Fran 'The Title Man' Gaspari Title Insurance-PA & NJ

Now that most of the Tea Parties are over...the next ALL AMERICAN event that signals the official arrival of Spring...

LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL OPENING DAY...Saturday, April 18, 2009...

I don't know how it's done in your area, but we make a big deal about it in Amity Township...

All the kids assemble together, including girls softball, and parade down onto the major league field...each player and coach introduced singly...

Capped off by a brief ceremony honoring last year's winners and runners up, then beginning a full slate of games on all fields in multiple locations all day long...!!!

I have two boys in Little League Majors and my daughter plays softball (Just as exciting)...!!!

The weather forecast is incredibly nice...

So here's hoping for a great family day for all...!!!

And just in case they forget...a moment of silence for Phillie's Major League Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas who passed away earlier this week...!!!

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Harry, we'll miss you now that you're 'Outta here'...With you, every game was a 'Home Run'...!!!

It's unfortunate that so few people are aware or appreciate the role that title insurance companies and their agents play in the real estate transactional process...

And I'm talking not only about consumers, but even people in places of authority who ought to know more than they seem to display...

One such example of oligarchical and bureaucratic ignorance, comes from our own Pennsylvania Attorney General's office...

In a recent announcement it stated:

Attorney General calls for significant cuts in Title Insurance rates for PA consumers; opposes industry request for rate increase...

Later in the article available at http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=4358 it notes that 85% of the premiums paid by consumers were paid by title companies to insurance companies, brokers, and agents...

As a licensed Pennsylvania Title Insurance Agent for many of the almost 40 years I have been around real estate in Pennsylvania, I would ask the Attorney General's office, "What do you think we do with that 85% 'commission'..."

We surely don't pocket it...in fact, I'll be bold enough to say that the majority of it goes to salaries and payment for services necessary to provide consumers with efficient, dependable, and cost effective closings...!!! And unlike appraisers, who get paid in advance for the services they render, title agents are on the hook for services they must prepay for and are never given any reimbursement if the transaction doesn't close...And in this current climate the percentage of fatalities can exceed 20% of applications taken (A historical norm would be around 10%)...This is all anecdotal evidence, but I wouldn't shy away from any debate relative to these figures...!!!

Oh, and by the way, I voted for the current Attorney General, thinking that transparency would come to our industry on his watch...and he would clean up the illegal affiliations and controlled business schemes that are really costing the consumer plenty...

And so, once more we see government and its wasteful spending tactics in action...MISDIRECTED energies, for political gain or voter popularity...??? Who knows...!!!

All I DO know is...ask anyone in the bowels of the title insurance industry...and they'll avow that they're overworked and underpaid...and that goes for this writer as well...

There are plenty of corrupt politicians, white collar criminals, scam artists, illegal affiliations, and the like ripping off consumers...go after them Mr. Attorney General...and for God's sake...WE NEED A RAISE...!!!

Philadelphia Eagles Vs Daniel Boone Blazers Alumni & Faculty...2009...!!!

Every year for the past few years the Blazers Booster Club has sponsored this basketball game event as a fund raiser and a special event enjoyable by residents of all ages...!!!

It seems that each year the attendance increases to set new records for a sporting or amusement event...

I hope this year is no exception and the Boosters enjoy a successful fund raiser...!!!

My wife has used this occasion to set up a 'boys night out' for the males in our family, and an opportunity for the gentler gender to also take advantage of a 'girls only' night at some other local gathering place...

This year...Monkey Joes...!!!

I hope this day turns out well for all concerned...!!!

Before you read too much into that title, let me assure you I am not a workaholic...well at least, NOT EXACTLY...

Yesterday was a snow day, not so much that we got a large accumulation of the white stuff (we only got about 6 inches total), but the roads were treacherous, the temperature was single digits real feel, and the winds were blustery and gusting...all in all, a good day, if any, to call it quits when it comes to making it in to work...

Now the good news about staying home in this age of technology and easily available information is that through e-mail, cell phone, broadband internet access, etc., you can literally get a lot accomplished from your favorite seat at home...

Which I attempted to do yesterday...

However, at about 3 PM, I began to feel like I needed to get something accomplished...and so...

I decided to change the filters in my domestic home water line...we have well water that requires two filters...one for sediment and rust, and the other for taste and odor...

Without getting into too many technical details, in the process of doing this I put too much torque on the main water supply line and it snapped right off...and I could tell immediately, it didn't break in an ideal place...if there is such a thing...

My astute mind quickly surveyed the damage, and I realized I needed the services of a Professional...AND FAST...

Now I was able to shut off the main water supply, so I wasn't faced with a deluge or tsunami of water all over the place...BUT...

In my home, with a geothermal HVAC system for heating and cooling, when I have no water, I have no heat (there is an all electric emergency backup setting which I'm always reluctant to use because of the expense)...

Which translated means that it was now 4 o'clock, I have 5 children under 15, a dog, a wife originally from Texas who gets irate when the snow causes any inconvenience, temperatures dropping outside faster than the big ball in Times Square on New Years Eve, a fireplace in the family room that requires constant attention and refueling, and darkness settling upon the whole situation...hmmmmm...

After a quick prayer, I decided to call my HVAC guy and friend, Brian Conrad, owner of Amity Heating and Cooling...

Like the true Professional and caring gentleman he is...he was over to assess the situation in less than an hour...and agreed with my conclusion that it was neither a timely nor a strategically located break...nevertheless...after making a few quick phone calls to locate parts before suppliers closed for the day, and after trying a 'quick rig' solution that failed...Brian was able to completely redo a long section of supply line piping, complete with 3 or 4 shut off valves and several complicated looking T's, compliments of Ace Hardware of Douglassville (great guys, great store)...

Suffice it to say...by 8 o'clock everything was back to 'normal' in the Gaspari household...thanks to Brian Conrad and Amity Heating & Cooling...!!!

Sometimes it's safer and more profitable to GO TO WORK...rather than STAY HOME...!!!

We bloggers here on Active Rain are being challenged to post a content-rich consumer post for prospective buyers...SO...

Prospective purchasers of real estate, listen up...!!!

Before you even look at your first home consideration, let me describe briefly the transaction process...

A real estate transaction is a fairly complex, significantly important, and usually financially straining process...focus on the word STRAINING...

Now don't look at STRAINING as meaning STRESSFUL...

Look at the transactional process as a giant filter or, better yet, a series of filters, designed to separate out all the impurities and eliminate them from the transaction...we begin with the offer, the agreement of sale, the single most important document in a real estate purchase...this document gives us the course through which we must steer this ship, and the filters we must navigate through, in order to arrive safely at our destination...our goal...FINAL SETTLEMENT...and accomplished in a filtered, streamlined, minimally stressful, efficient, and hopefully pleasant manner...

The Title Company is the single most important FILTER in our analogy...WHY???

Because the Title Company is the last line of defense against avoiding an unpleasant and even possibly corrupt closing experience...THE LAST FILTER in the series of filters...the filter stops here...

This analogy only works if you have an independent title company whose ultimate allegiance is to its INSURED (usually the buyer)...

If you opt for a ONE STOP SHOP closing transactional experience, your title company is really only a facilitator to protect the closing from going south and thus protecting lucrative commissions to real estate agents and/or affiliated lender entities...

Is this always the case...???

By no means!

There are many caring ONE STOP SHOP title operations that operate in an ethical manner...problem is...can we the consumer determine which to trust and which to stay clear of...You'd better have a great 6th sense to make the correct discernment in this regard...

Consumers...Have I frightened you...I apologize, but I am passionately involved in assuring pleasant, efficient, ethical and stress free closing experiences to every customer...

Only then will my goal be realized and consumers really be king...!!!