Choosing a title company as an investor comes down to two things the marketing never mentions: how many deal types the shop can close in-house, and how disciplined it is about communication. The title search itself is functionally identical everywhere — as Crystal Aguirre of Stellar Title puts it, there is a title company on every corner and nothing in the internal process differs from one to the next.
That means fee shopping is the wrong screen. What actually separates shops is whether they can handle an assignment, a double close, a novation or a subject-to without escalating it to an attorney, and whether your file gets a status update before you have to chase it.
Below: the screening questions to ask before you send a contract, the specific response-time standards Aguirre runs inside her four Texas offices, what title companies need from your acquisitions team in return, and what she is seeing at the closing table right now across Houston, San Antonio, Grapevine and Frisco.
Key takeaways
- The title search is a commodity. Transaction breadth and communication discipline are the only real differentiators between shops.
- Ask directly whether the company closes assignments, double closes, novations and subject-to in-house before you send your first contract — not every shop does.
- Aguirre’s internal standard: no email sits longer than 30 minutes, and every file gets an end-of-day update by 5:30, even if the update is ‘we can’t touch this until morning.’
- Distressed title takes time for structural reasons. Twelve heirs dead on title is not a file you push through in three days, and pressure does not shorten curative work.
- Aguirre has fired investor clients for talking down to her closing team. How your acquisitions manager writes emails affects your service level.
From the Investor Fuel Show
This article draws on an interview with Crystal Aguirre of Stellar Title on the Investor Fuel Show, hosted by Mike Hambright. Watch or listen to the full interview.
Why Title Companies Are Not Actually Interchangeable
The work inside a title shop is the same everywhere. Same search, same examiners, same underwriters, same commitment format. Aguirre, who has spent her entire career in title and now runs 26 employees across four Texas offices, is blunt about it: there is a title company on every corner, and nothing anyone does internally in the process is different from what anybody else is doing — except the customer service.
Which means when you shop on fee, you are optimizing a variable that barely moves. A few hundred dollars on the settlement statement is meaningless against a deal that dies because nobody told you about a lien until day 27, or because the shop could not close the structure you were using.
Mike Hambright’s experience as a Dallas investor points at the same thing from the other side. He followed individual closers between companies for years, on the logic that he wanted to work with a specific person and did not much care whose logo was on the door. That is common among active investors, and it tells you where the value actually sits: in the human being handling your file and the standards their employer holds them to.
So evaluate two things and skip the rest. First, breadth — can this shop close every transaction type your business uses, in-house? Second, communication — will you know the status of your file without asking? Everything else, including price, is noise. A title company that closes your assignment on time and tells you about the probate issue on day two is worth more than one that charges $250 less and goes quiet.
How to Choose a Title Company by Vetting Transaction Breadth First
Ask one question before you send a contract: which deal structures do you close in-house? Not “do you work with investors” — that gets a yes from everyone. Name the structures.
Stellar’s positioning is a one-stop shop, and Aguirre lists the range specifically: novation deals, investor double closes, assignments, commercial, land and mobile home transactions. That breadth is the point. Plenty of shops run clean retail files and stall the moment an assignment agreement shows up, because the closer has never processed one and the underwriter relationship does not support it.
Work through your own deal types and confirm each one:
- Assignments — will they close on an assignment of contract, and how do they handle disclosure of the assignment fee on the settlement statement?
- Double closes — do they close A-to-B and B-to-C in-house, and what do they require on funding for the first leg?
- Novations — Aguirre closes these, but many shops have never seen the paperwork.
- Subject-to — she is currently seeing significant sub-to volume, so confirm the shop can process one rather than refusing on policy.
- Land, mobile home, commercial — if you touch these occasionally, better to have one relationship than three.
The reason this is a pre-contract screen and not a post-contract discovery is timing. You find out a shop cannot close your structure on day four of a 14-day contract, and now you are moving title mid-deal with an earnest money deposit already sitting somewhere. Ask first. A capable shop answers the list in one phone call.
There’s nothing that we’re doing internally in our process that’s different from anything anybody else is doing, except for your customer service. I don’t want an email sitting there for more than 30 minutes.
— Crystal Aguirre, Stellar Title
The Communication Standards to Hold Your Title Company To
Here are three benchmarks worth borrowing directly. Aguirre runs all of them inside Stellar, and any shop should be able to tell you whether they do the same.
No email sits longer than 30 minutes. That is her stated internal rule. Not resolved in 30 minutes — acknowledged and responded to.
Respond before the client has to call. Aguirre was taught early in her career to get a detailed answer out by email ahead of the phone call, which both informs the client and kills the inbound call volume. It is a service standard that pays for itself on the operations side, which is why good shops actually keep it.
The no-sundown rule. Every file gets an end-of-day update by 5:30, even when the update is nothing. Her words: “Hey, we’re not touching it and we can’t get to it now, but we’ll get to it in the morning.” Any communication, so the client is not left wondering.
The reasoning behind that last one is worth sitting with. When a client wonders, doubt sets in — and once an investor doubts whether the file is moving, they start calling, escalating, and hedging their next contract elsewhere. A five-minute non-update at 5:30 prevents all of it.
Ask about these standards during vetting, then measure the first file against them. Hambright’s complaint about past title relationships was exactly this: having to ask for a status update repeatedly, when he was busy generating more business to send them. If you are chasing updates after file one, you have your answer.
What Title Companies Need From Investors in Return
The relationship runs both directions, and the fastest way to get worse service is to treat the closing team as your staff. Aguirre’s framing is a team one: if you don’t close, we don’t close; you don’t make money, we don’t make money. She will act as something close to a transaction coordinator on investor files. What she will not do is absorb abuse.
She has fired investor clients over it — told them to take their business elsewhere because they were talking down to her closing team by email. Her point: the investor niche is already high-strung and stressful, the team is already working late clearing difficult distressed title, and nobody needs the added pressure in their inbox. If your acquisitions manager writes sharp emails when a file slips, that is a business risk, not a personality quirk.
Timeline expectations are the other half. Her example: twelve people dead on title, and the investor delivered the contract three days ago. That curative work — locating heirs, running probate or affidavits of heirship, clearing each interest — takes what it takes. Pointing a finger at the closer does not shorten it.
The fix is education, not pressure. Aguirre would rather get on the phone and walk an investor through what is actually happening on a file, and most of the time it lands. Do the same internally: teach your acquisitions team what curative work involves so they set seller expectations correctly at contract, and so they stop escalating on files that are moving as fast as they can move.
What the Closing Table Is Showing About the Texas Market Right Now
Aguirre’s read across Houston, San Antonio, Grapevine and Frisco is that the market has shifted to investors and is not shifting back soon. Retail agents and lenders keep telling her volume is slow. Her offices are high-volume, because they close investor deals — and she thinks Texas stays investor-driven for a while, because there are simply more creative ways to buy real estate now than a retail buyer waiting on a rate cut.
Two closing-table observations stand out for anyone raising or deploying capital.
Hard money is competing with conventional. She is closing a lot of transactions where buyers who could use their own capital are choosing not to. The single most common ask she gets right now is a referral to a hard money lender. If you are on the lending side of the business, that is where the demand is.
2022–2023 new builds are going to foreclosure and closing subject-to. These were first-time buyers who got low rates and grants, and can no longer carry the payment. Aguirre says the volume of those new builds crossing her desk headed for foreclosure and converting to sub-to is mind-blowing. There is no equity in them, so a sub-to takeover is the only clean exit — the seller walks away free and the investor takes over the note.
Hambright’s addition explains the mechanism: the mortgage may be cheap, but insurance and property taxes have kept climbing. Plenty of owners with a 3% rate still cannot afford the total monthly cost. That is the seller profile showing up at the closing table.
Frequently asked questions
What questions should I ask a title company before sending my first contract?
Ask which deal structures they close in-house — assignments, double closes, novations, subject-to, land, mobile home, commercial — and get a yes or no on each rather than a general “we work with investors.” Then ask about their communication standards: what is their target response time on email, and do they send end-of-day status updates without being asked?
Also ask who your day-to-day closer will be and whether that person has personally processed your deal type before. The shop’s capability and your specific closer’s experience are not always the same thing.
How fast should a title company respond to an investor’s email?
Aguirre’s internal standard at Stellar is that no email sits longer than 30 minutes before someone responds. That is acknowledgment and a detailed answer where possible, not full resolution.
The related benchmark is that the response should go out before you feel the need to call. If you are picking up the phone to find out where your file stands, the standard is not being met.
Do all title companies close assignments and double closes?
No. Many shops run retail files exclusively and will not process an assignment of contract or fund a back-to-back closing, either because the staff has no experience with the paperwork or because of underwriter and internal policy limits.
This is why it is a pre-contract screening question. Discovering mid-deal that your title company cannot close your structure means moving the file with earnest money already deposited and a contract clock running.
Why do distressed title files take longer to clear, and what causes the delay?
Because curative work depends on facts outside the title company’s control. Aguirre’s example is a file with twelve people dead on title — that requires identifying heirs, obtaining probate documents or affidavits of heirship, and clearing every interest before a policy can issue.
Liens, judgments, old mortgages never released, and gaps in the chain all add similar steps. None of it moves faster because the investor pushes. Setting seller expectations correctly at contract is the only real lever you control.
What is a title company seeing in subject-to deals right now?
Aguirre reports a striking volume of 2022 and 2023 new builds crossing her desk headed to foreclosure and closing as subject-to transactions. These were first-time buyers with low rates and grant assistance who can no longer carry the payment.
Because there is no equity in those homes, a sub-to takeover is often the only exit that lets the seller walk away clean. Rising insurance premiums and property taxes are a significant part of why owners with cheap mortgages still cannot afford the house.
The bottom line
Before your next contract, call your current title company and run the two screens: list every deal structure you use and confirm they close each one in-house, then ask what their email response standard and end-of-day update policy actually are. If they cannot answer both clearly, start interviewing replacements now rather than during a live closing.
