Lisa Andrews: Leadership, Influence and Dedication

Tracy Hayes  1:26  
Hey folks, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast. Is your host? Tracy Hayes, best of the best in each show, and once again, I have brought you another best to you today. This influencer has made her mark here in Northeast Florida, in the title company area. She has a couple decades of experience in the real estate industry, from running title companies to even running a branch of a major bank. I work with her daily as we are both married to a major builder in the area, and I will say this When in doubt, call Lisa Andrews folks. Let's welcome my favorite title leader to the show and very talented, and she has a title, but let me tell you, it's the jack of all trades, Director of Sales and Marketing at Golden dog. Title. Lisa Andrews, welcome to the show. Hey. Thank you, Tracy. It's great to be here today. Excellent. I'm so glad, because you have so much, and we've chatted at different times. And you really, you know, in a panic situation, as we deal with here at Jed and getting a lot of these closings. Course, everyone seems the builder wants to close everybody on the last day of the month. And you know how you guys do it down there? And I know you are really the captain of the ship, at least we see it from up here and making sure that no one, no one goes outside and never comes back.

Lisa Andrews  2:38  
We don't want that to happen. Because I

Tracy Hayes  2:40  
imagine that thought has gone through some people's head in that last day of the month and the overwhelming just like I'm done, I'm out of here, but you guys do get it done month in and month out. But I wanted to start off because this is a common question I know you get all the time. Golden dog title. Give us a background of where that name came from.

Lisa Andrews  2:58  
So when we first started out, that was not the name. And the president of our company came from a big attorney firm downtown, overlooking the river. And when he came to start here, he had a small office, probably the size of, you know, anybody's cube. And his daughter came in to work one day, and she's like, so, Dad, what do you do now? And so he told her, you know, what he did, and he helped people get into a brand new home, and what that was like and everything. And so she thought people should get a dog whenever they close. We said, when they get a brand new home, they get it, they get a dog with it. So he told her that, you know, that not everybody wants a dog, and maybe that's not a good thing. And you know, so they went on to open under a different name. And as he thought about it, over a year or so, he thought, you know, that kind of makes sense. And when you go to a close and you need your realtor, you need your lender, you need your builder, you need everybody needs to come together, and you kind of have, like that service dog, not every service golden retriever, right?

Tracy Hayes  3:57  
Although it's very popular, yes, absolutely.

Lisa Andrews  4:01  
But that's kind of what we do. So we are your companion here to serve. And you have to all come together for, you know, to come to a close and divide the by the house. So it is that his daughter thought of the great name and the get a dog. And if you close with us, everybody gets a little golden retriever.

Tracy Hayes  4:19  
And that is so, you know, just how that just came, you hear the daughter made a suggestion, and then the thought process of what we do service, that's just, that's just a great way, and it is a great icon. I mean, an easy one. It's easy to buy. You get a stuffed animal. People sign up. They probably like, Hey, let's go dog. Don't get a dog with that right and the and the great, you know, it's funny that you mentioned right down the street here. Canine for Warriors is, I don't know if they're expanding or relocating, but they're building a complex right down the street here. If you notice

Lisa Andrews  4:53  
that come I did not. They have a huge complex in Ponte as it is.

Tracy Hayes  4:58  
I think it's an expansion. Oh, down. Right, just down the street from us, and talk about service, and just to throw their name out there for that. But let's get back on track, though. We want to learn about you, Lisa. Lisa, where

Lisa Andrews  5:08  
are you from? I'm from Indianapolis, Indiana. I was born and raised there for the first 40, and I've been down here for 18.

Tracy Hayes  5:14  
Okay, all right. Well, there's my age. So, I mean, did I looked on your LinkedIn? Obviously, you have a ton of experience, and generally someone has a pretty stout resume, doesn't, you know, bother to put educating? Did you? Did you go to a formal College? Or I did not. Did not. I did not. So when you, you got out of high school and just started doing, what? What were you doing in Indianapolis, before coming, actually, down here? So I

Lisa Andrews  5:39  
started in banking. I've kind of done been in the finance part or of that. I started in banking, and then I was a mortgage broker. Back in the late 80s, early 90s, there was like three actual mortgage broker companies in Indianapolis, and I was in one of them, wow. And then I went into lending, and we had a title company that used to come in and, do you know, come in and do all of our closings. And back in that day, as a lender, I had to clear my title myself. I had to, like, give them all the information to say, this is what we will use to clear it off. And then it was done. So then I had kids, left my job, stayed home for about five or six years, and when I decided to go back to work, I just happened to go to the title company that I had first started, that had used, that we had used as a lender, and got hired on the spot, and then, you know, pretty

Tracy Hayes  6:27  
cool, because the lender was doing all the work for you at that time. So yeah,

Lisa Andrews  6:31  
it was not because it made sense, because the lender really shouldn't be the one clearing title for you, right?

Tracy Hayes  6:38  
So, title always be cleared, title.

Lisa Andrews  6:41  
So, but that was that, and that was before we got, you know, we got packages overnight. So we didn't have, you know, they didn't come in over the internet or anything. So if you didn't get a package the next day, just didn't close. So that's how long I've been around Tracy

Tracy Hayes  6:55  
in just a comparison. I think now you bring up Indiana and that, you, you know, did title work there? Because every state's different. We all know New York's a nightmare, don't you want to talk about trying to close a home there? What's kind of the difference between Indiana and Florida? There are, there's, are they fairly easy? Or more complicated? Like in New Jersey, New York,

Lisa Andrews  7:16  
they're fairly easy. I'm gonna say yeah, but we didn't have a lot of like Florida, actually, they've had stuff online for a really long time. And most of the states, back when I started doing it didn't, so you actually had to go to courthouse still and pull all your documents and do that whole thing, right? But nowadays, it's pretty much the technology. Yeah, the technology's made it. Yeah, it's not like going to New York or California, where you have a lot of different

Tracy Hayes  7:38  
unbelievable, unbelievable. So you, you were right in the real estate industry, in the banking dove right in the line. So you, you've really spent the last, I'm not going to calculate that. We'll say 40 minus years, right in finance and in real estate, right, really, I mean that that's a huge amount of experience. Because, you know, it's I met a title company years ago when I was with my previous employer, and they were there in downtown St Augustine. And I guess when St Augustine went to, and you probably know who they are, went to, you know, digitize everything. They're putting everything into the computer, they actually, whether they bought or got a hold of all the old land going back hundreds of years and so forth. So that they told me, If you ever have a problem, you know, doing this title search, and it's not panning out or whatever, that they've got the original everything in paper, yeah, because I can imagine going, you know, today, I don't think people, I mean, obviously the young people in your office don't even know what the courthouse probably even looks

Lisa Andrews  8:44  
like, right? No, absolutely not. They don't have to do that. There's a couple states where they still actually have the whole book, and they bring the paper in and add it when you know when there's a new sale or something done. But luckily, we don't do that.

Tracy Hayes  8:55  
Yes, that is one thing. So Florida, for those who don't live in Florida, really, you know, all that stuff is public record. What, actually? What is there anything that we do as far as recording the deed and everything that isn't that isn't actually out to the on the web our part?

Lisa Andrews  9:09  
No, yeah. I mean, yeah, everything is public record. And there is some law that's out now, if you are a public official in in law enforcement, and that's getting to be easier to get blocked. So that's going to be something that will come up in the next few years that we're going to have to figure out as Title industry of what we're going to do about that, because we actually have to have them sign a form to allow you to Yes, we can actually go in and get that information, because

Tracy Hayes  9:35  
I've looked up taxes, and I'm like, Man, I can't find this guy's tax and I go, Oh yeah, he's in law enforcement, right?

Lisa Andrews  9:39  
Yeah, that's the first thing we say. If we can't find something, you can easily

Tracy Hayes  9:42  
find some. Can easily find someone's address searching through the public property tax records. Simply, is that. So you started so young. I mean, my question was, what led you into it? You kind of explained, you just decide when you want went back to work to get in the title. It just became a passion for you that really, okay, you either

Lisa Andrews  9:59  
love it. Or you don't. I mean, that is, it is definitely that. And, you know, I was always in the operations until 2014 so I did all the operation stuff. I was Operations Manager for, for the state of a different company that I was working for that was national. So that is really my background, is finding all the quirky things and getting them taken care of. So now, when I get title that has, you know, something funny on it, I'm like,

Tracy Hayes  10:25  
you kind of have no idea where to go. That's a challenge. Yeah.

Lisa Andrews  10:30  
So I kind of went, I went into sales. It was after the recession, so I had gone back to banking for about four years, and when I was approached, approached a couple of different times, but they asked me to go into sales. And I'm like, Mm, I'm like, I'm not a sales person, but then I'm selling something that you need. I'm not going to ask you if you want to MasterCard with your checking account or, you know, whatever, but and it's and I love it. I love title, actually. And so sales was easy because I feel like that's what I know, and I'm not asking you for something that you don't need.

Tracy Hayes  11:02  
Also, do you feel? You know, because give you an example. I mean, I've been in the business 16 years. I spent roughly 12 of it in a call center, doing a lot of loans, doing a lot of credit reports, seeing what loans. Because so my confidence level coming out was high, knowing the loans. But now, you know, back in I guess it was 17, I came out and actually started more interacting with the agents like you do, right? But because I had all this experience, I actually had more experience than the average guy who's doing what I do right now, if that's They've only done it that way because they only wrote a few loans a month where I was writing 20, 3040, loans a month in a call center, because it's a volume based business, right? That you come out, so the sales part actually is easy because of your confidence, right?

Lisa Andrews  11:51  
Because, and they can call me on the weekend, they can call me in the evening, and they just have a question. I mean, I that's how I got a few of my customers. They happen they couldn't get a hold of their regular person, right? And they called me on the weekend, and I said, Well, this is what you need to do. And you know, we just go back and forth and figure it out. Might take me five minutes, right? Because I already

Tracy Hayes  12:08  
know you've been there, right? You had the enough at bats, your experience of and if you didn't know the answer, you knew where to go get the answer Absolutely, or someone that you rely on the call on for those, those off, because there's

Lisa Andrews  12:19  
always going to be a time where there's something kind of quirky, and I'm not sure, I don't know. I don't know at all, and I do know how. I do know who to call, and then I call them back.

Tracy Hayes  12:26  
So I think was, if I read credit 2018 you went to this title that you have now, yes, alright, so the Director of Sales and Marketing, right? And any of you guys know that out there, obviously, with Lisa's experience, she's a valuable player at Golden dog with her knowledge and leadership, really, is really what brings it all together. But the average person probably out there going, what does a Director of Sales do for a title company? Right? He's like, title companies, like, oh, you know it's like, going to the grocery store, but it's, it's not you got to sell it absolutely. Got some competition.

Lisa Andrews  13:00  
There's tons of competition out there, but it is for title. We all provide the exact same service, and so it's the level of service that you provide is going to make the difference. And so that is really what I'm out there doing, is making sure that they understand what the level of the service is and who we are. Because we were a brand new company, really, when I started, we'd been open for a couple of years, but we weren't doing anything other than the building, and so I was brought in to do the resale, right? So that that was my main goal, to bring in people to do the resale, and to know that

Tracy Hayes  13:31  
now you cross over both you bring in the resale and help the builder make sure they get their stuff

Lisa Andrews  13:36  
closed. Yep. So

Tracy Hayes  13:37  
when you're out and there's an agent listening right now, who may be, and I'm going to make some comments here, but I want Lisa I say, when you are presenting golden dog to you know some of these new agents, they don't know the difference between one title company to the next, right? What are some of the things that that they can rely on a golden dog is going to do to make that customer experience

Lisa Andrews  13:59  
ultimately well? So we have attorneys that are on staff every day also. So it's not just me, because sometimes people want to even, you know, if I have the right answer for them, they still want to hear it from an attorney. So we have attorneys on staff. We have 11 licensed title agents, and I know that again, for an agent, they may not think that's any big deal, but that's a huge deal. When I first moved to Florida, you only had one in an office, because that's all is required is to have one licensed title agent. We have three or four in every office that we have, right? So you can rely on the fact that we will get, we know who have the knowledge, and we will get everything done that they want to get done.

Tracy Hayes  14:35  
Because everything's not cookie cutter. I mean, there's some stuff, you know. I think, you know, I think as we go west, you're, we're going to run into, you know, some old land titles over there as the builder goes west, and I'm sure you're working with them as they're, you know, buying up their Big Lots at a time. But it's not the same thing. Every time you're going to be people are buying properties where someone didn't. Do it correctly, right? And I, you know, my personal experience, not to downplay some of those just law firms that do title work. You are a title company that has lawyers, versus the law firm that does real estate title work, and in that lawyer is doing other things, probably getting paid a lot more money for some of the other things where our golden dogs attorneys are on staff, that's this is what they do, what we do, not handling someone's accident case,

Lisa Andrews  15:28  
no, right? And they're not doing there's not a separate charge for this from that firm. It's within your title search, and that's it, because we were only allowed to charge your closing fee and search fee, right?

Tracy Hayes  15:40  
That's it. The restaurant. State, mandatory. State, yeah, regular, yeah.

Lisa Andrews  15:44  
The title insurance is promulgated, so it's the same no matter where you go,

Tracy Hayes  15:47  
right, right, right. I'm gonna, I had a thought on it, but I'm gonna go to my next question. I'm gonna come back to it here in a second. I was obviously doing my background check on you. As much as you put out there. I wouldn't say you're a social media queen, but you have a little bit on there. And one thing I see come up a lot is the woman's Council of realtors. You're very involved in that. Yeah, tell me. Tell me what you do there and what they're

Lisa Andrews  16:10  
all about. So Women's Council of Realtors is there nationwide. Also the Jacksonville network is about 65 realtors. And we do different I mean, we do different things. But people that are in Women's Council, they're all about education. They are they have special designations within Women's Council for the realtors to get. I've been the membership director there. I've done the marketing there. I've done secretary, whatever, done officer or but they're a great network of people that you don't have to be a woman. We've had presence, yep, you don't have to be a woman, but that's how it started out. Was back in, I want to say, the 40s, they didn't have anything for the women and only men. Men were the realtors, right? And really the majority of Realtors now are women, yes. And so that we've started back then to kind of build everybody up and get them out there. And when they do the statistics, the realtors that are in Women's Council Realtors earn more money statistically, than those that have that are not in that show

Tracy Hayes  17:10  
dip into that so a little bit. So you said there's only 65 and there's 1000s of female agents, let alone the males, but there's 1000s of agents in the greater Jacksonville area. So, I mean, what, what benefits are you? You mentioned education, but be more specific, what kind of someone joined the Council? What are some of the things that they would they

Lisa Andrews  17:28  
have different designations because, you know, there's lots of different designations that the realtors have. So they're all about the education for that and the referral network within the within the state and within the country. They'll pick someone from Women's Council before they'll pick someone else

Tracy Hayes  17:43  
from another same brokerage, like Keller Williams or cold banker, or something interesting, interesting. So those listening that are not part of the Women's Council, sounds like they need to get involved. I mean,

Lisa Andrews  17:55  
there's a networking thing this Wednesday at 430 and

Tracy Hayes  17:59  
I, you know, I've seen it, and I try to be as active as possible in the boards down downtown. Excellent place downtown. We'll have to get that out there. I've seen it. Yeah, I was like, Oh, well, it's the Women's Council, you know, walk in there and be the only guy. But I guess I probably won't.

Lisa Andrews  18:14  
No, you won't. And we've had a couple of different male presidents, and actually, we had, for the state, we had a male president about two years ago. Excellent. So it's, it's for everybody. It is, yes.

Tracy Hayes  18:25  
All right, super All right. Now I admire you because I obviously read books here, John Maxwell, leadership and so forth. I obviously I don't work under you in any way. I'm not watching you in the office, but whenever I'm panicking, when it comes to I call you, and things get done. So obviously there's must be a high level of respect in your office and so forth. So your your leadership, presence, Aurora, there must be strong. What are you? Are you a podcast listener? Are you a book reader? Do you what do you? What do you do to stay on sharp?

Lisa Andrews  19:05  
Well, well, I do. I'm involved in different Council, so I so Women's Council. I'm in Mandarin Council and southwest Council and and actually, we're starting a group for just title people that might become a lot of masterminds.

Tracy Hayes  19:20  
Everyone's calling a mastermind these days. You're doing a lot of that, yeah,

Lisa Andrews  19:24  
and trying to figure out what's happening. And I also am one to panic situation. Tell me what it is about the mom. I am the one where let's Okay, let's find the problem, and let's figure out how we're going to take care of it smoothly, quickly, and it's done right? And what's going to happen? Right?

Tracy Hayes  19:42  
Sure, you know it's because there's been books written by people who have probably done it far less than you have and made millions of dollars. But whatever you're doing is above and beyond, and one day you'll walk away from Golden dog because you'll just want to like whatever your hobby is, or go traveling, or. Whatever it is. Maybe we'll talk about that in a minute, but obviously, will be a great loss. Hopefully you can mentor someone, because I think John Maxwell says it best, the best leaders are ones who create other leaders,

Lisa Andrews  20:11  
absolutely, and that's why we have 11, not just because of me, but I mean, 11 licensed title people is because we want everyone to be their best. You know, I don't want to be solver, yes, you need to be right behind me. I don't I don't want to have to be I don't want to have to be there, right? You should be able to do it without me. And that's, that's what I always want people lift them up. Lift them up. I want everybody to know what I know, or more.

Tracy Hayes  20:32  
So I think a lot of things in dig a little deeper into the title part, because I as, again, being in the business 16 years. What exactly are you doing? And I think, you know, oh yeah, we're clearing the title, okay, you know, all right, or making sure the title is clear, and then we're sure. What if you don't have to dig in too deep? Maybe I might, I might ask a question to dig a little deeper and learn myself. But I know oftentimes, obviously, get a contract. Any title companies involved in it, they want that title order right away, which I want, like, same way I want my application signed right away, because I want to get it in process, because I imagine if there, because, if there is any bumps, we can solve them and still close on. Pretty straightforward there. But what is, what are the basic processes of that, when we when we order the title search as a lender, what are the things that are going on, sight unseen by really, the agent and the lender, right up, right up to closing.

Lisa Andrews  21:31  
So we're ensuring that the person that is selling actually owns the property right, that no one else has any interest in it, and they're not any liens or judgments against it. And that's when you're getting an owner's policy. It's taking the you're getting that from the day you purchase backwards. So if anything ever came up, let's just take an example of years ago, maybe 2004 that or five, there was a builder who's no longer around, that told all of his customers you don't need an owner's policy, because you're getting it from us. And we, just, we just got it. Yeah, so, but you're getting a special warranty deed. And what's special about that is that it is from that is special because there is from the time they got it from they purchased it from the developer, until the time they're giving it to the buyer. So it's only really ensuring that period of time anything before that is not is doesn't help. So if you have an owner's policy that covers all of that.

Tracy Hayes  22:22  
So that's a great question. Owner's policy highly recommended, and a lot of times, the seller actually pays for it. Am I not mistaken

Lisa Andrews  22:29  
in Northeast Florida, that is what is customary, customary for the owner to pay

Tracy Hayes  22:33  
for it, is that is with you forever. Now give us an example, and I'm sure, because I'm sure you have come across many, and I had a friend that actually was in on the title insurance side, and he, you know, how they solve these claims that come in, give us an example of what might, what could happen.

Lisa Andrews  22:50  
So that example is that I was going to give, was that this? So this builder said they didn't do the owner's policy. And at that time, you know, seller pays for the builder was paying for it, right? So he was saving himself, yeah, yeah. And, I mean, probably he really didn't think he whatever. It was a big Yeah, oh, it's

Tracy Hayes  23:05  
just an insurance policy. He'll never use it absolutely.

Lisa Andrews  23:09  
And what happened was, there was some body that owned part of that land, and each person in that neighborhood had to pay their portion of the claim when it came down to it. So unfortunately for that whole neighborhood, they all owed a portion of that money on the title claim, right?

Tracy Hayes  23:26  
Someone had previously owned it. They did not settle

Lisa Andrews  23:30  
with someone had died. And there was an error that was multi Right,

Tracy Hayes  23:33  
yeah, an error that was missed. Did not get their payout from sale of it, so didn't sign off on the clearance of the title. And obviously it's rare. Sound like when people get life insurance, right, right? It happens all sorts of things.

Lisa Andrews  23:47  
Well, I mean, I can tell you another example we had of one was at a different company I was working for, and a lady bought a flip and so when she was getting it all ready, her neighbor next door kept saying, you know, what about that water, you know, the water treatment thing? And she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. And just kind of blew kind of blew him off, because, you know, she didn't know what he's talking about. Well, it was a neighborhood that had been had mobile homes on it before, so the lots were smaller, and they had a water treatment system that they all had to have. And they got inspected every year by the Health Department. So when they came around to inspect hers, she didn't have one, so she tried to put a claim against title, and that would have been in your schedule b2 and I'm not being a little bit but, but it would be something that would not necessarily be covered by Title insurance, because it was, it was an exception to title. However, the underwriter happened to have done a typo. And when it was on schedule b2 it didn't tell them. It didn't it didn't disclose that. That's what it was. And so they actually paid out 12 grand to get her water treatment in there, back in place. Now, had it been on there, she would have just been out of luck, or

Tracy Hayes  24:51  
she might, she might have walked out of the sale because the expense of it, right?

Lisa Andrews  24:55  
So you always want to get your title commitment as a buyer, so you can see what's. Not going to be covered under your

Tracy Hayes  25:01  
title insurance, because you might have some what's the terminology I want to use? You know, tending where you might be, where the county might be assessing you, and you missed that assessment, not realize, oh, yeah, my taxes are this, but I got this other assessment right here, right? That it might be something you don't want to

Lisa Andrews  25:19  
pay, right? Because when you're looking at the commitment, the very first page is shows who actually owns the property, gives a legal description, which we need to check to make sure it's correct, because sometimes the legal description is not correct. And then b1 shows what we need to do to close, and b2 is really for the buyer. These are what's not these are one not gonna be covered. We had another one where there was the properties out in Keystone heights, and there's a lot of timber, timber liens and stuff that go on out there, timber rights. And the buyer looked at their title commitment. They said, Well, wait a minute, we want this. So we had to go back and look at the look at the title commitment, and see what it was. And we found that company that owned those rights, and the seller paid for half, and they paid for that, or have to get the rights fully to them instead

Tracy Hayes  26:04  
of for their law, because there was another company had the timber rights to it, right. Interesting mineral rights are, yeah, and probably really had no intensive ever going. It's a slot. How many trees are the

Lisa Andrews  26:13  
guy that they bought it from, de Nino, was on there, and he'd owned it since the 70s, and that was put on there in the 40s. So, right. Oh my, yeah. They hadn't done anything with it. No, but the buyers wanted it.

Tracy Hayes  26:23  
Yes, well, that's smart. Clear. Who knows? The sun inherits it and finds out, right? It gets it's above. So owner's title policy, you're going back in here making sure there's no assessments or crazy things like the tree thing there. What else are we doing? What's, what's the next, what's the next step in that, in your process, as it goes down through your production?

Lisa Andrews  26:48  
So as far as getting the payoffs and making sure taxes are paid, and ordering the estoppel. So if you're in an HOA, then you're we have to order estoppel, which,

Tracy Hayes  26:56  
let's explain the term estoppel, because, you know, we see that. I see that I see that obviously doing a condo, that's generally where you see those.

Lisa Andrews  27:03  
Well, anything that's in a planning development, Okay, gonna have an estoppel.

Tracy Hayes  27:07  
You got to pay the estoppel fee, right? What is the estoppel?

Lisa Andrews  27:11  
So the estoppel figure,

Lisa Andrews  27:19  
it's really sounds like it. So it's the estoppel, which is what we send to the HOA to ensure that there are any violations against the property. So they might have, maybe we had one where there was, it happens to be the neighborhood I live in, but they'd put a dock out along the pond, and it's not allowed. So before they could sell it, it had to be removed, right? Or they may have not cut their grass. They may have painted the house a different color, whatever, or they may owe the association money for not paying their HOA. And for condos, they may have regulations of has to be approved for someone to move in. And we don't have a whole lot of that North Florida, but that's very common

Tracy Hayes  27:54  
right now, right? So you're going to find that when you get the estoppel of the of the restrictions the dock obviously, is important, yeah, for us to keep a community whole. Yeah, the new person buying it may want the dock, but in reality, the community does not allow right to get that corrected before closing. Right is better, better for the whole community. There all right estoppel.

Lisa Andrews  28:14  
And so that's, that's the thing that so years ago, you could either get them free, they were 50 bucks. They were the HOA companies. Could charge whatever they wanted, and then, kind of, during the recession, and as things were happening, 2008 in South Florida, you would be charged up to $1,000 when they charge whatever they wanted, covering loss. But the realtors, the our pack, I guess, is what, who did it? The Pack, the realtors pack went for a few years and got, got them the legislature to tax it, yeah, so smart, yeah. So it's and the reason they were kind of fighting it was because some places didn't charge and then they assumed that they would automatically charge 250 once they said that was the max you could charge, right? And that did kind of happen, but it helped more than hurt everywhere else in Florida, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tracy Hayes  29:00  
I mean, they're recouping losses, and they're holding you hostage, right? Because you need that, or you're not closing, right? And so you're in, someone's gonna pay the $1,000 to get whatever they're crazy. What is estoppel when you're doing title work? The difference primarily between, obviously, we do a lot of PUDs, the planned urban developments, but just the difference between, you know, your typical single family home versus a condo, what are some of the kind of things that you do differently in that regards?

Lisa Andrews  29:28  
Well, you don't need a survey for a condo, right? That saves you there, that saves you. And you have to there are certain endorsements that the lender is going to require. So you have, and really, Florida has a lot of endorsements compared to some of the other states, and they require a survey. When some of the other states don't require it, like most states don't require it, actually doesn't make sense, really, but they should. So that's it's just the difference is, you know what it's going to be, the endorsements that the lender is going to require for that.

Tracy Hayes  29:56  
I mean, you see, like most arguments between neighbors, is going to be. Like something that's not non, that's not or on the survey, not on the survey, or not on survey, too far. But I mean that. I mean yeah, which side that tree is on? Who's responsible for the tree?

Lisa Andrews  30:14  
Yeah. Big deal. Yeah. And the, the biggest thing is, and it saves the it saves the seller money if you don't get a new survey. And I tell my agents this all the time, if I'm the buyer's agent, I'm always going to ask for a new survey, because you don't know what you're even though I said I didn't do anything different on my house, my next door neighbor may have right, and if they could have moved the fence, or they could have done something that that got onto my property. So I want, I want my own new survey every time, but that is not what is popular right now.

Tracy Hayes  30:44  
Yes, I would, you know, that's a very good point. Never thought about that. But that is 100% right? It's kind of like I'm a big pre listing inspection person. I think the person lists the house and has a pre inspection and knocks all that having the survey done is just saving. I mean, could be catastrophic. It's like getting an insurance policy or not getting the insurance policy. You don't know when you might use it, but when it comes you're like, Man, why don't I just spend that 350 $400

Lisa Andrews  31:09  
and get that survey done right? But it's a big it really is a it would, it could save you some money. And people, people that have found we have a actually one of, one of the our underwriters that does some some classes for us, actually had his own problem with the survey where they he bought the property and used an old one, knowing full well that he probably shouldn't have when he went to sell the pool was put over some kind of line. It ended up costing like 70 grand, 70 grand,

Tracy Hayes  31:36  
and what three, four or $500 could have, could have. I mean, again,

Lisa Andrews  31:41  
that doesn't happen all the time, but it is in the top 10 of claims that the underwriter will get. Wow, it'll be something to do with

Tracy Hayes  31:50  
catastrophic that is that's so important. So yeah, because I see it having been on a CDD board where people come in and they want approved to build a pool that encroaches on the easement, right? And they want in. Obviously, they're smart. They go in there and they get the CD board to sign off, saying it's okay, if they just went in and built the pool, they could, it could be catastrophic, right? They go to, yeah, so, I mean, man, that's, that's a million dollar tidbit right there. I'm going to step we're going to move forward a little bit, just for time purposes, preparing your documents. What's going on your I see the emails go back and forth between our closer and your person down there. That's balancing. What are you guys focused on, on that, on that, versus? Well, in just to get that balanced. I mean, what are they scanning? What are they what are they making sure is squared away,

Lisa Andrews  32:46  
so that can be off just by a few cents. When you're looking at that where someone may, where your proration may be a little bit different, or your per diem May is a little bit different, and that's what's coming out. But I want to backtrack, okay, sure when we're looking at title and when they've applied for the loan, we have to go by whatever the contract says. So if it says Lisa K Andrews, and my loan says Lisa Andrews, the title and all of our documents are going to come out Lisa K because we have to match the contract.

Tracy Hayes  33:15  
So can I add the tidbit here? And I think you would agree with me, get the person's driver's license. Agent, take their driver's license, ask them, Is that how they're going to have a title? Because, as a lender, we're getting their driver's license, and we're, you know, because we want to make sure the name spelled correctly right. And if they have Lisa K Andrews on on the driver's license, that's how you should write the contract, right?

Lisa Andrews  33:35  
Or if you don't want it, you know, I could take it l Andrews, because I can take it however I want, because I know I've had some single, unmarried women that don't necessarily want to public records to show that that you don't know if it's a man or a woman, so they're just kind of, you know, doing like that. So I can do I can take title. I can take it

Tracy Hayes  33:52  
back when we wouldn't allow women to buy houses I had my grandmother.

Lisa Andrews  34:00  
But yeah. So you can take title the way you want. You can take it t Hayes or whatever. But so do you just need to do the contract how they want to take title? Because that's going to make the difference.

Tracy Hayes  34:09  
Well, that's where the the Well, I think different lenders have a have a policy, I know for us and I, and I, it conflicted with me when I first got here, because they wanted what's on the driver's license. Because I'm like, Well, no, you ask them how they want to take title, but you want to make sure every document right? So because when you, like you said, when you sign, if they have their middle initial in there, they got to sign with their middle initial Right, right at the at the end. So now we talked a little bit, since we're on the subject married or not married, yeah, Florida, if you're married and you're not legally divorced, you both have to be there, closing, right, whether you're on the mortgage or not, right, right? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, and we're homestead proper, if you're buying homes, primary residence, right? Primary residence, right. So you're getting divorced, and one spouse wants to go off and buy another home, but you're not finalized with that divorce, the other spouse has to sign, not. On the note, but as because that's going to be the other spouse's primary residence, right? Even though the previous the spouse, one spouse is staying in the current home, right? They would have to still sign on the

Lisa Andrews  35:11  
other right? So when they're doing that, then they should take title as themselves, a married person, whoever that is. And that way, when the divorce does go final, there's that person's only one

Tracy Hayes  35:22  
on there. Well, we talked about you, because you said you don't do it at closing, but you, I'm sure you know how it works. I mean, so they finally do get divorced, so now they want to just remove that one person from title that was the agreement, or maybe the, maybe the house that they are living in together, and they get divorced, and they Okay, the wife's going to get the house, the husband's going to sign it over. How difficult is it to actually file that quit claim deed? Is there a lot of steps to that.

Lisa Andrews  35:48  
They'll need to get an attorney to prepare it. If this anything is done outside of closing, we cannot do it right. They'll need to get an attorney prepare it. But a lot of times during in their marital settlement agreement and their actual the final dissolution of marriage, if it is worded correctly. That recorded, does it so it's just kind of according

Tracy Hayes  36:05  
to the recording of the actual divorce agreement saying one spouse will take ownership of the home, and

Lisa Andrews  36:11  
the wording is kind of tricky, but they the attorney should know how to put it in

Tracy Hayes  36:15  
there correctly, correct. But I will put this tidbit in here. If you both are on the mortgage, you can if you signed over your entire rights to the other spouse and but you're still on the mortgage and they haven't refinanced and they don't make a payment, you still get hit talking about still on the note. It's on the notes on the mortgage, right? Because that was a big Oh, I got divorced. She didn't make the payments, not me. I had nothing to do with me.

Lisa Andrews  36:36  
I got the vote. No, if you're gonna be included in your debt ratio

Tracy Hayes  36:39  
too, you want to be refinanced off of there, just as much as I wouldn't give up ownership until you're refinanced off of there, right? You don't want to give up your rights, because now you have no leverage, right? Right? 100% Yeah, right. Any more we want to add to that. I want to, I want to finish with this, because this is the thing I want to talk about here, the most to me, the most important thing, as I've gone to other title companies and gone around, there's only a handful. I don't know. Not only know if it's a handful, I'm how many I can fit in my hand, but how important is the closer, their charisma, their talent, their confidence, especially when you know the builder business is one thing, because it's it's you already, it is your business. That's part. We're part of the business. But when you're when you're going out marketing to people that their customers are going to have, hopefully walk you out of that title company with a positive experience, because who knows, something might have gone bad, you're the last people that touched them right how important is it to have that right person administering that closing,

Lisa Andrews  37:42  
you need to have a good closer, and someone that is friendly and and is knowledgeable, because you don't know what kind of questions will come. So when I sit down to do a closing, I'll, I'll say, you know, I can, I'm going to explain to you the docs, if I'm going too slow, you just tell me to go. If I'm not explaining enough, you tell me to slow down and let me. Let me. Is this your first time? Is this your first home? You know? Because that makes a difference, yeah, because they really don't know what they're signing, and honestly, it doesn't matter, because they have to sign every document.

Tracy Hayes  38:09  
Yeah, in the end, you have no you want to own the house, you have to sign the document, but you want

Lisa Andrews  38:13  
to be comfortable, right? And there's questions that comes out, like portability, and how do I file my homestead? And, you know, where's my first payment going to go? They, you know, well, a lot

Tracy Hayes  38:21  
of times I don't even know to ask that, right? And that experience, agent, because I've obviously sat through the closings here and some, some good I've sat at other poor clothes where you can hear a pin drop and you're like, everyone's just sitting in the room waiting for next thing to happen. But to have that agent, or the closing agent, I guess we call them closing agents, that would you, yeah, or escrow officer, yeah. I mean, they have a routine, and there's some laughter in there. They know when the throw in the joke, it is a route, because they are doing the same thing over and over again. How many times a day, right? Last day of the month? I mean, are they doing like, 1012, closing some of them, yeah. So they're in there, and you got to, you got to do that routine, but they got to take the pressure out and understand the mention the portability. Make sure they understand it, where it's at, because, you know, they don't remember when they walk out the door, right? But where it's at in the documents. Did you give them some sort of info sheet, that sort of thing, but just taking the air so the agents out there, when you're looking for a title company, you're, you know, obviously consider Lisa and her team at Golden dog. That's part of it. Bring someone over, sit in on the closing and watch how it happens. I see too many. I see too many, you know, agents I've because I, you know, as a lender, we go wherever they tell us to go, right? And we go sit down in that office, and it's like, okay, you're, you're doing business with this closer. That is, you know, is really bad. Everybody in the room is like, you know, this is not a great experience. This is the modern age. This is it's all about how you made them feel,

Lisa Andrews  39:50  
right, right, right. And sometimes that it might be bad in the beginning, and maybe there's some kind of other issue. I've walked in and had someone else leave just because I. I know that's not good, and so I feel like I will make it better, because it's already not a good situation. So I'll go in and we'll talk and we'll figure it out. And some people, sometimes it will never work, but most the time, we're all laughing in the end, and it's a positive you guys do such a great job. It's a huge thing. When you buy a house, I always say that it's, it's it's a life changing event. You're you just got married, you just got divorced, you have more kids, you're downsizing. There's a death I mean, it is something new that's happening, right? You're not just

Tracy Hayes  40:28  
doing it. It's a life event. And I, like I mentioned in the last podcast, that we've literally closed deals where we have to get their pay stub the couple days in it before closing to show they have enough money to get in there, right? And they're going in on their shoe strings, in going to home ownership. But I think, you know, just when we're just talking about this in a second, we do so many new construction and new construction never it's we're accustomed to it. Nothing ever goes perfect and never closes on time. They're supposed to close three months ago or now all of a sudden, they're like, hey, yeah, you're closing in 30 days. Oh, I planned that trip. I'm going to Oshkosh. By Gosh, nothing ever times, right? And people get ticked off. And, you know, obviously we're not dealing with real taxes. We're projecting taxes the best we can. We try to prepare them for that. But there's always a little anxiety there. And I think new construction adds it so your your team has had a lot more at bats with this stuff on how to just make that closing a little more pleasant, right? For some of the, some of those loans that, or some of those loans or deals or builds or whatever, just had a little bumpy road. And, you know, but we got to get it done and they leave with a smile,

Lisa Andrews  41:36  
right now, that and that what's making me happy. I love when they leave with a smile. And we can actually get them in there. Yep, yeah, they get to move in when they want to move in. And you know, they're not sitting out there with the trailer full of furniture.

Tracy Hayes  41:49  
Yes, unfortunately, that does not happen. And I will say, everybody, nobody likes that. We all know that if you're a customer out there, whether it's Lisa's team or my team at jet or anybody, we know this is going on. And there's only certain things we can do, whether it's compliance thing or or, you know, obviously the builder has to get certificate of advocacy all out of the jazz, Oh, yeah.

Lisa Andrews  42:11  
Lots of things can happen, but we want to make it, you know, as the best that we can. And bring in food, bring in puppies, bring in whatever we need.

Tracy Hayes  42:19  
Make it good. We've done it all. We could talk on forever. But if there was one thing that you could get every single agent to do that that you work with, whether it's our team, your gender, or many agents that you have come in and bringing you a non builder business, to you that that could just make your job a little bit easier, your team's job a little bit easier. What would be that one thing? So I do

Lisa Andrews  42:42  
have certain agents to do it, but if they can put a timeline down, I have an agent, well, a few that they give an exact timeline and they put their commissions down. In any kind of transaction,

Tracy Hayes  42:53  
they're getting you that information well in advance, right? So we have it there, and

Lisa Andrews  42:57  
we all, everyone has the expectation, the selling agent, the you know, the buyer, the seller. Everyone has that same information, and it makes it a lot easier, too.

Tracy Hayes  43:06  
So they send me the contract. For example, I get the initial disclosures that the client. Client signs that we order title. So within three or four days of everything getting started, you have this timeline of what's on that contract, of when and things are supposed to be done right, and set setting expectations up front.

Lisa Andrews  43:25  
Yeah, so that's probably mostly the the resale stuff, because that that timeline is a little bit different, but that just gives everybody the expectation. And we know what the commissions are, because back in the day, they were on the contract, and now they're not. So we always have to call and verify and make sure that they're right. And you know, if

Tracy Hayes  43:41  
you're getting a lender credit, exactly, realtor credit, realtor could not lender credit. Lender credits are easy. Realtor credits, please. Yeah, get those up front whatever, whatever commitment that you've given. So because that's though, I obviously the strain and compliance, I tell the clients, yeah, it's only going to be on the final because there's compliance things that need to go through that when that not too many interested party credits are in there to violate what they're allowed, right? And so they leave the realtor credit over the side, and at the last moment, they'll stick it in there and what they can use of it and put it there. What do you think this is my last formal questions, but that way, the biggest misconceptions of buyers and sellers when it comes to the title company, what is it they don't know?

Lisa Andrews  44:29  
They think we're the lender. I'd say 80% of the time they think we're the lender.

Tracy Hayes  44:32  
Well, I think 80% of the time they think we're the lender is the title company, because they want to send us the money, right?

Lisa Andrews  44:38  
So I think they don't understand what we are, which I understand they don't know, because most people don't buy a house more than a few times in a lifetime, so they don't necessarily know, but they think that we are the lender, and so they think that we have that answer right, and we don't

Tracy Hayes  44:54  
usually asking you a particular loan, loan, right? A loan, particular question. So the lender. Is doing the loan. Questions the money, the conduit of all the money is the title company. That's you're handling all the money. The lender's sending you a large lump sum. You're cutting checks, maybe that's need to be paid off. You're paying off the seller, paying the realtors. That's a conduit of all that.

Lisa Andrews  45:17  
So that's why we have the Alta settlement statement. Because before the CFPB came in, we had the HUD, and everything was on that. Well now we have the Closing Disclosure, and the buyer can't see the sellers. Closing Disclosure. Seller can't see the buyers. So we have to have something that everybody signs, that shows all the disbursements. So we are the one that's handling all of that, and everyone is signing, saying, yes, we agree with what's happening.

Tracy Hayes  45:38  
So the government said with the Closing Disclosure, they didn't want the two parties to see each other as, like, the proceeds of sellers getting too much. There was too much information. But you guys are giving them the information on the Alta, yes, but

Lisa Andrews  45:50  
we're not giving any like they think there's like, social security numbers on that kind of thing. But remember the so I've done it for a long time. And so originally, the HUD didn't have any of the loan information. And then they changed it in 2010 and had all their loan information on the last page, which I was like, but you know, it's like that fine. So that's, that's what they took off, really. And then they each made their own so interesting.

Tracy Hayes  46:13  
Yeah, interesting. All right, I wrap it up with my two minute warning. Questions. More important who you know or what you know?

Lisa Andrews  46:21  
I don't know there is a better answer on that, because I feel like it is who you know, but you don't even know who to go to. If you don't know, that makes sense. Like I have to know who to ask, but I need to know who that person

Tracy Hayes  46:35  
that is true, if you don't ask the question, you can't get the answer to find out who that who that is. All right, you're out on the town. I know you get out a little bit. Are you a jaguars, jumbo shrimp or nice man, jaguars, Jaguars. Okay, what's on Lisa's travel bucket list?

Lisa Andrews  46:54  
Well, I'm planning on going to Greece next year. Well, in 2023 I'm doing a girls trip. Girls trip next. Next year we're just gonna go to Jamaica for a bunch of girls that we all graduate high school together. That's cool. We're doing that, but so when I retire at some point in time, that will be my thing is to travel, stay somewhere that I'm not familiar with, and hang out with the natives, wherever that may be, for a month, yes, and see what it's really like to live there, not just the

Tracy Hayes  47:20  
tour stuff that is so cool that I, you know, I've mentioned on the podcast before. I mean, I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to go to Sweden, and we were only there a week, but we did least three or four nights of homestays, living with a family, and it's just, you know, even it's that little bit of experience. But, yeah, to be able to go and stay a month or whatever. And actually, you know, live there, shop there, you know, buy your groceries. How they, you know, do things, right? Yeah, is, I think it's one of the treasures. I think learning about different cultures, you can do that right here in the United States. My husband's

Lisa Andrews  47:56  
family is from England, so I was able to take my daughter there, back in 2000 Well, we went a couple times, but in 2012 and the and it was, to me, it wasn't culture shock, but it was like she it was culture shock for her, yeah, so different, even though, you know, it's not right, right?

Tracy Hayes  48:15  
I think every young person, I wish they did, the more the height, you know, the exchanges and stuff they used to do, they don't do them it, you know, for whatever reasons. Now, you know too many lawyers. I wish that that is to me, that's part of growing up and understanding our world as small as it's gotten with communication and no,

Lisa Andrews  48:32  
absolutely, it's wonderful to see the different the way different people live. I mean, you go to the grocery store every day because your refrigerator is just tall, you know? I mean, that's right, or

Tracy Hayes  48:40  
living in a city versus living in a suburbs, like we're so used to. You go, especially in the Asian countries, as I've been to Taiwan, they, I mean, to them, they live in the cities on top. I mean, you think like they are literally living on top of each other. They ride down the street on a moped and they've got the whole family on

Lisa Andrews  48:57  
it, right? Yeah, yeah. Just scary.

Tracy Hayes  49:00  
There's no OSHA or Yeah. So Lisa, so someone's listening here today, and as an agent out there, that's that's open for, you know, learning more about Golden dog title and possibly using them for their transactions. What's the best way to reach you?

Lisa Andrews  49:14  
So you can reach me on my cell at 904-476-1966, have it on me all all the time. You can email me at Lisa dot Andrews at Golden dog, title.com or go on to our website, right.

Tracy Hayes  49:29  
And then Lisa and I regularly are having trainings here in the building that are going to if you want to get on Lisa's takes care of a mailing list to get on there and announce when those trainings is we bring people in just, you know, add value right

Lisa Andrews  49:46  
this Wednesday at 11 o'clock at the Phillips highway office in the training room upstairs. And it is for business planning, goal setting, business planning. And it's lunch and learn. So you get food.

Tracy Hayes  49:57  
Sharpen your sword. Come join us. Yes, you get free food. And maybe we'll give you some trinkets to leave with some hand sanitizers or something. Lisa, I appreciate you coming on. Definitely want to have you on a regular basis every every six months or so, tell some title stories, because I think we did a lot of facts. We told a couple stories, but facts tell stories sell, and it's really those knowing why, why the importance of that title company, why that is the stories that are the tragedies or this, or the tragedies that could have been that you save, those stories are so valuable, right?

Lisa Andrews  50:34  
So there's lots of those. Tracy, many. I really appreciate you having me on

Tracy Hayes  50:37  
today, though. Yes, thank you. You