24 Years in Title: Essential Lessons for Investors and Entrepreneurs

Stephen Schmidt (00:03.595)
Welcome back to the show where we entered interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs I’ve got a special treat for you guys here in the studio today. I’ve got Ash Selle She is an absolute title Titan in the industry. She’s been in the business since you’re welcome She’s been in the business since 2001 has an incredible backstory and as someone who I think from

Ash Selle (00:17.518)
Thank you.

Stephen Schmidt (00:28.701)
The short time we’ve been able to spend together on our pre-show podcast is one that’s defeated all odds to become a rising and incredible success in her own right and how she benefits the real estate biz and you other fellow real estate investors. Just if you’re joining us for the second, third or hundredth time, it’s your host, Stephen Schmidt, back at it again. If it’s your first time, you’re in for a treat today. I’m sure we’ll be regular on your podcast listening docket. Before we get started, we’re gonna be talking today about red flags to look out with when you’re dealing with sellers.

building a trusted partner for your real estate transactions and what you should really look for when you’re looking to work with a good title partner for your real estate company. Before we begin, just remember at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their businesses to build the businesses they’ve always wanted in order to allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. I’ve only said that like a thousand times, and of course I messed my own intro up. It’s hilarious. Ash, welcome to the show.

Ash Selle (01:24.002)
Hi, thanks Stephen. Thanks for having me.

Stephen Schmidt (01:25.723)
So glad to have you here. Before we kind of talk about some meat and potatoes as to what you’re doing now in your business with Investra Title, which you have one of the coolest logos, I got to say, that I’ve seen. You’re welcome. It’s a really new age lion. I like it a lot. I’m a big lion fan. But can you give our listeners 100 %? I love that. Can you give our listeners a little bit of backstory, a little bit of your background and how you got to where you’re at today?

Ash Selle (01:37.538)
Thank you.

Ash Selle (01:45.038)
It’s all about the tribe.

Ash Selle (01:56.078)
Certainly. I’ve been in the title business for 24 years. Started out with a real estate attorney.

learned a tremendous amount from him just in the first decade. and just decided that I wanted to brand myself as an investor friendly real estate closer because there was a need for it and we didn’t have a lot of that available. and keep in mind, this is like almost 15 years ago when I started that process. and just created quite a following and realized that I really liked the more complex transactions, getting to the finish line and.

helping investors make money.

Stephen Schmidt (02:36.37)
So what got you into real estate in the niche that you’re in in the first place? mean 2001 is a while back if you’ve forgotten it by now I won’t hold it against you, but how did you how did you even get into it?

Ash Selle (02:46.158)
No, I actually I was a young mom and I was looking for a stable job and I looked at the old school of classifieds and I saw an attorney that was hiring for title and went and met with him didn’t have any experience but he said he liked my personality so gave me a

Stephen Schmidt (03:06.63)
No kidding. Well, you do have an infectious personality. I will say that. So I understand why he why he gave you the job. So when you when you took that, what would you say was the biggest risk you took early on? mean, you talk about being a mom and at that a single mom when you got started, correct? Yeah.

Ash Selle (03:10.242)
Thank you.

Ash Selle (03:22.38)
Yeah, right. I think the biggest risk was time. I really, really had to dedicate a lot of time to building myself over all those years to get where I’m at. And it’s pretty hard to balance that with being a mother. And honestly, I worked two jobs for 20 years. Well, 18 years, I worked two jobs at the same time.

Stephen Schmidt (03:34.322)
Hmm.

Ash Selle (03:49.58)
to get where I’m at. So I was a server bartender and then doing title all day and being a mother. So yeah, so survivor.

Stephen Schmidt (03:55.303)
Wow, this is incredible. Yeah, single moms have crazy superpowers that, man, I wish I could tap into that without having to go through it. My wife was a single mom for years before we ended up getting married. so then I came along and broke her trend of single momliness. But yeah, I’m telling you, it’s just, it’s incredible. I mean, I really can’t fathom. I don’t think guys can do it the same way. Like I couldn’t.

Ash Selle (04:01.933)
Yep.

Ash Selle (04:13.962)
Yeah! good for her! We’re the tough ones.

Stephen Schmidt (04:25.04)
For sure. So I give my hat off to you for that. For sure. So would you consider the attorney that you worked for? I love it. Would you consider the attorney that you worked for your first mentor or who would you say was your first mentor and what did they teach you?

Ash Selle (04:26.53)
I mean, yeah, our brains are a little different. That’s why I’m a lioness now.

Ash Selle (04:41.994)
it absolutely was that attorney. he had so much faith in me. He’s like right off the bat, he was like, you’re going to be like our top closer. He’s like, you know, you’re amazing. You’re incredible. And just really took the time to sit and educate me on every single thing to the point where I took it all the way through my career. And I very rarely have to contact a real estate attorney for any assistance on anything. So that was huge. He was a huge mentor for me.

And now I think it’s really my business partners.

Stephen Schmidt (05:11.974)
What was?

Hmm. What was like the most impactful thing that you think they taught you back in the day?

Ash Selle (05:22.254)
Ash Selle (05:26.19)
I just, I don’t know, mean, proofreading, being very careful with your verbiage, documenting everything, there’s just so much.

Stephen Schmidt (05:40.071)
Hmm. So, yeah, I know, that’s a big topic. Sometimes I find it nugget, sometimes it’s like, man, there’s too much, I’ve already forgotten most of the stuff they taught me. And it’s usually more than most people could ever learn. So you talk about your business partners being mentors to you now. What do you love about the relationship you have with your business partners? I think that’s something that a lot of people struggle to find a really good business partner. So what has that relationship been like for you guys? How has that evolved?

Ash Selle (05:48.43)
Yeah, I don’t know. That was like forever ago. Yeah.

Ash Selle (05:57.346)
Yeah.

Ash Selle (06:05.486)
Yeah, the dynamic is there. I mean, we’re all just so colorful and outgoing and we all contribute different things. We all have different personalities and it’s a major support system on the daily. I tell you, I I might just walk off a cliff if I didn’t have them sometimes. This is a tough job. It’s like being a…

Stephen Schmidt (06:27.9)
Hmm, yeah, 100%.

Ash Selle (06:32.504)
what do you call them, the air controller guys? Yeah, that work all night. So just having that, just having that support and being able to feed off each other and just really, it’s all about elevating each other. We all want to see us all get to the top. So it’s a really, really great atmosphere and it’s a really good feeling to finally be there.

Stephen Schmidt (06:35.761)
Yeah.

Sure.

Stephen Schmidt (06:47.227)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (06:54.898)
100%. So one of the things that you specialize in is really working primarily with investors. Not that you won’t do other deals, but 90 % like you shared in the pre-show is really investor properties. how did you find that there was such a big need? Because I don’t see a lot of title companies that are like, we’re the go-to for investors. So how did that happen to come about?

Ash Selle (07:09.858)
Right. Yes.

Ash Selle (07:23.436)
Well, it actually happened because I worked under another investor friendly closers. I owned a title company. I was her funding manager for many years through the whole 2007, 2008.

period. And so I got to learn a lot dealing with all foreclosed properties, REO properties, how to set investors up so they can get in certain lean positions to redeem properties from the sheriff. Just all that really, really interested me. And that’s when it just started to spin off from there. And I ended up going to a different company and not working under her anymore, but she was also a pretty huge mentor.

learning all that but she’s also my one of my only competitors in the state so yeah

Stephen Schmidt (08:14.674)
Wow.

So it’s almost like you found a blue ocean and a red ocean of title companies, if you’re familiar with that concept.

Ash Selle (08:24.652)
I am, that is absolutely correct. It’s a good place to be.

Stephen Schmidt (08:27.046)
That’s really interesting. And just to know for our listeners, because they don’t know this, but you got started within the last year and you’re already as busy as you could possibly be without probably hiring and scaling. Am I incorrect about that?

Ash Selle (08:41.966)
No, you are correct. Um, we started in November, my 24 year anniversary, um, actually November 12th. And we started that day and we’ve just been gone wild ever since, um, consistent flow of business, new clientele all the time. Um, we already have a closer added and assistant added, um, branding manager, um,

tons of stuff going on and we’re looking to add more parties in some of these other states that we’re getting licensed in. Quickly.

Stephen Schmidt (09:15.794)
So what’s been your secret to creating long-term relationships within the business? Because obviously you don’t get to where you’re at without having really good relationships.

Ash Selle (09:27.214)
I think it’s a lot of it I find is just being really personable and being authentic and letting people get to know who I really am, the good and the bad. I’ve just found that almost all of my clients that I work with have been loyal to me since the day they started in investments. And many times I’ve had new investors come to me for advice and

Stephen Schmidt (09:37.903)
Mm.

Ash Selle (09:53.612)
You you want to give everyone advice, but you can’t always give free advice. But there’s times when you get really lucky and you have an investor that just blows up and they start doing awesome work and it just, it really pays. And we create that relationship. They’re all long-term relationships that I have with everybody.

Stephen Schmidt (10:11.888)
Yeah. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about what you do that investors aren’t maybe aware of?

Ash Selle (10:20.698)
well, one would be title companies don’t draft contracts, so we don’t negotiate deals. We can’t act as attorneys. we also can’t just print out lists to give clients for leads. That’s, those are calls I get often where people ask.

Stephen Schmidt (10:36.496)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (10:41.808)
Might be a slight compliance issue with that.

Ash Selle (10:44.982)
Yeah, you know, so it is kind of like, if I could just give you a list of all these properties or all these investors, don’t you think like that would be like gold for me? Why would I be doing closings?

Stephen Schmidt (10:59.036)
Yeah, 100%. So how do you choose who to work with? Like, will you work with anybody or how do you avoid maybe some, like what’s a red flag for a client even for you that’s like an immediate no to do business with them?

Ash Selle (11:00.11)
Alright.

Ash Selle (11:12.158)
So we’re dealing with some growing pains right now as far as that goes that you can’t just work with everybody.

There are many clients to accommodate. there’s a lot of red flags you have to watch for when people call and they’re trying not to be transparent. That’s a huge red flag for me. won’t work with anybody that’s not transparent and or unethical. Like that’s a huge, it’s all about ethics in, in what we’re doing. and I also am commonly a neutral party in every transaction because being an investor friendly closer, you’re usually

representing the seller and the buyer and wholesalers and assigneurs and end buyers, everybody. So, so you have to be a neutral party. and it’s not that, you know, you, it’s not that the closer is sharing a bunch of information about how much money someone’s making. It’s more so, yeah, this is a transaction where it’s going to be a different buyer than that.

Stephen Schmidt (12:16.85)
Hmm.

Ash Selle (12:16.99)
or you’re acting as an investor to make a profit, you know, things like that. just full transparency would be a huge thing. and I often get calls where I noticed there isn’t a lot of transparency. So I will suggest that, you know, maybe they’re, they don’t have the skills or the knowledge yet. Maybe they’re watching a podcast where the person doesn’t really actually do investments, you know, things like that. So give them a little bit of a benefit of a talent, but.

Stephen Schmidt (12:45.756)
So what are, let me dive into that a little bit more, because that’s very interesting. What are some of those ways that people are lacking transparency? Is that the person buying the property and how they’ve positioned themselves to the seller? Or what are some of those ways that you see them kind of being a little dishonest? Or just maybe not dishonest, but just not transparent.

Ash Selle (13:00.94)
Yes. Yep. Positioning. Yeah, and that’s the thing. It’s like some aren’t being dishonest. Some just don’t know. They didn’t write the playbook. They don’t know. You know, so.

Stephen Schmidt (13:14.662)
They don’t know any better.

Ash Selle (13:16.19)
Exactly. So they just need the education a lot of times. But it would be like transparency mostly to the sellers. Like I have a deal that just fell apart. It was a major mess because there was one seller that didn’t speak English. She didn’t understand what she was getting into. It was a sub two transaction had two assigned to assign orders to companies, two JV agreements and an end buyer that backed

out because the deal was a mess and then another end buyer that backed out because the deal is a mess. So like in throughout this whole process I’m getting texts from the seller saying these people are liars.

You know, they feel like they weren’t, she feels like people weren’t transparent. And then you have her personal information going from this person to this person to this person to this person on a sub two, just so this end buyer that she has no idea who they are can do things with her mortgage. And it’s really tough because it’s like, you know, the wholesalers, they care about the money. They want to make money. They don’t care about where her personal information goes. So that puts me in a position as a neutral party to make sure that everybody’s transparent.

and they know what they’re getting into. Does that answer your question?

Stephen Schmidt (14:34.034)
What are, yeah, 100%. I’m even confused as to how that happens. mean, kind of knowing the game a little bit myself. Like how does that even come to be where you have that many parties on the back end?

Ash Selle (14:45.838)
It’s a mess. I’ve done so many deals. I’ve double closings with assignments, with this, with Contract4D. I mean, if anybody’s seen it, it’s me. So everybody’s trying to get a piece of the money right now.

Stephen Schmidt (15:00.056)
Sure. Yeah, no kidding. Wow.

Stephen Schmidt (15:05.764)
Hmm, do you think that’s something that’s come about recently? You say right now, but is that an age-old thing that’s always been a deal or why do think that is?

Ash Selle (15:12.334)
I think more so now. I think it’s because of all of the socials and everything surrounding the sub 2 market. I think that’s a huge thing. About half the stuff I do is sub 2.

Ash Selle (15:34.734)
the transaction coordinators and people that come to us, they don’t really have that knowledge built yet and understand every single moving part in the transaction. So I think that there’s just a lot of that going on and maybe people aren’t trying to be not transparent. They just don’t know that they have to be.

Stephen Schmidt (15:59.219)
Yeah, that makes sense. So how do you serve as a liaison to make sure that like the seller’s protected versus the buyer being protected because you’re kind of the neutral party that encompasses the whole gamut of protection. So how does that work?

Ash Selle (16:10.956)
Yep, we have a hold harmless agreement signed. make it very, very clear to the sellers what they’re entering into. Cause a lot of times at the closing table, they’ll find they’ll be like, that’s not what I was told, or that’s not what I thought. You know, and I have to be, you know, even if I’m going to lose money on it, I have to make sure that everybody has a clear understanding. there currently is a case law where there’s an issue involving a lot of assign ors and end buyers and a seller, and.

transaction coordinators and a title company on a sub two that there were issues with. The seller felt people weren’t transparent.

Stephen Schmidt (16:50.962)
So I think one of the things you brought up there and you don’t have to get into like a specific deal or anything, because I’m sure you can’t share it anyways, but I think people have a misconception. Another one that maybe pops up is that the title company is the one that makes all the money in the transaction outside of like whoever’s like assigning a contract or buying or whatever. How does a title company lose money in a deal? How is that even possible?

Ash Selle (16:56.462)
Yeah.

Ash Selle (17:16.133)
Well, time is money. There’s that. But also, yeah, we do have to do things like order title work. We have to employ people. We have to collect title insurance on deals, if there should ever be a claim. And if we don’t close a deal and it cancels, we’re making nothing.

Stephen Schmidt (17:18.812)
Sure. Opportunity cost.

Ash Selle (17:39.926)
And a lot of deals that are coming across the table these days aren’t getting to closing, because a lot of wholesalers aren’t figuring out their numbers properly upfront. Things are falling apart, the transparency issue, that kind of thing. yeah, so we’re not, we’re not the big money makers in it. We’re here to help, you know, you have to find your title company, them like gold, cause we’re here to help you.

Stephen Schmidt (17:49.938)
Mm.

Stephen Schmidt (17:59.443)
Sure.

Stephen Schmidt (18:05.756)
Sure. And what you’re referring to, guess, maybe that’s where my frame for asking that question was off because you’re referring to when a deal doesn’t close, right? Gotcha. Which obviously then it’s just like anything in sales, right? Like you spend a ton of time, a ton of resources, ton of employment costs, all that stuff. And at the end of day, if a deal doesn’t get done, you lose the time and the money that could have came from it. 100%. So what’s one deal that taught you the most in the last 24 years?

Ash Selle (18:14.328)
Correct. Yes.

Yep.

Ash Selle (18:25.438)
Exactly. Yep, exactly.

Ash Selle (18:37.986)
There’s a lot of them. One deal that taught me the most.

There’s so many of them.

We’re talking like millions of deals right now, Steven.

Stephen Schmidt (18:54.588)
Sure, I understand Ash, I understand. So let me ask you this, what systems or processes, how about we go this route, what systems or processes have saved you from major headaches that you put in place?

Ash Selle (19:07.246)
Systems and processes that have saved me. I would say, well, majorly our system that we use. Everything’s super automated. The AI is helping putting through different processes. Systems as far as title goes, like I said, we’re like air flight controllers and

everything’s constantly moving and moving super, super fast. A lot of the systems are up in here.

Stephen Schmidt (19:45.682)
Sure.

Ash Selle (19:47.47)
You’re working on taking him out.

Stephen Schmidt (19:50.757)
Yeah, I understand that. Sometimes it takes a little bit to weed things out to get what actually works the most effective. What’s something you wish more investors were honest about? Kind going back to the previous. What’s something you wish people were more honest about? That would make everybody’s job easier at the end of the day at the closing table.

Ash Selle (19:57.066)
Yes, exactly.

Ash Selle (20:06.614)
I wish that it would make everybody’s job easier if they were just upfront and put in their contracts, hey, I’m an investor, I’m doing this for profit, so nobody can come back and say, why is there a different buyer? Why is there this? And also, honesty about earnest money.

You know, a lot of wholesalers will say they sent their earnest money to title, but we never get it. So that would be an important thing. We have a really cool system where you can digitally deposit earnest money. So you just take a picture of it and send it in. So it’s pretty slick. but yeah, I mean the transparency with the sellers, those are the biggest things. It’s the sellers in the end, you know, they’re all on default. They’re losing homes, they’re hoarders, they lost a loved one. There’s all this stuff that’s going on.

And by the time, you know, they get to the closing table, they want to feel good. Another thing would be for investors to really get their negotiations out of the way before they get to closing. Cause we can’t negotiate for people. Most of the time people are coming to the closing table. They don’t understand the sub two that they’re entering into or contract for deed. So.

Stephen Schmidt (21:27.314)
So what should investors look for when they’re looking for an investor-friendly title company?

Ash Selle (21:33.762)
Well, you’re going to want to find either an investor-friendly title company through your investment community by getting a referral, one that works with primarily investors, because you can call. I get calls all the time where someone stated, call this company, they’re investor-friendly. They go to call them and they find out, well, yeah, they’ll do a double closing, but you have to have transactional funding. Or they don’t know what a nobation is.

of thing. So really interview them, make sure that they understand creative transactions. So sub twos, novations, assignments, contract for deeds, everything, redemptions, make sure that they understand what all those are. Because one issue I’m encountering now is a lot of my sellers are doing novations while the other title companies that claim they’re investor friendly, they don’t know what it is. And they don’t know how to do it or accomplish.

Stephen Schmidt (22:31.794)
Hmm.

Ash Selle (22:33.616)
So I end up having to train them. Also someone that’s…

Stephen Schmidt (22:34.738)
Sure. Yeah.

Ash Selle (22:41.986)
You want to build a relationship with the person you’re working with because that’s how everything flows. and once you find that title company, you just really want to treat them like gold. You want someone that’s going to watch out for things like I watch out for my investors or the department of commerce. Is there something in their purchase agreement that I may suggest you should omit or add, just to help you out. and also just, giving as much value, a company that gives you value.

As far as like for Investra, Taito, we go to networking events. We are parts of clubs. We’re part of all these types of things. We present at different events. So we can give that kind of value back to the clients out there. So you want to feel confident in who you’re working with.

Stephen Schmidt (23:30.226)
100%. What are some of the red flags that they should be looking out for when they’re dealing with sellers?

Ash Selle (23:37.976)
When they’re dealing with sellers, that’s a big one. There’s some key words. It would be, of course, death. It would be will. It would be divorce. It would be power of attorney. Those are some of the biggest ones because depending on the state, well, a lot of states, you have to go through probate even if there’s a will.

Stephen Schmidt (23:51.09)
Hmm.

Ash Selle (24:05.094)
or someone might say they have a power of attorney and they think they can sign for their deceased brother. But what really happens is that power of attorney is no longer valid when someone’s deceased for real property. so just things like that. Like if you hear some of those types of words, it’s best to go to your investor friendly title company and ask them to do a track search on the property, see what’s out there or mention to them that they said, someone had a will.

Well, your title company can look into that further and help you figure out how to structure it. And auction. Auction, that’s another good one.

Stephen Schmidt (24:46.866)
If you if you had to go back to the beginning of when you all got started But you could take every which you know, it’s kind of funny because you kind of have done this Sort of because you waited 24 years to start your own deal But knowing what you know today if you had to go back to 2001 and start all over from scratch What would you do different and what would you do the same with the knowledge that you now have today?

Ash Selle (25:12.91)
I would have started my own company sooner, that’s for sure. I would have just chased growth sooner. And I don’t think there’s much more I would have changed because everything I went through, every struggle, every accomplishment, every single thing I did brought me to where I am.

Stephen Schmidt (25:16.059)
Mm.

Ash Selle (25:39.534)
One thing though would have been not having a ton of time to spend with my daughter. But, you know, that’s part of the single mom thing and business thing and, you know, stuff like that. we’re super close, so. She knows her mom’s a warrior princess. And she’s a little mini warrior princess.

Stephen Schmidt (25:45.126)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (25:57.319)
Right, well that’s good.

E-Vap.

Yeah, that’s the hardest thing. I’ve got four kids myself and even as a dad, I sometimes struggle with when I’m with them, I should be working, but when I’m working, I should be with them thing. And I know you’ve definitely felt that.

Ash Selle (26:17.197)
Right.

Yep.

Stephen Schmidt (26:21.414)
You know, it’s all about still communicating, I think, to the kids when you’re, especially in a very heavy work season of like, look, I’m doing all of this for you and it’s not gonna make sense right now, but give it like 20 years. So it’s teaching them patience and delayed gratification early on,

Ash Selle (26:29.933)
Yes.

Ash Selle (26:35.8)
Correct. Yeah, exactly.

Ash Selle (26:45.39)
It is, and it’s really nice too because having an entrepreneurial spirit, your kids follow that, you know, so it’s pretty awesome. My daughter has that personality. My son has that personality. So, so it’s cool. It’s like a little gift and they don’t know about it.

Stephen Schmidt (26:59.534)
awesome. I love it. Do you involve your do you involve the kids? Do you involve the kids at all?

Ash Selle (27:06.446)
Well, you know, my daughter worked for me some summers when she was in college. My son used to come to the office in the summers and hang out with my clients. He loved that. Other than that, they just know when mom’s working and is in boss mode.

Stephen Schmidt (27:24.626)
Sure. You bet. You bet. Boss mode. Well Ash, super grateful that we were able to make this happen. If people want to learn more about you or what you’re working on, where should they go for that?

Ash Selle (27:34.284)
Yes, thanks even.

Ash Selle (27:38.662)
well, our, have a really awesome website, InvestraTitle.com. you can get quotes on there. can email on there. we also, think Facebook is a really, really great, source for business for me and for people to communicate with me for just preliminary questions. I often get a lot of messages on Facebook and within the investor groups throughout the country. and so you can find us at InvestraTitle.com.

well on Facebook or Ash Sully.

Stephen Schmidt (28:13.05)
You got it. We’ll go connect with her for more folks Show her some love from the fuel fam the real estate pros And I hope you got as much out of this episode as I did and I’m sure if you did then you got a ton of value So we’ll see you on the next episode. Thanks again for being here, Ash

Ash Selle (28:18.272)
Yay!

Ash Selle (28:29.08)
Thank you, Stephen.