Title Company relationships

[Josh Mac]

For those who’ve been active in note investing for a while,has building strong relationships with title companies ever given you an actual edge in sourcing notes or seeing deals early?

   I’m not talking about them doing the title work.I’m wondering if proximity to closings,assignments,investor to investor transfers,etc.,ever translates into off-market visibility.Or is that idea mostly overstated?Curious what you’ve actually seen in practice.I have an older friend opening one up locally.

          Thanks -Josh

[Doug Smith]

I would say that it's overstated, but one of the original partners in my company owned a nationl title company. We shared officers back during the last crash and it was really nice to bounce title concerns off of their leadership. it did help with closings a bit, but it did not help with accessing notes. Most of what we got came through my connections with my old banker buddies or from funds that help larger pools of performing loans. We focused on NPLs, so we could buy the stuff they didn't want. In short, I don't think it helps with access, but it was nice to have them imbedded with us for things that might pop up.