David Stevens

Much of our time here at Texas Homeland Title is spent in what we like to call "consultation" with our clients on their real estate title issues. While we love the deals that come into the office that open and close without a hitch, the real estate title business, at least ours here at Texas Homeland, is much more than a conveyor belt of real estate contracts opening and closing, opening and closing. opening and closing.

Rather, our business is about helping our clients in all ways possible. (As I've written before, our clients are real estate brokers, loan officers, real estate investors and builders who direct business to us. Our customers are their customers.)

This means that we actually spend lots of time working with clients before they ever have a contract on a given piece of property. For example prudent clients will come to us prior to listing an acreage tract and have us do at least some minimal preliminary title work to determine if the person who has represented himself as the seller is at least likely to be the vested owner of the property. That always helps! Or, clients often come in or call to get a head start on an heirship issue that they think is likely to rear its head. Doing these things prior to execution of a contract, or even prior to (or contemporaneously with) taking a listing, can cut down on delays. And we all know that its delays, maybe more than anything else, that kill deals.

We have many clients who come into our office on a regular basis to discuss the latest deals they're working on because they know that talking about deals at the title company often reveals issues that they had not even thought about or considered. Some, I like to think, simply come in to say hi because they just like us.

We really do value our customers and we want to help them in any way we can. Sometimes a client will come in and ask for help on a certain issue, and somebody here, or more than one person even, will stop and drop what they're doing and jump immediately on that client's problem. Occasionally, we find ourselves swamped, covered up by a stack of client issues that are not associated with contracts. These are stacks of work for which we typically charge no fee whatsoever. But we tackle problems, we tackle issues, and we tackle the circumstances our clients bring us. We do this because we care.

Of course, we hope that these clients for whom we do no-fee title work will remember this and will bring us their contracts to close. But this does not always happen. We do not discriminate when it comes to helping out. We help clients and non-clients alike. Maybe we shouldn't. Maybe we should put no-fee work from non-clients under the stack, at the bottom of the pile, and get to it when we can, if we can. But that just wouldn't seem right. We serve. And we do it with a smile, usually. If a person wants to bring us their no-fee title work, only to continue taking their contracts down the street to close, that's up to them. We'll keep on helping.

If you need some help with a title issue, come on by. We'll even give you a cup of coffee and a cookie!

A common source of confusion in the title business in Texas is the Escrow Fee. Upon presenting the settlement statement, we often hear a buyer ask a question like, “I’m not escrowing, so why am I paying an Escrow Fee?”

The buyer has recognized the word “escrow” as it applies to mortgage lending, i.e., paying a portion of the yearly property taxes and hazard insurance premium each month along with the principal and interest to the lender for the lender to hold in its escrow account so that it can pay those bills at the end of the year on behalf of the borrower. The buyer’s confusion arises from the fact that escrowing in the mortgage lending context has nothing to do with the Escrow Fee charged by Texas title companies.

In Texas, the Escrow Fee is charged by title companies on virtually every transaction. While many may describe it as an “administrative fee” or a “service fee,” it is more accurately described as the fee charged by title companies for the use of their escrow account and for escrow services. An escrow account is a special bank account setup by the title company for the sole purpose of holding clients’ money.

Escrow services can be generally described as those services necessitated by receiving and holding client funds (earnest money, buyer purchase money funds, loan funds, etc.) and then disbursing those funds by either check or wire to the various payees. This involves escrow accounting. A separate accounting ledger is set up and maintained for each transaction, and all funds must be received before any funds can be disbursed. The lender often “nets out” its own loan fees from the loan funds wire, and the account must be balanced before any checks are cut.

As you can see, both the buyer and the seller benefit by a title company’s escrow services. This is why contracts (including the TREC promulgated form contracts) often call for the buyer and seller each to pay half.

So next time your buyer or seller complains about the Escrow Fee, explore their complaint by asking questions to determine whether they might be confused as to what the Escrow Fee actually is. If they are, a quick explanation of title company escrow services can usually clear things up and make them happy.

At Texas Homeland Title, we have "Customers" -- buyers, sellers, and refinancing homeowners -- and "Clients" - business referral sources like Realtors and loan officers.

Our Customers pay our fees and trust that in return we will do a good job in closing their real estate transaction. While we do sometimes close the same Customers more than once, more often than not we communicate with Customers for a limited period of time during the processing of their file, and then we see them at the closing table. It is typically (though not always) a relatively short-term relationship, during which we have the the opportunity to offer and give top-notch customer service. Serving our Customers well is our number one goal.

The achievement of this goal, one closing at a time, allows us to contribute to our CLIENTS' business by helping them to look good. For it is our Clients who directed our Customers to us in the first place. It is our Clients -- Realtors and loan officers -- who entrust us with their livelihood over and over again, week in week out, by sending Customers our way, It is our Clients to whom we are truly indebted, and who we truly appreciate.

To all the Clients of Texas Homeland Title, we thank you for a wonderful year. Merry Christmas!

Friday at InHouse Title Company we had the buyers of a condo in Houston come in to sign docs. They brought their money, which we depositited in our escrow account. We also received the loan funds by wire transfer into escrow.

Title had only been opened approximately two weeks prior, so it was a bit of a rush job. But we were ready, the lender was ready, the buyers were ready, and the seller was ready. Problem was, we couldn’t get the seller’s loan payoff statement. It was to arrive that day, but it did not.

So, we postponed the seller until monday. Monday comes, and the seller is to come in to sign, so we perform an update of the title commitment. Essentially, this means that we search the title records again to make sure that the nothing has been filed of record since the date of our commitment. Almost every time, that is the case. Nothing new since the commitment, so we move through the closing.

But in this instance, STOP!!!! HOLD THE PRESSESS!!!! Our update search reveals two deeds filed during the two weeks since we had first issued our commitment. The day after the commitment, the seller had deeded the property to a corporation. Then, twelve days later, the bank had foreclosed.

What does this mean? Bottom line, on the day of the closing, the seller no longer owned the property. The closing was cancelled. The buyers and lenders purchase funds were returned. This is why title companies update their title commitment prior to the final closing.