A Title Tale

A Title Tale

I love competition and the open market.  I also love my Title Company; Old Republic Title in Brentwood Ca.  Mind you I have no particular preference for Old Republic Title, I could not tell you how they stack up statistically against any other big Title Company, but I can tell you CeCe and the crowd over at ORTC are always a big help to me.

That's right - I like to work with people not companies.  Those people just happen to work for a company.  If they moved I would probably move with them.  Now they know they have to earn my business every day, service is everything.  It is the same in my business - Service is Everything.

But what happens when there is no competition?  Well I am working on a HUD Home with a client and we have been forced to use their Title Company.  Although the buyer is suppsed to have that choice many banks still steer buyers to the Title Company of their choice.

We have been ready to close for 3 days and still no HUD, no wire instruction, and not even a hint of when it might be ready.  They will get to us when it is ready!  Now this is a big national firm - and I used to use them for my business. That was until I was forced to use them by a bank several years ago and the service was not there.  I dumped them right after that transaction.

I guess that is an exception to my rule about working with people and not companies.  But I felt if that company was not going to respect treat me with respect I did not want anything to do with them at all.  They did not care about the escrow to them it was another number, a cog in the wheel.

How many of us are being treated like cogs in the wheel by the big bank, the major REO agent, or a Title Company.  What they don't realize is what they sow they will reap.  The shoe will be on the other foot eventually and people will remember who treated them right and who treated them poorly.

This is not just in the area of real estate agents.  There are a lot of big companies right now (banks come to mind) that feel they have us and we have no choice, and maybe we don't.  But there will be a day when the value of their name is Zero.