A few weeks ago I was at lunch with a dear friend who's also in the local Hill Country real estate industry, but on the brokerage side. The crux of the conversation was: how are we all handling these hard times, and how have we begun to treat each other differently, lately?
Read MoreWorking in the Title business you quickly learn that buildings aren’t just structures for habitation or commerce. Lurking within the paper trail of title deeds passed through generations lie hidden the very history of a town.
Read MoreTitle work is inherently about people finding a home so, for people that arrive fresh in “The ‘Burg,” we thought a few tips from a local might ease the entry.
*Disclaimer: Free advice is good but, you do get what you pay for!
Read MoreThe following may seem like a departure from our normal title blogs, but hey, how much can you really say about title work? Since we're here to bring calm, give space, and make room, why not use that space for a thought or two about the deeper waters that we all paddle around every day but rarely have the time to look into? The next few blogs are going to wander a bit further afield as we reflect on life, land, home, and whatnot. Enjoy!
Read MoreWhat is it about small towns? Iconic, historic, dreamed of, moved to, fled from. For many busy big-city folks, it's the long-looked-for reward after years of hustling, commuting, striving and saving. It means different things to everyone who lives here, but to everybody here, living in Fredericksburg means something, something significant.
Read MoreIf you’ve spent five minutes in the real-estate market over the last couple years, which is probably about all the time you will spend in reflecting on anything, considering how fast paced this market has been moving, the best way to describe it is simply: “crazy” – and even that may be an understatement.
Read MoreThere's an old joke that goes like this. "How do you know there's a pilot in the room?. . . .
Answer: He'll tell you.
Now Chris Barnett is a modest guy and doesn't inflict his love of flying on everybody he meets quite like that, so we'll tell you: did you know Chris is a pilot? And a good one at that!
Read MoreAs a real estate agent, you're flying solo most of the time. Whether you work for a big brand office with lots of training and support in the office or are a one person show, at the end of the day it is still all on you. But you can't do it all. You need backup, and the kind of backup you get matters.
One of the core elements of our ethos and Select Title Fredericksburg culture is that we are bringing calm through a quiet, efficient process making more room for the actual relationship. Did you read that right?
Read MoreEarlier this year, Penny C. McBride, CEO of the Fredericksburg Texas Chamber of Commerce, wrote a wonderful article entitled, The price is the same but the experience is not. It caught our attention because it carried with it an insightful perspective that helps to frame the transaction business.
Read More“I had no idea you were in town” said nearly every new client we’ve served in the past three years. At this point, it’s become an office joke, and we all laugh a little inside (at ourselves of course) when we hear it again.
Read MoreHow many rhythms do you have that you don’t even think about anymore? How much has become “automatic” in your business, or even your personal time. We wake up, brew the Folgers and drink it, not even thinking about whether or not the coffee we choose or the amount we drink is really right for us, we just do it out of habit.
Read MoreWhen planning a career, there aren’t many of us who drift over to the thought of being a title officer. It’s not glamorous and it’s extremely technical. Ultimately, a really good title shop should feel pretty boring (we’ve redubbed it “calm”). But like the swan on any pond, there’s something more active beneath the surface. It might explain why we show up to such a “boring” job every day, and actually enjoy it.
As we all watched the saga of the Mason County Courthouse fire this February, it really struck a chord. Our systems are fragile, paper burns faster than any other material, and had it not been for a fortuitous removal of the county’s title documentation prior to the fire, there would have been even more damage done to this Hill Country community.
Read MoreAs important as the air we breathe are the relationships we have with our clients. We have yet to hear someone say anything is more important than this in real estate and finance worlds. But we also know, these relationships don’t grow on trees; they take about as long as a tree to grow. So how are you spending your time? Are you bogged down in transaction details? Are you leaving space to just listen to your clients and understand them? Are you taking time to empathize? (That’s a big one…)
Read MoreWe all do it. We get “cursed” by our own knowledge and expertise. For real estate brokers and agents, for title officers, and for mortgage lenders; it’s easy to forget that the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand half of what you’re saying. You’d be amazed how many people don’t know what TREC, APR, LTV, GF# or BPO even stand for. Title? Most people don’t even understand what that is and why it’s important.
Read MoreThere’s this new phenomenon that some of you may have heard of, it’s a thing called “The Internet”. This may seem like a sarcastic joke to you, but to the title business, it really does appear to be space-age technology. Fortunately, a few pioneers in the title business have tested and compiled an entirely new process that we’ve proudly adopted and the results have really changed the way it’s done.
Read MoreIt started with multiple conversations. One after the other kept revealing this “agitation” around title services in the Texas Hill Country. Somewhere along the way, things had been turned around backwards and agents (as well as brokers) found themselves jockeying for a place in line. Otherwise, you risked having your title work spoil the transaction or drag it out. We all know that time kills deals. Instead of title being the calmest part of the whole transaction (like it should be) it was just another one of the “wild kids” that kept trying to step out of line. (A direct quote.)
Read MoreThe thing we love about our small Texas hometowns are the varying lack of technological presence. We all like that our cell phones lose reception (you know the spot we’re talking about between Johnson City and Fredericksburg, just outside Stonewall where the cell tower sits). We like things to be analog around here, but when it comes to data, records, and keeping files, we can all agree that digital just makes things more efficient and less prone to error.
Read MoreThe past few months have been entirely unpredictable! Hill Country home and property sales have skyrocketed and we’ve enjoyed getting to stretch the legs on our fully digitized title process. We’re happy to report that, while being extremely busy, we haven’t made anyone wait in line, and our communications have continued to be clear, efficient, and concise. Under this stress test, things are going well! Brokers are spending their time with clients celebrating and we’re bringing calm to the details.
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