Dan: Today, we are talking with Mark Eibner from Meridian Title and Escrow and Mark is one of the principals of the company. Welcome to the show.
Mark Eibner: Thanks Dan.
Dan: Glad to have you here.
Mark Eibner: You bet.
Dan: You know as a realtor, when we are talking about title, you know I have to admit I am thinking, "Okay, title insurance rates, could they vary that much?" but I guess they do.
Mark Eibner: Oh, absolutely. I think the rates that are posted up... I think the real issue is that most agents, most consumers really don't have the time or even the expertise to go online up to the Department of Insurance, check out all the posted rates, check out all the posted fees, you will find if you do that all x amount of[Phonetic] counties in the state of Colorado have different rates from county to county. It's just not the seven state or seven county [Inaudible]. So, there is a huge variable in the published rates that are up in the Department of Insurance site.
Dan: Now, in the past, the rates used to vary widely, but now they are getting much tighter and more competitive, why?
Mark Eibner: I think things are just getting tighter simply because of sites like say mytitleins.com. It's a site that has been on for a couple of years now and it is really putting a little transparency out there for the consumers and actually for the real estate brokers and I think real estate brokers are actually becoming a little more in tune with actually looking out for their clients, being an advocate for their client versus perhaps in the past being an advocate for the guy that gave them free brochures.
Dan: Yeah. Let me see if I understand this right in that there is an agency that governs the rates and then an independent title company takes that rate and then they can add a little fees and things like that and that's what comes up with the disparity in rates?
Mark Eibner: Well, there is no agency in our state here, there is no one that regulates rates.
Dan: Okay.
Mark Eibner: In fact, an underwriter, a national underwriter, could publish for any county any rate they wish and that goes for escrow fees too, anything would go out there effectively when a company files new rates or there is a 30 day period where the consumer could object or question, I would like to see how many times in the last 20 years that any consumer has ever been online and looked at the published rates of a national underwriter and complained to the Department of Insurance. It just doesn't happen.
Dan: So, the difference comes in the fees?
Mark Eibner: Correct, the fees. See, in states like Texas where they have promulgated rates, that is a state where all the rates are regulated by [music] so, once a year, they do get together, they look at losses, claims, underwriting fees, everything, the state decides for x amount of thousand, this is what every title insurer is going to charge. In our state, that is not the case. It's kind of free and wide open and rates can vary, in fact, we re-file even on a monthly basis if that's what you wish to do.
Dan: All right and in the past, it was always thought that the seller picked the title company and that the buyer, poor buyer, didn't have a decision in the process, but as a realtor representing a buyer, you could actually advocate on behalf of your client and write into the contract, "Okay, we are going to offer x, y, and z, but we would like to pick the title company."
Mark Eibner: Yeah, absolutely, if you actually read the contract now, it states that the buyer has a right to choose the title, because we have got two sides to the policy, we have got kind of the seller's side and the buyer's side for what they are paying if they are getting a mortgage. The problem is when the buyer goes and maybe makes a choice of title insurance with another carrier, then they... then their listing agents, underwriter that they are using is you are not going to get the benefit of the simultaneous issue of the rates. So, it's going to in that case actually end up costing the buyer more, that's what... in real life, that's perhaps what the real estate commission ignores is yeah, the seller can buy their title insurance, the buyer can buy their title insurance, but in general the buyer is going to end up paying more money because he is not getting that simultaneous issue rate as the seller has.
Dan: All right. Last question, why do business with Meridian Title and Escrow?
Mark Eibner: Well, I think Meridian Title and Escrow is... it's one of the... it's a newer model ABAs or actually you would be surprised, they have been around for what? 17-20 years now; in a lot of states, very prominent because the model itself leads to transparency. In other words, more than likely the broker that you are dealing with is an owner, more than likely perhaps even the mortgage broker you are dealing with is an owner. They have the transparency and really the ability to choose in our case with Meridian Title and Escrow three different underwriters. So, instead of being married to one particular underwriter, that has a limited reissue rate, okay, you can go and make your selection on each transaction and if you need to have an underwriter that has a 10 year reissue rate, then you go with the underwriter that has it, that's typically what we do, we go with the underwriter that offers the lowest rate to the consumer on that particular transaction.
Dan: And saves you money?
Mark Eibner: Saves... you bet, saves your seller money, it saves the buyer money. I highly recommend using the site, mytitleins.com. It actually will give a side-by-side good faith title estimate for the buyer and for the seller. You would actually be shocked at how many times buyers are paying as much if not more than the seller in a transaction.
Dan: Mark, thanks. Good information. Appreciate it.
Mark Eibner: You bet. [Voice Cross Over].
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