On this Episode #25 of Real Estate Talk with Randy Stedwell We are having, Emma Elder-Howell, the co-founding partner of Detroit Title & Escrow, brought her extensive 25 years of real estate expertise to the forefront. Emma's innovative approach at Detroit Title & Escrow, where personalized service is the cornerstone, distinguishes her company in the industry. Her commitment to tailoring services to individual client needs, coupled with a team of equally experienced professionals, sets them apart. Emma's reputation as an educator and advocate for integrity in the ever-evolving market was evident as she passionately shared insights and a genuine desire for the success of all she encounters, making this episode a must-listen for those navigating the dynamic real estate landscape.
About Emma Elder-Howell
Emma Elder-Howell applies her 25 years of real estate knowledge each day at Detroit Title & Escrow, a title insurance company where she is a co-founding partner. In the decade since its founding, Detroit Title & Escrow has set itself apart from other title companies in the city by tailoring their services needs of clients, rather than forcing them to select from a preset menu. Armed with a team that has as much experience as she does, it’s an easy thing to do.
Emma is known throughout the real estate industry as an educator and extremely passionate about bringing awareness and integrity behind the emerging and actively changing market. Most importantly she is known for wanting every person she comes into contact with to succeed-whether an investor, employee, business associate.
www.detroittitleandescrow.com
TITLE: Title Expert Emma Elder-Howell | Detroit Title & Escrow Personalized Approach Revealed! - RET Ep#25
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© Randy Stedwell.
Hey everyone out there in YouTube land
and our Metro Detroit off market Facebook group hope everyone's having a
great day I know I am because I get to speak to this wonderful lady Emma Elder
how from Detroit title I am so so happy
I've done many deals with Detroit title and I've done many deals with
I it's funny because we know each other through email barely through face to
face and I actually saw her at event and she's like oh nice to put a face with the email so it was awesome and so I'm
really really happy to introduce Emma Emma how are you doing today I'm good
how are you that's awesome I'm doing great so um I know that we are uh we're
running a hair late but it's perfectly fine so we all got stuff to do but we
are live so one thing I want to say before we get started if you do have any
questions whether it be for me whether it be for Emma I hope you're here to ask questions for Emma to be honest so you
can ask me questions anytime um ask them in the chat we'll
answer them put them in the chat we'll we'll answer him as we go so um anyways
I know you said uh H how are you doing today by the way I'm tired I've
literally walked in the door to log on to do this with you leaving Eastern for
track so wow yeah yeah and record time making at home too so well I'm GL I'm
glad you didn't get a ticket so yeah I was you know you know you have the uh
the vehicle tell you about the speed traps so that always works but uh yeah that's today was an interesting day you
know I had career day today so that was pretty cool at Cody High School so that's how my morning started so it's
it's been a really good day but I am tired at I'm gonna be honest with you but I have energy for you guys
tonight so well we appreciate that I we really do so um you know I know of
Detroit title because obviously I've done some deals with you guys before it's kind of one one of the title
companies that I started with and so I really did want to bring you out here
and kind of go over you know you ask you some questions as well but mainly like
for the people who's never heard of Detroit title who's in the Detroit area a brief description on what you guys do
and what sets you apart from say other title companies around okay well for the
most part we're your traditional Title Company like any Title Company you know um we handle closings escol Services
which are separate separate Services a closing is actually facilitating and
going over your documents making sure things are executed correctly and recorded whereas escrow is handling the
money that's coming in and making sure that payments are made and dispersements or whatnot so that's the the typical job
of a title company you know we protect the interest of buyer sellers lenders um
note holders or anyone that plays a part in the transaction that's your standard
Title Company you know um Realtors let let me not forget but what makes us a
little bit different is one with my experience my partners we have almost a
hundred years if not more experience in real estate and it's not just your
normal residential deal you know um a lot of folks don't know it but I come from a commercial background and I'm not
talking one commercial building I'm talking land assemblage you know aund Parcels at one time is what working with
you know City projects on a larger scale you know we were part of the Ford Field development you know the construction we
were part of the riverfront Towers brush Park so Rose the um Rosa Park Transit
Center so my background isn't you know hey I woke up one day and said I want to do title um so with having a background
like that and with some of the extra things that we do such as this networking finding resources always
looking for ways to pour to our clients I feel that it gives us an edge up on
other title companies you know because most companies say hey in in in my
opinion your your ticket or file number ft12 456 you call me have my cell phone
more than likely if you locked in is hey Randy what's going on with you today you know how's the baby so I get to know you
I get to know what your look for I get to understand the type of service that you need and then our goal is to cater
our product our service our customer service to fit what you're looking for
so again got it and you get to talk to me exactly I mean I think that's that's
a one up right there most definitely most definitely so
tell me a little bit about how you got started in real estate and then go into
like how that led you into um doing Detroit title um well it
wasn't one of those great ideas of my father said hey I have some real estate
and I want to pass this on to you and my will right or what we educate now what I try to um bring Awareness on
generational wealth um holding on to family and family real estate the land
and or houses it wasn't like that it was I was a single mom I needed a job Kelly
temporary services was hiring and they were paying $925 an hour and at that
time it was good money and and I was like I'll take that so I just started you know working for a temporary agency
doing Simple filing I happened to be working for a builder but I was an administrative person working part-time
filing papers in chronological and alphabetical order I mean literally that was it but it went from my work ethic
the way that I I I handle things um which led from part-time into fulltime
which led from full-time from a temporary employee into a permanent employee hired in through this builder
company still again had no idea what they did other than we now need you to do more with contracts they didn't even
know what a contract was you know and it went from doing that learning contracts
actually becoming a closing agent for this Builder um at the time back in the
early 2000s new construction was everywhere you know I mean because so much land so I went from being a closing
agent for this Builder he happened to have a mortgage company so I went from
being a closing agent signing contracts things like that for this Builder into
becoming a loan processor so I was processing loans I did that for probably a couple of years again it was just I'm
one of those where like oh this is intriguing I want to do this I want to know more I want to teach me Teach me Teach Me and the more I said teach me
the more people pour into me um it went from me doing that and what stuck out
was we always had to deal with the title company but I didn't understand I just all I knew was we got to go through the
title company and back in that time it wasn't a title company on every corner like it is now you know it was far in
between but we had our one title company and when we needed something we would call this lady Jen we need what we need
drop what you're doing and get it to us right now because we're your biggest client that was our attitude you know because that's how that's just how it
was and you know I didn't have an appreciation for what this title company did all knew was we needed to close we
forgot to order title it's a rush get it over to us I didn't even know what title was I just knew I needed it and then
once I kind of grew out of the processing role because now I'm bored I did that for a minute and I'm like I'm
bored this I'm past this what's next teach me something else that's when I moved on and I started looking for
another opportunity and I ended up on the title side and when I ended up on
the title side again it wasn't Detroit it was in the Suburban area and it was
you know anything outside of Detroit all Oakland home um but when we got Detroit
deals title everyone was like oh we want you to do it well why you know again I
didn't know what I know now you know right it was just way back then Detroit was complicated if you will or it had
its challenges we'll we'll go with that kind of is to be honest so
yeah you know what we thought was challenges then is nowhere near what challenges are now but I was with this
one title company for probably about four or five years um but I didn't see growth you know again I'm at my fifth
year mark and I'm like okay are you guys gonna make me management are you gonna do what are you g to do with me because
I'm just here processing files and they couldn't put me where I felt I needed to be and that's when I folded over into
what started a trend for me with um going to a company in Detroit and
working with that company for 12 years if not more and that's when I started
touching on a lot of the city projects and development and tax foreclosure and
and share sales you name it at that point that's when I was like wait a
minute this is some cool stuff on top of that we could do a lot of home buyer
events not like how we do now but they were available and right I just I found
this thing where I connected with people and I had a way of explaining Title
Insurance because you know most people think title insurance they think it's some lawyer stuff and you got to hire an
attorney and it's going to cost a lot of money and we use a lot of big words and terms that kind of goes over your head
well yeah I figured out that I can connect with you and really get you to understand it and that's when things
kind of took off and got me in this direction that I'm I'm in now but again it really just started with I needed a
job got it so did you found you're you're a co-founder of Detroit title is
that right of Detroit title yes yes of Detroit title yes yes yes so okay um so
actually that brings me in like you it was a great segue into what you said into my next question and that is why is
title insurance so important on so many levels um the the
most important way and the way that I explain it now unlike how I use used to as if any any aspect of real estate $10
$100 $1,000 $100,000 you're investing in something
you're investing in yourself you're buying this real estate and is perceived to be an investment and if you don't go
about that properly by using certain individuals for that investment or that
purchase or that sale you could lose in the end and I don't think any of us are just sitting around saying hey I'm going
to take a gamble on $10,000 or $100,000 or cash out or my 401k to buy my own
personal home to buy this piece of land because I want to build a garden or to buy this this Residential Building
because I want to put a Section 8 tenant in it I don't think we're just sitting around saying we're going to do this to lose money um so one of the key
components is understanding when you're buying something from someone or you're
negotiating with that person one time is money we don't have time to waste
because when we're wasting time we're wasting money and if you are negotiating with someone on a transaction and all
this time you're negotiating with the nephew of the Dead aunt or the grandson
the grand the grandson of the deceased grandmother or the neighbor who's been watching this house and started paying a
property taxes thank you very much and now feels that he or she should own it
and you put in all this time with going back and forth on a purchase price and doing home inspections and walkthroughs
and all this other stuff just to get to the title company and find out they don't own it right we're not even
talking about the money that you put in we're talking about the time first yeah so much time has been wasted right there
then if you add a layer of you give them a deposit and then you pull a title to
find out they're not the actual owner whether it was them knowing this or them not knowing this just because they
didn't understand you know the Dynamics of how ownership works again so now you've lost time and money right so that
that's just to start that's the surface one of the most essential pieces of understanding title insurance or knowing
that you need it is before I put my time and money in this let me make sure I'm dealing with the person that owns it
that's first then we layer into they own it but now what's going on with the
title what's going on with the property and one of the things that a lot of us don't understand and most people think
when they think title company and they want their property insured they think that we're are insuring the
house and the land but we're not we're absolutely not the only thing that we're
uring and saying that we can guarantee ownership on and if there's title issues or clouds we can clear are related to
the land that has nothing to do with the structure so a lot of folks kind of get that you know they get that for years
it's just been implied that I got Title Insurance something go wrong the Title Company's going to take care of my house
and my land that's not how it works you can tear the house down tomorrow and still own the land that's the importance of it the
house just brings value to that land and it brings value to that insurance coverage that we're giving you so what I
mean by that is if there's title clouds outside of ownership yeah underlying
mortgages you find that out if you're dealing with the title company now yeah you can go down and I call it Junior
examining you can go down to the register of deeds whatever County and pull your own documents but what's
important and what I ask people is you pull the document do you know what you're looking at oh yeah I see the name
and I see that lender but is that the proper legal description is that the correct tax ID number how long you know
well the mortgage was 20 years ago or 25 years ago they said they sto paying it well the life of a loan from an
insurance perspective is 40 years not 30 so the so the difference of when someone tries to step in and do our job and
don't really understand some of what did I do Randy no you're good I still see you
some of the parameters that come with it they don't get it because they don't know what we do so title insurance is
again identifying ownership identifying underlying title defects mortgages
unpaid taxes erroneous documents fraudulent documents documents what we
call a break in the chain of title Grandma owned it for a very long time then all of a sudden we have a deed from
her from her from her her son 20 years later and if someone doesn't understand
title they go to the kios machine and they pull this oh yeah that's the that's the deed that's the good deed because they didn't know you need to go back 40
years to validate a good ownership you know so there's so many components outside of judgments and leans and other
things that we can get into but there's a lot that we do to make sure that when you invest in yourself that real estate
you're protected by way of a title search to start that then turns an
actual policy I put emphasis on that because a lot of folks say I'll call a title company I'll get a search I'm good
well all you got is what you pay for a search we can only tell you what's going on what's recorded if you don't turn
that search into a policy you're not covered you're not protected for your investment you're only getting the
information at that moment exactly an informational product yeah so that that
kind of brings me to like what is the process for title okay so tell me if you
can run me through the the you know from say a homeowner selling the property
what's the from beginning to end what's the process look like okay so from a p
title perspective the first thing someone should do whether it's that homeowner or if they're represented by
um a realtor or an attorney um we always encourage that you order pre title so
whether you have a contract or not if you know that you're in the process of selling this property and you have a
relationship with your prefer title company we encourage that you open up escrow I'll use that term for our
audience y um you know we call it pre-title some of our a stators call it open escrow um what that does is that is
a trigger to us title folks to say hey I need an informational search done on 123
ABC street that informational search would consist of that that email or
however coming to us there's a back room team that you'll never meet that team is the team that goes and pull all
documents recorded documents that's related to this ABC or this one 123 ABC
Street all record now real quick I didn't mean to interrupt you but is it
like is it is there a place where you go like a a central uh system that you type
in the address and it comes up with everything related to this or is it like a Google search or is it a mixture of
everything no Google everything that we do is done through um records from the
Wayne County Oakland County or various Register of Deeds um so for any of your
larger counties um it's they we're now electronic you know back in the day back
in the day when I first got into this and that's funny I'm saying back in the day wow um we had an actual facility
that we used to go to um to to pull documents folks worked there and we would go and pick up docs and all that
good stuff or we would have to go down to the to to the various counties where where now almost all counties except for
some of the smaller ones up by the thumb area are um everything is indexed online
so we pull the same data that you would pull if you went to the County's kiosk
machine the only difference is there's search products that guarantee us
information so we're pulling what you're pulling but we're working with these different companies um a name data trace
and things like that that have over the years Consolidated with these various counties and they have this information
easier accessible to us so we're not going down to the county the only time we would have to go to the county and
sometimes we have to order documents as if we're doing commercial because with commercial go back 100 years and some of
that stuff is still on that very thin microfish type paper believe it or not you know that those things can't be
scanned you know it's it's a real it's it's big what we do a lot of folks don't get it but we use these different search
engines that guarantee us that the information we're getting is accurate
and and is correct and is not what we call indexed incorrectly things like that now mind you these are humans that
are putting this information in there um over time so humans make mistakes you
know y but this is where we pull all our data from so the first key is pulling all the data related to that one two3
ABC Street anything anything that's related to that that street over a 40e
span if we're doing a residential if we're doing commercial of something large then we may go back a hundred
years depending on how large that land is okay okay um so with that we're
looking at all of these documents to see what still applies and what no longer applies to create an actual
informational search so everything that we pulled it may not apply there may have been some old mortgages that have
been discharged there may have been some certificate of forfeitures that are no longer um applicable you know because
taxes have been paid there may have been erroneous documents because again people make mistakes they should have been lot
47 they put lot 74 but those things may have been resolved along the way so the goal is to
come up with with establish a good starting point of ownership and we'll just use residential of 40 years good
ownership going forward so I always call it connecting the dots at that point
that we established ownership now we're connecting the dots we know who the owner is did that owner have any current
mortgages that have not been discharged we we don't know if they're paid off or not if it's a mortgage recorded and we
don't see a discharge that's informational item that goes on the search we also look for you know your
standard things such as taxes again we don't go to Google there's sites for all of that stuff Wayne County o County
treasure things like that um the only time we'll use Google is if we need to pin in and look at a legal description
and it has additional information that leads us to believe that there should be a lot included with that house and the
buyer and didn't know that um but then we also spinoff and we use other engines
for checking bankruptcies tax you know because you don't get this information and that's what people say
well there's nothing recorded against my name you're absolutely not is not recorded against your name from Wayne or Oakland or mome there's another search
engine that you wouldn't even know about because you don't do what we do and that engine lets us know if there's someone
an assume name an Associated name the same name Mary Jane is a common name you
know Randy Smith is a common name John Williams is a common name so when you run that name
anyone with potential anyone with Lings with that name pops up so that's when you see that requirement you need a so
but then we go even further and we look for the Patriotic act because some folks
may they can't buy or sale for whatever the reasons are with um crossing the lines you know we look for you know
stuff with the doj you know it's so all of this is what these back room folks do
and they examine all of these documents and then they type the product and that's what we delivered to you the end
result product is hey here's an informational report here's still what's
outstanding this person owns it this person has two mortgages this person has unpaid taxes we need this person's
social security number because it's a common name they may have bankruptcies oops by the way we found a deed that
does not belong but because it's recorded against our property we cannot ignore it we gotta put it in there you
know so that's what creates the beginning conversation of an
informational title search and then as we go along we discuss with whomever our
Point person is the realtor whomever seller attorney here's what we need to clear up these items this is our seller
great but he or she has two open mortgages most of the time you get the argument my seller only has one mortgage
okay well the other one isn't release we need a release you know so now you got to go through the channels of working with them to get the proper release or
or why do you need my seller so because if they have judgments and Lans against them or a divorce because we do check
bra County Circuit Court for for divorces a different site um if there's
a divorce we got to see can they sell the property do they have to make certain payments to the to the spouse
you know so we go through clearing up chopping down all those different requirements that you see on the
commitment to get to say okay now we have a payoff if we need it now we know what the taxes are we've reviewed the
divorce we verified that you don't have any leans because you gave us the last four you bring your car to closing
because you know believe it or not we had some folks give us the wrong last four and then when we say you got to bring the card to closing everything
changes so yeah they didn't expect us to ask for
the physical card you know um so as we're progressing along we're chopping
down what we need in order to say okay okay now we're ready to get you to the
closing table so that's kind of that getting from the starting point to
seeing we have clear title and rolling into an actual closing so it kind of
sounds like the thing is that somebody can do this on their own as far as doing
the research but it's really there nothing it's only going to be an informational
base and that's really about it even if you go to the extensive that you guys do
I'm not saying that somebody on their own would but say they do obviously just in case if something
else pops up they're still not insured they're not nothing's going through there so the good thing that going
through a title company is okay you've gone through all this research now you
can put a policy in in involved and said hey if we screwed up we're taking care
of you we're taking care of you for to a certain extent now you're right when it
comes to the when it comes to the deed or the title that's what I refer to so like say a something comes up to Cloud
the title or something like that so that's what I was referring to yeah if we miss something now someone someone
can do their do it on their own the only thing with that is um things that you
you know you got to look for outside of what I described is just say for instance you and I took title together and that's a recorded deed but one
there's a second deed out there so you found a deed you and I owned property together you deed it out to someone else
someone went down to the kiosk and they pulled that deed and they're like oh okay yeah Randy deed it out and it keeps
going they got to have that eye to say well Emma and Randy own that title together
why did yeah Emma deed out right you see so there you know and again I'm not
saying you know because I have my junior examiners and I love you guys I do but it's just certain again certain
things that you just wouldn't know to look for but if you did the
ultimate goal is making sure that what I pointed out is is surfaced
and um documents are provided to clear those things up or what have you to turn
that into a policy most definitely and I will say
this is that every deal that I've done every wholesale deal that I've done I ex
whether it be with you or another T company okay I've learned something new
that something different pops up and we gotta figure it out we gotta take care
of it we gotta get some sort of document or this is out of date so we gotta go
redo probate you know that happened to me with actually with you guys and
unfortunately the documents he had was expired and he had to redo probate it
lasted six more months but we got it sold we got it taken care of yeah you know it was some it was a learning in
the process um you know I Johnny Stewart over here said he's an escro guy here so
that's awesome so um one thing I wanted to ask is because we're we are my
channel is more towards investors and wholesalers is how what does a
wholesaler or an investor like we're always looking for investor and wholesaler friendly title companies okay
so now somebody was like well how do you know how do you know whether it's a
investor friendly title company I go well you ask them certain questions so I know the questions I would ask but I
want to leave that asking what questions do you want to hear from say investors
and wholesalers uh to know that you are an investor and wholesal wholesale friendly
Title Company well I I get that you know they call
with that that script you know um yeah but the only thing for me that takes the
transaction from being a traditional residential sale to what we would call a wholesale deal is if
there's an assignment in it I mean honestly you know I get the question and I understand we've taken this bucket and
we've said if it's a double close if it's a A to B B to C meaning two
contracts or if there's an assignment A A to B with an assignment or there's a JV a joint venture or if I'm doing
transactional funding all that is dumped into a bucket and now you're considered
an investor friendly title company that's really you know or I'm an
investor that I go out and I purchase the sheriff's deed at the auction and because I'm an investor and I do this
I'm looking for an investor from friend L title company so I get it and I understand that those are the things that are dumped into the investor
friendly title company if you will oh in the blind Huds you know me you know the
meaning of the seller doesn't see the buyer the buyer doesn't see the seller type thing you know so those are the
things those are the questions that I get those are my little things that are dumped into the investor friendly bucket
so when they call they say are you investor friendly I instantly I do this this this this this this and this and
they're like oh okay you are investor friendly that's right you know to the
extent that's what it is and I get it but I guess for me every every
transaction it's it's all the same but I get it but those are the investor friendly aspects of it for us if if I'm
answering your question correctly yeah most definitely so uh Johnny Stewart
actually has a question he says how long does the whole what does the process take I need more the so
um I think what he's asking is is on a normal transaction where there's really
not any issues we'll call it that where there's no issues how long does a
process take to run title get the information back get it clear to close
things like that um I got from open and that's an investor friendly question
because I get that a lot from open to close is a week for us and I'm being generous there um normally takes a
couple of days right now for us we're two to three days um with title especially if you come in Say Hey I want
to close this right away that allows us to prioritize if we open us grow we take our two days to do our title thing if
you get us what we need if that's um if it's a double close we need both contracts we need we need to know who
our Point person is we need to know how you're going to fund this are you self-funding it are you getting transactional funding um are your plans
to use C money for a I'm going tell you right off the bat we can't do it um how are you doing it so the more
information you give us when you come in saying Hey I want to rush this closing the better we can work simultaneously
and what I mean by that is we're going to go into it saying title's going to be clear we're going to start the
preliminary numbers which is key which is important because that bottom line based on what you've told their sell
your seller you're they're going to walk with and based on what your spread really matters you know and all these
unexpected fees that come along the way so for us on a deal no issues full
communication we know where buyers and sellers are we know how we're funding we know everything from a Monday to a
Friday we can get it done so by that Friday you're funded you're getting your check and we're talking about the next
one yeah and I one thing I gotta say is is it's very important as a wholesaler
to go over those numbers with the seller before closing and some people say well
no just let them be surprised let the title company describe it to them blah blah blah this that as a wholesaler I
want to tell you that is not a good idea okay and no offense to people at closing
I I love you guys you guys do a great job but you're there to get the closing
in and out here's everything you're not there to um you know make things look
nice for them your or anything it's just the straight numbers here you go and I I
remember it specifically because I had one one seller come through and you know all
of a sudden I get a call from somebody at Detroit title I I it it was one of
the process saying hey the seller seller walked away like literally just drove away and didn't sign anything saying
they're not signing nothing I literally had to get on the phone with them calm
them down and say Hey listen this is what they're doing listen you got this
much it's being held in Escrow because to make sure that there's no other water
bill until this time is done so on and so forth so I have to explain that
properly okay I go so then what what really are we arguing about $1,000 I go
are you really gonna break this deal over ,000 because something that is on
your on your title that there's no control and I told you that if anything
comes up it's going to come out of your end I told you that okay I go turn
around get this we'll get this sign and I'll follow you through this process to
make sure you get that water escrow back as long as the Bild do comes back a
zero Y and I'll help you throughout this process now if you are a wholesaler and you say to do that actually helped them
through the process by all means even after you've gotten your money y okay because you never know who they're going
to recommend you to after the fact so I just gota say gotta say that so that was
one situation specific where I was actually working with you I had the seller like he was on Ford Road just he
ended he's like all right he turned right back around and I had to give you guys a call be like he's on his way back
to come sign it get him ready yeah no you're absolutely right and I'm glad
that you said that because you know we don't know what numbers were discussed
and it kind of puts us in the hot seat when they're calling us and they're like well that's not what Randy said and
we're like uh you need to talk to Randy but we all have to be on the same Accord
because if we're you know and pushing back it leaves the seller to kind of like have that what you had you know
that that concern or whatnot so we try to get those numbers to you as you know so that you can get in front of it with
your seller and I have my guys all the time like D that that bottom line didn't come in where I thought let's move this
around and that's what I tell them let me get you the numbers because if you got to move some things around you want to go ahead and do that so that you can
be as close as possible to what you presented to your seller you know so
yeah I've had it I've had start to interrupt real quick sorry but I've actually had it where like listen they
weren't expecting this they need this they they need this bottom line to be this you know what just go ahead and
take this out of my assignment fee and let's just get this deal done y you know
and that's that's that's generally how we do it now so again for us the more we know going into it the better that we
can prepare and most importantly get those prelim numbers over because that's
what's going to make the break the deal especially on the front end with the seller because that bottom line is
important to them yep 100% your spread is important to you too but if you
didn't if you didn't do some of your own diligence sometimes that's spread and
I've seen it especially in the beginning you know when we used when we first started with the wholesale deals and the
assignments you know I've seen those 7,000 spreads go down to 2500 and I'm like oh well now you know so it's a grou
thing it's a collaboration most definitely so Michael arranger from and
I'm sorry if I butchered that last name sorry wrong one there I you know he said
he's from the Facebook group and he said uh you know quiet claim deeds not
prepared correctly can be a big problem so I one thing I wanted to he it brings
up something and and I wanted to bring it up with you was what is the deal with
these qu These Quiet claim deeds and I know that if I look at a property and
say it has five quiet claim deeds even though it follows the chain of title you guys got to make sure that
like the signatures match everything and contact everybody on there and I'm not
saying you're not that's that not right by any means I'm I I'm just curious is there something that came down that was
like a big fraud that like okay now we got to implement this in our processes
yeah you know we've always looked at quick claim deeds that's always been a thing you know um just a whole bunch of
quick claim deeds back and forth back and forth and moving around for us title folks is a red flag you know
um two things one we did it prior to the new requirement that's the more recent
requirement um you know initially we would just look at the quick claim deeds and we would go back and look at other
documents and compare signatures that's one of the best ways to be able to
determine if some fraud has taken place and again it's just doing this for a
long time and it having an eye for how same notary same format there's things that we look at that stands out um but
what happened you know and a lot of it was unfortunate when when Co when Co
happened um Co turned our lives upside down and not having our our our um
financials our our documents in order for death and things like that family
members unexpectedly passing away leaving family members with property and
no finances and needing to make moves it created other ways of thinking um and then of
course those that lay up at night and do the opposite of what we do and figure out ways to hit a lick if you will and
with that we saw more quick claim deeds um and and and it just changed quick
claim deeds started turning into claims for us title people because now you got
folks to live out of state you got folks that are in state watching certain houses doing whatever they're doing with
these deeds and yeah we're we're taking it for face value because that's what we had done for so many years going forward
unless those flags kind of popped out and we asked those questions or we can kind of just know from looking at the
chain um you CA to three times a month hell we got them hey someone else signed
that fraudulent deed that that you know I didn't sign my deed over so claims
from an underwriter perspective went up and as you pointed out early on the whole purpose behind title insurance is
to protect you from these type of things so when all these claims and all these CS start coming in and all these
fraudulent Deeds start coming in and you know we have our list that we track of
the same names the underwriters started saying you got to start verifying the
Deeds you know so anytime you get an influx of something that's a pattern now
we have to take a step back we got to slow the process down and we got to add something else in there we got to track
down the notary we got to track down the the um Grand Tour we need affidavits and
it's because of that influx of fraudulent Deeds that now turns into
claims and you think if you're doing a double close a A to B B to C which is a hint a reason that we don't use C money
to fund a is because they're separate transactions we need to treat them separate for insurance purposes and if
you did do a double close and that fraudulent deed steered from that A to B now you got two claims
yeah you know so it it it kind of went from there where we used to do it um all
the time we would look at certain deeds and ask certain questions but it was something that we just did because we
work a lot with the challenging title if you will but now almost all title
companies almost all some don't you know and it it waivers on their underwriter or that company's business decision but
almost all companies now are saying you got consecutive de needs with no title
No comp no title company involved um no attorney involved no no dollar amount
those are triggers of you need to do an extra layer of verification and I'll be
honest with you we probably do 150 yeah 150 easy a month closing we'll
get about 250 orders okay at least 20 of
those are Fallout when we ask when we start asking the questions about you
need to put us in touch with the notary you need to put us in touch with the The Grand Tour crickets we don't hear
anything yeah so it's the reason behind it I know it's painful and it's an extra
day or two or sometimes uh a lot of frustration because folks don't want to cooperate or they're like I've already
signed why are you bothering me type thing but it's to protect the Integrity of the title insurance in the pockets of
the underwriters because that's one of the things that we're giving Insurance
on right so that and it most definitely so the thing is is
that I had you know I have a uh a story
actually from it was my fourth deal that I ever
did and I went with a different Title Company okay and it was this guy I you know got
the contract signed I actually you know what he signed it in person this and that um you know I did not know that was
a fraud it was a fraudulent quite uh quiet claim deed Quick Claim Deed quick
claim deed and yeah so it was a it was a fraudulent one but the title company closed on it
Title Company went through it they found out we found out later after one of our
buyers they are going in there to try to start you know they're going to start work on it they own the house you know
they paid for it well somebody else is there saying that they own the
house and so they would go back to the title company and they're like basically
what they wanted to do was say okay everybody give them money back like this never ever happened oh and I go they
wanted my assignment fee they wanted everything I go I go instead of doing a
filing a claim I told him I said I will be happy to give my assignment fee back as soon
as the seller you get the money back from the seller exactly and I know 100%
that they weren't gonna do that yeah yeah they weren't gonna be able to get that from him yeah I go here's the
contact information that I have of him you can have everything I have no
problem and I was actually working on another deal deal with him wow and but
that other deal I was GNA I was going to go through you guys but you guys caught it I'm glad you didn't we have another
our own CL well no see it was before it didn't come up it come it came up after
you guys even caught it wow so you guys caught it saying that there was something wrong there was something
fishy not knowing exactly what but then that came out and I'm like uh oh yeah
and and without you can't just come out and say something is fraud you know you
just use someone if you don't have your facts but we can say we need extra
because of this and that kind of deter but I will I'll be honest with you we again that's why that process is in
place because we got jammed up on a couple you know and it's but it's the
Integrity if I'm preaching to you and I'm on here and I'm saying you you you get your title insurance you do your
homework I mean that's the whole point behind getting the insurance is for that
type of protection for things that happened prior to your ownership and that's the risk that we run as the
escrow agent or title company those are the shoes that we wear and we gota we
got to stand tall and wear them so to prevent from paying out and doing all that you know saying hey give me your
money back and all this good luck with that now we got to go to the underwriter we got to file the claim we got to go
with our Eno we got to do whatever we got to do to make get right trust me it's painful but now just in case I kept
that money aside yeah just in case just in case just in case but it was a
whirlwind because it was only my fourth deal but it was my first deal that I did
without a JV partner okay who know somebody who knows better more than I do right right um and
you know so it was it it was scary for me I'll tell you that but my guns I kept
to my guns so it's um you have to and you know and I'm an advocate of and a lot of folks say well the title company
don't tell you everything well I'm G tell you everything some of it you may not like to hear some of it may kill the deal but my job is to disclose to you um
and my job is sometime maybe to say I can't do this deal for whatever the reasons are yeah so what uh Johnny says
I love how easy she made it made it sound so that's awesome that's what sets
us aside from the other title companies exactly uh Tammy James from Facebook
group uh said going back to the statement of an unex unexpected expense with closing uh if everything comes back
clean with the title uh will the seller pay uh payout be the selling price
agreed on the purchase agreement purchase contract plus the total amount
in escrow um I'm not understanding exactly
sure but I I think what she's trying to say is if if you have a wholesale
agreement okay and you have the contract purchase price and you have the assignment
contract okay it will your uh your title
insurance will go off of the total amount from the contract price is that
correct it can go either way technically it should go off of the insured amount
to the buyer should go off of their all in um okay because at the end of the day
even though that's an assignment fee that's a fee that they paid which
increases the value of um of of the purchase now with that being said
there's that gray area of and what I think Tammy is asking is the purchase price is what the purchase price is
between the um the seller and in in that first buyer
25,000 then here comes that assignment fee of five so our in buyers all in for
30,000 how we've done it in the past to be fair to the seller is the insurance
is going to cover for 30 but the difference in the premium is where we would have that
conversation and say okay the seller is only going to if the premium is 325 we would base the 325 off of
what that 25,000 and then if there's another 50 or whatever we would just charge the end buyer for that because at
the end of the day the seller went under contract for this specific amount in
that original contract now what you want to get extra is on you in buyer so you got have to come up off of a few coins
but you're gonna get that that coverage that's how we look at it that's how we do it unless it's one of those
situations where the contract calls for buyer and buyer paying all sellers closing costs and then at that point it
is what it is yeah most the yeah most of the time that I've done it is I you know
it comes up as whatever my first contract price is unless I specifically
ask and the buyer gives permission to pay the extra amount to go up to the
count the assignment agreement because in
99% of my contract the buyer is paying both sides of the closing
cost so they're like well I just want to be insured for everything anyway yes
yeah and I would encourage them to be insured for everything because the one claim that we did have with the
fraudulent my guy only got the coverage based on the
initial the initial contract and it was an assignment you know so having to go
back and forth with the underwriter and fighting and all that again to be an advocate for um um standing behind the
policy and standing behind what we do out here it it was a fight it was a lot of internal stuff but it was this person
needs to be made whole for what they were all in you know um you know it was
business decision but if you you know if you just go off of that base and if a claim does arise from a Title Company's
perspective two things one you're not going to always be mayho for the full amount because the claim is based on the
current value it should be the value of the property at that time I don't care if you said you got a policy for 100,000
if the value isn't 100,000 then the underwriter comes back and say title insurance is really based on this but
there's always that gray area yeah that fraud deed that that fraud they they
were only insured for the original contract price yeah our our assignment
fee was not part of that after that deal that's when I started asking to go
higher yeah but I made sure it was okay with the buyer too but yeah for sure or educate your buyer because some buyers
just don't know and the more you educate them and the more tools that you give them to protect them and to be
successful the more they gonna come back and be like hey I want to buy from you and I want to use your title company or whatever you know yeah so Tammy Tammy
came back said okay uh that's what I thought I wanted to confirm thank you so that that's what she was asking um now
another thing that I do is like ever since the early on when we brought up uh water bills and uh you know we brought
up you know blight tickets things like that ever since I got reamed on on one
of my properties that you know on blight tickets and water bills uh it I make
sure I have that conversation with every single seller no matter what before we
even go under contract good for you said and say hey I don't know this is based
on what I can see but if something else comes up there's only three I tell them there's only three things that's that
you're going to be taken out of your end because we'll pay all the closing costs
I go any blight tickets I any uh water
bill and upto-date taxes and maybe a fourth thing which is
any leans but you know they should already know that so right um but that's
really it I say the number I give to you is what you'll be walking away with minus those things good for
you because I've had those issues every every single property that
I've gone through I've learned something new and I've had to bring something else up yes so yes yes yes that that's really
good because I mean and as you know and and and we've worked together because that some of that information you can get yourself and you should be getting
yourself as a wholesaler before you even go to title I mean you can go to the Wayne County site and get the taxes you
go to the city site and get the city taxes you can go to the the city of Detroit if it's blights and get the
blights and kind of hash all that stuff out hardest thing is the water bill the
the water bills are tricky I mean I you know you said it and I kind of cringed like oh is this call almost
over but the water bill water bills you know with the way that they do it now
is um it's it's Unique if you will I like to use the soft words right so Mo
most definitely so uh Dana Dana Tom said I love this info I'm I I'll definitely
be reaching out to you Emma we'll be working together when I start closing deals well thank you so I and she also
said that have to drop off thank you very much so but yeah it's it it's CRA
it's crazy um but Tammy has another question is what is a a a blank ticket
I've never heard of that I think she mean blight oh blight I think she mean
blight I think that's what she mean y sorry I think she mean b those are um
building violations um against the structure so that's why you know when I started this
I put emphasis on we ensure the land and not the structure so a cities have um
building violations for certain things but when we talk about blights we kind of bring those back to the city of
Detroit um it could be violations for um if your property isn't registered as a
um a rental the city will come out and violate if you don't take your trash can out or you leave it out on days past
whatever the trash day is they'll come out and give you a ticket um if there's
debris in in front of your your building or your your property you'll get ticketed for things such as that and um
if those tickets go unpaid they they the the amounts can go from 250 to 305 they
can turn into judgments and things like that and what happens is even though it's against the structure if it's
against the owner the city says those blights follow the owner but sometimes
depending on how the contracts are wrote up and the language in the contract it could say the seller is responsible for
any all blights no matter what well that means whether it's the current owner or the previous owner if there's blights
then the seller needs to pay them so yeah blights are violations against the structure that is assessed from the
various cities but more so when you're dealing with Detroit that's when you'll see a lot of blight tickets through the
city um blight division they have an actual division that handles all of that and there a process you can get them
dismissed you can get them paid you can negotiate them but it's things that Randy pointed out as an investor
as a wholesaler putting deals together doing assignments kind of have that homework done so that you can discuss
that bottom line with your seller and give them that hey you got some blights that may need to be paid so you want 10
you got 2,000 worth of blight you're only going to get eight minus other stuff if that helps most definitely and
how I explain it to people um or to sellers actually because
they don't know what flight tickets are so is how I explain it is you know those tickets the city come around and you
know you have too long of grass you know or or your trash is out too long or whatever the case may be it's those
tickets I'm sure you don't have any of them but just in case you do just to let you know if they do come up it is
something you gotta pay you gota take care of so and sometimes you know and I know we can we'll probably have to do
another segment because we never really we didn't even touch on the juicy stuff taxes and all that we gota we got to
schedule another segment look I've just show again um but sometimes you can come
on anytime I'm telling you that right now sometimes the reason the sellers don't get those is because when they
purchased they didn't file that property transfer affidavit yeah which is huge
you know so sometimes they honestly don't know um but that is something to look out for when you're selling
Properties or you're negotiating properties in in Detroit any city has them but yeah primarily Detroit sorry
real quick larck says I I'm only rolling with Detroit title when he comes through he's team
hashtag team Cleveland you know hey that's perfectly fine you know uh and
then he also said do you have any more any workshops coming up I you know where
can you learn more I do um after our Christmas party
Friday because we're gonna parte you know you guys know how we do that after we party going into the new year my my
plan is to um become more uh Vis visual with um with online as well as back um
face to face with trying to do workshops month once a month with the hot topics so you guys will have to link up with me
and tell me I I kind of have an idea of what's out here and what we need to know but then sometimes you know Randy you
know like I know something becomes that way we got to ride it out and we got find out everything there is to know but
going into the new year you have um discussed with a few um networking groups I'll be doing something at least
two or three times a month with different groups the only thing I can tell you is follow me on Facebook and
Instagram because it's too much for me to remember but if you follow there you'll get everything you need to know
where I'm at when it's happening all of that good stuff most definitely so I
have probably have a bunch of questions left over but I I'm going to leave it at this is one of my last questions
um and then I want to be respectful of your time as much as possible so we'll bring you back on and we'll go in depth
in depth as much as possible so um my next question is is as a title company
do you get lists of foreclosures or
anything that that would
uh with people with distress that need to sell their home or say something fell
out of uh escrow or anything like that because of certain reasons so do you
have any of that those lists that you are just say sitting on that somebody
like me as a wholesaler or an investor could work with you and help you out
with those and I say that with a little bit of a extra um I want to be able to make
those deals happen you know what I'm saying yeah it's it's it sounds like a good idea right okay surf but it's
not so to answer your question um I get that question all the time and I don't
have the list you know any anything it just comes through my desk I have my
folks that tell me hey drop my name if people are buying or selling but the list if you will um I don't have it do I
do I see the deal that fall through I absolutely do but one of the reasons
that um I don't I don't share that or I don't use that as a list to generate is
because I don't know what's going on behind the scenes just because a deal fell through doesn't mean that buyer or
that seller isn't suing for specific performance or something like that so
when I go and I call or create this list um it could be something going on and
and and and we did have never done it but I happen it's funny that you say that because I had a guy today calling me and was like Hey a title company
called you know we got a new deal and they called my my seller and told him that it was a new deal on the table and
he instantly started a lawsuit you know so um I don't have those lists I stay
away from certain things because how I started this conversation my time is
valuable and I want to invested in other areas and when I start creating a list and doing stuff and I start getting
those calls that I really don't have time to deal with is taking me away from that other money you know what I'm
saying and I know you didn't want all that but I wanted to I want the honest truth 100% I put it no matter what that
that's what that's what I get is that I I just look for the honest truth yeah because you know so yeah but that's why
I don't have the list so gotta I don't have the list but what I do do and I'm sure you if you haven't you come to one
of my events I'mma put you in the room I mean I personally call people that I think need to be in the room with
other people so that you can get that that information and you can Network and
I can bring some faces that you've never seen before so I go out my way to create the list other ways but I stay away from
the list got it and I also said that was one of my last questions but this one should be a quick one that's okay real
quick is if a wholesaler starts title in the beginning but they cannot find find
the buyer find a buyer okay what is the
process um with us letting that deal go do you charge the
wholesaler um I mean I know it's usually on an individual caseby case
basis um but I'm just curious in what uh because some wholesalers are are afraid
to get titles started in order before they have a buyer and I try to tell some wholesalers
like hey if if you see like I'll go on Prop stream is one of the tools that I
use uh prop stream and batch leads and if I see that there are um you know quick claim deeds or
there's a break en title or there there's this there's this I say send it in get it started say hey there's an
assignment coming soon okay so you know it's a wholesale deal okay but that way
it can get started and any issues that come up we know about them ahead of time
right right so if for some reason that happens what's the process it happens
all the time I'm a relationship Builder I'm big on relationships
um you got to start somewhere you got a contract you know I don't really like
the fishing you know you can kind of tell when they're they don't have a deal and they just fishing y you know so we
do have this confirmation that goes out the $200 thing if a deal doesn't close
but we also understand you don't have any control over some deals and the only way that you can get a deal to the table
um and I'm on here saying use the title company is you got to get your search you need to know what's going on so I'm
big on let's build that relationship let's start somewhere but I'm also big on looking at my numbers and hitting my
orders guy up saying hey re okay I didn't seen John name come through here
uh six times and I think we had one closing and I will call hey let's have
that uncomfortable conversation you know so I'm I'm I'm big on get that pre-title
because we don't want to wait until you get the deal and now you got that hot end buyer and now you're just ordering a
title and you should have done that in the first place and I'm telling you to do that but I'm also big on let's build
the relationships let's communicate um and you you get a couple you might have to throw you know you do three and they
don't you order three and they don't close you may have to throw $200 back just to to to to to save place you know
um but if I don't see it coming back then I'm have a conversation with you you know that's just how I roll got it hey you got a few in the pipeline and
nothing is closing what's going on but you know a lot of people they tend to order they don't do anything and they
just jump to the next title company you know most definitely so I really
appreciate that yeah it's un it is unfortunate and you know I have the
choice of of title companies that I go with uh but a lot of times what I do like if I my first choice is always
going with you guys okay um but I always try to basically go with whatever my
buyer is comfortable with so whatever my buyer is comfortable with that's usually where I go yeah and that makes sense you
know and I tell my clients because they'll call me like I know I haven't I haven't seen you know what we have a
relationship I get I get how to Market ra if if any anybody get you know I get
it because sometimes saying I'm not going to do that deal you can go down the street to to BET's title company they might take care of you but it's
just not the deal for me and I'm not gonna flat out say whatever it is you know or maybe someone doesn't like the
requirements that I have and I have those for My reasonings and if you don't like it get on to bets or when bets tell
you no you'll be back or maybe the deal won't go but I don't hold it against you if I do one this month and two next
month and maybe I don't see you again that doesn't mean I'm G to buy you a drink when we're at the bar that doesn't mean you can't call me and say hey E I
got some questions because if I'm putting myself out here to say I'm gonna help you and I'm a resource for you and
we're gonna build that's what I'm going to do but I get the market too I I'm one I get it trust me but don't take
advantage of you know people's time or money if if if you can afford not to it's all about communication yeah most
definitely and that's one thing that I'm always upfront about as much as possible
trying to get you know hey the more open communication you can be the better you
know and then that comes down for uh you know as a wholesaler you got to make
sure you have your numbers down right yeah yeah you know and the only other thing I can say is a lot of times I get
call say hey this title company want do my deal I want to open escrow with you and I'll say no send me the title work
and everything that you have because you know right now it's a hot and heavy deal because it's set there for a week or two
you tried to figure it out you couldn't now you want to come dump it on me you want me to rush something just send me
what you have and let me look at that and I'll tell you and I'm G tell you like yep I can do this or nope I agree
with them this one is just a loss you know I prefer to do that than have you
not tell me that you had title down the street with bets and now you you you want to not tell me and hope that I
don't see what they saw because you just wasted everyone's time right you know exctly give me what
you got and I can I can kind of tell when title's been started somewhere else by the conversation I'm like the title
Whisperer oh most definitely so what we'll have to do is is you know like I what I really like to do is is uh get
together with you in person and we'll do a a video interview that way and that
way we can make it as long or as short as we want you know I could break it up into different parts and everything we
could do that because it's so much I enjoy talking with you I really like your questions and the interaction so
you just say when and uh we can make that happen I appreciate that you know what maybe we can do it at one of your
uh at one of your meetups that you have and that way we get a a a nice live audience there and even get some
questions from the audience too so good idea let's plan that yeah yeah most
definitely um so the CEO from fa from YouTube says Randy I'm always coming on
give uh to give more content to the show brother that's awesome so yeah it's
that's it's really good so I'm happy to have you um you're one of my favorite
people I'm gonna be honest with you so I and I can't wait to have you back on so
um I'm gonna bring you down we're gonna do our outro but I want to talk to you after the show real quick all right all right sounds good so all
right that was awesome everyone thank thank you thank you for going through
this with me and having all of us go through out this whole process so I
appreciate it see you on our next episode I won't have anything next Monday um because I'm going to be out of
town but the Monday after we're gonna have somebody else on the show or no we won't have it because that's Christmas
so unfortunately um so we'll work something out I'll get some videos posted so watch the YouTube channel
for more videos I will keep posting them in the group as well thank you let's all
do deals together thank