The Legendary Al Ross

Business leader, Al Ross spends a lot of time talking about his companies.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed by the participants on this
show are not necessarily those of Stuart Information Services Corporation,
Stewart Title, or Stewart Insurance. Before you make any investment,
you should seek the advice of your investment advisor or attorney.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Whether you're a real estate broker, realtor homeowner, buyer or seller,
everything matters when it comes to real estate. This is
Real Estate Matters with Stuarre Title, Steward Titles. Bill Knapik
and guests open the door to what really matters in owning, buying,
and selling real estate. And now Real Estate Matters with
Steward Title, brought to you by Stuart Insurance, here to inform,

(00:38):
entertain and inspire.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Bill Knapik, Welcome to the show. It is Real Estate
Matters with Stuart Title. I'm your host, Bill Napick. Thank
you for joining us here today for show number five
eighty six. As we roll past Thanksgiving into the even
more holidays and great days are ahead. It is Real
Estate Matters with Stuart Title. We have great guests on

(01:01):
today and we're going to get started with someone that
you may know right here in Houston, Texas. He has
in his hand in many businesses, certainly real estate. His
name is al Ross. Some of his companies are al
Ross Luxury Homes, Ross Homes, Kromberg's Flags and flag Poles,
Meridian Signs, and he probably has a couple other things

(01:24):
up his sleeve. Al Welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Thank you, Bill, good to be here today.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Well, here you are. I mean, real estate and business
are just go hand in hand in your world for
all these decades. First of all, let's tell people about
your companies and start whichever one you want to.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
Well, we you know, we as I mentioned to you,
as you had mentioned on the air earlier, we're involved
in a number of different businesses. One of the businesses
that we're very proud of it's al Ross Luxury Homes
where we were building are building homes that are high
end luxury homes anywhere from.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Three to fifteen to twenty million.

Speaker 5 (02:02):
And we've built probably about thirty two of those homes
in Houston on a on a speculated basis. And we've
also have built about a half a dozen custom homes.
And as you know, one of the homes that I'm
very excited and proud to share with you is a
when we did a custom home for Missus Tilman Fatida,
a couple we finished a couple of years ago. We

(02:24):
also own a company called Ross Homes in that In
that business, what we do is we build starter homes.
Are pricing starts around three hundred and seventy and up.
I think our heights has been about close to six
hundred thousand, and we have twenty of those on a
construction currently today. And my son, who who is the

(02:47):
president of the company, is running that running that business
for me on it. He handles a day to day operation.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Well as we talk about the real estate aspect of
what you're doing, let's tell people the beginning of our
Ross Luxury Homes because if I recall the story, you
sold a business and then you were taking a little
bit of a break figuring out what you were going
to do next. And it all began with I think
one or two lots in river Out. Oh yeah, and

(03:16):
it's a great story.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
So so Bill, I started building a house for myself
back in two thousand and seven, building a custom.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Home, building my own dream home. And I ended up
finishing a house.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
Back in twenty ten, and it was it was a
it was a experience I had to be involved quite
a bit. As the owner of a home, I had
to be involved in it, and a little bit more
than I that I cared for to be involved with
that at that stage.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
But in order for us.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
To build a great home, I really have to be
involved in every details of it. Now, some people say,
maybe that's your personality and you want to be involved
and make sure that everything's done the way you want
it to be done. And I and as you recall,
I had started a company called National Science back in
nineteen ninety two as our start of that company, and

(04:05):
I started that company with two hundred dollars was my
initial startup when I started that company. Twenty years later,
I ended up selling the company to a private equity
firm out of Houston, and that was twenty twelve. And
after I departed that company, you know, I was looking
for some opportunities and I came with conclusion that, you know,

(04:29):
there aren't any builders in town that are building homes
that what I could consider custom spec meaning that every
home is different from one or the other. It's actually
truly a custom custom home. And as you may know
already that when you build a custom home, there is
thousands of decisions hundreds and thousands of decisions has to

(04:52):
be made, and it's very it could be very taxing.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
To the homeowner.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
A lot involved, and so I said, there's got to
be a market for someone to build a custom home
and a homeowner can come in and say, wait a minute,
they thought about everything in this house.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
They've whether it's.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
A lighting control or the sound control, or the proper installation,
and just everything about the house. We wanted to make
sure it's ready, and in some cases we were actually
involved with getting the house ready, even for furniture. So
some people actually bought a couple of homes with us
with about sixty seventy percent of the furniture and the
draperies that we put into the house, just to simplify

(05:39):
the whole process for homeowners. And so that's how we
got started. We started in twenty twelve, late twenty twelve
with four We bought four lots here in River Oaks,
and within a month of each other we started building
him and our first house was finished, our first custom home,

(06:00):
which was that on Olympia. We finished it in less
than twelve months, which is really unheard of in Houston.
We looked at the residential building just like you would
do with a commercial construction, which is you have obviously,
you have a set of plans, you have schedules and goals.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
And that's how we treated it.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
And the thirty two homes that we built under our
own umbrellas a spec custom spec, every one of them
were done under twelve months or less, with exception one
of them, which was eighty eight thirty three Memorial And
the reason that went on to fourteen months because we
were just getting hammered, would rain those first couple of
months of getting that home sorted. So we built most

(06:48):
of our homes in twelve months or less, which is
they're all in ten thousand square feet nine thousand square feet.
Some of them were very large properties, in the case
of eighty eight thirty three Memorials fifty fifty one thousand
square feet of property along with twelve thousand square foot
of house that was built in fourteen months. And so
that's how we got started with the home building business,

(07:11):
trying to fulfill a niche in the market that would
allow someone to come in and say I truly have
a custom home without having to go through the whole
process of two or three years of a building a
building a house and the part you're talking about out
in terms of all the decisions, certainly when we're talking
about bigger homes, more expensive homes, there's more.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Decisions to be made just on the size aspect. And
then also someone with a discerning palate and desires it's
extra work. But the fact and then you also had
a feature with the home, or have a feature with
the home is the concierge service to where when you
get a brand new home, inevitably, hey a light bulb

(07:51):
is not going to be right, or something's going to
be wrong, but you have the service where they call
it's taken care of. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
So basically what we will we did was with that
was we wanted to make sure that it was about
the experience. It wasn't It wasn't just here here's a
house walking in. We wanted to make sure you have
a good experience. And so it's you know, when you
build a custom home, it's it's essentially you're building a
prototype and it's going to have you know, it's it's

(08:19):
a home owner walking in aren't going to know what
you know for the that you worked on in the
last twelve months building that house. And so we wanted
to make sure that the home owner to have good experience,
and so we would provide a complete concierge service from everything,
we would tell our client, if you want to just
not worry about anything, we'll have team that will take
care of every aspect of running this home, including the

(08:41):
regular maintenance that's required to maintain the house and so.
And we still have a lot of our clients still
call us, and we have we have a team in house,
team that goes out and takes care of the needs
that the clients have.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
And of course your office is not far where you're
running your businesses is not far from river Oaks, and
it's right inside the loops that you're able to take
care of people in a in a great way. And
I've been to several of the homes. In fact, one
time I think I don't know if it was around
as we're around Christmas. One of the times I played,
I set up my pano and I played a little
background music. You had your open house.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Thirty four forty three inwood I think the big house.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yes, it was very nice. I had the little pool
in the back and it was just right. Yeah. Yeah,
A lot of people showed up.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, that was a big, big open house.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, and that when we think about open houses, I
mean so many things just in general, with you and
me and everything else. Open houses are so important. In fact,
years ago, how you and I even met was a
result of our CEO at the time was looking at
open houses in river Oaks. He went into one of

(09:46):
your homes and then he sent us a little sales
lead and said, hey, who's this Al Ross and me,
being the junior salesman or trying to be a good salesman,
I walked over to Mercer Street and I said, hey, Al,
I'm was Stewart tied. And then we've known each other now,
I don't know, nine ten years.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
Yeah, I remember that. I remember that vividly was.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Knocking off the knocking at the door, and you actually
saw me. I was like, hey, this guy's he's all right.
A few day planners later and here we are there
we are exactly.

Speaker 6 (10:17):
So.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah. And also your team as you run the team,
is it Joe Anne Warren.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
Yes, Joan warn is our chief operating officer.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
You're like at Stuart Title, we have people that have
been around a long long time, but your team has
been together for quite a while, which is how you're
able to do such great work Exactly.

Speaker 5 (10:33):
I think one of the important thing is that for
us in businesses to have long term associates with us,
and my personal belief is that you're the most important
asset you have is your people. I know a lot
of people think of machineries and equipment or the assets,
but really your people are the most important assets. And

(10:53):
if you want to provide a great service, you've got
to make sure you take care of your employees for
us and your associates first before you.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Let them go out there.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
In in case of her and I have been working
together since two thousand and six, so I'm very grateful
to have her with us and many other.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
If she's listening, we're saying hello to her right now.
So as we're talking about we have the luxury home aspect,
and of course, people all around the country that visit Houston, Texas,
or even if they don't visit, everybody's heard of river Oaks.
So these are where your so to speak, flagship properties
have been works of art that people get to live in,

(11:32):
as I've said on past shows, with you and then
you're covering another part of the market with ross homes
that your son is running. Tell us a little bit
more about what's happening there and what part of town
those homes are and if someone's interested.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Were basically that ross home.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
What we do as we build what we call the
starter homes and basically are you know, starting prices somewhere
around three seventy three point fifty three seven, I believe
is where we started at h and uh. We what
we're looking for is uh we look for properties where
we can find eight or ten units that we can

(12:09):
put together and and pretty much as long as it
fits the model that we're looking for, as far as
the property is concerned, and uh, and so we have
a lot of real to bring us. We don't necessarily
are interested in doing a forty unit project of sixty
unit project. We're more interested in finding various parts of
town where we can put in eight to ten units

(12:31):
together and some close out of some subdivisions and where
the large builders wants to exit. We're going and buy
their properties and and build on them. And we've got
some units that have been completed and sold this year
in Sunnyside area. I don't know if you're familiar south
side of town. And various parts, various parts of town.

(12:53):
But the main thing is affordability, is building homes that
people can afford and still be nice and comfortable and
address address to basic living.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Needs of homeowners.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well as you look at the real estate aspects of
what you're doing here in Houston, Texas. We've talked the
last couple of years about all the people that are
moving to Houston. But you're a resident of Houston for
a long time, You've had have businesses here. But when
we think about the opportunities, if someone were to say, al,
obviously you still believe in Houston and the obvious the opportunities,

(13:30):
but give us an idea, maybe someone that's listening from
AFAR about as a business person and resident, about how
Houston is still such fertile ground for opportunity as long
as you have the eye and division.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Well, Houston has always been a great place to do
a business. And I always tell people if you're you know,
if you're if you're looking to start a business, Houston
is a great place for it simply because it's easy.
It's uh, you know, we don't have a lot of
regulations for for starting new businesses. The environment is it's

(14:07):
it's simpler, less regulations, simpler, and it's just there's and
it's growing. I mean, it's it's amazing what's happening in Houston.
When you look at north of eastern, east, south west,
all parts of it, it's just exploding.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
It's growing.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
You know, we have a lot of manufacturing facilities are
opening up in Houston.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
We we see that.

Speaker 5 (14:32):
Growth is gonna is going to continue growing. Houston is
going to continue and and uh and it's been like
this for as long as I can remember. I've moved
here in Houston in uh September nineteen seventy seven. I mean,
it's many years, and I've seen the ups and downs,
and but we tend to, you know, when we have

(14:53):
a downtime, we tend to be recovering much faster and uh.
And it's and it's a shorter show down downturn that
we see. But right now, you know, personally as a
business owner, as an investor, you know, we're out there.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Part of the.

Speaker 5 (15:09):
Other businesses we own is we have a small family
office private equity that we invest in smaller companies UH
in Houston, and they bring deals are they bring deals
to us all over the country. Dallas, Austin, everywhere, and
we just simply tell them we want to only look
at Houston because we truly believe Houston is going to

(15:32):
do well over the next ten twenty years.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
We're gonna we're going.

Speaker 5 (15:36):
To be a little the state of Texas, as everyone
has predicted, it's going to be the largest state in
the next few years. And definitely Houston is going to
continue continue expanding. For one of the other reason is bills.
You know, we have we have so much room for growth, right,
I mean as it depends.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
I mean right, we're as we look at the window
here inside the loop on the West Loop, I mean,
things are all going up. So yeah, there are areas
that are crowded, but it seems like, yeah, no, there's
a lot of room here when you go out on
ninety nine. We're talking about you get the Amazon where
I read something. I think I read it correctly that
Apple somewhere on ninety nine near Cyprus, somewhere thereabouts is

(16:19):
going to be employing twenty thousand people an Apple complex
coming here. So I think that's twenty twenty six, So
that's a big deal. But yeah, there's still room.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
I read I can't remember exactly where I read it
but a few weeks ago that by this time next
year we will have sixty percent more manufacturing facilities in
Houston than we do today.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, you mentioned the late seventies when you first got here. Okay,
So I got here nineteen. I used to visit on
business from Chicago visit Houston in nineteen eighty one ish
or so, and I remember I was coming down to
work the Midwest area and Houston being the biggest market

(17:02):
for me. I mean, I could feel the economic excitement
back then, so different to where I used to live,
as in the Chicago area for two years, Washington, d C.
Various suburbs for four years, and then of course growing
up in the Pennsylvania area. But I felt economic excitement
in the early eighties like I've never felt before. And

(17:24):
I was working for a company a British fellow, as
I evoke his potential dialect here in a minute, I'd
come down here. I say, Ken, it's so exciting here
in Houston economically. Well, Bill, why don't you move there?
So I moved at the time. Oh, I had an
office right here at forty eight oh one Woodway. Ended

(17:46):
up living there many years later. Right behind it over
there by the Omni Hotel. But they're in nineteen eighty one,
eighty two feeling that excitement opening the office forty eight
oh one Wood Way, and then here we are watching
the growth and the excitement and it doesn't seem to
cease as we talk to people here on the show
and yourself here today, and you were invested. I mean,

(18:07):
we're going to get into we're talking with Al Ross
Al Ross Luxury Homes, Ross Homes. We're going to talk
about Kromberg Flags and Flag Poles. What a great business.
How exciting is that? Let's talk about the flags and
flag poles.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
Yeah, we you know, we had an opportunity. We heard
about this company. Always knew Cromberk Flags and Flag Poles.
They've been in business since nineteen fifty three. A year
ago we learned about that mister Ron Cromberk, the owner,
was looking to divest his interest from the business because
he was looking.

Speaker 4 (18:40):
For a retirement.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
Without even knowing the numbers and knowing the details, I said,
we absolutely going to buy this company.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
And we were very excited because it's a great company.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
And not only is great company, the product they sell
is very unique and you know, in terms of having
our ability to be able to produce flags, bags and
flagpoles and just the whole concept.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
That was very exciting.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
And so we actually a year ago today we closed
on this business, and I'm happy to tell you that
a year later, we've grown the business by twenty percent
and multiple our employment, and we're growing the business and
it's a very very exciting, exciting business. But we do
we can install a small flagpole for you all the
way to one hundred and fifty two hundred foot tall

(19:26):
flags anyway in the nation, not just not just in Houston.
We do a lot of work in State of Texas. Incidentally,
State of Texas is probably the largest user of US flag.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
I was going to say, this is fertile ground for flags.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
I would imagine it is really really unbelievable how big
it is, how big the business is in the State
of Texas.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
We'll give us an idea just from the business and
in general terms for someone that whether be hey, if
we're realtors are in dependent contractors are running their business.
But for someone your background is your real estate. You
have been in the sign business, You're back in the
sign business as well. We're going to talk about that
about that. But when you get into like Chromeberg's where

(20:16):
you didn't grow up with flags as running the business,
but as a business person, knowing what you know, how
do you go into a company? What are some of
the first things you do to say, Okay, here's a
long running business, it's been successful, and now I'm going
to run it. What do you look for? What's the
bullet points simplified if you would, Well, you know what
we look for.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
The opportunity in terms of a lot of these companies
that we are after in acquiring, they've been in business
a long time, and companies tend to get in a
in a comfort what I call a comfort zone where
everybody gets comfortable in a day day operation. There's really

(20:56):
not a lot of innovation that takes place, and so
over the years they sing seem to just kind of,
you know, go along with the status quo, and there's
not a lot of innovation and re uh re engineering
that takes place, and so we look for those opportunities
for us to go in and and go in and
look at some opportunities to grow the business by just

(21:17):
re engineering, rethinking through uh any case of Kromberg and
as we've done in the past, we asked the question
of why. You know, the why question when we go
in and you know, we'll say, well, why do you
guys do it this because that's.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
The way we've done it. Why and uh, And so.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
We look for opportunities to energize people. That's our first
goal is to get buying from them and get them
energized and and really uh create some excitement within within
within the business, which is what we did with with
Chromeberg's and UH. Like I told you earlier today, one
of the conversations we had in our discussion in our
sales meeting earlier this morning was that we don't say

(21:57):
no to our customers, right, we just don't say know
to them whatever they need, even if we don't have
a great answer, we say, I don't have an answer
for you, but I'm going to get you an answer
and get a final solution for what their needs are.
And so just a different mindset. And you know, I'm
the type of business owner that I'm not satisfied with

(22:19):
the status quo.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
We have to constantly be improving.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
As soon as we improve to this whatever it is
that we want to accomplish, we look for other opportunities
beyond that to be constantly re engineering and getting improving
our individual as individual as companies, we have to constantly
be improving and doing better and getting stronger in business.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
And with flags and flag polls, I would imagine there's
all sizes you're you're working with commercial customers, people that
want a flag at their home or two flags. I
want to want at my vacation cabin. I want one
at my main home. What are some of the common
things people are looking for in.

Speaker 5 (22:59):
This Well, we do business with a majority of our
business is done on a commercial level, meaning that businesses
will come in purchase flag poles from US and we
install them for them. As an example, we have a
car dealership in a Passo that we have an order
for one hundred and fifty foot tall flagpole that we're
going to be installing a month of January.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
So we have those businesses.

Speaker 5 (23:23):
We have a lot of governmental agencies that will buy
flag poles from US and Flags, and then we also
have the residential sites of the flag poles. State of
Texas allows any homeowner to have a flag pole up
to twenty feet tall. Homeowner association cannot tell you not

(23:44):
to have it. Now they may tell you the colors
of it and where you can place it, but they
cannot tell you you cannot.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Have a flagpole.

Speaker 5 (23:51):
So we're starting to see a lot of residentials are
asking for a flag poles installation. But the majority of
our business is done on a commercial site. We also
have a shopify site that we have people go online
and place in order. Like this weekend, we had Black
Friday special where we're giving twenty percent discount and I

(24:12):
think that runs all the way through tomorrow afternoon. And
so we had somewhere between fifty or seventy five orders
over the weekend for flags that are getting shipped not
only in Houston, Texas, but all over the country.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
The one on l Pass, So I think you said,
how big was You said, the flag pole is one
hundred and fifty feet tall. How big is the flag
that would be? But generally we.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
Recommend either thirty by sixty or forty by.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Eighty feet feet. Yes, that's a big flag.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
It is a very big flag.

Speaker 5 (24:43):
And the challenge with when it gets very large like
that is that you need a lot of wind for
it to be picked up. So you can do a
thirty by sixty or you can do a forty by eighty,
so they're very, very large. But they're absolutely beautiful, especially
at nighttime when that flag is wind the wind is
moved and you've got to lit up and it's just
I mean, it's absolutely breathtaking. It's a great attention getting devices. Again,

(25:06):
in the state of Texas, you are allowed to have
a US flag and a state flag and no government
agents can tell you no, you.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Cannot have it.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
So now again they may tell you about the color
and give you some restrictions like that, but the idea
of having if a US flag is can be displayed
anywhere on your on your property.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
And if someone wants a custom made flag for the
name of their business or something.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yeah, we do a lot of that.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
We have a production facility right here off of we're
off of Bill Air in seventy one oh six Maple Ridge.
We actually have a storefront with a lot of clients
that actually do like to come in and shop for flags,
believe it or not, come and pick up their own
flags and we offer it delivered to them at no cost.
But they still like to come into the to our
store and pick things up and and but we do

(25:58):
have a large facility that we can build custom flags
for business businesses that would like to fly their logo
display their logo on a flagpole, we can do that
in build any sizes. We do it for all major
oil companies that we do business with. Again, flag krombrook
Is Comework, Flags and Flagpoles is the largest facility company

(26:21):
in the state of Texas. We have the largest inventory
of flags and we have the largest inventory of flagpoles.
I mean we keep flags as ten feet all the
way to one hundred foot in stock all the time.
So if a client says ainty five hundred footers tomorrow,
we could we could respond to that pretty quickly, which
is very unusual for a flagpole companies to have a

(26:45):
large stock. We when we acquired it, we had close
to one hundred, one hundred and fifty foot one hundred
and fifty flags in stock. Now we're almost to three
hundred flags in stock.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Let's tell people the website for Cromberg's.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
Can reach us at Crombrooks Flags and Flagpoles dot com
or you can call us seven one three sixty six
one ninety two twenty two and Cromberg's is spelled with
a K right Cromwell kr OI.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
The website again is.

Speaker 5 (27:15):
Crombrooks Flags and Flagpoles dot com and the phone number
seven one three six six one ninety two twenty two.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
What about any pirate flags?

Speaker 4 (27:25):
What I mean we have? Yeah, we have, believe it
or not. We have all kinds of religious flags.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
We have international flags, inch stock, it's gotta be fun.
Do we have military flags? Like I told you, we
have thousands.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Of Hell, you're always thinking that flag. If you would
have called me, I would have invested in that too.
That is just too much fun me too. And the
patriotism that that I mean all, I'm sure every state
has a lot of patriotism. I grew up in the Northeast.
Our country started there. You could feel it there. But
when you get to Texas, it's this whole another thing.

(28:00):
Flag flags and flagpoles.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
Yeah, it's it's it's a huge business instead of text.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
That's very exciting. Okay. Al's going to be back with
us in a couple minutes. In the meantime, Al, let's
tell people again, Al Ross Luxury Homes they can go
to that website.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
Let's who go to Ross Holmes.

Speaker 5 (28:17):
They can call me a seven one three three oh
six nine one five four seven one three three oh
six nine one.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Five four AL, thanks for being with us. Al's going
to come back. Thank you, AL, You're welcome.

Speaker 6 (28:30):
Bill. In today's litigious society, it is imperative to have
the proper insurance to offset the many risks facing your business,
especially if you're a real estate broker your errors and
omissions and cyberliability. Insurance can help limit the threat of
these risks if you know what to look for. Not
sure if your insurance addresses the risks facing your business.
Contacts Stuart Insurance to be confident your brokerage can withstand

(28:53):
these risks. Stewart Insurance eight six six seven ninety eight
twenty eight twenty seven Stewart Insurance dot Com that Stuart
Insurance dot Com are called eight six six seven ninety
eight twenty eight twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Real estate matters with Stewart Title would not be possible
without our partner, Stuart Insurance. With a focus in real
estate and a special focus on real estate broker Stuart
Insurance creates insurance plans to address the risks facing our
industry today. They invest a significant amount of time helping
real estate broker owners offset and manage their risk. Here
he is John Bramblet was Stewart Insurance. John, welcome back,

(29:31):
Thank you Bill. Always a pleasure here we are once
again starting off with such interesting information and now it's
insurance time. It all just works together now.

Speaker 7 (29:41):
It's always there's always something to learn on the show.
You can you're always going to get at least one
or two thoughts or you know, something to write down
about what did I learn today? Or let me try that,
or I didn't think about that. You know, it's always
something that we learn.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Informative, inspirational and even entertaining. Every now and then. That's
what every now we set out to do it every
now and then. Yes, it's fantastic, well, John Insurance, what
you talk about today.

Speaker 7 (30:08):
So, since we're in the season of thanks and we're
in the season of Thanksgiving, I was just curious about
what our listeners are thankful for. So, if we have
a listener that's going through the home buying process right now,
what are the things that maybe they're thankful for during
this home buying process. Do they have an insurance advisor

(30:30):
that's working with them to help them make sure that
if there's some specific needs that the lender requires in
order for the loan to work, or they have an
advisor that helps them with that. Do they have an
advisor that they're going through this home buying process that's
asking them at least to consider flood coverage and talking
about what that might look like for the home that

(30:52):
they're considering. Do they have an advisor that's making sure
they understand the coverages that they have and that they
don't have, so that that there's not going to be
a surprise down the line, you know, if you wanted
to make a claim, so that we understand and we
make sure that the home buyer understands this is what

(31:12):
is and is not not covered. And then are they working?
Are they thankful to be working with an advisor that
maybe has scheduled a post closing discussion. So let's get
through the closing. Let's get through the closing, get the loan,
and then if we decide that maybe there's some things
that we want to adjust on the policy that we've
got that opportunity.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Have so many things to think about too, But like
you started out, it is important, and I think some
people overlook the importance of having the right insurance partner.

Speaker 7 (31:42):
Well it is, and because having the right insurance partner
then allows you to have the right insurance plan, so
that that when you know that that as you look
at your if you're a current homeowner and you're evaluating
your finances as we move into twenty twenty six, you know,
one of those evaluations ought to be your personal insurance

(32:04):
and you know, is the coverage I have now meet
my family's needs or that does it meet my personal needs?
You know, having that being able to have somebody to
speak with about that to make sure that that's you
know that that's the case, you know, working with somebody
that can say, you know, understanding, let's make sure that
we're we're clear about what coverages we have and we

(32:26):
don't have. Let's make sure that hey, you know, I'm
maybe my home is a bit older and I've got
some concerns about water damage. Let's make sure that we've
got a sudden and accidental or seabadge and leakage coverage
or water backup coverage, and let's make sure it's at
a level that I can utilize the insurance if you know,
having forbid that I were, you know, we're to have
to you know, are you working with an advisor that says, hey, hey, Bill,

(32:49):
let's take a look at your home in auto. Maybe
if we place it with the same company, we can
save you some money on the premiums on both or
you know, based upon your lifestyle. Now, Bill, maybe number
on top of your home insurance would make sense. So, again,
do you have somebody like that that you can be
thankful for that's working with you to make sure that

(33:10):
you are you know, are properly insured. Somebody that can
help you with the other aspects of your you know,
your life, your home and your when we talked about
home and auto, but what about your boats or your motorcycles,
or your SUVs or your ATVs. So being able to
again to help you with your vacation home exactly, so
being able to help you with that. So do you

(33:31):
have somebody like that to be thankful for to make
sure that you truly are properly insured. And I think
that same question can go out to the you know,
the real estate firms and the real estate owners or
real estate brokers, the people that run title and attorney agencies,
independent title attorney agencies. They can have that kind of

(33:51):
that same question, what are you thankful for?

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Are you thankful.

Speaker 7 (33:55):
Do you have an insurance partner, you know, that provides
a detailed policy assessment so that you truly understand what
my coverages look like.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
You know.

Speaker 7 (34:04):
So, let's say you have a general liability policy cyber
liability and aerrors and emissions. Do you have somebody that's
objectively looking at that policy for you to let you know, hey,
based upon some of the changes in the business, we've
got some gaps here, or hey, the coverage is fantastic,
word in good shape, let's keep it the way it is.
So do we have that? Are you thankful for that?

(34:24):
Are you thankful that you've got coverage? In case you've
got an open house and heaven forbid, somebody were to
get hurt, do you have coverage to offset that that
personal the physical damage to that individual, or you are
to damage the home while you were staging it? Do
you have some coverage to offset that expense? So again,
you know, those are the kind of things that we
want to think about that if we're not thankful for

(34:46):
those things, that we've got some concerns about those things,
and then we need to find somebody to work with,
like the advisors that' Stuart Insurance to help with that well.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
And also we want to remind people as we often
do as Stewart Insurance. Certainly here in Houston, people here
the broadcast at the time of broadcast, but if you're
helping people John and other states all over the United States,
that's at Stuart Insurance. If they're in Pennsylvania, California, Mission wherever,
you're helping people with their insurance needs all over the place.

Speaker 7 (35:16):
We can, and you know we can. You know, we're
thankful that we have that opportunity and we have that
gratitude to to be able to work with clients both
families and individuals as well as real estate businesses all
over the US to make sure that you know, if
you have a large firm that has a lot of
employees or staff members, maybe you need to think about
workers compensation so that if somebody were to get one

(35:38):
member of your team we're to get hurt on the
job that we've got some coverage can offset you know
that expensive. Do you have somebody that's thinking about what
you need to do to minimize the chance of some
sort of a cyber threat or you know, we want
to avoid the best that we can and protect ourselves
in case of ransomware or you know, a case of

(35:58):
a fishing incident, and if you've got that coverage, that's great,
and just want to make sure that you're thankful for that.
You've got somebody that you're working with that can help
you with those types of coverages.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
In addition, this is always a good time of year
to review all the categories of our life. But I
know a lot of people they may have extra time
right now, but certainly a lot of us are reviewing
at this time of year to say, Okay, well, this year,
this happened, that happened. Maybe I can improve upon this,
or my situation in life has changed. Maybe I don't

(36:29):
have the vacation house anymore, maybe I only have six
cars instead of seven, or whatever it may be. This
is the time of year to do that. So it's
all it's a good time to think about having the
right company for our insurance needs as we plan ahead
for twenty six and beyond. Yeah, we had our guest
Katie a few weeks ago. She talked about that she

(36:50):
and her husband go away for a week and they
plan out the year, and I'm hoping that part of
their discussion is just that that do we have the
right coverage for our family.

Speaker 7 (37:02):
Do we have the right coverage for our businesses? And
if you do, that's fantastic. If not, like you said,
this is a good time to have that conversation. Let's
take a look at what's changed in my life. You know,
have I added a home, Have I taken a home away?
Do we now have another driver? Do we have somebody
else that's living in the home that we had not anticipated?
You know, all those things come into consideration. Do we

(37:24):
have a child that's moved back home? So all those
things can come into consideration. You know, the same amount
of business perspective. Has a business grown? Have I added staff?
Have I added services? Have we gone to multiple locations
or even maybe in multiple states? Those all can affect coverage.
So again, investing the time with a qualified insurance advisor

(37:46):
to help you walk through those those discussions and have
those conversations can truly make a difference in whether you're
properly insured or not.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
You know, as I was thinking about the new homes
owls talking about and things like that, there are also
people that might be waiting for for their new home
to be ready and they're renting now they sold their house.
They're like, Okay, we're waiting for that home to be ready.
We're gonna rent for a couple months. So that's changed somebody.
There's a million different configurations of life that happens.

Speaker 7 (38:11):
Well, absolutely or I you know, because Al always finishes
his home as I had a schedule that I was
able to move in earlier, and maybe I haven't read
at least yeah I haven't. I haven't sold my home yet,
and maybe it's vacant for more than thirty days. So
somebody that can come in and say, you know, hey,
now is the time to think about vacant home coverage
because maybe your home policy no longers is in effect.

(38:33):
So again, being able to work with those changes in
life can truly make a difference.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I try. And one of the things I know that
you're doing, or probably already have done at this point
of the year, is that you're planning for all the
classes that you're teaching. I bet your schedule, John is
getting pretty pretty filled.

Speaker 7 (38:50):
We're working on it very hard. We've got a good
amount of the first quarter covered. We still have some openings,
so we're working with our real estate partners. Are friends
at Stuart Title, are friends at the Houston Association of
Realtors to schedule classes.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Throughout the year.

Speaker 7 (39:08):
So yes, we're working very hard to get as much
of that calendar put together before the end of the
year as we can.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
And don't you do a week or so where you
get away and do your plan? I do, I try
to do. Yours is the beginning of the year. I
forget no mine.

Speaker 7 (39:21):
I try to do the middle of December, go away
for two or three days and kind of reflect on
the year as well.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Well, there you go. That should be great when you
get to do that.

Speaker 7 (39:30):
I'm looking forward to.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Yes, Well, John, what else should we know?

Speaker 7 (39:33):
Well, I think it's if what we talked about earlier,
if you are thankful for all those and you do
have an insurance advisor in your life that helps you
and your family make sure that you're properly insured or
that your real estate business is properly insured, truly be
thankful for that, and we're thankful that you do have that.
If that's something you don't have or your business doesn't have,

(39:55):
then we would like that opportunity to be that at
church resource for you. Uh and you can reach us,
out reach us both as an individual to help with
your personal insurance as well as a business UH at
eight sixty six seven ninety eight two eight two seven.
That's eight sixty six seven ninety eight two eight two seven.
You can learn more about us at Stuart Insurance dot

(40:16):
com or email us at Stuart Insurance at Stuart dot com.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
So and that number John works no matter where in
the United States they want to call. They simply call.

Speaker 7 (40:25):
Eight sixty six seven ninety eight two eight two seven.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
And John, I want to say a word of thanks
to Stuart Insurance because without Stewart Insurance sponsoring this show,
supporting us in every way year in and year out,
I mean, we wouldn't have a show and be able
to get this information out there and get to meet
so many great people along the way. And I love
to when we have guests on the show, they get

(40:48):
to mingle and make connections. So so many great things
are part of the efforts and the dollars from Stuart Insurance, you,
Tom Carpenter and the whole team. So a special word
of thanks to directly for me and all of us
at Stuart title.

Speaker 7 (41:02):
John, Well, You're welcome and we value the partnership as well.
We're thankful for this opportunity, and I look forward to
get up to six hundred and eighty six.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
We'll be trying John Bramn the phone number one more time,
just for the fun of it.

Speaker 7 (41:16):
Eight six six seven nine eight two eight two seven.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
Thanks for being with us again. Always a pleasure.

Speaker 6 (41:20):
Bill.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Now, we have Stewart Title offices all over the United States, actually,
and in some cases, like in let's say Arkansas, Pennsylvania,
sometimes they are part special offices and things like that. However,
here in Houston, Texas, I don't know how many. We
have seventeen offices. We have business development people. If you're
a regular listener to the show, you hear are reps

(41:43):
on the show. So we have a lot of offices
here in the Houston area to serve you when it's
time to close that real estate transaction. And one of
our tremendous offices, and I think at the top of
Kirby Grove offices, julianne, I bet there's at least two
or three flags flying right now.

Speaker 8 (42:00):
Yes, there are?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
You checked before you left, right, I did, yes, So
they're up there flying right now. Probably we got them
from Cromberg's no doubt about it. But there you go.
Kirby Grove Ladies and Gentlemen is one of our premiere,
if pardon the pund one of our flagship offices. And
here she is, Julianna Bereford. That Juliana, you represent the

(42:22):
Kirby Grove Office.

Speaker 7 (42:23):
Yes, I do know.

Speaker 8 (42:24):
I've been here a little over four years.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Then time flies, it sure does. Four years. And let's
tell people Kirby Grove, give them an idea where it's
located and the geographic area, because the Kirby Grove Office
covers so many parts of the real estate empire here
in Houston.

Speaker 8 (42:41):
Yeah, we're located on the corner of Richmond and Kirby.
We overlook Levy Park. We cover anything inside the Loop, downtown,
the Heights, even the Heights Ephn, yes, Heights, Mantrose. Yeah,
pretty much anywhere really.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
And those are all real estate wise, especially those listening
outside of Houston, these areas are just so important keystones
to the Houston economy and to Houston Texas themselves. I
mean each one, University, West University, river Oaks, these are
all served by Kirby Grove.

Speaker 8 (43:17):
Yes, we're actually kind of on the borderline of river
Oaks and Upper Kirby so we do service all of
those areas.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
So many distinctions at Kirby Grove Jolana, as you know,
but at least two of them.

Speaker 5 (43:29):
We have.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Our two ESCRO officers have been with the company. That
are Lauren Reed and Sandford Real. They have been with
the company a long time and have so much experience
at the different type of real estate transactions, both commercial
and residential.

Speaker 8 (43:45):
Sanford has been with a company over twenty five years,
I believe, and she's been in the industry for well
over thirty. She does a lot of commercial and residential.
Lauren Reed as our branch manager and she's been with
a company for fifteen years, and she does She actually
started in my role, believe it or not, and then

(44:05):
word yeah, she did as a marketer and then she
I think worked as an assistant for a while and
then got promoted to a NSTC officer and then branch
manager I believe five years ago. It was a little
bit before I started. And even her assistant, Lauren has
been with the company over ten years, so we have
a lot of longevity, which which is a good thing.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Exactly in the Kirby Grove office, between Lauren and Sandford,
one of the great things is that all through the years,
all the different types of transactions, and when there's a
curveball or two that are thrown, they know that they've
they've faced it before and they're able to handle all
these sometimes complicated transactions and certainly these he ones too.

Speaker 5 (44:48):
Sure.

Speaker 8 (44:48):
Yeah, they do a lot of different types of commercial
in addition to residential, anything from retail to warehouses to
you know, manufacturing facilities. As far as the residential side,
they can do multi family. We do a lot of
construction loans, a lot of commercial refis. So there's just
a wide variety. And I hear them talking a lot

(45:09):
about different scenarios and I don't think there's anything that
gets on at them that they don't know how to handle.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. They have such knowledge
and also the again the ability to be nimble and
move something throws a ranch into things, they're ready to
go right there.

Speaker 8 (45:25):
Yeah. So I came from a home warranty background. When
I decided I wanted to transition into Title Stuart Titles
where I wanted to work, and there were just no openings.
That's how long people stay with the company. And I
had a search saved on indeed for over four years
before a position finally opened up in the business development.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
Uh huh, so you saw. This is so interesting to
talk to. It's like the first you know, we've known
each other for years. When I first started with Stuart Tyler,
I remember meeting you at that home warranty company because
you and I had an office, oddly enough, in the
same building what was once called Stuart Residential. I could
I could remember the cubicle you were in as if

(46:04):
it were yesterday, in the corner me too.

Speaker 7 (46:06):
Yeah, there you go, I remember, but I.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Didn't know you sought out Stuart in that way. But
there goes to show what a case study.

Speaker 8 (46:14):
Yeah, I had a little safe search on indeed, and
I got every job hosting that Stuart title had. Most
of them were like title escro officers, title examiner, things
like that. And then one day there was one for
business development officers. So I applied and got hired, and
that the rest of his.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
History Actually just a side note before. As I talked
with Lauren Reed those four plus years ago, I remember
one day she says, Hey, we've hired somebody, and that's
someone you know, I said, really who? Obviously I would
say who right, right, she wouldn't tell me she didn't
And then there you go and then here I am

(46:53):
and and that was interesting to see you. So that's awesome.
What a great story. Now. Also one of the things
that you do, Yes, you're developing business, you're out there talking,
you're here, you're on the radio, creating interest in Stuart title,
especially Kirby Grove. But one of the things that a
lot of people don't think about in our offices, those
that have been due, but you're holding classes. And by

(47:16):
the way, Kirby Grove, of all our offices are well
appointed and beautiful, but the distinction of Kirby Grove, it's
one of our in my opinion, I have a space there,
but it is one of our most beautiful offices as
it's on the fifteenth floor, superviews, well appointed, it's one
of our more beautiful offices.

Speaker 8 (47:35):
It is, and I think when all of our other
offices have been remodeled or designed, they're designed after what
the Kirby Grove office looks like. That was like kind
of the flagship of our designer.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
The flagship.

Speaker 8 (47:48):
The flagship is see there you got to get to
I wasn't even trying to make that pun.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
I don't know that's when it works best. But that said,
as I was saying, you have classes there on a
reg basis, so real estate professionals get to enjoy other
than closing real estate transactions. The real estate professionals around
the area get to go to classes. And is there
any Are there any classes that you want people to
know about, because I know you've been working on the schedule.
You have informative one CE classes, continuing education and other

(48:17):
things going on.

Speaker 8 (48:19):
All of my classes are continuing in education, and I
try and do a wide variety. I obviously have the
you know, the core classes that the agents need, like
legal and contracts and broken responsibility, but I do a
lot of elective classes. And as a matter of fact,
John Bramlett is teaching for me next week his class
the Two Sides of Water, which is one of his
more popular ones.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
It's it gets raver reviews, it is.

Speaker 8 (48:40):
It's a really good class. It's one of my favorites.
Every time I listen, even though I've probably said in
ten or eleven times, I learned something new.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
And the water is such a such a big topic
around Houston, Texas, at least for a while, we've had
a drought and now it seems like someone uncorked the rain.

Speaker 8 (48:56):
So it's okay, it is okay. But I've got, you know,
lenders that teach inspectors.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Did I have an AI guy on about some I
think I did?

Speaker 8 (49:05):
I did, And I actually I had a stager that
used to teach some hands on classes that was really popular.
So I think I'm going to bring that back for
twenty twenty six. And I'm working on my schedule right now,
so I'm excited for what next year has to offer.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Well, Juliana, let's tell people how they can reach you
in case they want to know more about the classes.
They want to bring the real estate transaction to Kirby Grove.
What should they do?

Speaker 8 (49:25):
You can text me or call me at three four
six five eight one six four seven one again three
four six five eight one six four seven one, or
you can email me at Juliana j U L I A. N.
A dot Bearford at Stuart.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Dot com, Kirby Grove.

Speaker 8 (49:44):
Thank you for having me. They'll always a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Good to see you. And now he's back for final word.
Al Ross al Ross Luxury Homes, Chromeberg Flags and flagpoles,
Meridian Signs. We're going to find out a little bit
about Meridian Signs too. And of course Ross homes Al,
welcome back to the it's you and me closing the
show down. Yes, putting a candle on the cake. So Al,

(50:06):
tell us about a bit about Meridian Signs because here
we are, we drive around the city. We see flags,
but we also see signs of all sorts. Tell us
about Meridian.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
Yeah, So Meridian Signs is a company here in Houston.
We have about we have there's about twenty two employees
in the company and we're growing. Basically, we handle any
kind of need that a client has on an interior
level or to the exterior level, and we ship signs

(50:35):
all over the country and Houston and we do it all.
And I started that business with two other people in
our organization joined as a partner as well as Greg
Hollenberg was a President's EU of National Signs for many years.
And how we came about this as we were looking
at acquiring National Signs through bankruptcy and we were not

(50:57):
successfully in doing so, and but we decided to in
the process of start a company called Meridian Signs.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
And so Meridian signs and most of your work is
here in Houston, Texas with the signs or do you
go beyond?

Speaker 4 (51:10):
Well, we go beyond.

Speaker 5 (51:11):
And as it turned out that you know, when my
previous company that I started sold in twenty twelve, we
were able to hire a bunch of those people that
were unemployed at the time.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
Because of the bankruptcy.

Speaker 5 (51:23):
And at the same time, we had another company in
town that was also closing doors, and so we were
able to bring some of those folks over to us.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
And signs are all over the place out and I
would think that the signs come in all sizes, as
you have some that light up, some that don't. I
guess we did it all.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
It's we we do a lot of work on high
rise buildings and large structures and there's really not much
that we can do. And as you know, signs are
important part of our economy in terms of advertising and
and displaying your your message to the public.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
No doubt about it. Al you know, it's always inspirational
to have you on and just to be around you
because you I mean, we've only talked about four of
the things you do. I think there's like at least
twenty more work I got two more for you, but
I'll leave it for the next time we have next time.
But I mean that's the beauty of of someone that
has a vision like yourself, that's having fun in business

(52:24):
and you're ambitious.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (52:26):
We love what we do and and we we love Houston.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
We love what we do.

Speaker 5 (52:30):
We have some great team members on our team and
great partners and and we're looking looking for other opportunities
in Houston to acquire. And we have several target companies
that we're looking at, and hopefully in our next time
we meet, I'll be able to talk to you about
at least three other brands that we're looking.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
The next time, let's bring your son pe Drum.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
Yes, that's correct.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
We say hello to him and we hope to have
him on the show talking about the Ross Homes and Al.
Once again, if someone wants to reach out to you.

Speaker 5 (52:59):
They can call me a seven one three three oh
six nine one five four at seven one three three
oh six, nine one five four.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Thank you, Al, and thank you all for listening to
Real Estate Matters with Stuart Title. I am your host,
Bill Napik, and one special word here. We have some
of our friends that are also starting a radio show,
and I will be appearing on that show, so I
want to give you the heads up. The show is
called The Real Estate rat Pack. It's going to be
on Saturdays from eight till nine eight a m. Till

(53:30):
nine am on Saturdays, and the rat Pack is Rob
Cook and Chris kelso very entertaining informative guys. Once again Saturday,
eight am till nine am. I'll be appearing soon on
the Real Estate rat Pack right here on AM nine
fifty kPr C. Make sure you check it out and
simply go to Stewart dot com Forward Slash Radio. That's

(53:53):
right in case you want to see the guests here
on the show today, you get to see Al Julianna
John They're on the YouTube channel at Stewart dot com,
Forward Slash Radio, or simply go to Radio Bill. We'll
see you next week. Thanks for listening.