Sorry I have been absent in my blog, but the title insurance business has been keeping me busy.  Orders have been coming in spurts, wish it was more steady, but they all come in at once and then it is quiet.  So it is quiet today.  Thoughts on this vetting, it might be good if they get rid of the national title companies that outsource their searchs.  But don't hold your breath on that one. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all our clients and friends.  We are so looking forward to a wonderful and prosper year and we are so glad that you will be there with us. 

Be sure to check out the interesting discussion on LinkedIn about outsourcing title plants and how the are killing our title insurance industry.  It has made me very aware of how it hurts me.  For every accommodation closing that I do for these large title companies, it costs me on average 600 dollars that I could have used in our agency.  So my new years resolution is no more accommodation closings.  Do you hear that signing companies, good luck in finding someone up here in the Big Horn Basin to do your dirty work.

Disgusted

I have a client that requested us to perform a title commitment on their property for a re-finance.  This client then went to his loan officer, this loan officer stated that our title agency was not on their approved vendor list and they would not use us, no matter what.  The client called us and was concerned about their loan.  I called the bank president and explained the situation, he assured me that we were approved and he would talk to the loan officer.  That loan officer hurried and placed his order with his favorite title agency, and the excuse made that they already started on the file and if I wouldn't mind and step aside and they would get me the next order.  Yah right the next one. 

Borrowers it is your loan, you can choose your lender, title insurance agency, settlement services, your home owners insurance and other services.  Quit being mindless zombies and letting over indulging loan officers to make your choices and then bitch about the closing costs.  Start taking control of your loan and be proactive with the choices then maybe these loan officers will start being accountable for their actions.

Sellers you are the one paying for the owners' policy, so why are you letting the real estate agent pick the title insurance agency.  Hello, most Park County real estate agents own stock in Park County Title Agency, so on top of their commission for selling your house they get a stock dividend for the title policy that you paid for.

So the good ole boy terms are still in effect here in Park and Big Horn Counties in Wyoming.  I am utterly disgusted with First National Bank and Trust in Powell and Cody and Taffany with Peaks to Prairie you should be ashamed with your actions.  I am not worried about reprecussions from these places, they barely can email and for reading blogs get real, they are not into the 21 century let alone the 20th century.  

So as one door slams shut another door opens. 

Outsourced Title

As I sit here waiting for docs for an accomodation closing.  The title insurance agency is in Florida, now how can a Florida title insurance company do a title search in Wyoming??? and can it be accurate.  I have several of those files where an outsource title company did a title commitment and missed mortgages, one which was a $750,000.00 mortgage, but it is now up to me to fix.  Come on people this is your mortgage, don't you care who is looking at your property and doing the paperwork???  This is not rocket science, have pride in your local businesses and companies that strive to make things right and doing their work with pride and supporting their communities that they live in.  Get iAnvolved in your mortgage process and ask those questions and pick the local company to do the work.  If you don't know where to start, check out Home Closing 101, there is a link on our website at www.bittercreektitle.com.  Or call your local title company any of them, they would be glad to help you, if not call me.

Auitors

On Monday morning I will have my first audit since starting my own title insurance agency.  Looking forward to see if the ideas and process that we use stands up against their expectations.  Habit of doing things a certain way, from the way we set up files, to the search, closing and issuing of policy.  Hopefully after 17 years of working in the title insurance industry and the ideas and new techniques will have paid off.  During these changing times, we feel that we have to change also, but keep our core solid and stick with the habits that work.  Looking forward to this but also scared of the unknown, but sure of the work ethics that we stand for, protective of our clients privacy, the completness of our searches and indexing system and documentation of closing information and the speed of issuing a policy.

Eclosing Update

Our first eclosing, went ok, a learning process, but I really think this will be the future of real estate closings.  Our first one took about the same time to complete as a regular closing, we all had alot of questions on the process, but with a click of a mouse we completed the process in about an hour.  One downfall, the borrower still requested copies of the documents in paper and not in electronic form.  This process will become popular with the younger homeowner that is computer saavy.  And yes you can teach this old dog new tricks, this is the only way to stay ahead of the competition.

New Adventure

Today is a new adventure for us at Bitter Creek Title, eclosings.  So if we are going to do eclosings, why not start a blog.  A little about us first, we are a family owned and operated title insurance agency, located in Powell, Wyoming.  We started this adventure in 2006.  We started digitizing the county tract books and putting them on the computer, which we have found to be a time saver and a space saver.  So here we are today getting ready to do our first eclosing, which is a closing on the computer, the borrower will just click to approve the documents and we have saved her documents on a cd, again saving paper, hopefully this will also prove to be a time saver.