Real(ty) Talk
Real(ty) Talk
Building Success Stories with The King of Title Anthony Andre
Anthony Andre, the king of title, join us to unravel the tapestry of today's real estate landscape. This episode promises to enlighten you on the aftermath of Proposition 33 and how its failure is a sigh of relief for real estate investors and developers in California, paving the way for new inventory development. We also touch upon the shifting political winds with a new Republican leader and California’s hefty $20 billion financial commitments, adding layers to the real estate narrative.
Our journey through the real estate world doesn't stop there; we explore the relentless resilience required to weather economic storms. We share tales of tenacity, where short sales and courthouse step strategies have been lifelines for many. Personal stories reveal the heart and hustle behind the business, underscoring the essence of genuine relationships and mentorship. You'll learn how perseverance and a people-centric approach can turn daunting challenges into golden opportunities.
In the final chapters, the episode takes a forward-thinking turn as we examine the thrilling intersection of AI and real estate. While tech innovations promise to streamline processes like escrow and title transactions, we reaffirm that human expertise and connection are irreplaceable. With insights drawn from authors like David Goggins and Tim Grover, we celebrate the grit and authenticity that fuel long-lasting success. As we cast our eyes on Texas real estate ventures, we invite you to join the conversation, share your thoughts, and be part of this exciting journey.
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All right, welcome back to your favorite podcast on the planet Realty Talk Podcast. We have a very exciting agenda today to talk to. We do, yeah, lots of new information to maybe sprinkle into our discussion.
Speaker 2:Oh, today's the day.
Speaker 1:Possibly it's November 6th, I would say possibly post-election Unsure, yeah, but I have to my left the queen of the closing table, suzanne. She is the CEO and founder of Innovate Realty and I'm excited to introduce everybody to Anthony. Andre, I think we're going to give you the nickname of King of Title.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you can call me.
Speaker 4:AAA. There's applause underneath this right when you said my name.
Speaker 2:Of course We'll throw that in there.
Speaker 1:Triple A.
Speaker 4:So, you also?
Speaker 1:own Triple A.
Speaker 4:Well, my name is Anthony Andrew Andre. My parents thought I'd be a president Today. Obviously I could have it's not too late. You could have I could have literally, but they thought it was famous, so people call me AAA.
Speaker 1:All right, were you the first AAA, or was your father named Anthony?
Speaker 4:I'm the first, and then there's a junior.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:Who's also in the title business, but that's a whole other day Okay. Your son, yeah, awesome In this area. Oh, cool, stay out. Cool Cool.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think we should dive in, I do think we should discuss that.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Not to get political, but obviously actually there were two things that happened last night. So for the listeners it is November 6th, the election was yesterday, prop 33 was up and I think that was a pretty interesting outcome. Obviously, as a real estate investor, I think it's great that it's not going to go. In 1995, there was a bill that was passed that would stop municipalities essentially from enforcing rent control if it wasn't already in place that's my understanding of it that was put up on the ballot to be appealed and that was not voted to go through which it was voted no, which will essentially allow real estate investors to continue to build new inventory. It's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:Politics, from my perspective, are really wonky, like when somebody puts that bill forward. They might have the right intent but the reality is that would have likely driven up cost of rent and it would have slowed down new development. It sort of would have done really the opposite of what they intended it to do. But I was really excited to see that outcome. I was up late watching they kept going back to the presidential race and I'm like I don't care, I want to see Prop 33. What's happening there? But it looks like the United States has spoken and we're going to have a Republican as our leader, so any thoughts on that, any takes, Not that I'm expressing.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, no, I think you know we've talked about it on here, where you know, I mean, realistically, I don't think a whole lot is going to change People besides emotions. But and I do think the people that were hesitant although I don't think it was the masses, I think people that were hesitant to move forward, I think were wanting this outcome. So, yeah, I think we're done, we're past it, let's move on.
Speaker 2:Let's get back to day-to-day life and stay positive. Yeah, let's get back to day-to-day life and, you know, stay positive yeah let's get back to things we can't control. Yeah, exactly, which is ourselves.
Speaker 1:I think one major negative outcome is that we just signed up to basically pay back $20 billion of debt additional debt so two of the props that passed were $10 billion apiece One. I'd have to go back and look at them, but you know, california just spent $20 billion last night, so that's not good. Ouch, I'd have to go back and look at them, but California just spent $20 billion last night, so that's not good Ouch.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but they're like a drunken kid. They've been out spending money for a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You can cut that out.
Speaker 1:No, it's great. Yeah, so well, if there's nothing else to add to that. Honestly, you and I don't know each other that well, but from what I understand, you are the king of title.
Speaker 2:He is basically the title celebrity in Southern.
Speaker 4:California. There are going to be some title people out there like that guy's, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, all I will say they're saying it, not me. No, I mean Southern California. I think if you haven't heard the name Anthony Andre, I think if you haven't heard the name Anthony Andre, maybe you are not doing a lot of business in real estate, right? Because I mean he's kind of like a title legend. Got it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they always put legend, as they're pushing you out, you know. They're like that guy's a legend, he's an OG. So what Thank you. Where did you grow up? Tell us your story. Riverside, california, inland Empire. I was telling Sierra Born in Long Beach LBC and my parents took me out that way. So that's you know. It's very rare that you get to rep the area you were from, so it's good and bad. You know you walk in an office, old girlfriend not going to be this place, yeah.
Speaker 4:But it's actually great because you get to. You know, see people in the industry that your kids went to school with or people I went to school with, so it's been a great area for me. But we've expanded because titles become that we really go everywhere.
Speaker 2:And you didn't start as a title the title legend. So how did we get here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did you end in the industry?
Speaker 4:So my story I think which is most appealing about myself is, you know, it's rags to riches story. I was, you know, a high school dropout because my parents, my dad, owned a trucking company. It's all I ever wanted to do. So I was in high school and kind of messing around, not you know, going and surfing and not going to class. Yeah, and one day my dad's just like listen, you're wasting these people's time. You might as well just come work hard. What he was trying to do is get me rattled, to get me back, you know, because my guidance counselor seriously told me you're going to dig ditches for a living, because that's what was in front of him.
Speaker 4:Now times are softer. They don't tell kids that, but that's really probably what I needed to hear and I said I'll show you. Then I ended up working out in the sun. He was right. And so I went into the trucking business with my dad and I was like 16. Wow, and just working really hard, what kind of trucking. At that time we owned a hay company which we were in. We had an office in Chino which I grew up in the dairy industry.
Speaker 4:My grandfather had a dairy and all that.
Speaker 2:We talked about that last week. All that was was dairy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, dairy and all that. We talked about that last. All that was was dairy, yeah, and so I really for a kid. Then at the time in my you know I was telling that in my day I was add, but they called you dumb in my day in the 70s, you know. So it was kind of like when I got to drive a truck all day and all night, it was the greatest thing in the world because I thought I get to you know I could be up all night and make money, and you know my friends are still in school.
Speaker 4:But I didn't feel the same at 16, when I turned 40 and I'm still in the truck, and you know my dad had sold the business, retired. I met my wife and she was kind of like, listen, if you keep the trucks which owner operator life is we'd only make money when the wheels are turning right. So you're gone, you're not home, you know, and even when you're home, you're not really home. Yeah, you're tired, ready to go. And so what happened is so you drove from 16 to 40.
Speaker 1:yeah, wow, wow.
Speaker 4:And I had different jobs. At the end I got a job and I always was setting up for this future without knowing. And so for me there was a certain. I always wanted a better job and at the time there was the top job in the world. I went and applied for two years. Every Monday I'd put an application in. Finally I went and applied for two years. Every Monday I'd put an application in. Finally I got the job.
Speaker 4:But at the time it was going cross-country. It was going, you know, I'd be gone for four days but I'd be home on the weekends. I wanted to be home. But you know my life, you know my wife was in the real estate world 2004,. The world is just crazy in real estate and me gone. So in the middle of the trip in June 2004, I had an epiphany which turned out to be a panic attack. Oh wow, in the middle of a trip, I didn't know what was really going on. Where were you? I was at Water Road on my way to Needles Anybody go to the river, yeah? And I pulled over over and I just like I don't. You're like a big 16 wheeler 18.
Speaker 4:18 wheeler yeah, and I'm 40 and I'm just sitting and I'm like praying, I don't know this feeling, I don't know what's happening. So I just I called you, call your mom, and I called my partner because we were on separate trips and I said I'm done, wow, I'm coming home. And he's like you're not, you're insane, nobody leaves us. So I said I'm leaving. So I called the company. I quit right there. I said I'll bring the truck back. Never drove a truck again, really. Two days later my wife invited her title friend over who was like you're a loser and have no job.
Speaker 4:So Monday you're going to come to work for me at Tycor Title Wow. And to say I was a fish out of water would be an understatement. I look like I do now and I was was heavier and I was a truck driver at that really truck driver at that time. So I showed up to work at six in the morning. They opened at like 8.05. I approached everything like you had a job and I was like you know, I was a little rough. I was like so do you want title? You? You know like people are like I. Who are you? Yeah, I'm the rep from tycor and but it really set me up for this because I'm celebrating this next year 20 years, wow.
Speaker 4:And people ask all the time like did you know that you'd be successful? I'm like I always did, because we were talking about Tom Brady. I always did. I just knew that people would laugh at me because my first day on the job I had never and I mean never been on a computer in my life. You know I was the dad that the kids had to get you stuff online. You're like go on this thing and get me socks. So the first day they put me in a computer class. Now you saw Zoolander when they're hitting. So I looked at the guy the computer guy for Tycor, who's still there and I'm like, dude, can you help me out? I don't know how to turn this on. And he just had such sympathy for me because I always had that ability to bring people into my cause, because they saw me as like I can't go back and not be successful.
Speaker 4:I get you know imagine you know you've got a family, three kids in private school and a wife and you quit your job with benefits. Yeah, there's a lot of romance that night. Yeah, you have to be successful.
Speaker 1:Like you burned the shed right.
Speaker 4:But it's funny you say that because I promised my wife I'm like I will be successful. I promise you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever you do.
Speaker 4:I let my license go for trucking. Yeah, I just would not go back. I couldn't. So that's why when I work with clients today, you see people that have it. You have it or you can get taught it, but you have to have that. I mean, imagine a high school dropout ADD kid thinking he's going to be successful Because nobody was saying that. Everybody in my life they loved me, were like just take it, go get a job, don't get hurt being in sales because and so I think it comes from sitting outside of offices that were all closed at that time yeah, you know feeling like I gotta I'm gonna cry because I I don't know what to talk to them about.
Speaker 4:There was no class in title, by the way. It was the first day they kicked you out. They gave you a little list of offices and they're like what are you selling? And I said tile. I said you know, I was nervous so I didn't say title. By the way, first couple, maybe the first year, I called Tycor Tricor, which is a medicine. But I didn't know it was setting me up for success. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Because, like I was telling everybody, the real estate gods will give you some good ones, yeah, but they will also come and ask you for how committed you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to ask the question. So you make the transition in 2004 into title, not tile, not title it was not tile, so trucking to title and four years later, or I guess really five years later, the real estate world just crumbles and collapses. So what was that like? Well.
Speaker 4:I don't know, Paul, if you know I'm the guy that's always late to the party, Like the party's over, Like I'm going to go to the you know the election party now, Like where's everybody. I was just 2004, 2005, 2006. Somebody would go. You know, you look sweaty, I'm going to give you a deal. You look like you're pathetic. Then that all crashed. And you're right.
Speaker 4:And there I am sitting in my Ford Expedition 2003 with 250,000 miles and my daughter's stickers on it, because you know I'm a dad, yeah, and the world has crashed and I'm like I let my license go. What's going on? By the way, I'm seeing some really good people that I respect get out. Right.
Speaker 4:So that becomes the story I told was. You know, I talked to the people that ran the company and I was like I really have nowhere to go. I'm just going to stick this out. But at that point the company's kind of we didn't need reps, they were just trying to hold on. We had REOs Right, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. And I remember talking to one of the REO reps and I was really I was about ready to get out. Yeah, because you're not doing this big time, you're not thinking of quitting.
Speaker 4:I'm sure you've all been there when you're like you know what I can go to you know Caribbean island and sell coconuts, this, I don't need this. Yeah, and I talked to this rep and he was doing just. It was insane because somebody had called. He was renting a house and somebody called me and said I don't mean to be prying, but does a title rep make this a month? I go, what? Yeah, and he goes. I go. Oh, that guy does yeah but he told me something.
Speaker 4:He said you need to stay in this. He goes. Reps like me will be gone as soon as this changes. Reps like you will last" and he was 100% right Because the real estate gods think a thing called short sales came out and investors, the courthouse steps saved my life because you started working with flippers and life started coming back. And by the time those people that got out got back in, you were already that much further ahead.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that the people that I do know that stuck in, even just in the industry, like lending, I mean it was tough and you had a few years where income was, you know you were hit, but it's also, if you're a top producer, you're still going to be a top producer. During that time, like transaction, things are still happening and so, um, I always believed that that in and I saw it happen and and I still think that now, as things get tough in different markets, you know our market's been challenging. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And. But top producers are still top producers. They're still going to, they're still going to do their thing.
Speaker 4:You know you know, I appreciate that If my team was here, they would tell you mostly what I do is coach people. I mostly talk to people on the phone because I truly believe it, or see them in person because we all need to help each other. Because, you're right, there was a moment in time where there was three reps and I used to say, like gas was high, we should carpool, we're going to go see the same office. And then it was great because the people that stayed in real estate-wise kind of gave you that Like hey, I watched this guy and girl struggle.
Speaker 2:Grind through it.
Speaker 4:Yeah the respect, yeah so then slowly people that got back in, they kind of held it against them and then time kind of became tender to them. But then there's still. But I realized that was my college, that's where I was built in the down market, because when you have nothing you start letting it either beat you Because you were talking about politics, I could care less. Yep, who it was in or who was out means nothing to me.
Speaker 3:Yep. I've made money under all of them and I've had tough times under all of them.
Speaker 4:The thing is you have to know we're in this together. We're going to help each other, not any entity. Ain't nobody going to help you. You got to help yourself. And so, like I said, what saved me one day was the courthouse and what saved us was short sales, which was a terrible time, people losing their homes and all that stuff. But it also allowed me to learn how to start calling on clients and caring about them, versus, hey, I know you don't have. Last thing a real estate agent or lender wants to hear is what you need, right, but they also you start, I realized later on. A client of mine told me he's like you're not in the title business. He goes you're in the people business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, relationships.
Speaker 4:Yeah, which is the reason why I send the cards and do the things, because there has to come a point where you just go. I appreciate that you use me and I appreciate that you've given a high school dropout kid, ADD, a chance to be a part of your business, in your life yeah. So to me that sometimes means calling people and pumping them up Because we all need that. Here's the deal. Like you and you, I'm self-employed, I'm commission-based. That 52% they want to charge you is what I live off of.
Speaker 4:So when an agent calls me and says, hey, we need to close this deal, that's how I get paid. So of course you need to figure out how to be better at your job, and sometimes that's just trying to make sure that they feel like, hey, you're trying something.
Speaker 2:You're on their team.
Speaker 4:Nothing's worse than you go into a store and they don't even go. Look for the shoe Right. We don't have it.
Speaker 3:You're like you just want to maybe walk back there and maybe come back.
Speaker 4:I mean, maybe just walk in a loop and come back, but that's kind of what I've learned, yeah, but that's kind of what I've learned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a funny story about trucking.
Speaker 2:Let's hear it, let's hear it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I've been an entrepreneur since I was 18. I went door-to-door in solar alarm systems to generate the income to be an entrepreneur. But at the time I went on and I swam at the University of Utah and one of my best buddies he was LDS. He went on a mission and came back. So I think his junior year he would have been I was 18. He would have been like 22 or 23. And he was kind of my mentor in that world. So, fast forward, we both go and do our own thing. He gets an MBA and he calls me one day and I was doing well in a different business and he's like hey, you know, I'm inspired to be an entrepreneur. I'm going to start a trucking company called the Skeleton Crew. We're going to do long haul refrigerated trucking.
Speaker 1:I'm like all right this sounds like a fucking terrible idea.
Speaker 4:I'm glad we can cut.
Speaker 1:You're like the smartest guy on the planet. You, I'm glad we can cut. You're like the smartest guy on the planet, you've got all this stuff behind you and like trucking. So he's like, yeah, what are your thoughts? Anyway, he spent a little bit of time talking through it. He buys his first truck, he starts to do well, but he's driving right. And so he's this physically fit guy and I would talk to him like at random hours. He'd call me and be like I'm at the circle j in des moines and it's awesome, they have these great showers. It's like really clean. And I'm like what are you talking about? This is weird, uh. But anyways, to make a long story short, a couple years later he'd grown the businesses I think it's maybe five trucks or something and he was in need of capital to get a six truck. So he called me and he's like hey, I uh, would you consider investing in my business?
Speaker 1:And I said, sure, anything for you, you know like you've done so much for me, so I I wrote a check, invest in an equity position. I'm not making this up. Literally the next day One of our newer trucks is taking 40,000 pounds of watermelon from Miami to like Nebraska. The driver's fairly new. He's going too quick over an overpass. The semi tips over on an overpass, 40,000 pounds of watermelon fall onto the cars below. The driver I must've been drunk the night before and was worried that he was going to get in trouble Exits the truck and we never see him again. Abandons the truck. There were like seven or eight cars that were totaled. No one got hurt, thankfully. Safe to say, I lost all of the money I invested into that business. He's still an unbelievably dear friend of mine, but I mean to this day we still laugh about that story.
Speaker 2:He doesn't have the business anymore.
Speaker 4:That one.
Speaker 2:we retired that one retired.
Speaker 4:No one trucking is either have one truck or six. Yeah, it's, but it's that world because, um, drivers at the we're especially depending on the industry. Hay was a very yeah, who drives them?
Speaker 4:it's a sketchy world, um, you know, when you have to tell somebody, let me know when you can pass the drug test yeah and uh, normally you have to be one of the ones driving, so the flying J, what it is is yeah, now me and my wife have this nice RV. Yeah, and it's funny, my wife makes fun of me when I go to a truck stop to get fuel. I'm kind of like in a cardigan. I'm like hi, I don't even know I.
Speaker 1:I'm like hi, I don't even know, I think because they have the deaf thing.
Speaker 4:I didn't know a trucker had to help me where that thing went, and I was like my wife's, like I'm so embarrassed of you, and then I went into the restroom. You're like hi Now. You're like Chrissy what now? Holding a dog, and you're like the world hasn't changed a lot in the trucking world. The truck stops. But yeah the watermelon story. I've dropped hay and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:I'm not surprised that you saw the level of success that you've seen in Tidal, because I think you know I'm young and I don't have as much experience as other people.
Speaker 1:But what I know as an entrepreneur is that most times when people go through adversity and when people go through adversity with mundane tasks they generally build a sense of character and they have the ability to be uncomfortable. So for you, spending 24 years 16 to 40, in trucking it's an extremely monotonous, mundane industry. You get in the car, you drive, you know short distance or long distance, you do it over and over and over again. But when you do that well, you have that muscle where you're, you're comfortable being uncomfortable, and so transitioning into something different is scary. But you know you were successful for 24 years in an industry that is monotonous and so going into something different where maybe it's just slightly more lucrative I mean obviously you have a personality. So building a team, developing people and having them pointed in a similar direction, it makes sense to me that you were as successful as you are. I mean, it's very similar.
Speaker 4:I appreciate that Not to get all spiritual, but my thing is this I wish I was that cool. God really gave me no choice. He gave me three warnings. I hit a bridge in Spokane, I ran off the road in the park in Yellowstone and the third one was pulled over on the side of the road. Yeah, when it was. Basically I got your attention now, Yep, Because my whole family is real estate. Brother-in-law runs, you know, lender all these people and I never forget one time I'm with my brother-in-law and he didn't do this to be cool or anything. It was like 04, and we're at the house and he had forgotten to cash a $60,000 check. You know, subprime's gone and he was like God.
Speaker 4:I forgot that and I was always kind of like nibbling at that world. And he told me something that changed me. He's like you always put people in a position to win, except yourself, because I was afraid. So that day, on the side of the road, I could come up with a cool story. But on the way back I try to remember how frightening that must have been, because I believe God gave me no option. And then I realize and I think that's in all of us to realize my gift, which is communication. Like you didn't want to get on a CB with me in a truck because I will talk all the way to Miami. That's awesome.
Speaker 4:And you know, I was always this personality and people would always say like, why are you not doing stand-up, why aren't you selling stuff? But just like what you experienced, if you can sell stuff door-to-door which is the worst, like I tell people when they do farming if you want to knock a door, you're that much further ahead of everybody, because that's scary. I don't know if I could knock doors.
Speaker 2:He loves it. I've never seen Paul light up so much as the time that I saw him knock on a neighbor's door for a property that he purchased.
Speaker 4:But let me ask you, what is that? There's something inside of you that will not either A dad I'm not a loser or it's two. It's like they're not going to kill me, because that's how it was. As you get more successful, you get more layered. I used to go into. I try to do that with Hector and my team. Cold calling an office now is easier when you've got a few switches now. Sure.
Speaker 4:Because. But what started happening to me? I started believing in myself. So let me tell you it's like a lady For those fellas. If you go up to somebody with a very powerful confident speech, you'd be surprised what people like. When I first met you guys, like you, let me in your meeting. You just have to. But when I first I was scared to go in an office, but it got easier because I had a why, like I'm sure somewhere in you guys there's a why. My why was not to come back to my wife and my kids, that I was too afraid to go in that office. And let me tell you there was a few offices I drove by and you talk to yourself, you're a bitch.
Speaker 4:You just find a reason to keep going. Are you pulling the parking lot Because you know what's waiting on the other side? Is that front girl?
Speaker 3:Yeah. And they want everybody in there but you. That's hilarious.
Speaker 4:So now when I meet with my team. I'm like tell me your why. Yeah, and. I said tell me the real one, Don't tell me it's the one that you think is going to sound cool to me. Yeah, because that why is going to get you up in the morning, like for you, whether it's income, a car, a home. Visualize it, however, you do it.
Speaker 4:There has to be a reason why we go knock that door. I sit down with clients all the time. I'm like I'll go so far, but you got to do this. I'm not going to the door with you or calling or whatever that is. So that becomes. I know my why and I carry it around. It's changed, but it's still the number one thing and she won't listen to this is my wife. Yeah. Because she believed in me. That's awesome. I mean, she married a high school dropout, truck driver.
Speaker 1:When did you?
Speaker 4:guys get married 1993. Awesome. So we've been together like well 91. We've been together like 33 years, but we've been together like 33 years.
Speaker 4:But she's the only one I really want to impress because I'm a big believer. When people believe in you or people invest in you, like you guys did, it does not go unnoticed when people give us an opportunity. But for me, with my wife, when somebody believes in you, the best thing you can give your kids or a person is belief, like I believe in you, and that makes you go run through walls Like for you. You got people that rely on you, especially as a man when I was in the field I had people relying on me and, by the way, they're going to mimic you. So my son's in the business, I have my middle one's in the Air Force and I have a daughter that is probably one of the best realtors in the Inland Empire Crazy good kid that never wanted to be in the business, only been in going in her second year I think she sold 40 this year Awesome Good for her.
Speaker 4:But it wasn't she was another but, here, was another one. She was another one that wanted nothing to do with it and she always had gift. But later on it just they're in your DNA, you know, so you just have to be willing to open that gift.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's very. You know it's an inspiring story. I would. I could do this for hours, but I want to ask some questions about title. So I mean, and I think we both understand, but a lot of the people that listen, you know, won't really understand what title insurance is. In fact, you know, when early on in Bye Bye's business cycle we were buying principle to principle and so we would talk through all the dynamics, most of the sellers that I met with were like title insurance, what is that Like? Why do we need it? Can we just not have that part? Don't worry.
Speaker 1:Yeah so can you walk us through what title insurance is like in a single family or multifamily transaction? Yeah.
Speaker 4:So it's to transfer title cleanly. I can do chat, but it's proof that you own that Right. So transfer title cleanly. It's like her phone there. How does she prove to me that's hers Right? So we do the work in advance, making sure and you've had all of you've had these issues last minute thing pops up Easement dealing with easement issues now, so we do the work in advance Got it Of making sure that we can transfer title cleanly.
Speaker 1:And the buyer and seller both pay for a policy to protect that title.
Speaker 4:A lot of times the seller does.
Speaker 1:Seller pays both sides. Seller pays both sides, depending on the market.
Speaker 4:Depending on you, know, but, like I said, we do the work in advance. Yeah, and there's somebody that could give you much more detail to it, but it's very simplified that we're protecting that, unlike your car insurance that you pay continually, we have a one-time policy that I can give this without any liens encumbrances anything that pops up on that property, it will be covered, Unless it's an exception in the policy.
Speaker 1:So really, if you're a buyer of real estate, the reason that title insurance is important is that the seller's paying for that policy to ensure that you're buying something and that two, three, four months down the road somebody's not going to come out and say, hey, I have a lien on this property. You now, you're now the owner. You owe me 50 grand or 100 grand.
Speaker 4:Or that's my property Right. Why are you in it, right which you know we can go over a hundred different scenarios.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Because you know, like when we go back, to the.
Speaker 4:You know what really was. My schooling was buying on the courthouse, right, because in very quick decisions, people like yourselves are like, should I go and buy this? And you're like, oh, you can pull up so much, right, but you know IRS, liens, things that we got to be very we needed to learn. Yeah, because you know solar, which wasn't that big then, but you know water filtration systems used to not be seen as real property, right, until some judge saw it as real property, right. So now we're kind of dealing.
Speaker 4:You know the solar thing, the bankruptcies and all that. Those are things that our agents want to make sure this is clear, yeah, and hundreds of transactions go down that don't have that problem. But that's kind of what I built my team. When it's go time and I'm calling you because you just brought us cups and donut dollies that bring that what used to what do you do? And that's when you need to figure out a way to fix those things child support issues but those are things we do in advance. That's why we usually do the prelim early and quickly, so we make sure to get ahead of those issues.
Speaker 1:So for title. What do you see changing over the next five and 10 years? How does AI play into it? You know what are companies doing to innovate. You know what that policy looks like.
Speaker 4:Well, there's a lot of money being built in, spent on blockchain, which I don't quite know what it means as a rep, as myself, but we always need people to come to you guys. Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, and I always said, like we were talking is that I'm not sure if this is in my timeline, but it is. I mean, being 60, things will start moving quickly and running a team. I want to know them too. There's AI farming but, like you said, I think it's kind of a buzzword now. Everything's AI, yeah, but it's glitches and it's flaws, but it's going to get better because what it is, it's learning. So we're kind of in the beginning stages of that, right. Like I said, you know, the AI farming is pretty cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that's it's of interest overall, I think due to you know the industry, but I think that's you know the one thing with escrow that we we really, you know also are involved with escrow also are involved with escrow and, um, we know that at some point you know it it feels almost like archaic, um the way that business is done, and we know that it's not going to be like that forever.
Speaker 2:so yeah I think we're really curious and we want to push that forward too. You know which is the way we operate our businesses in general and the way we can help clients be you know, go through this process and have solutions for them that are simplified and, you know, feel good.
Speaker 4:Well, I just tell people my easy speech to that is do the work, don't be replaced, because my 20 years in the title business, you guys were supposed to be replaced by Sears. You remember that? Walmart Target all the big ones were going to have a real estate company. Amazon at some point, but they never replaced the real estate agent, and my thing is don't be replaced.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Because right now I take a risk saying this one. But what's behind the lawsuit? I have my personal belief. What's behind this big lawsuit that you guys are dealing with?
Speaker 4:And it's tech companies that want to put the NAR lawsuit yeah, because they want to say beware of your real estate agent. Sure, because they're making too much money, which is ridiculous. Sure, they're your advocate. It's still a very scary process for anybody who's bought a home. It is still a very scary process of things that can go right, but then there's things that can go wrong. So the Zillows and the Redfins in the world I think it's an interesting timing and it's changed our business in the sense that's what I say to anybody involved in my business become smarter and better.
Speaker 4:And just understand that you just have to refine your business and do what you do. Make sure it's something that you're a value to your clients. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a value to you guys, I hope.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's right. I mean, I guess my perspective on what's going to change Couldn't I?
Speaker 4:go to a mortgage company online. Yeah, you could and everybody calls you for those after they're like I don't know. They haven't gotten back to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that consumers as a whole are. You know they are wary for a lot of reasons, right, especially in a real estate transaction. It will likely be the largest financial commitment they ever make, and so you know when you're talking about. You know, eliminating agents and eliminating escrow and title and using technology. That sounds good in theory because it might speed up a transaction, but I don't know. That that's actually the crux of the problem. It would have to go all the way back to educating the consumer that's going to transact to trust the technology, and ultimately we don't. Consumers as a whole are very afraid of all of that.
Speaker 1:And when you layer on that, this is the biggest financial commitment they're ever going to make. I think people will always rely on agents, and people will always rely on humans interacting in escrow and title to ensure that the facts are accurate. So my perspective of what's going to change is that title companies will use computing power I'll forget the word AI, because AI and computing power are interchanged. I think incorrectly. They'll use computing power to build a system to get the information faster from counties, but humans will still do the work, and then I think that that will be the same with escrow, and I think that agents will always still be involved in transactions because you know, at the end of the day, we're herd animals. We all want to be a part of something, and so if I were to tell you to go and make the deepest financial commitment you'll ever make in your life, but just trust the computer, you're probably going to tell me to kick rocks, and I don't think that that education will change for a very long time.
Speaker 4:Well, I think it becomes. Amazon's a great example of it. And also, if you've bought a car lately, that as an industry has not changed very much. I bought one the other day and it's still the runaround that it is Yep, but the thing that the computer has done, it's made a smarter consumer, right, because you can go there and go. I've looked at this one. I want to smell it because I like the smell, and that's it. So it makes a smarter consumer, same as Zillow. Zillow knows people have made.
Speaker 4:But, at the end of the day, what we're trying to tell our clients make sure you're not replaceable. Right, because you're right educating, provide value. Right, a few things in my career. The same five realtors have been the top five realtors all 20 years. Four of them have a social media that's ran by somebody they don't even go on it and the fifth one kind of does, but they have a thing called database. This is my database. So for those that don't have it, you have to grow it and it becomes from education and visiting and all those things, and then you need to mine your backyard of diamonds and it took me a long time.
Speaker 4:So during those down moments is the reason why you start reinventing yourself by the. If you want to talk about our industry, southern California, the reps that are here are the only ones paid that way. Right, Go to Santa Barbara. Up title. Escrow is a different game, right, and everywhere in the country is different, except this one anomaly escrow, and it's.
Speaker 4:Whatever that reason is and I just tell people, the ones that I look up to, the reps that I watch and am fans of, have constantly changed. They reinvent themselves. You can't. It's like being in baseball. You can't throw the same fastball. You have to change. So, like I said, I started a group when groups weren't a thing, because I thought to myself I want to make sure I look at everything that goes out and okay it. So if I lose, at least I did it and I'm blessed enough to have a company behind me that gives me all the resources to be able to be a company within a company. They're not trying to, but as I've gotten a little older, I do respect those companies that brand everything Like for me, my team, as long as it looks, I see everything and it goes out that way. This is what we want to do. So that's going to help us get to that next level.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think, because we, so every episode we tell a real estate story. We ask for a real estate story because I know we're running on time, but I know that in your arsenal you have an interesting real estate story. So, whether it's personal or something that you've, I come on. I know you've got some transactions that you've overseen, so an interesting real estate story.
Speaker 4:Well, I mean they all come from the flip days. I've insured ones that burnt down. You're like you got that call. It's not there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know Do you know a guy that can burn houses.
Speaker 4:It just happened to happen that way and I was like what I had one in a very tough area that we had to go make a deal with the Crips and the Bloods to not vandalize it, which was cool and very nice. Were you there personally, of course? Yeah, you know, because you know, did you wear?
Speaker 1:red or blue, I was just like this.
Speaker 4:I was just like hi, this is so many. It's just that, the tricky situations, that. But, like I said, I think back on the years that you know I used to have to dress up as Santa and go to offices and you know my career in general, so that's why I throw Hector in outfits now I love that there's too many, I could tell.
Speaker 1:There's some nuggets here, though. What is a book that you would recommend if I'm a rep on your team, or if I'm at another title shop, or if I'm an agent, or if I'm us like? A book or a story.
Speaker 4:I would read Can't Hurt Me, david Goggins, it's salty. A story or a. I would read Can't Hurt Me, david Goggins, it's salty, but it depends on what talks to you. I like real talk. I don't like the generation we got now, which was made by my generation. By the way, my generation handed everybody a trophy because we thought maybe you're a loser. Isn't the great way to? Your dad coached you. But to me, I like David Goggins' book because it's about what do you do when nobody believes in you and you're on the floor and you are an outlier. Also, any of the books by Tim Grover, relentless. You Want to Get in the Mind of Kobe and Jordan, and the great book talks about everything we're just talking about, which is when you want to be great and nobody believes you, right and where will you stop? And we all get there. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And you talk to your guys' young agents and stuff like that which is like where are you going to stop? So any of the books Relentless. It's awesome All of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think what's interesting about the dynamic is that you know, yes, you sell title, I guess, or title insurance, right, but what we experience on a daily basis from all of the resources that we work with, is that you do a lot more than that. It's relationship. It's really I mean even coaching, agents and and the things that you've talked about today, when, when you refer to your clients, that's who you're talking about. You're talking about real estate agents that you are meeting with and you're giving them this advice, because it's the same. It's exactly the same. It's. You know, it is difficult to, as we were talking about, knock on doors and put yourself out there. I always joke that it's like you're in a movie. This isn't real. Now it's like action go, you don't think about it and you have to act and you have to put all the fear aside.
Speaker 4:You just set me up for something I always tell anybody I bring in the business. You got two choices either play a character that is you, or play you. I was not good enough to play a character because this is me, 24, seven, if you know anybody knows me this is me. I do know reps that are very, and then you know and the thing is about it is I also do that with my team is I'll name a client, tell me who they're married to, something about them.
Speaker 4:That's true, I never refer to you without thou you want to know, because it is a people business. So there's people that you're like hey, we use him because of this, because there's nothing he won't stop at to get this deal done. Like Daniel called me, kill it this. Yeah, because there's nothing he won't stop at to get this deal done, like daniel, call me, kill it this. So my tagline for the longest time, and still is, is your friend in the title, biz.
Speaker 4:I couldn't even spell business biz because everybody wants to know I got a guy yeah like they want to know, like he's not going to stop figuring out how to get this recorded right and that's ultimately like. A lot of times when I see reps, I'm like when you're in transactions, that ain't whether it's like what did. A lot of times, the way you get them is like call your rep on the weekend, I'll wait, yeah, and they won't answer because it's 9 to 5. Yeah, this is your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:This is your career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your career yeah, and I think you can take that with really anything, I mean the one thing that I'll say, or the last thing, I'll say about um anthony and his team is like every holiday I get a card, like a goofy card, from him. I get random texts with like random memes.
Speaker 4:Everybody's here. It's like I didn't get anything, because you know why you got to give me your address and the reason why people like you're entitled. I'm like it's called consent yeah, I like it okay.
Speaker 2:So you know it's no matter what industry you're in, and for our listeners that maybe aren't necessarily in real estate, I it really is. It's all about that relationship and that extra mile and that's the reason why we're talking here today. So I think that is going to wrap it, but thank you so much for being here yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I guess the only thing I would say is, if you're in southern california and you're not using triple a, I don't know.
Speaker 4:I don't know if I like triple a or the king of title better you call me the king of title, but the problem is I hear people screaming at this that he's not the king, he's the queen. No, you call me whatever you want the king of title. But the problem is I hear people screaming at this he's not the king, he's the queen. No, you call me whatever you want.
Speaker 1:King of title triple A, Can you put a crown?
Speaker 4:on here, self-impose a crown right here. Yes, we can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, but use Tycor. We will connect with you and get all of the information so that our listeners can reach out to you if they have a title need, if they're in a tricky transaction. Yeah, my heart, you need to contact me yeah.
Speaker 4:We will you need to use us?
Speaker 1:We will, but use Anthony. We appreciate you being on. Thank you, I mean in all seriousness. You were vulnerable about your whole life.
Speaker 4:I was going to cry, but you guys didn't give me time. Yeah, no, it was awesome to hear everything.
Speaker 1:Thank, you the last thing I was going to say. I'm sorry. Yeah. You bring up Goggins and you mention it. I hate business quotes, but the one that resonates with what you just said is that tough times make tough men right. Weak times Good times make weak men, and I think that is a, you know, it's kind of it resonates with what you're saying, right, I think the longer quote of it is is the man that walked to work.
Speaker 4:His son will drive a Cadillac to work and his son will drive a Mercedes, but his son will walk to work. It's a cycle right, because it raised tough men to weak men. Yeah, because when I read it.
Speaker 4:It resonated because it talked my language and he was just like listen, I don't want to run these miles, but I do. Yeah, and if you watch him he's hardcore. I love it Because you know what it's awesome A guy that couldn't swim becomes a Navy SEAL. Yeah, it's awesome, pretty interesting. Yeah Well, yeah, it's awesome, pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, thank you Anthony.
Speaker 4:Thank you I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap on this episode. Check back. If you have not subscribed, please do so. It helps us out a lot. You better Give us comments, questions. We still haven't bought houses in El Paso.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's on the list. A few other cities in Texas.
Speaker 1:I mean coming soon.