Come To Find Out
Welcome to Come To Find Out- your resource for all things real estate. You can come here to find out about the current market, terms that you see and hear during a transaction, things to do and not to do when you're in contract. The show will also feature interviews with industry partners and leading experts to help you choose who you want on your home buying journey with you. The home buying, selling and investing process can be so overwhelming, so this guide is meant to make it just "whelming."
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Come To Find Out
The Title Insurance Truth
Kevin Alexander from Search to Close pulls back the curtain on what truly happens during real estate transactions, revealing why your choice of title company could be the difference between a smooth closing and a financial nightmare.
Title insurance isn't just another closing cost—it's crucial protection for what's likely your largest investment. Kevin shares eye-opening stories of homeowners who discovered someone else had legitimate claims to their property years after purchase. Without proper title insurance, these homeowners could have lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars settling these claims. Your title policy protects against ownership issues dating back up to 100 years, providing invaluable peace of mind for as long as you own your home.
Beyond basic title insurance, Kevin clarifies the often-misunderstood closing protection coverage. This additional protection (typically $40-55) safeguards against both theft of funds by the title company and ensures proper following of closing instructions. As Kevin explains, "It's all your life savings" for many people—making this small investment in protection well worth it.
The conversation takes a serious turn when addressing wire fraud, with Kevin warning that criminals now use sophisticated voice-over IP phones to impersonate sellers. Both hosts emphasize the importance of verification: always call your title company directly to confirm wiring instructions before sending money. Once wire fraud occurs, those funds are typically gone forever.
Working with local professionals—agents, lenders, and title companies—provides significant advantages. They understand local market nuances, can anticipate potential issues, and typically offer superior customer service. As Kevin notes, "I don't think anybody buying or selling a house should feel rushed through the process." Quality title companies view each closing as an opportunity to educate clients and build lifelong relationships, not just complete transactions.
Ready to buy, sell, or just explore your options? Contact professionals who value education, transparency, and exceptional service throughout your real estate journey.
Sarah Thress
614-893-5885
First Time Home Buyer course: https://sarahthress.graphy.com/
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https://www.youtube.com/@LIFEINCOLUMBUS
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to Find Out. This week we are with Kevin Alexander of Search to Close, which is my absolute favorite title company to work with, and I don't just say that because you're sitting here. Literally I use you as much as I possibly can because of your customer service, and just you guys go the extra mile. You make sure that everything is done. All the I's are dotted, t's are crossed. If I have a crazy situation, which we always do I can come to you and you guys help me figure it out. So thank you so much for taking the time out to talk to us today.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you. And yes, we do know this is a big moment in everybody's life, so we try to make it as special as possible, but also making sure that it is a closing and, when we're all done, that everything's done correctly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that, I love that. So can you kind of walk me through? You know, obviously, buying a home A lot of the people that are listening are either first-time homebuyers or haven't bought in years that they don't realize that roundtable closings, things like that, aren't a thing anymore. But could you kind of just walk us through why would someone want to use a title company at closing versus just going and signing the papers and just being like I bought a house?
Speaker 2:First of all, I'd like to say if you're not buying a home right now, you're going to be late. Now's the time to buy. Central Ohio, florida, all these places are only appreciating. But yes, when you do buy a home, it's extremely important. In fact, we actually don't transfer property any longer. Up until about two years ago, we we are big believers in title insurance, so a lot of people trust that the seller is a nice guy or a nice lady or that the LLC is on the up and up. But the beauty of title insurance is you're buying a home with the peace of mind knowing that you have a title insurance policy to cover anything and everything that can happen that has happened over the last up to 100 years, as long as that property has been in existence.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. So have you ever had a situation where you know someone bought a property and then someone else came along and was like, hey, actually that's my property. Would that be a good reason why you would want to have that title?
Speaker 2:insurance and things.
Speaker 2:Thankfully, it's been a long time.
Speaker 2:Okay, we went through some more difficult times when search to close was still growing, right before the housing crash, probably close to 18 to 20 years before we've had one of those really gun-wrenching situation where the buyer calls and says the person's knocking on my door, they're the rightful owner of their property or they've come back from being in the service, which is one of the reasons that when you have distressed property with tax deeds or foreclosures that you really really, really need to make sure you use a title company, because theoretically, somebody could come back from combat or being in the service for two years and just because they haven't paid their taxes doesn't mean they might not have some rights to redeem the property.
Speaker 2:Now, nine times out of 10, the title insurance underwriter buys them out. You know for their rightful interest in the property, but you surely would not want to buy a house and then have to write a potential seller that was missed or a lien holder a check for $25,000, $50,000, $150,000. That's for our big underwriters at Search to Close First, american and Stewart to Do, although they put a lot of trust in us to make sure that they don't write big checks.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I was going to say I feel like you guys are so thorough and I can't say that about every single company out there but I feel like you guys are so thorough and you know, I've even had you come and be like, hey, I found this, like does this seem normal, like you know? Or we found this, or things like you know. Just, I can't even think of off the top of my head one of those situations. But there's been times that you've, you've asked a question, that I've asked, you know, my seller, and they're like, oh gosh, I didn't know about that. Or oh, I totally forgot about that. And you know you guys uncovered it and made it to where like, ok, great, then we addressed it.
Speaker 2:It was a smooth years after closing and say I was a little bit concerned as to whether I had parking at my condo and how many parking spots I had. And now there's a big lawsuit going on which is happening here in Columbus right now, where there's a big lawsuit going on that some of the units have lost their right to parking their car. So they're trying to figure out where to park. So you bought a condo you thought you had your one parking spot. It's a little lower end condo but a pretty neat, you know, starter condo for a lot of first time homebuyers and to find out that a poor working person is temporarily being forbidden to park their car can be a stressful situation. So the other thing we try to train buyers is to you know, a lot of times we take care of making sure they're going to get clear title and the commitment. But not a bad idea to read your title commitment but, more importantly, even read your mortgage location survey. Some people move in thinking they put a fence in and it might not be allowed.
Speaker 2:Yeah people move in, thinking they put a fence in and it might not be allowed. Yeah, some people assume they can take a fence down and they don't ask the questions prior. They take it down and they call us later because they realize they actually just took the neighbor's fence down. So there's a lot of I mean. One of the my favorite things, sarah, of Columbus Ohio is because we do a lot of business, as you know, in Florida and Florida's got a lot of amazing agents in Tampa Bay, but it's a bigger state. There's a lot of part-time agents and there's a lot of real estate agents that just aren't educated and they close one transaction once a year or once every two years. So people get a lot of bad direction.
Speaker 2:What I really like about Columbus Ohio is we have a lot of really good real estate agents and buyers are crazy. We have a lot of really good title companies. We got a lot of really good mortgage companies to choose from. As you probably recommend, like we do, whenever a friend of mine asks and they start talking about how they've negotiated a great rate online from an out-of-state lender, we try to convince them to talk to a local loan officer. We always obviously convince them to talk to a local real estate agent. So I think where people miss the boat when they buy or sell a house is they don't utilize the fact that, yes, there's some closing costs when you get to the table, but nobody charges extra for hourly rate.
Speaker 2:Now, buyer's agents might hate this because they've taken these people to 50 to 100 houses right now, with the sometimes hard to find the right house or get an offer accepted for a buyer. But you're crazy not to ask all the questions you can from your mortgage lender, your title company and your real estate agent. You know most people don't know this. You can even talk to our surveyor if you have follow-up questions after they've been out to the house, because they've already taken pictures and done their measurements and done that other stuff. You can call your homeowners association. They're not always easy to get a hold of, no, so there's a ton of resources that you're really crazy to not take advantage of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's what you like about us and we love about dealing with agents like you. We don't view this closing room or the whole closing process as a time for you to just sign the paperwork and get you out the door. We view you as a customer for life and we view you even if you're a buyer and you didn't necessarily pick us in Central Ohio. We want that to be a place where you leave the closing more educated than you were before you bought your first house, your second house and some people have bought three and four houses and they've still not had a great closing with a great real estate agent where they've learned a whole heck of a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they get really nervous because it hasn't been a great experience.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, no, I totally agree, and I think, again, that's where you guys stand out, because there's been other title companies that I've worked with in the past and I've literally had them tell my client like we only have an hour for this closing, so like don't ask any questions, and I'm like like that is the most I mean.
Speaker 1:I just I cringed because they literally said that to my client who was a first time seller first, and then like buying another property. And so she was like okay, but like, but I have questions, and they were like well, you should have already asked them.
Speaker 1:Like this is just for closing Whereas I've been here and you know I've had some of your closing agents literally sit with us for hours answering every question, you know, making sure that they understood everything, and never once, even if inside they were like, oh my god, I have 17 other things to do today. They never let that show, they just were like, okay, absolutely like, and they make them feel seen, heard, understood, like, and to me that's huge um, so that's why I continue to send people here we appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I want to continue to come back. I don't like when I get treated like that and rush through the car buying process. Uh, thankfully I haven't had to buy one in a while, but, um, and also I've grown to the age where I have friends in the car business so I get a little more attention, but um, at the end of the day, uh, I don't think anybody buying or selling a house should feel like you do. Sometimes when you're buying a car and they're saying be ready, the finance manager is going to give you his 15 minutes and you got to get out the door and I think that's why you are very particular on wanting to have your buyers use really good loan officers who you also know are going to give them the time of day as well.
Speaker 2:We just had a closing the other day where the mortgage company forgot to put the mortgage insurance on the closing disclosure. I brought it up at the closing table and the buyer said my payment looks too low. I think it's about $80 too low. I don't know what's going on and the loan officer sort of chuckled it off like haha yeah, we're getting new docs sent over. I'm sorry that the $80 a month was on there, but he knew about it, so we're going to add it back in there. So those are the kind of experiences that if I was a buyer even first time, or however many times, I'd be a little concerned.
Speaker 2:So, but I think overall I mean when I say those things that's no discredit to how great our title competitors are.
Speaker 2:We've got bad ones and good ones but so I think that would also go by choose, choose your. I think people think a realtor is a realtor, I think people think a loan officer is a loan officer and a title company is a title company, and it couldn't be any further from the truth. So you really do, especially in today's market, you're going to be up against. If you're really in a hot school district or a really good neighborhood that is coveted by a lot of buyers, you're going to really have to have a good real estate agent to make sure that they're putting in that offer all the things they can to make sure that your offer gets noticed. On a multiple offer situation, as you know, there could be home inspections. But, yeah, the title insurance piece is the big part, but making sure you do your research and choose which. Every consumer in Ohio and the federal government always has the right to choose their title company and any agents they work with, so nobody should ever feel forced into doing anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because they do have that choice. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, at the closing table I get this question a lot, you know, because, again, you all do such an amazing job at sending out all the documents before closing so that they have a chance to like kind of read through it and stuff. And I always get the question OK, what is this extra protection, like, do I need it? And you know, I always tell them like I can't tell you whether you do need it or don't need it, like it's up to you. You do need it or don't need it, Like it's up to you. But I will say at the last closing I did and you were there, which also amazed me that like the owner of the company is doing our closing and you just act like it's no big deal for you, which is awesome. But I felt like you explained it so well. So if someone was to ask you about that closing protection, the additional protection, what would you? You know, how do you explain that to people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think it was a seller, right. So the buyers the buyers are, unless you're. It would be a choice, if you're a cash buyer, to get the additional closing protection coverage, for I think it's $40 now. But if you're a buyer, you do have to purchase it on behalf of the mortgage company. So there's a misconception in our industry that you have little to no coverage because you're giving that money to the guy that's going to steal all your money anyway. Right, when there's actually two components to the closing protection coverage for a seller. Number one, they have the coverage for the money of any theft or appropriation by the title company and number two, they also have following closing instructions. So there's two components in that for $55.
Speaker 2:Now, for a good majority of the people, the seller has a lot of faith in their real estate agent. The real estate agent has a lot of faith in their real estate agent. The real estate agent has a lot of faith in their existing title relationship. Your folks had already purchased it and they were debating on whether or not they should get get the money back and get a refund, which we'd have been happy to do so at the closing table. But, um, that was actually their life savings. I think they had told me they were pouring all that money into another house to buy, I think with cash, I don't know if I remember that correctly.
Speaker 1:You did yeah.
Speaker 2:And they had just heard a story of somebody who had lost a tens of thousands of dollars on another property in Southern Ohio and the title company, the underwriter, and nobody was giving that money back pending the investigation. They were saying, hey, we might give it back, but they were unable to buy any houses until that money had been recovered and there was no guarantee they were going to get those tens of thousands of dollars back. So these people felt comfortable enough and said no disrespect to you, sarah, no disrespect to you, kevin, but if I'm going to get additional coverage from First American, your title insurance underwriter or steward I can't remember who it was in this policy, they're both great ones. If it's all okay to you, we're just going to keep the $55, uh item in place. That figure was, uh put on the settlement statement and that coverage then is in place for them through first American title insurance company out of California or Stewart out of Texas that holds millions of dollars with the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, the other thing I would give advice to too is make sure you either send the check in in advance or make sure it's on your settlement statement so you have proof you paid it. Because if you just hand a crook a check and that check never gets cashed, you really don't necessarily have and you don't have a copy of the letter. You don't necessarily have and you don't have a copy of the letter, you don't necessarily have coverage. So we had some elderly folk. An elderly woman had just lost her husband and she asked if her husband, if we had any idea when she purchased her and her husband five years ago, if he had placed any, you know, in the event of his death. You know mortgage insurance not the typical mortgage insurance cover the bank but my inability to pay the mortgage insurance.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I said well, unfortunately there's nothing on your settlement statement. You purchased a closing, which wouldn't be normal, and if you can't produce and find a copy of that policy and you're you know you as a widow and your deceased husband's records nobody's going to give you an insurance policy unless you have proof of coverage. So the key to all that is to get proof of coverage. Yeah, and when you show up at a title insurance closing, you should be having already in your possession a commitment to get a title insurance policy which comes after the closing, just like you would. If you're getting ready to get homeowner's insurance on the house, the agent gives you a declarations page to say as soon as we get paid after the closing, we're going to insure the property. So a title insurance commitment is no different we're committing to insure the policy as soon as we get paid for it after we close the loan.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And after we get your deed and mortgage recorded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that because, yeah, I would say before you gave that explanation the last time that we met. I did always say you know, like I can't tell you whether to take it or not, take it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But if you do, you're basically paying the person that you're giving your money to, that you're wiring. You're paying them to not steal your money, so they're going to steal your money. They're going to steal that too, because that was how I understood it. So I loved that you explained it more, because it made me think wow. I think that it is a really good thing that people should take, because I was always under the impression I won't say I was taught. I was under the impression that if you knew the title company and they had been around, they were established. You didn't have to worry about it, because this all came about from mom and pop. Places that you know, back in the day, were popping up stealing your money and then leaving town to because it seems so more.
Speaker 2:Here in Columbus we're a very trusting group. It's a bigger town now with a real small town feel, and people fall in that trap of who you trust. And the problem is this closing protection coverage came from a guy in 2007. Everybody loved him, everybody trusted him. He was one of the most well-respected title agents at the time until everybody found out that him and his wife had embezzled all the money and nobody got their money back. That particular title company and I think another one in Cincinnati made it.
Speaker 2:So the attorney general or somebody at the time decided it was important enough to create the legislation, along with the title insurance underwriters, to enact the ability to approve closing protection coverage. Now the one thing I guess to clarify yeah, the reason this is important is your title insurance policy. And this is for maybe a little over the head of the first time homebuyers that's OK, maybe not or seasoned people and maybe a lot of real estate agents don't know this. Your title insurance policy is just title insurance. It doesn't cover escrow and financial of the closing piece. So remember, all title agents are title insurance agents and we're escrow agents. That's why we have escrow accounts. So the closing protect the title insurance companies, although they do get. They have paid out for bad acting title companies when there's big embezzlement, so they somehow get dragged in by the state and by lawyers when a title company embezzles a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Technically, a title insurance underwriter and a title insurance agent only protects the title insurance for the ownership of the home and all those other pitfalls that can happen. And remember you buy it one time. You get it for as long as you own the house. If you own the house for 50 years, your title insurance is still covering you. The closing protection coverage piece was enacted because there was no coverage for losing a seller's money, losing a seller's money.
Speaker 2:And there was no coverage for when title and escrow or I shouldn't say title companies, when escrow and closing sides weren't following instructions and, you know, harming buyers and sellers because they didn't follow the instructions they were given. They were given instructions to pay $1,500 in a rate on. It was crystal clear they were giving instructions or given instructions to pay somebody off or move money that the seller had agreed to pay for $25,000. And they didn't follow instructions by the buyer, sellers and the real estate agents. And then they're telling everybody to pound salt because they just screwed up but we're not paying $15,000. Grand, you've got some other things in that closing protection letter also that covers you against a bad title and escrow company.
Speaker 2:I remember a long time ago we had an employee who had bought their first house. They would not allow when you don't use search to close. I strongly encourage buyers that are friends of mine to spend the extra $20 if they're getting a loan and go ahead and get that closing protection coverage and purchase it in advance, because our poor employee who was also a buyer about 10 years ago when he showed me the settlement statement they had somehow I think it was this poor lady's first day the brand new title company that the seller's real estate agent wanted to use and they had somehow done something in the system and there was like five things that got double charged. So they were double charged for the survey, they were double charged for the closing on the same side and the same buy side. So that was be more of the extreme, because most of our title agents in Columbus are pretty good. But we had a lot more peace of mind knowing that we had additional coverage because this place was under and it was a nice human being over there, but they had no idea what they were doing.
Speaker 2:So it goes back to your trust factor. Not that you shouldn't trust a lot of people, but sometimes there's overtrust. I mean, we do have some wire fraud issue going on that's rampant in America and I think a lot of people have a little bit too much trust. They trust the email that came to them a little too much. Yeah, you know they trust somebody that calls. I think we're all onto the toll thing, but somehow people are still victim of wire fraud as of this day.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and that's such a good point because I always I probably scare my buyers because I stress this so much, but I stress it because I just want them to understand it's so serious. I always say I'm never going to send you wiring instructions, so if you get an email that it says it's from me and I'm asking.
Speaker 1:You know I'm giving you wiring instructions, like look closely at the email. It probably is like one letter off or you know something, and they're going to make it look real good because these criminals use all their powers for bad. And you know, I always joke that like if they would just use their powers for good, we'd probably have a cure for cancer at this point.
Speaker 2:But instead-.
Speaker 2:They're using phones now too. Our last one that we caught prior to closing we found out the group is in Nigeria and they were posing as fake sellers. So they're actually even now this was kind of a new thing recently using voice over IP phones to talk to buyers, talk to sellers, call title companies and because I think they are onto the fact that people are getting better at it and it's like you telling their people to call and verify. So I think the key to this is always's like you telling their people to call and verify. But so I think the key to this is always trust who you're working with to verify. Yeah, and that's why, even after they get an email, a secure email from our secure link at Search Close, they're still supposed to call. Yeah, that's in their instructions and we love it and we're loving when they call and they're verifying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I love that you say that because I have some clients that are like I feel bad.
Speaker 2:Like I don't want to bother them.
Speaker 1:I'm like that's their job. They actually would love for you to call, because if you wire that money and you didn't call, that money's gone, like you're never going to see it again. And they're like, wait what? And I'm like, yeah, this is why when you get the email, even if it's, I was like and it's only going to be like a few days before closing, it's not going to be. You know, you're not going to get it the first week. We're in contract and when you get it, I still want you to call. I want you to go to the bank and I want you to call the title company. You can even hand your phone to the bank person if you need to.
Speaker 1:And that way they can read off the numbers and then we all make sure that it's all correct and they're like okay, and I'm like I'm not trying to scare you, but there are so many crazy people out there that are gonna try and scam you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and that's kind of why we are still proponents of title insurance. Obviously, it's our number one product in what we sell. Yeah, proponents of title insurance.
Speaker 2:Obviously, it's our number one product and what we sell. Yeah, but at the end of the day, um, even in the last housing crisis, uh, banks struggled, mortgage insurance companies struggled to pay out and title insurance stood strong because, uh, we had a lot of problems after the housing crisis. So, uh, title insurance industry was the one that was there, we paid out and we made sure everybody was taken care of. So we're the behind the scenes and we're the ones that are here to make sure that nobody has that nightmare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there are certain parts of the state where people don't buy title insurance. Yeah, and you asked kind of for a story the other day, but I remember we had a. We had a closer in Dayton that we use because we're mainly central Ohio now. Yeah, we used to do a lot more business across the state and he called and said my cousin just bought this house and I know we don't normally buy title insurance, but can you look at the settlement statement? Because Dayton normally doesn't buy Owners don't normally buy title insurance, just the banks on behalf of their buyers. And unfortunately he was stuck working with the IRS and a seller who was long gone and still deal on the IRS. We've also had great stories where people call and say the IRS or the federal government's calling or right now we're having a lot of crazy stuff going on with, you know, medicare liens and Medicaid liens and different stuff like that, and buyers are stuck dealing with those until these things get sorted out.
Speaker 2:If you've got a title insurance policy, those are the things that you can look at and get taken care of. Yeah, unless you're already part of the family and then you got to deal with your own mother or aunts or grandmas or whoever inherited the property. But if it's a bona fide sale, you have those protections in place of title insurance where you don't have to hire an attorney and still find out because love some people in our government. But if you lose money in wire fraud or you have a problem with your house, they're going to sound very sympathetic on the phone but there isn't a whole heck of a lot that the federal government's going to do for you on wire fraud or title insurance claims if you don't have it. You know we kind of learned that through the Florida floods that it's still a little bit of you being on your own. Even though FEMA did step up and pay some of that stuff, you still have to, you know, to make yourself totally whole and get everything back to where it was. Some of that money is still going to be on you as yourself. So it's just another example of trusting and verifying when you buy and sell a house.
Speaker 2:And I can't stress enough that whenever we have a problem, sarah, it's usually because bad realtor, bad loan officer, bad title company. So but I know when we have problems with our files because they don't all close perfectly after closing, it's usually because somebody didn't tell us about something or the realtor knew about it and the realtor and the seller decided it wasn't important enough to let anybody know. Kind of back to your point earlier. Just say something. Yeah, yeah, hey, we got a question on the HOA. Um, the settlement statement says it's $290, but the MLS says it's $560 a year. What do you guys think? I mean, we'd rather have you tell us that we got bad information for the HOA or we made an honest mistake and, like I said earlier, get it corrected at the closing. So don't ever think you should be not asking questions at the closing table before, during or after, even if it's a day after.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, and I love that For your realtor if they're working with title company that doesn't take your phone calls.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:After a closing or at a closing, or what you said earlier, and says I only have 20 minutes and we got to get you in and out of here. There's people waiting in the lobby, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. Yeah, I was very angry at that one.
Speaker 1:Yes, I've never had that situation with you all, though, which, again, is why I will continue to come back. But, yeah, to your point. I mean it does. It matters who you work with, and local lenders know what's going on in central Ohio, and they can, you know, like.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I try and point out is that there are some big companies out there I'm not going to use their names, but there are some big companies out there that do a lot of advertising and they make it seem like they're going to get you this amazing deal and that you're going to have this great interest rate, this great interest rate, and then they start working with them and they learn that that, uh, what I've learned about some of these companies, um, is that they, their agents get paid for each milestone you hit. So, if you fill out an application, they get a bonus. If you, you know, go through this next step, you get a bonus, even though there's no way you're ever going to actually, like, close those deals. Uh, you know all the terms they're telling you are actually false. So that's why I always try and you know stress to people like I would love for you to work with somebody local. I can't force you to.
Speaker 1:Here's a. You know a handful of people that I work with. I get nothing in return for recommending them, just like I get nothing in return from recommending you guys, except for knowing my people are taken care of.
Speaker 2:And five star.
Speaker 1:Any return from recommending you guys except for knowing my people are taken care of and five-star customer service is huge to me.
Speaker 2:So well, we appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you're a very caring, unique agent that doesn't get paid by title companies, which we don't do as well. So we, uh, we pride ourselves on the fact that we are, you know, referral only from listing agents or people who have worked with us before, and nobody's picking search to close because the real estate agent's getting paid, and which is, to us, the natural progression, and we do appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely Well. Thank you so much for taking time out. Is there anything that maybe we haven't said about search?
Speaker 2:to close, I know I've bragged on you guys a lot, but is there anything else that maybe we didn't cover that you'd really like to just give a shout out about Search, to Close contract, to call and reach out for help. So we're a pay it forward kind of company. We want you, we want somebody to have their first closing with us be the best they've ever had buyers, sellers, investor, real estate agent and know that they can call us for anything. We got a lady who closed with us 17. Me and Patrick our attorney just talked to yesterday, and her and her husband are getting a divorce. We're going to have a deed signing set up for them in California, I think tomorrow, and that's not something we make any money on. We do that at cost. If you want to take a look at a specific property, we're going to get a title search and get a look at it for you. If you want our surveyor to take a peek at it, at no cost to you. So we just really think, uh, you can get educated before a closing by, and I think there's a lot of real estate agents.
Speaker 2:I've got an agent in Tampa right now that are Clearwater that just out of curiosity for investment properties. She's sending me an MLS drip and, just in case, a great deal, because I still like buying investment properties myself to see if something in Island Way, which is a great community that got flooded, to see if anybody's severely selling and if I can get a great deal on a property on Island Way. And I even asked Tony the other day. I said can you? I don't want you to be paying for this or a nuisance, because it might be two, three years before I do anything um, and she said, no, no, you've been always been good to me. And um, I'm just going to keep you on there. If it's annoying you and your email, I'll take it off. So she knows I'm not a buyer now, but I might be a buyer down the road and she's willing to put me on her, on her, her, keep me on that MSL drip, just for the one zip. I only want one zip code. And um, at the end of the day, that's how we want people to feel, like us to say I'm looking at a building, I'm looking at a house. Uh, you know, I guess the other thing we tell people I don't know if our main audience here is central Ohio or both, but, um, if anybody needs a referral. I know you do Florida and do a great job. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Don't call a stranger in Florida you don't know. Call Sarah directly or call me. I really only have specific help in Clearwater Beach and Clearwater, but it's crazy for you to just call a strange real estate agent out of the blue. When I moved down there I called three. Only one called me back and it was Tony. Wow, I take that back. The other two did call me back. It just took them five days and I had already left the area. So Tony had called me back that same day and she also. We looked at a condo later that day. We didn't end up buying at that time, but so I think there's a.
Speaker 2:I guess I would say there is a difference at Search to Close. There's a difference with a great real estate agent and you guys shouldn't accept the same way. You accept great service at a great restaurant and you don't go back if it's not good. Don't keep accepting bad service at a bad real estate company, at a bad mortgage company or a bad title company. So there's a lot of good ones out there. You've got a great one. We've got a great one and we've also got some great mortgage referrals and we've got guys that'll talk to you about getting approved, even if you're not buying for a year and you just want to get a drip campaign to see what's out there.
Speaker 2:But I will tell you as my last thing and you can shut me up if I'm babbling on you're all good I know my son was afraid to pull the trigger about five years ago I think, and um, his budget started at 150. He was terrified to buy his house. He's gonna have catholic kids, so he lives over on broad and 270. About five years ago he was terrified to buy uh,000 on the house that he has and I think last time we checked we think it's worth about $400,000. So they started in Bexley at $150,000 and quickly got priced out. This is probably when he first started. He's a very conservative when it came to the house. Then, when they got priced out of Bexley they moved over a little bit into Columbus City Schools, thought they are an amazing neighborhood. They were, like I said, terrified to spend $250,000. Got a great interest rate at the time, which helped too. But even with a bad interest rate he's already gained $150,000 in equity, loves the neighborhood, loves the house and now they have two kids and it's the perfect place.
Speaker 2:So you might not be comfortable enough buying, but I think you're crazy, if you're really gonna be a homeowner one day, to not start getting on a drip campaign to see what's out there and you might find something that you'd be shocked is out there, because you correct me if I'm wrong. Not every neighborhood is a multiple offer. I know a friend of mine who couldn't pick searched clothes in West Mansfield and his wife are pretty ecstatic that you know they don't care about being in a you know a neighborhood or a school system no kids yet. So they're ecstatic to have some property in West Mansfield and they thought they were never going to find anything and their real estate agent just found them something. So it really is a time to. If it's not the time to buy, it's a time to look and I think it's the time to buy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that, I totally agree. And yeah, I always tell people like this is your timeline, it's not mine. So, like I don't care, I have clients right now that I've literally been showing houses to for four years and and they just haven't found the right one yet. And that's okay, you know, and I have other. Um, I have other agents that are like that's crazy and I'm like well, but why Like?
Speaker 1:it literally costs me nothing to keep sending them emails and it's like you know, every time that we go look at a house, I'm learning more and more about them, so it makes it easier for me to be like, oh yeah nope you're not going to like that because of this, this and this.
Speaker 1:So we don't even have to go look at it because they're like, oh yeah, I didn't see that. Okay, yeah, and I'm like, okay, you know, so, yeah, so I love that you guys are the same way and you know, it's really, it's just all about our clients and whatever they need. Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us and hopefully you gained a lot of knowledge today. I know I did so good, yeah, so absolutely make sure that you leave a review. Five star is always much appreciated, but that feedback is a gift to both of us. Make sure you're sharing this, because anytime you can share it, that is the greatest gift you can give both of us is just sharing that out there. Also, make sure that you follow along so you never miss another episode. Thanks so much and we'll see you next time on Come to Find Out.