Investor Team

Many title companies hold themselves out as “investor-friendly” but most fall short. As an investor it can be difficult (and very costly) to discover late in the process that their chosen title company simply doesn’t get it. 

Investors come in many forms. Some focus on particular properties such as those in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure or tax sale. Others focus on particular sellers such as tired landlords, absentee owners or heirs. Of course these are just examples. Depending on the property or the seller, investors use different acquisition and disposition strategies. Wholesalers look to assign their contract interests in various types of properties to end buyers who are often investors themselves; fix and flip investors look for residential properties that are in need of some amount of work that can be renovated and quickly resold; buy and hold investors look for properties of different types for short-term, mid-term or long-term rentals. Of course there are different players involved with each of the strategies and transaction types. Hard money lenders, private lenders, JV partners, other investors, local housing authorities, auction companies, REALTORs, substitute trustees, short sale specialists, creditors, just to name a few. Our Investor Team has decades of experience dealing with all of these players as well as with respect to all types of investor transactions. Nothing surprises us.

A better question may be are my investment business and Eastern a good fit for each other. Any investor that does consistent business in some investment niche is likely to get great value out of working with our Investor Team. Our investor clients benefit from, among other things and without any additional fees, contract assistance, due diligence support, title curative services, and a custom client communication framework improved over 20+ years in the business. While we do work with and help new investors grow their businesses, our most important KPI on the investor side is the client’s close rate. Because we incur expenses on every new file, investors who put properties under contract but allow contracts to fall out are a liability we are not interested in taking on. Bad deals are something that our real estate problem-solvers simply cannot solve.

The sales contract will allocate who is responsible for title fees and closing costs. Generally speaking, however, our fees – settlement fee, title examination fee, document preparation fee – total approximately $1000*. In addition to our fees the parties will be responsible for title search, survey (if requested), title insurance premiums, and expenses such as wire fees, courier fees, recording/e-recording fees, and fees associated with our Qualia closing software which includes years of online document retention/access. 

Closing costs such as transfer and recordation taxes and recording fees are not factored into this discussion. Those are the same regardless of the title company. In many investor transactions the buyer has agreed to pay all closing costs. However, costs relating to the release of any existing liens are typically born by the seller (in addition to the payoff of all liens on title, of course).

Some transaction types are more challenging than others and our fees are adjusted accordingly.

It’s important to know a title company’s earnest money deposit policy. We do not follow a “hold until a mutual release is signed” policy. That archaic policy allows a party who may be at fault to delay and hinder a seller’s future effort to sell the property. Here’s how our policy works: if a party defaults and there is no material factual dispute (no title issues, settlement date came and went yet buyer failed to close), we’ll disburse the deposit in accordance with a contract’s unambiguous terms. We give notice of our intentions and a party can prevent us from disbursing to the party entitled to the funds, but then we’ll have to prepare legal paperwork, deduct our fees, and send the balance to court.