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16W Media Group Presents The Branding Highway Podcast
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors.
16W Media Group Presents The Branding Highway Podcast
Richel Martinsen: Resilience in Real Estate - Founding Ace Solutions Title Group, Navigating Personal Challenges, and Enhancing Customer Connection Across Five States
What happens when a driven professional navigates the complexities of the title insurance industry while facing personal adversities head-on? Join us as we chat with Richel Martinsen, CEO of Ace Solutions Title Group, who shares her inspiring story of founding her own company and expanding her operations across five states. From Florida to Minnesota and Arizona, Richel journey is a testament to resilience and dedication in a rapidly evolving industry. You'll hear about the critical role title companies play in real estate transactions, the intricacies of title searches, and the importance of customer service and communication in delivering top-notch service.
In a candid conversation, Richel opens up about the challenges she's faced, including juggling a demanding career, navigating a divorce, and adapting to the impacts of COVID-19. Despite these trials, Rochelle emphasizes the value of maintaining personal connections in an increasingly automated world. Her commitment to being accessible and responsive shines through as she shares her contact information for those needing assistance. Discover how technological advancements have transformed the title search process, and why homeowners should prioritize choosing a quality title company. Don’t miss this insightful episode with an industry leader who has successfully blended professionalism with a personal touch.
"All Things are Possible"
Ace Solutions Title Group, LLC commitment is providing stress free Escrow and Closing Title by the best in the business. With over 40 years of experience closing in residential and commercial real estate title. We treat all of our clients and their clients like family and our highly-trained staff makes your file our main priority.
We understand how stressful buying and selling homes/property can be but we got you covered.
(813)773-3909
www.acesolutionstitlegroup.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Sedita.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast presented by 16W Media Group. I'm your host, Mike Sedita. Today we have the pleasure of being joined by Rochelle Martinson. She is the CEO of Ace Solutions Title Group. Rochelle, how are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great, mike, and you.
Speaker 2:I'm doing pretty good. I'm dodging a few raindrops it's that time of year here in Florida, but other than that, things are going great. I appreciate you coming on the podcast with us. Just to give you a little update about what the Good Neighbor podcast is and how we got started Back during COVID, the Good Neighbor podcast was born as a way for business owners like you to get your message out to the community, so you had to be socially distant back in 2020. This was a way to connect to residents in the local communities to get your message out, and over the last four years, there's Good Neighbor podcasts all over the United States Denver, philadelphia, cleveland, atlanta, everywhere. I'm lucky enough to be the guy here in Tampa that gets to talk to folks like you. So, with that being said, tell us a little bit about Ace Solutions Title Group.
Speaker 3:Ace Solutions Title Group. I've been in the title industry business over 40 years and I've worked with a lot of title companies and all that. So I decided seven years ago to open up my own, which is a solution setting group. So I've been in business for a solution has been open for seven years. We are now licensed in five States Florida, minnesota, wisconsin and our newest licensed state is Arizona, which is also going to. I'm going to have a physical office in Lake Alastair City, arizona.
Speaker 2:Okay, wait a minute. So let me ask you this you have a physical office in Florida and Arizona. Is that so you could have a place to go where it's nice weather? I don't see you setting up an office in Minnesota or Wisconsin. Just Arizona and Florida, yes All right, just checking. Continue. I just had to make sure we clarified that.
Speaker 3:Okay, so, yeah. So Lake Havasu City our grand opening ribbon cutting on Lake Havasu City, arizona, will be on August 23rd. So that's the project that I'm working on to launch that office. It is open right now, but then to introduce it to the community it will be in August 23rd. And what basically is solutions? I'm a title insurance agent. I'm a licensed title insurance agent through all those five states and basically what we basically do is we are the middleman of the buyers and the sellers and realtors and they give us all these contracts to set up the happening of closing of a house, if someone's purchasing a house or selling the home.
Speaker 2:Okay, so a couple of questions. Number one, the first question you gave me Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, what's the fifth state?
Speaker 3:Florida, minnesota, tennessee. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Tennessee. And then with the two offices, what's the staff like? Like, where's your office in Arizona? Is in what area? Like Tucson Phoenix, where about?
Speaker 3:Lake Havasu City and the nearest airport with them is Vegas. You got to fly into Vegas. Drive to Lake Havasu City.
Speaker 2:I'm understanding why you chose this location Warm weather and you have to fly into Vegas, Okay. So where are you located here in Tampa?
Speaker 3:2620 Simeon Drive in Land O'Lakes.
Speaker 2:In Land O'Lakes, okay, and how many people are in each of these? Like branch offices, if you will.
Speaker 3:Okay, I have two over there in arizona right now and then I have three over here in land o'lakes, so I handle mostly of um, the, the closings, and I and I have another closer and I have a processor and I'm in a bit in a uh hiring a marketer to do the marketing and other things.
Speaker 2:So well, we can companies grow we can talk about the marketing side after this, but let me understand. So, um, the grand opening in arizona is 8 23. What was the reason seven years ago, like, was there like a, like a light bulb, you just going, you know what, I'm tired of doing it for other people. Or was there like a series of events? Or was there like one issue, like they just totally messed up something at the company you're at? You know what, I'm tired of doing it for other people? Or was there like a series of events? Or was there like one issue, like they just totally messed up something at the company you're at and you're like, you know what. I've had enough. I need to start my own thing.
Speaker 3:What really drove me to start my own thing is number one is I worked a lot of hours, a lot of hours and not getting paid enough, and I'm very loyal and dedicated and what I see for the companies that I work for the clients are just numbers, and I don't like that. So I'm so huge in communication and customer service. I treat all my clients and any referrals to me as my own family, and so that's what I said. Nope, I can't do this Working a lot of hours just to make somebody else rich Not happening Off my back, not happening. So I finally said nope, I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you a question. I know in Florida because I've talked to a ton of realtors, a ton of attorneys and a bunch of title folks. I know in Florida correct me if I'm wrong. Most of your connections that you probably network with and talk to are real estate agents and mortgage brokers because they want to get their deals across the finish line and having a good title company helps them do that. But is it true that an actual homeowner can choose the title company they would like to use because of either better service or better fees or whatever they have the? They really have the driving, and is that the same in every one of your five states? Uh, yes, is that a national law? Or I mean you're only in five states?
Speaker 3:no, because here in florida, some of the counties in Florida, the seller chooses a title company. Minnesota has two title companies, so the buyer chooses one for them and the seller chooses for them. So Minnesota and Wisconsin are the same, so the Midwestern gets to choose their own. So there's two title companies.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you. So if there's two title companies and you your title for sorry, you have the buyer, I have the seller. We're in Minnesota freezing because it's probably August and it's cold already, so I do my title search on my end for the buyer, you do yours for the seller. What happens if there's discrepancies?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have to resolve the discrepancy. So basically, the title search is the commitment that we do, so the seller, the title company, but the buyer of the title company, that buyer has to do the title search because we're the one that's actually dispersing the money. The money is in the escrow on the buyer side in Minnesota. Here in Florida we only have one title company. Whoever the seller chooses a title company, we're the one that disperses. So we have the escrow. So that's yeah.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you this the three folks you have in Land O'Lakes, are they doing titles in all? I mean I'm sure the people in Arizona that are there are doing Arizona, but are people closing deals in all? I mean I'm sure the people in Arizona that are there doing Arizona, but are they are people closing deals in all your other States? Or do you have someone that works like remotely in Minnesota, someone that works remotely in Wisconsin? So you don't have. You still have an office there, but you have people working remote.
Speaker 3:Correctly Correct yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so and and so you said you have five people total in those two offices. How many people total do you have? You have five people total in those two offices. How many people total do you have across all five states?
Speaker 3:well, the ones, the in the tennessee and the minnesota and wisconsin, I just I just hire like a mo, I get like a contractor contractor yeah, contractor to to do that, and then they just go into the real estate offices and all that that's cool, I got you.
Speaker 2:so you have them up there in tennessee and they're going around making some connections to the different offices, going to their networking events to try to make those connections and then trying to pull business in that way, but you don't have the overhead of the office and all that other stuff.
Speaker 3:Correct, correct, because I can't do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I understand, Listen in this economy right now, you know economy yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know what, yeah, you knowingers crossed. Maybe things in the next six to 10 months are really going to start to turn around. We'll see. But anyway, that's a whole political discussion. We're here to talk about you and your business. So you said you've been doing this for 40 years. Tell us a little bit about your story. When you were a little girl, were you playing Monopoly and you got the thrill of buying Park Place and Boardwalk and you're like I want to do this for a living. Or did you have dreams of being a doctor or a dentist or a veterinarian?
Speaker 3:No, no, no, it's funny because I came from the Philippines back in 1981. We migrated here in Minnesota, that is a shock, that's a culture shock.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's what that is the shock, that's a culture shock. Yeah, yeah, and my grandmother used to work for a bank, norwest bank and she usually takes me to when she, when she works, she'll take me there and she'll explain things to me and all that stuff and what everybody does. So I got involved in the real estate and the mortgage industry very first time and then I branched off to um when I was 19. I had, I was going to school and then there was an opportunity, as it's called Minnesota title back then. Now it's all Republic title.
Speaker 1:I was a clerk.
Speaker 3:I was a clerk and it's just open orders and that's it. And then I just worked my way up and I love and fall in love with the title industry and I went to school, real estate school, and then, um yeah, I just it's so do you have? A license as well. I do not title insurance license insurance for it.
Speaker 2:So there is something to because, like, look, the American dream is, you know, owning a home, right like that's. That's kind of the whole thing. I mean life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, all that. But owning a home and having your own little stake of land, being involved in that process, whether it's the realtor who helps you find the house or sell the house, or the mortgage company that gets you the rate that makes it manageable, or the title company that really makes the transaction smooth I don't think people, people like on the street really realize the the vitalness of having a good title company for the entire.
Speaker 2:Now you have to have good underwriting with your mortgage company and all that stuff, but the title company kind of makes everything move along without any hiccups. If you have a bad title company, you could be sitting in a house that is owned by someone's nephew's, brother's, cousin from a hundred years ago that you don't even know. So that's gotta be gratifying for you. You know, seeing it as an early age around your grandmother and then kind of coming up through, that's gotta be super gratifying.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is, it really is. And nowadays there's a lot of fraud happening with uh in the real estate and all that and it's all over. So I'm very much concerned about everybody's assets. You know, it's like when we do the title search to make sure that that contract that you have is actually the owner of the house, and if there's any discrepancy, then that's when I dig in more and more and more. So behind the scenes there's a lot to be done. You know, the most easy to say is sitting at a closing table and facing everybody and explaining documents and signing. That's the easiest part. The hardest part is actually the back end of it. So the processing and all that and making sure that the lenders are on schedule, that everything searches, the survey is scheduled, all that stuff. So it's a lot. One file you can spend. If it's easy, you can spend about a good three hours on it and then the wait waiting around, because then you have to wait for that search to come in. You have to wait for this.
Speaker 2:Everything has to come in and put together well, that that was actually going to be my next question. You've been doing this for 40 years. The process, I mean I remember closings used to take 90 days, you know what I mean so like from your standpoint, how has the technology really even though I understand the things you're saying I wait for this to come back, but doing that, compared to what you had to do 20 years ago, let alone 40 years ago, it's a totally different world.
Speaker 3:No, Sure is it? Sure is Because back then you actually your searchers, actually have to go to the courthouse and do the searching Pull docs, pull docs, pull docs. That takes a while. Now it's just you, just I just go into my system and then I just put order and then whoever my underwriters will send it out for searches. And the same thing with the Lean Searcher Survey. It's all online, everything has a site, everything has an app. Way back then, none of that, actually, that person would actually go to the courthouse and do all that.
Speaker 2:That was you as the clerk. That's what you were doing, right, I'm assuming running back and forth Right. Making copies and all that stuff. I mean that's changed quite a bit and tremendously.
Speaker 2:And not even to mention having to deal with public servants at the courthouse that are always the most pleasant people in the world to have to interact with. But so let me ask you, from taking all that into consideration, what is the biggest misconception that you run into from people? Do they think like that you just press a button and the internet does every bit of the work? I mean, what are you educating people on as you're going through the process?
Speaker 3:Well, right now, that's what they think. They think that all I have to do is push the button right and I have to explain it to them. There's a process with this. So when I do a continuing education for the realtors, we have like a Title 101 education. So we have to explain to them the process of what, from the beginning to the end. Yes, it's possible that I can close a loan, for I mean a five and seven days. Absolutely it's possible. That can close a loan for I mean a file in seven days. Absolutely it's possible. That's in a cash deal, because all I have to do is make the phone call and I go right to the top and they'll get me put in there and get what I need.
Speaker 3:So, yes, but I can't do that to every file that comes in. But all the files that I treat are all the same. They're being treated, you know. It just depends on when the closing is, and if everybody's rushing, then of course I'll put that rushes in front of everybody. If there's a file that's closing until like two weeks ago and then this one got moved up for closing, definitely I'll work on that file. So it's just the rushes. I have to prioritize it.
Speaker 2:Well, and the other thing too, is every time you go into one of the look I'm assuming like I ran a call center in a financial service call center and 90 of the garden variety cases were easy somebody called in. They wanted their balance, I'm assuming probably 90 of your title searches come back, you know, relatively uneventful. But it's those, that 10%, that small amount that it's like oh my God, this was transferred back in 1920 to so-and-so's cousin and then tracking.
Speaker 2:those are the ones that are like, like that's the ones I want to actually see Like the ones that are crazy when I went to real estate school in Atlanta back in 1995, the guy who was doing the instruction was telling us like he was telling us horror stories of like title search issues. Now in Georgia I'm assuming it's kind of similar to Florida Like properties have been in families for 200 years, like it's just so. There are so many little things. Like you know, billy Joe Bob sold off 20 acres of their 10,000 acres to a cousin for 17 chickens back in 1910. I mean, but like legitimately, like crazy stuff, like that. Those are the fun ones. Those are the 10% of the fun ones that you ones that you want to when you get into it. Have you ever had one where you're just like, oh my God, I can't believe how screwed up this is.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have Just recently. Two months ago it was a probate and the father died, and then there was an ex-wife involved, but she died.
Speaker 2:Always the ex-wife.
Speaker 3:It's always the ex-wife that causes the problem and there's a 10 10 beneficiaries that I need to find and get their signatures and talk to them and they're all over, and then yeah, yeah, that's tough yeah, that was really tough and, and on top of that, they're all fighting each other. Why would I sign this? How should I trust you? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah Like oh Lord, yeah, yeah, I've had those doozies and I worked on that file for a good week.
Speaker 1:One day, yeah, that's a tough one.
Speaker 2:I mean, do you run into I mean, you're based out of Land O'Lakes Florida. You know, land O'Lakes Florida is like the sinkhole capital of the world, Like there's more sinkholes in Land O'Lakes Florida than anywhere else in the world Do you run into a lot of properties that have stuff like that on them, or you don't get involved in any of that.
Speaker 3:I don't get involved in that. Okay, yeah, so you're not clearing it for that. You're not clearing it for that, you're just clearing it for paperwork. That's the homeowner's insurance.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah. So we've now talked for almost 18 minutes about business, like serious, like American dream finding people homes when you're not in the office, when you're not working on the ex-wife and the 25 children. What do you like to do for fun when you're not in the office, besides travel?
Speaker 1:to. Vegas 25 children. What do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:when you're not in the office. Besides, travel to Vegas Well, I that's one thing. I like to travel, I like to go on vacation, but I really I've never had a vacation without me opening up my laptop and work. Yeah Well, that's, that's part of being an entrepreneur, I mean, that's part of being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you this even though you opened your laptop on vacation, where's the last place you went that you absolutely loved, that you would let listeners. You would say to listeners right now, I went to this place and it was fantastic.
Speaker 3:It was a Portugal trip. It was one of a lifetime, Portugal, and the most recent one because it was my birthday two weeks ago. It was the Grand Canyon. It was breathtaking.
Speaker 2:Do you dive? Do you like to dive?
Speaker 3:uh skydiving or no like isn't grand cayman like snorkeling?
Speaker 2:and scuba diving no grand canyon, oh, grand canyon see, now I am a little jealous about that because I really do want to go, like I'm not a big go to europe kind of guy, but grand canyon, I would love did you go down into it yes, it was beautiful, it was breathtaking breath.
Speaker 3:I mean, I teared up when I saw the first one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing. Right the tears were coming down yes, yeah, that's.
Speaker 3:It was gorgeous.
Speaker 2:So happy birthday. By the way, my birthday was about four weeks ago. So Portugal, though was it like a trip to a resort or did you go on a cruise? How did you do Portugal?
Speaker 3:It was. We flew to Portugal, me and my sisters and my mom Girl's trip. Yeah, we planned the girl's trip to Portugal, so that was a lot of fun too, because we've seen a lot of sightseeing and all that stuff. Yeah, that was great. I enjoyed that.
Speaker 2:And who did you go to the Grand Canyon with?
Speaker 3:My sister and her fiancé, and then my boyfriend, and I went All right.
Speaker 2:No one was lingering near an edge, there was no issues, like no one was having an argument, I almost and like somebody had an accident because they were getting a little out of line. Like your fiancé didn't get like or your boyfriend didn't get pushed.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, but he was getting nervous because I was getting close to the edge.
Speaker 2:He's like no, no, he was holding my shirt like I'm not gonna fall, so stop pushing, pulling me yeah I'll tell you, I'm scared of heights like I had a bad experience as a little kid that just freaked me out. Um as much I want to see it, but I want to see it from about 10 steps back from the edge. I'm not the guy that gets right up close to it and leans over and looks, but it is definitely on my bucket list of places to go.
Speaker 3:That was on my bucket list, okay.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I get it, I totally can relate to that. So now, how far from a geography standpoint? So now, how far from a geography standpoint. The Arizona office you fly into Vegas. Where is the Grand Canyon? It can't be that far, so it's got to be somewhere along there right.
Speaker 3:About three hours drive, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you the one place I was very upset, or two places. So I was in Maui. I did the road to Hana. That was kind of cool, a little long but I did it. But I was supposed to do a helicopter ride like over stuff, but it was an overcast day so that got canceled. And then I was in Vegas. It's got to be probably oh God, I feel old saying it, the gray hair on my beard tells but it was probably about 20 years ago. I was in Vegas and I was supposed to go to the Hoover Dam. Before we left we booked the Hoover Dam trip but wouldn't you know, like it was like a week or two weeks before I went, a helicopter had crashed in the desert in a sandstorm and they discontinued doing those trips for a while. So I mean, fortunately, like I wasn't I'm not gone, what I was okay, but I missed out on those two aerial views of places that I really see the Hoover Dam.
Speaker 2:I thought would have been really cool to check out. Oh yeah, so Portugal and and going on vacations, what else do you do for fun? Do you like the beach? I mean, you're not. We're about an hour from the beach where we are in.
Speaker 3:Florida I don't, I mean when I moved here in Florida. Yeah, I like the beach.
Speaker 2:Now I don't really go to the beach because there's just there's too many people yeah, I'm the same way, like I like the thought of being on the beach and the nice part of it. It's the getting there and sitting in one lane traffic where I'm like, yeah, muttering things under my breath on the ride, that I'm like why am I? I say it every time. As soon as I get closer to it and it starts to log jam, I'm like why did I do this? Like, why did I subject myself to sand everywhere where it shouldn't be, and this traffic on top of it?
Speaker 3:If I'm going to go to the beach, I'm going to stay there for the weekend and I'm going to tap Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you this One of the things I like to ask and you kind of touched on to bring your computer on vacation, because you never really get a break as an entrepreneur but one of the things I love to ask entrepreneurs is has there been a time in your life, personally or professionally, where you've run into a hardship and you've been dealt some lemons and you turned it into lemonade and come out the other side?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, oh yeah, the, the, the personal. You is like. I got divorced two two years ago and that was harsh because I was trying to get the divorce go um done and then owning a business. So this is like but I, I, I got through that really good and I still standing right here, um, the business wise is is the covid. The covid was harsh harsh because we can't have anybody.
Speaker 3:We have to go into people's car for them to sign. They don't want to come into the office. Those were really hard and I feel them. And that's when the rates are going down. So it's just like COVID hits. And then there's people who want to refinance or whatever. So that was tough.
Speaker 2:So it was busy. It was busy but it was difficult. It was like difficult circumstances. This market right now, I would think, is probably a little difficult as far as transactional.
Speaker 3:It is right now, so, but right now I'm steady, so that's a good thing. But you know, I would like to get more busier, but it's okay Because I can catch up with other things.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Like I have that office in Arizona that's opening. I can focus on that a little bit too.
Speaker 1:A little bit.
Speaker 3:A little bit, so yeah.
Speaker 2:And as we start to wrap this up, what is the one thing? Look, real estate agents, title companies, mortgage guys I could throw a rock from my studio window and probably hit one of each. There's a lot of competition in your market. What's the one thing? People need to know, why they need to work with a solutions title group as opposed to the other folks that are out there?
Speaker 3:We answer our phones, as opposed to the other folks that are out there. We answer our phones.
Speaker 2:You answer your calls.
Speaker 3:The phones yes.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a big one. You get a person on the phone when people call.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, yep. That's one. And also we communicate a lot. We communicate with everybody. Every step that we do, we let everybody know where we're at with that, so nobody's lost. And persistent I'm very persistent.
Speaker 2:We live in a very automated world right now, so much so using something like LinkedIn, a social network, to reach out, to try to connect. When I'm trying to connect with people, I actually write in my connection. This is not an automated email. I am manually writing this message to try to connect to you, because we do live in a society where that interpersonal connection with other people is lost, so having that connection is vitally important. If I want that personal connection, if I want to call and I want to reach you, what's the best way for the listeners to reach out and get ahold of you?
Speaker 3:They can call me. I usually just give out my personal phone call, my cell phone. So if it's urgent enough, I mean I answer my calls Saturday. Agents calls me Saturdays, not Sundays, because I go to church. Sunday is my day. You got to have at least one day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can call me at the cell phone at 407-288-2123 because the office number. There's nobody here, but if they're trying to get over me Saturdays, that's the number that they need to call me and I will answer. If I don't answer, they leave me a voicemail and I will get back to them right away.
Speaker 2:Okay. So you said you weren't going to give your cell phone number and we got the office number and now I have both. So now I'm going to give both. So if you're listening to this and you are looking for someone who's going to pick up the phone, treat you like family and give you the personal attention in the process which, if you're a real estate agent and if you're a homeowner, or if you're a mortgage agent, a mortgage broker going to closing is a stressful time for everybody. Looking for over communication to all parties involved, you need to reach out to Rochelle. It's Ace Solutions Title Group. The office number, which is what we were going to give, is 813-773-3909. Again, 813-773-3909. And her cell phone, since she already gave it, if you need to get a hold of her on Saturdays, it's 407-288-2123. Rochelle, thank you for being a good neighbor and thank you for being on the Good Neighbor Podcast. We appreciate your time today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, mike, appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Pasco. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPascocom. That's GNPPascocom, or call 813-922-3610.