrick our attorneyjust talked to yesterday, and
(32:28):
her and her husband are gettinga divorce.
We're going to have a deedsigning set up for them in
California, I think tomorrow,and that's not something we make
any money on.
We do that at cost.
If you want to take a look at aspecific property, we're going
to get a title search and get alook at it for you.
If you want our surveyor totake a peek at it, at no cost to
(32:49):
you.
So we just really think, uh,you can get educated before a
closing by, and I think there'sa lot of real estate agents.
I've got an agent in Tampa rightnow that are Clearwater that
just out of curiosity forinvestment properties.
She's sending me an MLS dripand, just in case, a great deal,
because I still like buyinginvestment properties myself to
(33:12):
see if something in Island Way,which is a great community that
got flooded, to see if anybody'sseverely selling and if I can
get a great deal on a propertyon Island Way.
And I even asked Tony the otherday.
I said can you?
I don't want you to be payingfor this or a nuisance, because
it might be two, three yearsbefore I do anything um, and she
(33:32):
said, no, no, you've beenalways been good to me.
And um, I'm just going to keepyou on there.
If it's annoying you and youremail, I'll take it off.
So she knows I'm not a buyernow, but I might be a buyer down
the road and she's willing toput me on her, on her, her, keep
me on that MSL drip, just forthe one zip.
I only want one zip code.
And um, at the end of the day,that's how we want people to
(33:53):
feel, like us to say I'm lookingat a building, I'm looking at a
house.
Uh, you know, I guess the otherthing we tell people I don't
know if our main audience hereis central Ohio or both, but, um
, if anybody needs a referral.
I know you do Florida and do agreat job.
Thank you.
Don't call a stranger in Floridayou don't know.
Call Sarah directly or call me.
(34:14):
I really only have specifichelp in Clearwater Beach and
Clearwater, but it's crazy foryou to just call a strange real
estate agent out of the blue.
When I moved down there Icalled three.
Only one called me back and itwas Tony.
Wow, I take that back.
The other two did call me back.
(34:35):
It just took them five days andI had already left the area.
So Tony had called me back thatsame day and she also.
We looked at a condo later thatday.
We didn't end up buying at thattime, but so I think there's a.
I guess I would say there is adifference at Search to Close.
There's a difference with agreat real estate agent and you
guys shouldn't accept the sameway.
(34:55):
You accept great service at agreat restaurant and you don't
go back if it's not good.
Don't keep accepting badservice at a bad real estate
company, at a bad mortgagecompany or a bad title company.
So there's a lot of good onesout there.
You've got a great one.
We've got a great one and we'vealso got some great mortgage
referrals and we've got guysthat'll talk to you about
(35:16):
getting approved, even if you'renot buying for a year and you
just want to get a drip campaignto see what's out there.
But I will tell you as my lastthing and you can shut me up if
I'm babbling on you're all goodI know my son was afraid to pull
the trigger about five yearsago I think, and um, his budget
started at 150.
He was terrified to buy hishouse.
(35:38):
He's gonna have catholic kids,so he lives over on broad and
270.
About five years ago he wasterrified to buy uh,000 on the
house that he has and I thinklast time we checked we think
it's worth about $400,000.
So they started in Bexley at$150,000 and quickly got priced
out.
This is probably when he firststarted.
(35:58):
He's a very conservative whenit came to the house.
Then, when they got priced outof Bexley they moved over a
little bit into Columbus CitySchools, thought they are an
amazing neighborhood.
They were, like I said,terrified to spend $250,000.
Got a great interest rate atthe time, which helped too.
But even with a bad interestrate he's already gained
$150,000 in equity, loves theneighborhood, loves the house
(36:22):
and now they have two kids andit's the perfect place.
So you might not be comfortableenough buying, but I think
you're crazy, if you're reallygonna be a homeowner one day, to
not start getting on a dripcampaign to see what's out there
and you might find somethingthat you'd be shocked is out
there, because you correct me ifI'm wrong.
(36:43):
Not every neighborhood is amultiple offer.
I know a friend of mine whocouldn't pick searched clothes
in West Mansfield and his wifeare pretty ecstatic that you
know they don't care about beingin a you know a neighborhood or
a school system no kids yet.
So they're ecstatic to havesome property in West Mansfield
(37:04):
and they thought they were nevergoing to find anything and
their real estate agent justfound them something.
So it really is a time to.
If it's not the time to buy,it's a time to look and I think
it's the time to buy.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, I love that, I totally agree.
And yeah, I always tell peoplelike this is your timeline, it's
not mine.
So, like I don't care, I haveclients right now that I've
literally been showing houses tofor four years and and they
just haven't found the right oneyet.
And that's okay, you know, andI have other.
Um, I have other agents thatare like that's crazy and I'm
(37:37):
like well, but why Like?
it literally costs me nothing tokeep sending them emails and
it's like you know, every timethat we go look at a house, I'm
learning more and more aboutthem, so it makes it easier for
me to be like, oh yeah nopeyou're not going to like that
because of this, this and this.
So we don't even have to go lookat it because they're like, oh
yeah, I didn't see that.
Okay, yeah, and I'm like, okay,you know, so, yeah, so I love
(38:00):
that you guys are the same wayand you know, it's really, it's
just all about our clients andwhatever they need.
Yeah, well, thank you.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Thank you so much for joiningus and hopefully you gained a
lot of knowledge today.
I know I did so good, yeah, soabsolutely make sure that you
(38:21):
leave a review.
Five star is always muchappreciated, but that feedback
is a gift to both of us.
Make sure you're sharing this,because anytime you can share it
, that is the greatest gift youcan give both of us is just
sharing that out there.
Also, make sure that you followalong so you never miss another
episode.
Thanks so much and we'll seeyou next time on Come to Find
Out.
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to
Find Out.
This week we are with KevinAlexander of Search to Close,
which is my absolute favoritetitle company to work with, and
I don't just say that becauseyou're sitting here.
Literally I use you as much asI possibly can because of your
(00:21):
customer service, and just youguys go the extra mile.
You make sure that everythingis done.
All the I's are dotted, t's arecrossed.
If I have a crazy situation,which we always do I can come to
you and you guys help me figureit out.
So thank you so much for takingthe time out to talk to us
today.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, thank you.
And yes, we do know this is abig moment in everybody's life,
so we try to make it as specialas possible, but also making
sure that it is a closing and,when we're all done, that
everything's done correctly.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, I love that, I love that.
So can you kind of walk methrough?
You know, obviously, buying ahome A lot of the people that
are listening are eitherfirst-time homebuyers or haven't
bought in years that they don'trealize that roundtable
closings, things like that,aren't a thing anymore.
But could you kind of just walkus through why would someone
(01:17):
want to use a title company atclosing versus just going and
signing the papers and justbeing like I bought a house?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
First of all, I'd like to say if you're not buying
a home right now, you're goingto be late.
Now's the time to buy.
Central Ohio, florida, allthese places are only
appreciating.
But yes, when you do buy a home, it's extremely important.
In fact, we actually don'ttransfer property any longer.
(02:01):
Up until about two years ago,we we are big believers in title
insurance, so a lot of peopletrust that the seller is a nice
guy or a nice lady or that theLLC is on the up and up.
But the beauty of titleinsurance is you're buying a
home with the peace of mindknowing that you have a title
insurance policy to coveranything and everything that can
(02:23):
happen that has happened overthe last up to 100 years, as
long as that property has beenin existence.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Wow, wow.
So have you ever had asituation where you know someone
bought a property and thensomeone else came along and was
like, hey, actually that's myproperty.
Would that be a good reason whyyou would want to have that
title?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
insurance and things.
Thankfully, it's been a longtime.
Okay, we went through some moredifficult times when search to
close was still growing, rightbefore the housing crash,
(03:06):
probably close to 18 to 20 yearsbefore we've had one of those
really gun-wrenching situationwhere the buyer calls and says
the person's knocking on my door, they're the rightful owner of
their property or they've comeback from being in the service,
which is one of the reasons thatwhen you have distressed
property with tax deeds orforeclosures that you really
really, really need to make sureyou use a title company,
(03:27):
because theoretically, somebodycould come back from combat or
being in the service for twoyears and just because they
haven't paid their taxes doesn'tmean they might not have some
rights to redeem the property.
Now, nine times out of 10, thetitle insurance underwriter buys
them out.
You know for their rightfulinterest in the property, but
(03:49):
you surely would not want to buya house and then have to write
a potential seller that wasmissed or a lien holder a check
for $25,000, $50,000, $150,000.
That's for our big underwritersat Search to Close First,
american and Stewart to Do,although they put a lot of trust
in us to make sure that theydon't write big checks.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Right, yeah, I was going to say I feel like you
guys are so thorough and I can'tsay that about every single
company out there but I feellike you guys are so thorough
and you know, I've even had youcome and be like, hey, I found
this, like does this seem normal, like you know?
Or we found this, or thingslike you know.
(04:30):
Just, I can't even think of offthe top of my head one of those
situations.
But there's been times thatyou've, you've asked a question,
that I've asked, you know, myseller, and they're like, oh
gosh, I didn't know about that.
Or oh, I totally forgot aboutthat.
And you know you guys uncoveredit and made it to where like,
ok, great, then we addressed it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
It was a smooth years after closing and say I was a
little bit concerned as towhether I had parking at my
condo and how many parking spotsI had.
(05:10):
And now there's a big lawsuitgoing on which is happening here
in Columbus right now, wherethere's a big lawsuit going on
that some of the units have losttheir right to parking their
car.
So they're trying to figure outwhere to park.
So you bought a condo youthought you had your one parking
spot.
(05:30):
It's a little lower end condobut a pretty neat, you know,
starter condo for a lot of firsttime homebuyers and to find out
that a poor working person istemporarily being forbidden to
park their car can be astressful situation.
So the other thing we try totrain buyers is to you know, a
lot of times we take care ofmaking sure they're going to get
(05:52):
clear title and the commitment.
But not a bad idea to read yourtitle commitment but, more
importantly, even read yourmortgage location survey.
Some people move in thinkingthey put a fence in and it might
not be allowed.
Yeah people move in, thinkingthey put a fence in and it might
not be allowed.
Yeah, some people assume theycan take a fence down and they
don't ask the questions prior.
They take it down and they callus later because they realize
(06:14):
they actually just took theneighbor's fence down.
So there's a lot of I mean.
One of the my favorite things,sarah, of Columbus Ohio is
because we do a lot of business,as you know, in Florida and
Florida's got a lot of amazingagents in Tampa Bay, but it's a
bigger state.
There's a lot of part-timeagents and there's a lot of real
(06:37):
estate agents that just aren'teducated and they close one
transaction once a year or onceevery two years.
So people get a lot of baddirection.
What I really like aboutColumbus Ohio is we have a lot
of really good real estateagents and buyers are crazy.
(06:58):
We have a lot of really goodtitle companies.
We got a lot of really goodmortgage companies to choose
from.
As you probably recommend, likewe do, whenever a friend of
mine asks and they start talkingabout how they've negotiated a
great rate online from anout-of-state lender, we try to
convince them to talk to a localloan officer.
We always obviously convincethem to talk to a local real
estate agent.
So I think where people missthe boat when they buy or sell a
(07:20):
house is they don't utilize thefact that, yes, there's some
closing costs when you get tothe table, but nobody charges
extra for hourly rate.
Now, buyer's agents might hatethis because they've taken these
people to 50 to 100 housesright now, with the sometimes
hard to find the right house orget an offer accepted for a
(07:43):
buyer.
But you're crazy not to ask allthe questions you can from your
mortgage lender, your titlecompany and your real estate
agent.
You know most people don't knowthis.
You can even talk to oursurveyor if you have follow-up
questions after they've been outto the house, because they've
already taken pictures and donetheir measurements and done that
other stuff.
You can call your homeownersassociation.
(08:05):
They're not always easy to geta hold of, no, so there's a ton
of resources that you're reallycrazy to not take advantage of.
Yeah, and I think that's whatyou like about us and we love
about dealing with agents likeyou.
We don't view this closing roomor the whole closing process as
a time for you to just sign thepaperwork and get you out the
(08:26):
door.
We view you as a customer forlife and we view you even if
you're a buyer and you didn'tnecessarily pick us in Central
Ohio.
We want that to be a placewhere you leave the closing more
educated than you were beforeyou bought your first house,
your second house and somepeople have bought three and
four houses and they've stillnot had a great closing with a
(08:48):
great real estate agent wherethey've learned a whole heck of
a lot.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And they get really nervous because it hasn't been a
great experience.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So, yeah, no, I totally agree, and I think,
again, that's where you guysstand out, because there's been
other title companies that I'veworked with in the past and I've
literally had them tell myclient like we only have an hour
for this closing, so like don'task any questions, and I'm like
(09:16):
like that is the most I mean.
I just I cringed because theyliterally said that to my client
who was a first time sellerfirst, and then like buying
another property.
And so she was like okay, butlike, but I have questions, and
they were like well, you shouldhave already asked them.
Like this is just for closingWhereas I've been here and you
(09:37):
know I've had some of yourclosing agents literally sit
with us for hours answeringevery question, you know, making
sure that they understoodeverything, and never once, even
if inside they were like, oh mygod, I have 17 other things to
do today.
They never let that show, theyjust were like, okay, absolutely
like, and they make them feelseen, heard, understood, like,
(10:01):
and to me that's huge um, sothat's why I continue to send
people here we appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I want to continue to come back.
I don't like when I get treatedlike that and rush through the
car buying process.
Uh, thankfully I haven't had tobuy one in a while, but, um,
and also I've grown to the agewhere I have friends in the car
business so I get a little moreattention, but um, at the end of
the day, uh, I don't thinkanybody buying or selling a
house should feel like you do.
(10:29):
Sometimes when you're buying acar and they're saying be ready,
the finance manager is going togive you his 15 minutes and you
got to get out the door and Ithink that's why you are very
particular on wanting to haveyour buyers use really good loan
officers who you also know aregoing to give them the time of
day as well.
(10:49):
We just had a closing the otherday where the mortgage company
forgot to put the mortgageinsurance on the closing
disclosure.
I brought it up at the closingtable and the buyer said my
payment looks too low.
I think it's about $80 too low.
I don't know what's going onand the loan officer sort of
chuckled it off like haha yeah,we're getting new docs sent over
(11:11):
.
I'm sorry that the $80 a monthwas on there, but he knew about
it, so we're going to add itback in there.
So those are the kind ofexperiences that if I was a
buyer even first time, orhowever many times, I'd be a
little concerned.
So, but I think overall I meanwhen I say those things that's
no discredit to how great ourtitle competitors are.
(11:35):
We've got bad ones and good onesbut so I think that would also
go by choose, choose your.
I think people think a realtoris a realtor, I think people
think a loan officer is a loanofficer and a title company is a
title company, and it couldn'tbe any further from the truth.
So you really do, especially intoday's market, you're going to
(11:56):
be up against.
If you're really in a hotschool district or a really good
neighborhood that is coveted bya lot of buyers, you're going
to really have to have a goodreal estate agent to make sure
that they're putting in thatoffer all the things they can to
make sure that your offer getsnoticed.
On a multiple offer situation,as you know, there could be home
inspections.
(12:16):
But, yeah, the title insurancepiece is the big part, but
making sure you do your researchand choose which.
Every consumer in Ohio and thefederal government always has
the right to choose their titlecompany and any agents they work
with, so nobody should everfeel forced into doing anything.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, Because they do have that choice.
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, at the closing table Iget this question a lot, you
know, because, again, you all dosuch an amazing job at sending
out all the documents beforeclosing so that they have a
chance to like kind of readthrough it and stuff.
And I always get the questionOK, what is this extra
protection, like, do I need it?
(12:56):
And you know, I always tellthem like I can't tell you
whether you do need it or don'tneed it, like it's up to you.
You do need it or don't need it, Like it's up to you.
But I will say at the lastclosing I did and you were there
, which also amazed me that likethe owner of the company is
doing our closing and you justact like it's no big deal for
you, which is awesome.
But I felt like you explainedit so well.
(13:16):
So if someone was to ask youabout that closing protection,
the additional protection, whatwould you?
You know, how do you explainthat to people?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, well, I think it was a seller, right.
So the buyers the buyers are,unless you're.
It would be a choice, if you'rea cash buyer, to get the
additional closing protectioncoverage, for I think it's $40
now.
But if you're a buyer, you dohave to purchase it on behalf of
the mortgage company.
So there's a misconception inour industry that you have
(13:49):
little to no coverage becauseyou're giving that money to the
guy that's going to steal allyour money anyway.
Right, when there's actuallytwo components to the closing
protection coverage for a seller.
Number one, they have thecoverage for the money of any
theft or appropriation by thetitle company and number two,
(14:10):
they also have following closinginstructions.
So there's two components inthat for $55.
Now, for a good majority of thepeople, the seller has a lot of
faith in their real estate agent.
The real estate agent has a lotof faith in their real estate
agent.
The real estate agent has a lotof faith in their existing
title relationship.
Your folks had alreadypurchased it and they were
debating on whether or not theyshould get get the money back
(14:32):
and get a refund, which we'dhave been happy to do so at the
closing table.
But, um, that was actuallytheir life savings.
I think they had told me theywere pouring all that money into
another house to buy, I thinkwith cash, I don't know if I
remember that correctly.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
You did yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And they had just heard a story of somebody who
had lost a tens of thousands ofdollars on another property in
Southern Ohio and the titlecompany, the underwriter, and
nobody was giving that moneyback pending the investigation.
They were saying, hey, we mightgive it back, but they were
(15:10):
unable to buy any houses untilthat money had been recovered
and there was no guarantee theywere going to get those tens of
thousands of dollars back.
So these people feltcomfortable enough and said no
disrespect to you, sarah, nodisrespect to you, kevin, but if
I'm going to get additionalcoverage from First American,
your title insurance underwriteror steward I can't remember who
(15:31):
it was in this policy, they'reboth great ones.
If it's all okay to you, we'rejust going to keep the $55, uh
item in place.
That figure was, uh put on thesettlement statement and that
coverage then is in place forthem through first American
title insurance company out ofCalifornia or Stewart out of
(15:52):
Texas that holds millions ofdollars with the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Um, the other thing I would give advice to too is
make sure you either send thecheck in in advance or make sure
it's on your settlementstatement so you have proof you
paid it.
Because if you just hand acrook a check and that check
never gets cashed, you reallydon't necessarily have and you
don't have a copy of the letter.
(16:17):
You don't necessarily have andyou don't have a copy of the
letter, you don't necessarilyhave coverage.
So we had some elderly folk.
An elderly woman had just losther husband and she asked if her
husband, if we had any ideawhen she purchased her and her
husband five years ago, if hehad placed any, you know, in the
event of his death.
You know mortgage insurance notthe typical mortgage insurance
(16:41):
cover the bank but my inabilityto pay the mortgage insurance.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
And.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
I said well, unfortunately there's nothing on
your settlement statement.
You purchased a closing, whichwouldn't be normal, and if you
can't produce and find a copy ofthat policy and you're you know
you as a widow and yourdeceased husband's records
nobody's going to give you aninsurance policy unless you have
proof of coverage.
(17:06):
So the key to all that is toget proof of coverage.
Yeah, and when you show up at atitle insurance closing, you
should be having already in yourpossession a commitment to get
a title insurance policy whichcomes after the closing, just
like you would.
If you're getting ready to gethomeowner's insurance on the
house, the agent gives you adeclarations page to say as soon
as we get paid after theclosing, we're going to insure
(17:28):
the property.
So a title insurance commitmentis no different we're
committing to insure the policyas soon as we get paid for it
after we close the loan.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
And after we get your deed and mortgage recorded.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, I love that because, yeah, I would say
before you gave that explanationthe last time that we met.
I did always say you know, likeI can't tell you whether to
take it or not, take it.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
But if you do, you're basically paying the person
that you're giving your money to, that you're wiring.
You're paying them to not stealyour money, so they're going to
steal your money.
They're going to steal that too, because that was how I
understood it.
So I loved that you explainedit more, because it made me
think wow.
I think that it is a reallygood thing that people should
take, because I was always underthe impression I won't say I
(18:14):
was taught.
I was under the impression thatif you knew the title company
and they had been around, theywere established.
You didn't have to worry aboutit, because this all came about
from mom and pop.
Places that you know, back inthe day, were popping up
stealing your money and thenleaving town to because it seems
(18:36):
so more.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Here in Columbus we're a very trusting group.
It's a bigger town now with areal small town feel, and people
fall in that trap of who youtrust.
And the problem is this closingprotection coverage came from a
guy in 2007.
Everybody loved him, everybodytrusted him.
He was one of the mostwell-respected title agents at
(18:57):
the time until everybody foundout that him and his wife had
embezzled all the money andnobody got their money back.
That particular title companyand I think another one in
Cincinnati made it.
So the attorney general orsomebody at the time decided it
was important enough to createthe legislation, along with the
title insurance underwriters, toenact the ability to approve
(19:20):
closing protection coverage.
Now the one thing I guess toclarify yeah, the reason this is
important is your titleinsurance policy.
And this is for maybe a littleover the head of the first time
homebuyers that's OK, maybe notor seasoned people and maybe a
lot of real estate agents don'tknow this.
Your title insurance policy isjust title insurance.
(19:40):
It doesn't cover escrow andfinancial of the closing piece.
So remember, all title agentsare title insurance agents and
we're escrow agents.
That's why we have escrowaccounts.
So the closing protect thetitle insurance companies,
although they do get.
They have paid out for badacting title companies when
(20:00):
there's big embezzlement, sothey somehow get dragged in by
the state and by lawyers when atitle company embezzles a lot of
money.
Technically, a title insuranceunderwriter and a title
insurance agent only protectsthe title insurance for the
ownership of the home and allthose other pitfalls that can
happen.
And remember you buy it onetime.
(20:21):
You get it for as long as youown the house.
If you own the house for 50years, your title insurance is
still covering you.
The closing protection coveragepiece was enacted because there
was no coverage for losing aseller's money, losing a
seller's money.
And there was no coverage forwhen title and escrow or I
shouldn't say title companies,when escrow and closing sides
(20:42):
weren't following instructionsand, you know, harming buyers
and sellers because they didn'tfollow the instructions they
were given.
They were given instructions topay $1,500 in a rate on.
It was crystal clear they weregiving instructions or given
instructions to pay somebody offor move money that the seller
had agreed to pay for $25,000.
(21:03):
And they didn't followinstructions by the buyer,
sellers and the real estateagents.
And then they're tellingeverybody to pound salt because
they just screwed up but we'renot paying $15,000.
Grand, you've got some otherthings in that closing
protection letter also thatcovers you against a bad title
and escrow company.
(21:24):
I remember a long time ago wehad an employee who had bought
their first house.
They would not allow when youdon't use search to close.
I strongly encourage buyersthat are friends of mine to
spend the extra $20 if they'regetting a loan and go ahead and
get that closing protectioncoverage and purchase it in
advance, because our pooremployee who was also a buyer
(21:49):
about 10 years ago when heshowed me the settlement
statement they had somehow Ithink it was this poor lady's
first day the brand new titlecompany that the seller's real
estate agent wanted to use andthey had somehow done something
in the system and there was likefive things that got double
charged.
So they were double charged forthe survey, they were double
(22:10):
charged for the closing on thesame side and the same buy side.
So that was be more of theextreme, because most of our
title agents in Columbus arepretty good.
But we had a lot more peace ofmind knowing that we had
additional coverage because thisplace was under and it was a
nice human being over there, butthey had no idea what they were
(22:32):
doing.
So it goes back to your trustfactor.
Not that you shouldn't trust alot of people, but sometimes
there's overtrust.
I mean, we do have some wirefraud issue going on that's
rampant in America and I think alot of people have a little bit
too much trust.
They trust the email that cameto them a little too much.
Yeah, you know they trustsomebody that calls.
(22:54):
I think we're all onto the tollthing, but somehow people are
still victim of wire fraud as ofthis day.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Yeah Well, and that's such a good point because I
always I probably scare mybuyers because I stress this so
much, but I stress it because Ijust want them to understand
it's so serious.
I always say I'm never going tosend you wiring instructions,
so if you get an email that itsays it's from me and I'm asking
(23:22):
.
You know I'm giving you wiringinstructions, like look closely
at the email.
It probably is like one letteroff or you know something, and
they're going to make it lookreal good because these
criminals use all their powersfor bad.
And you know, I always jokethat like if they would just use
their powers for good, we'dprobably have a cure for cancer
(23:42):
at this point.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
But instead-.
They're using phones now too.
Our last one that we caughtprior to closing we found out
the group is in Nigeria and theywere posing as fake sellers.
So they're actually even nowthis was kind of a new thing
recently using voice over IPphones to talk to buyers, talk
(24:08):
to sellers, call title companiesand because I think they are
onto the fact that people aregetting better at it and it's
like you telling their people tocall and verify.
So I think the key to this isalways's like you telling their
people to call and verify.
But so I think the key to thisis always trust who you're
working with to verify.
Yeah, and that's why, evenafter they get an email, a
secure email from our securelink at Search Close, they're
(24:30):
still supposed to call.
Yeah, that's in theirinstructions and we love it and
we're loving when they call andthey're verifying.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, when I love that you say that because I have
some clients that are like Ifeel bad.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Like I don't want to bother them.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I'm like that's their job.
They actually would love foryou to call, because if you wire
that money and you didn't call,that money's gone, like you're
never going to see it again.
And they're like, wait what?
And I'm like, yeah, this is whywhen you get the email, even if
it's, I was like and it's onlygoing to be like a few days
before closing, it's not goingto be.
You know, you're not going toget it the first week.
(25:04):
We're in contract and when youget it, I still want you to call
.
I want you to go to the bankand I want you to call the title
company.
You can even hand your phone tothe bank person if you need to.
And that way they can read offthe numbers and then we all make
sure that it's all correct andthey're like okay, and I'm like
I'm not trying to scare you, butthere are so many crazy people
(25:28):
out there that are gonna try andscam you, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, well, and that's kind of why we are still
proponents of title insurance.
Obviously, it's our number oneproduct in what we sell.
Yeah, proponents of titleinsurance.
Obviously, it's our number oneproduct and what we sell.
Yeah, but at the end of the day, um, even in the last housing
crisis, uh, banks struggled,mortgage insurance companies
struggled to pay out and titleinsurance stood strong because,
(25:51):
uh, we had a lot of problemsafter the housing crisis.
So, uh, title insuranceindustry was the one that was
there, we paid out and we madesure everybody was taken care of
.
So we're the behind the scenesand we're the ones that are here
to make sure that nobody hasthat nightmare.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, and there are certain parts of the state where
people don't buy titleinsurance.
Yeah, and you asked kind of fora story the other day, but I
remember we had a.
We had a closer in Dayton thatwe use because we're mainly
central Ohio now.
Yeah, we used to do a lot morebusiness across the state and he
(26:31):
called and said my cousin justbought this house and I know we
don't normally buy titleinsurance, but can you look at
the settlement statement?
Because Dayton normally doesn'tbuy Owners don't normally buy
title insurance, just the bankson behalf of their buyers.
And unfortunately he was stuckworking with the IRS and a
(26:55):
seller who was long gone andstill deal on the IRS.
We've also had great storieswhere people call and say the
IRS or the federal government'scalling or right now we're
having a lot of crazy stuffgoing on with, you know,
medicare liens and Medicaidliens and different stuff like
that, and buyers are stuckdealing with those until these
(27:19):
things get sorted out.
If you've got a title insurancepolicy, those are the things
that you can look at and gettaken care of.
Yeah, unless you're alreadypart of the family and then you
got to deal with your own motheror aunts or grandmas or whoever
inherited the property.
But if it's a bona fide sale,you have those protections in
place of title insurance whereyou don't have to hire an
(27:40):
attorney and still find outbecause love some people in our
government.
But if you lose money in wirefraud or you have a problem with
your house, they're going tosound very sympathetic on the
phone but there isn't a wholeheck of a lot that the federal
government's going to do for youon wire fraud or title
insurance claims if you don'thave it.
(28:00):
You know we kind of learnedthat through the Florida floods
that it's still a little bit ofyou being on your own.
Even though FEMA did step upand pay some of that stuff, you
still have to, you know, to makeyourself totally whole and get
everything back to where it was.
Some of that money is stillgoing to be on you as yourself.
So it's just another example oftrusting and verifying when you
(28:23):
buy and sell a house.
And I can't stress enough thatwhenever we have a problem,
sarah, it's usually because badrealtor, bad loan officer, bad
title company.
So but I know when we haveproblems with our files because
they don't all close perfectlyafter closing, it's usually
(28:45):
because somebody didn't tell usabout something or the realtor
knew about it and the realtorand the seller decided it wasn't
important enough to let anybodyknow.
Kind of back to your pointearlier.
Just say something.
Yeah, yeah, hey, we got aquestion on the HOA.
Um, the settlement statementsays it's $290, but the MLS says
(29:06):
it's $560 a year.
What do you guys think?
I mean, we'd rather have youtell us that we got bad
information for the HOA or wemade an honest mistake and, like
I said earlier, get itcorrected at the closing.
So don't ever think you shouldbe not asking questions at the
closing table before, during orafter, even if it's a day after.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
No, and I love that For your realtor if they're
working with title company thatdoesn't take your phone calls.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
After a closing or at a closing, or what you said
earlier, and says I only have 20minutes and we got to get you
in and out of here.
There's people waiting in thelobby, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, it's.
Yeah, I was very angry at thatone.
Yes, I've never had thatsituation with you all, though,
which, again, is why I willcontinue to come back.
But, yeah, to your point.
I mean it does.
It matters who you work with,and local lenders know what's
going on in central Ohio, andthey can, you know, like.
The other thing that I try andpoint out is that there are some
(30:11):
big companies out there I'm notgoing to use their names, but
there are some big companies outthere that do a lot of
advertising and they make itseem like they're going to get
you this amazing deal and thatyou're going to have this great
interest rate, this greatinterest rate, and then they
start working with them and theylearn that that, uh, what I've
learned about some of thesecompanies, um, is that they,
(30:32):
their agents get paid for eachmilestone you hit.
So, if you fill out anapplication, they get a bonus.
If you, you know, go throughthis next step, you get a bonus,
even though there's no wayyou're ever going to actually,
like, close those deals.
Uh, you know all the termsthey're telling you are actually
false.
So that's why I always try andyou know stress to people like I
(30:53):
would love for you to work withsomebody local.
I can't force you to.
Here's a.
You know a handful of peoplethat I work with.
I get nothing in return forrecommending them, just like I
get nothing in return fromrecommending you guys, except
for knowing my people are takencare of.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And five star.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Any return from recommending you guys except for
knowing my people are takencare of and five-star customer
service is huge to me.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So well, we appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
And you're a very caring, unique agent that
doesn't get paid by titlecompanies, which we don't do as
well.
So we, uh, we pride ourselveson the fact that we are, you
know, referral only from listingagents or people who have
worked with us before, andnobody's picking search to close
because the real estate agent'sgetting paid, and which is, to
(31:35):
us, the natural progression, andwe do appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely Well.
Thank you so much for takingtime out.
Is there anything that maybe wehaven't said about search?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
to close, I know I've bragged on you guys a lot, but
is there anything else thatmaybe we didn't cover that you'd
really like to just give ashout out about Search, to Close
contract, to call and reach outfor help.
So we're a pay it forward kindof company.
(32:08):
We want you, we want somebodyto have their first closing with
us be the best they've ever hadbuyers, sellers, investor, real
estate agent and know that theycan call us for anything.
We got a lady who closed withus 17.
Me and Patrick our attorneyjust talked to yesterday, and
(32:28):
her and her husband are gettinga divorce.
We're going to have a deedsigning set up for them in
California, I think tomorrow,and that's not something we make
any money on.
We do that at cost.
If you want to take a look at aspecific property, we're going
to get a title search and get alook at it for you.
If you want our surveyor totake a peek at it, at no cost to
(32:49):
you.
So we just really think, uh,you can get educated before a
closing by, and I think there'sa lot of real estate agents.
I've got an agent in Tampa rightnow that are Clearwater that
just out of curiosity forinvestment properties.
She's sending me an MLS dripand, just in case, a great deal,
because I still like buyinginvestment properties myself to
(33:12):
see if something in Island Way,which is a great community that
got flooded, to see if anybody'sseverely selling and if I can
get a great deal on a propertyon Island Way.
And I even asked Tony the otherday.
I said can you?
I don't want you to be payingfor this or a nuisance, because
it might be two, three yearsbefore I do anything um, and she
(33:32):
said, no, no, you've beenalways been good to me.
And um, I'm just going to keepyou on there.
If it's annoying you and youremail, I'll take it off.
So she knows I'm not a buyernow, but I might be a buyer down
the road and she's willing toput me on her, on her, her, keep
me on that MSL drip, just forthe one zip.
I only want one zip code.
And um, at the end of the day,that's how we want people to
(33:53):
feel, like us to say I'm lookingat a building, I'm looking at a
house.
Uh, you know, I guess the otherthing we tell people I don't
know if our main audience hereis central Ohio or both, but, um
, if anybody needs a referral.
I know you do Florida and do agreat job.
Thank you.
Don't call a stranger in Floridayou don't know.
Call Sarah directly or call me.
(34:14):
I really only have specifichelp in Clearwater Beach and
Clearwater, but it's crazy foryou to just call a strange real
estate agent out of the blue.
When I moved down there Icalled three.
Only one called me back and itwas Tony.
Wow, I take that back.
The other two did call me back.
(34:35):
It just took them five days andI had already left the area.
So Tony had called me back thatsame day and she also.
We looked at a condo later thatday.
We didn't end up buying at thattime, but so I think there's a.
I guess I would say there is adifference at Search to Close.
There's a difference with agreat real estate agent and you
guys shouldn't accept the sameway.
(34:55):
You accept great service at agreat restaurant and you don't
go back if it's not good.
Don't keep accepting badservice at a bad real estate
company, at a bad mortgagecompany or a bad title company.
So there's a lot of good onesout there.
You've got a great one.
We've got a great one and we'vealso got some great mortgage
referrals and we've got guysthat'll talk to you about
(35:16):
getting approved, even if you'renot buying for a year and you
just want to get a drip campaignto see what's out there.
But I will tell you as my lastthing and you can shut me up if
I'm babbling on you're all goodI know my son was afraid to pull
the trigger about five yearsago I think, and um, his budget
started at 150.
He was terrified to buy hishouse.
(35:38):
He's gonna have catholic kids,so he lives over on broad and
270.
About five years ago he wasterrified to buy uh,000 on the
house that he has and I thinklast time we checked we think
it's worth about $400,000.
So they started in Bexley at$150,000 and quickly got priced
out.
This is probably when he firststarted.
(35:58):
He's a very conservative whenit came to the house.
Then, when they got priced outof Bexley they moved over a
little bit into Columbus CitySchools, thought they are an
amazing neighborhood.
They were, like I said,terrified to spend $250,000.
Got a great interest rate atthe time, which helped too.
But even with a bad interestrate he's already gained
$150,000 in equity, loves theneighborhood, loves the house
(36:22):
and now they have two kids andit's the perfect place.
So you might not be comfortableenough buying, but I think
you're crazy, if you're reallygonna be a homeowner one day, to
not start getting on a dripcampaign to see what's out there
and you might find somethingthat you'd be shocked is out
there, because you correct me ifI'm wrong.
(36:43):
Not every neighborhood is amultiple offer.
I know a friend of mine whocouldn't pick searched clothes
in West Mansfield and his wifeare pretty ecstatic that you
know they don't care about beingin a you know a neighborhood or
a school system no kids yet.
So they're ecstatic to havesome property in West Mansfield
(37:04):
and they thought they were nevergoing to find anything and
their real estate agent justfound them something.
So it really is a time to.
If it's not the time to buy,it's a time to look and I think
it's the time to buy.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, I love that, I totally agree.
And yeah, I always tell peoplelike this is your timeline, it's
not mine.
So, like I don't care, I haveclients right now that I've
literally been showing houses tofor four years and and they
just haven't found the right oneyet.
And that's okay, you know, andI have other.
Um, I have other agents thatare like that's crazy and I'm
(37:37):
like well, but why Like?
it literally costs me nothing tokeep sending them emails and
it's like you know, every timethat we go look at a house, I'm
learning more and more aboutthem, so it makes it easier for
me to be like, oh yeah nopeyou're not going to like that
because of this, this and this.
So we don't even have to go lookat it because they're like, oh
yeah, I didn't see that.
Okay, yeah, and I'm like, okay,you know, so, yeah, so I love
(38:00):
that you guys are the same wayand you know, it's really, it's
just all about our clients andwhatever they need.
Yeah, well, thank you.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Thank you so much for joiningus and hopefully you gained a
lot of knowledge today.
I know I did so good, yeah, soabsolutely make sure that you
(38:21):
leave a review.
Five star is always muchappreciated, but that feedback
is a gift to both of us.
Make sure you're sharing this,because anytime you can share it
, that is the greatest gift youcan give both of us is just
sharing that out there.
Also, make sure that you followalong so you never miss another
episode.
Thanks so much and we'll seeyou next time on Come to Find
Out.
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