Stan "The Real Estate Man" Fikes and Rachel Nichols as they talk all things real estate in the Las Vegas valley. Get the latest information on the housing market from industry professionals with decades of experience!
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Unknown Speaker 0:16
Hello to you. I'm Stan the real estate man, and welcome to the Las Vegas real estate room, where all roads lead to a home.
Unknown Speaker 0:37
Hello to you, and welcome to the show. I'm so happy to see everybody this Sunday morning. Today, I have two important guests with me from steward title. Please introduce yourself, Brian. Go ahead first.
Unknown Speaker 0:55
Yes. My name is Brian Holland, with steward title, I'm a Business Development Officer. Or to the layman, a marketing rep, great
Unknown Speaker 1:04
and go ahead. Desiree Holmes,
Unknown Speaker 1:07
hello, I'm Desiree Holmes. I'm an escrow officer at Stewart title, and I'm happy to be here with everyone on this fine Sunday morning,
Unknown Speaker 1:18
and myself, as I said, I'm standing real estate man, I've been a realtor since 1988 my license number is 28 to eight, and my contact number is 702-809-2949 Brian, please give your contact information
Unknown Speaker 1:34
Absolutely, sir. And once again, thank you for having us. You're welcome. You can always reach me at 7029 85 2222, I try to keep it simple and Miss Holmes,
Unknown Speaker 1:45
you too.
Unknown Speaker 1:46
Okay. Well, my license number is 199630, and if you like, you can always reach me at 702-915-6164,
Unknown Speaker 1:57
now, unfortunately, my loan consultant is not here with us today. Miss Rachel Nichols, now she is working currently for loan depot, and she can be reached at 702-551-9511, if you need to get approved for a home, she will be honored to assist you in all your loan needs now. Miss Holmes, please give a little bio about your background, concerning your life and steward title.
Unknown Speaker 2:29
Oh, I'd be happy to thank you for the opportunity. Stan, well, I native of California. I moved out here in December of 2001 and shortly after that, of February of 2002 I started my escrow career, and so I've been doing this. Now, if we do the math over girl math, 22 years going on, 23 years now, I love this industry and being an escrow officer and helping to help see people's dreams of come owning homes come true. I specialize in everything since I have been doing this for so long. I specialize in resells, refinances, commercial 1031, exchanges, Ferda land deals. And just extremely happy to be here and answer any questions that your viewing audience may have great
Unknown Speaker 3:21
mister Holland, please give me a little bit about your bio. The listeners a little bit about your bio. Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 3:28
Got my start in the title insurance business back in 2003 so I've been doing this going on 21 years now. I started with Nevada title. I was there for 14 years, and they brought me up in this title game, in this title industry, and it's always been my pleasure to help licensed Realtors such as yourself, commercial brokers and lenders help their clients like Desiree said, achieve the American dream and home ownership.
Unknown Speaker 3:56
Great. Now, just off the record here. I've been knowing Brian for quite some time, and Brian has a little unique history that I love to expose every time I see him. Brian's dad, oh boy, is a well known, established figure out of Motown. Yes, so I'll let Brian explain that. It's quite interesting. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 4:20
my father and my uncle along with Lamont Dozier. So that would be Brian Holland. Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland are the songwriting team of Holland Dozier and Holland which wrote many, many of Motown's number one hits. So if you would, if you're bored one day at your computer and you want to see what dad has done, just Google my name Brian Holland, because I pop up nowhere on the internet. Dad's everywhere on the internet. And yeah, you can see his his length, his body
Unknown Speaker 4:52
of work. It's quite interesting. Lot of good songs out of Old Town by his father and his team. Oh. Okay, so we're going to go into some question and answer session here, because a lot of people don't understand what Escrow is about. They don't understand what title is about, and some of them are fearful of it. So we want to, you know, get some of these questions answered for the public, so they know where title stands. So I'm going to start with Desiree. Now, you said you've been in title or escrow for 23 years. Yes, great. So that's quite a bit of time. Yes. So what do you see in escrow? That is probably the hardest part for people to understand.
Unknown Speaker 5:41
Well, I think, like you said, just title and escrow, just the difference of those two things. In certain states, they are not always the same and done at the same company. So like in California, they have title companies and escrow companies are separate out here we have, like the companies that do both so title work, and, you know, maybe one day we can bring one of our title officers here, you know, but title work is basically the behind the scenes of the escrow process. They're the ones pulling the preliminary title report, which is the document that lets me know what liens, judgment, taxes, anything that's been recorded against the property. So they're doing our searches and making sure we're finding everything we need to find to ensure that we're transferring these properties free and clear over to the new buyers. Me myself as an escrow officer. I'm basically like the front line of the process, and I'd be the ones to help the clients, the buyers and sellers, through the process. I'm the one that, you know, clears the prelim, clears whatever's found on that preliminary title report, prepares the paperwork. I'm the one that they come in and sign with, and we're the facilitator of handling all the funds involved with the transaction and getting disbursements out to all parties at closing.
Unknown Speaker 7:07
Now, in layman's turn, how would you define escrow to a potential client?
Unknown Speaker 7:13
Escrow is when you have entered into a purchase agreement and you have signed a contract, and we open escrow. We open escrow. So that is what escrow would be. Once we open escrow at our office, we get that contract from you, we proceed to open up a new escrow transaction, and then that's when we start the process of searching the property and seeing what needs to be done. So Escrow is basically a neutral third party. We are here to help facilitate the transaction and make sure the buyer and the seller are both represented equally and get everything they need in a transaction, and we are the ones that get it recorded of record, and that is the time when everyone knows that they get a exchange keys, and we have a complete closed escrow.
Unknown Speaker 8:04
So basically, you will be considered the middle man. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 8:07
Some people like to call us the disinterested party, which I never like to say, because obviously I'm very interested in all of our transactions and my clients. And when I say my clients, not just my agents, like yourself, Stan, but the buyers and the sellers are my clients as well. And even if you may be the agent that sent me a deal, I'm going to make sure the other agent is represented equally as well as their clients.
Unknown Speaker 8:34
Okay, Brian, yes. Why do people need title insurance? People
Unknown Speaker 8:41
need title insurance because of unforeseen defects from the from the previous owner of the Paul of the of the home,
Unknown Speaker 8:50
and what type of defects might there be so things
Unknown Speaker 8:53
that are discovered, or what title insurance protects you from false impersonation of the true land owner, undisclosed heirs. I see mistakes and omissions resulting in improper abstracting of the contract, forged deeds. Now, this was a big one, many years ago where Robo signing was was rampant, and folks were having documents signed on their behalf as their signature, but it wasn't a wet signature. It also protects you from errors and previous tax records. Let's see interests and arising from deeds of fictitious parties that was also very prevalent here in Clark County.
Unknown Speaker 9:40
So you can basically call this fraud. Oh, absolutely. Okay, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 9:44
So with a title search, it is the title officer's responsibility at the title company to make sure all of those errors and discrepancies from the previous owner Do Not Track. Transfer to the to the new buyer or the new owner.
Unknown Speaker 10:02
So you want to transfer title clear and free, correct, any problems to the new owner. Correct, correct. Okay. Now this title insurance does it cost any money, it
Unknown Speaker 10:15
does. But see, unlike auto insurance, it's a one time, it's a very nominal fee that you purchase that takes effect the day of the recording. As Desiree said, once it becomes official that you are the new owner of the property, your title insurance policy stays in place as long as you and or your heirs properly own the property. So So Stan, a frequently asked question of mine is, what if my home goes up in value? Do I owe the title company more money? Absolutely not. That title insurance policy stays in place until that property is sold to a new buyer. So it's basically a one time fee. It's a one time fee. There's no monthly there's no deductible. It stays intact as long as you own that as long as you and or your heirs properly own that property, so
Unknown Speaker 11:08
that will show up on your closing costs, naturally, absolutely. Okay. Now, Desiree, how soon can you close an escrow? Let's say I wrote a contract yesterday, I presented to you. Let's say the close of Escrow is two months down the road. How soon can you get that close?
Unknown Speaker 11:26
Well, two months. That's like double the amount of time of a normal transaction, but Stan, my record actually, for closing at Escrow is two days from opening to closing. It was two days, true story. So I'll tell you some of the things that can prevent us from closing that early. This transaction was a cash buyer. Okay, you're never gonna have a transaction with a traditional lender that's gonna close in two days. I don't know of any lender out there that can get a loan done in two days. Okay, so this was specific to a cash buyer. And the property also did not have a HOA on it a homeowners association. So as you know, HOAs tend to hold up the process a little bit, because
Unknown Speaker 12:10
you got to get documents from they kind of drag their feet.
Unknown Speaker 12:14
So you got to get the resale package, and you got to get the HOA demand. And HOAs, most of them have a 10 business day turnaround time from the date, not that I order it and send the link out, but from the date the seller actually pays for it, that's when your 10 days would start. So I always tell my agents, if you're looking to close early, those are some of the things you want to look at. Like, does the property have an HOA? Is the buyer getting a traditional loan? Or are they purchasing what cash? But if you got a cash buyer and that property doesn't have a HOA, I can definitely do it in two days. If it does have a HOA, we're going to write that contract for 10 days
Unknown Speaker 12:51
and Stan. And typically, typically we do, like the general public, to know it does take more or less 30 days, 30 to 45 days to be on the safe side for a contract to be fully executed, contract with both a buyer and a seller released to the title company so we can do our due diligence. It does take 30 to 45 days typically.
Unknown Speaker 13:14
Okay, that's great. I think two days is a really good thing, because most people want to get in their house. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 13:23
yes. We want them. We want them to be in the house as soon as
Unknown Speaker 13:27
possible. Right? Now, let's talk a little bit about HUD one. How does HUD one work? Dave,
Unknown Speaker 13:33
HUD, hasn't it like a settlement statement? HUD, yes. Okay, that HUD is so we don't really hear that. That's what they used to be called, before we went to the new trade guidelines. So now they're just settlement statements, but your settlement statement is basically a breakdown of all your fees associated with your transaction. So if you're a seller, you're gonna, you know, have the purchase price there as a credit to you, you're also going to get credits for prorations, which are times you paid for certain utilities and taxes that you're no longer going to own the property. And then if you have a payoff that'll be reflected on there as well, and any fees that were associated with us ensuring the property as a seller buyers are also going to have lender fees on their settlement statement, but it's basically a breakdown of your cost. And if you're a seller, what the proceeds you'll be getting. If you're a buyer, most likely what your closing costs are.
Unknown Speaker 14:30
Now, Brian, you have what is called a not it's not a cost sheet, but it's what a person has to pay during the transaction, is your fees? High, Low, expensive compared to the market,
Unknown Speaker 14:47
as far as our fees compared to other title companies? Yes, our fees are actually lower than most, because we are a direct title company. So I know. Your to your audience, they may not mean much. However, they would understand that there are only four title companies that write all title insurance policies for the entire country, Stewart title being one of them. In other words, there are hundreds of title and or escrow country companies in the country. Stewart title being one of the four that issues all the policies, meaning we are a wholesaler, so that way we can keep our costs low when other title companies use our policies or use our paper, sometimes a little bit more is charged, so they can make a profit as well us, being a direct not an agency, we can offer lower fees, not to mention even more important to your to your to your audience. We offer a ton of discounts, either military discounts, teachers, first responders. So that means educators, investors, first time home buyers, first time home buyers, we will issue them a discount because we want them to achieve the American dream.
Unknown Speaker 16:12
Folks, if you're searching for a title company that will save you some money, and you can reach Brian at 7029.
Unknown Speaker 16:21
85, 2222.
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And Desiree homes at
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702-325-6048,
Unknown Speaker 16:29
now let's take talk a little bit about cash buyers. Do they still need to purchase title insurance?
Unknown Speaker 16:35
No, so that's another great benefit. If you're a cash buyer, you save on a lot of fees. So if you have a traditional lender, a lender is going to require a lender policy. The lender policy only covers the lender, so what protects the seller is the owner's policy, and that is what also protects the buyer. So the seller will be purchasing the owner's policy, and the buyer's automatically protected by that, and there's no cost to the buyer to do that.
Unknown Speaker 17:04
So Brian, do you have any cash I could use?
Unknown Speaker 17:09
We also need your audience to understand that even as a cash buyer, and they choose the option not to put a title insurance policy into place, if for whatever reason, the title insurance company that this transaction went through, if they've missed something again, a lien or a tax or an undisclosed air, that new buyer without a title insurance policy will be responsible, oh, Right to to to to forfeit or take care of those. Those those monies do
Unknown Speaker 17:44
so that could be an expensive situation, absolutely. But once again,
Unknown Speaker 17:49
with a title insurance policy in place, they don't pay attorneys fees, courts fees, a deductible, nothing. They simply say, title company, you miss something. Here's my title insurance policy.
Unknown Speaker 18:00
Take care of it so you take care of it 100% Okay, now let's talk a little bit about trust. How does Stuart title handle properties that are in a trust or LLC? So
Unknown Speaker 18:11
a lot of times, people put their properties on these different entities because they've gotten advice from friends or family, but they don't really realize what that entails once they do once they do that, I actually have a file right now that I have a LLC, and they let the LLC lapse, and I informed them that they have to reinstate their LLC to for the purpose of their transaction, and it's not even a sell, It's just a refinance. But they are trying to do that because they didn't want the LLC anymore. And they're like, well, can't we just proceed? And I had to explain to them, when you're in an entity like that, you have to provide proof that you're the Managing Member, the manager the member, the managing member of that LLC, to have the authority to sign out. And that's the same with the trust. So we're going to collect your trust papers. We're going to collect your LLC papers. I'm going to review them. My title officer is going to review them, and based off what we see in those paperwork, that's how we base our decision on who's allowed to act on behalf of that property. Now the
Unknown Speaker 19:18
owner of that property has to provide you with these documents, or do you get them somewhere else? No,
Unknown Speaker 19:23
these aren't recorded documents or not a public record. The only entity that would have those documents is the owner.
Unknown Speaker 19:30
So they might have that in a safe deposit box under their bed, something like and a
Unknown Speaker 19:34
lot of times down they don't have them anymore. So then that's the importance of keeping paperwork on stuff like that. And usually with a trust, it's like a 200 page book, you know. So you should have that somewhere. And we don't need all 200 pages, because people freak out about that as well. We usually need about the first 20 pages where it lists the name of the trust to the notary section where the trustees have signed. El. LLC papers. It's a couple different documents. It's the articles of incorporation, it's the operating agreement. We'll pull a Certificate of Good Standing ourself. I can do that, you know, but we're just basically making sure that yes, and we do this for all sellers, whether they're in an LLC, whether in a trust, whether they're an individual, that's our job is making sure that the seller of our property is the actual seller of our property, because right now, the fraud is running rampant. It really is, so many people having their homes sold out from under them, so that's what we're doing. And people get upset for us for asking for this, but really they should be thankful because we're protecting them from losing their investment.
Unknown Speaker 20:42
Did you ever run across the time when you were doing this that you found a property that was under fraud and that helped us?
Unknown Speaker 20:50
Helped us selling Absolutely. We see things like that all the time, and we immediately have to cancel those transactions. What Stuart title does that? I've never had any other title company do that I work for in the very beginning of a transaction, we send out a fraud letter, so we pull the tax cert of record, and we find the seller's address, and we send out a fraud letter to that address to make them aware, hey, we got a contract. It's for your home, and just with that letter alone Stan, we have caught so much fraud,
Unknown Speaker 21:23
my goodness, and Stan, even the recipient of that letter, if it does go to the right place, if they or if we don't get response from them, I have physically gone out to their address, knocked on their door to say, I just, I'm from Stuart. Title, just want to be sure that you are aware you are in a real estate transaction. As recently as about two months ago, the gentleman answered the door to said, No, I am not in the real estate he didn't even know. He showed me a picture of his ID that is not the same identification that was given to us initially when the contract was open. So obviously this was fraud, and we put a stop to it immediately. So you saved his behind absolutely from losing his land. And
Unknown Speaker 22:08
you know when you when you get caught in that, folks, it takes forever to get out of that. In a real estate transaction, what are the obligations of the escrow officer to each party the
Unknown Speaker 22:19
escrow officer? Well, once again, we are the neutral third party, as Desiree indicated, and we just want to make sure that when this property is transferred to the new buyer or to the new owner, that it's free and clear of all of these potential defects that could cost them money down the road had it not been rectified or caught initially. But Dave, you can add to that, our role as the neutral third party,
Unknown Speaker 22:47
yeah, I mean, it's just a little bit how I touched on earlier. You know, we're just ensuring, making sure that everybody has what they need, that all liens and judgments have been cleared, that we're ensuring this property is being transferred over to the new buyer free and clear of any liens or encumbrances other than their own deed of trust that they may be getting during the transaction. And that's our job. That's basically what title insurance is. In a nutshell, we're making sure you don't cloud your chain of title. You know, there's a lot of times that I see where people go down and record deeds their self. They prepare the deeds their self, they go down to Clark County recorder and record it there. So Clark County recorder will record anything as long as it's in the format they want it in. They don't care if the document's accurate. So they're not the police. Yeah, they're not the police are not checking to see if the those are the actual sellers of record. If that's the seller's actual signature, did that seller actually sign it? They're not checking for any of that. They're just recording documents that you hand to them. So it's very important not to do things like that, because that's called an uninsured deed. And uninsured deeds title companies will not insure. Uninsured deeds will require that party to go back and find the person who deeded the property over to them and have them sign what's called an uninsured deed affidavit, saying, yes, in fact, I did sign this deed. It was my intention to relinquish my rights on the property. So we always suggest, you know, anything you do through a real transaction with a title company where you're getting title insurance, then you're going to be covered. Like Brian says,
Unknown Speaker 24:32
okay, all right, we'll talk a little bit about real estate here. And of course, Title and Escrow is part of real estate. I have a brand new home, which is currently at $1,785,000 it offers 3966 square feet, four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, three car garage. Garage, and it's a single story open floor plan offers a gathering room, game room, chef's kitchen and Cafe, which are all centrally located, owner suite that features master bedroom, walk in closet and a retreat located in the master plan community of Summerlin, 702-809-2949 you can also see it on my website, new home, safari.com, it will pop up soon as you open the website. I want to thank our guest today. Desiree Holmes,
Unknown Speaker 25:37
Hi, yes, thank you. And again, if you need anything, if you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call. 702-325-6048,
Unknown Speaker 25:49
and Brian Holland, you
Unknown Speaker 25:50
know, first of all, once again, thank you for having us, because when it comes to title insurance, if it's pet insurance, life insurance, car insurance, there's nothing fun, sexy or cool about insurance, but Stan, you made this fun, and I appreciate you. I'm
Unknown Speaker 26:04
glad you came, because a lot of times, you know, people don't know about Eskom. What is called people do, right,
Unknown Speaker 26:08
right? So if you do have questions, even if it's with another title company, 702-985-2222,
Unknown Speaker 26:19
all right, and don't forget Stuart title, I want to thank you for listening to the show today, and don't forget to tune in next month, second Sunday of the month. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Las Vegas real estate role. I can be reached at 702-809-2949, or you can go to my website, new home, safari.com, and please remember nothing comes to a sleeper with dreams. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai