Starting a Title Company: What No One Tells You Before You Begin

Mike Hambright (00:33)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Today I’m here with Crystal. She runs a title company in the DFW, actually several markets. We’ll talk about that a little bit more. We’ve actually done a fair bit of work together over the years, although it’s been a little while, but we’re gonna be talking about kind the ins and outs of owning a title business and running a title company today. So Crystal, welcome to the show.

Crystal Aguirre (00:52)
Hi, thank you for having me.

Mike Hambright (00:53)
Good to see you. So you and I have done a lot of work together ⁓ over the years, a number of years back, and then ⁓ we hadn’t talked for a number of years and you just popped up again and actually joined Investor Fuel. So excited to have you in the mastermind and excited to kind of catch up some more and hear what you’ve been working on.

Crystal Aguirre (01:09)
Yeah, no, actually I’ve been looking for a group like Investor Fuel, so I’m really, really excited to kind of see where the value will be for me going into the new year. ⁓ My goal is to be a better version of myself from last year, so I hope this is really going to be valuable to me.

Mike Hambright (01:19)
Yeah.

That’s great. That’s all we can hope for is I kind of use, I didn’t come up with this, but the phrase like we got to 1 % better every single day, like just constantly focused on improving,

Crystal Aguirre (01:35)
I’m trying. I try every single day every time I wake up. Did I do good yesterday? Was I good enough? Yes. And so that’s what I, that’s how I am every time I wake up. I just have to remember that. I have to be better than yes.

Mike Hambright (01:37)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yep, yep, yep. Awesome. Well, hey, before we kind of jump into this, tell us a little bit about you and your background and kind of how you found your way into, I guess, where you are today.

Crystal Aguirre (01:58)
Yeah, no, ⁓ I grew up in title. ⁓ This is basically the only profession, industry that I’ve known. I started out really young in the industry and it’s kind of molded me to who I am today. My character, my morals. ⁓ But, ⁓ you know, as you grow in an industry and you work ethic and you work hard, ⁓ there was a point in my career a few years ago that I was like, you know, I pretty much met my cap. And so,

So where am going to go from here? ⁓

I can continue to do what I’m doing and be complacent, work for someone else and not have the stresses of ownership or operations. And I was scared to even think about going that route. ⁓ But I had ⁓ an opportunity where somebody approached me and said, hey, ⁓ I want to help you. I see how hard you work and you deserve to at least try. ⁓ And so I had a really good backing that

that helped me start the title company. ⁓ And it was an amazing process to go through with people that you trust, because that’s number one. ⁓ But also ⁓ realizing that it wasn’t as scary as what I thought it was gonna be. I could have never imagined even a year from opening Stellar that I would ever have opened a title company. So it’s very, very rewarding to see it flourish and grow, starting with one office. ⁓

Mike Hambright (03:25)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Aguirre (03:31)
and then now we’re at four in just two and a half years.

Mike Hambright (03:34)
Yeah, that’s

amazing. Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t really realize. I guess what would you say are the key differences between being probably a top closer for most of the companies that you worked at, like a title closer, and then owning your own business? Like now you’ve got to manage the team. You’ve got every responsibility as an owner that any business has, but what have been the primary differences you’ve seen so far?

Crystal Aguirre (03:57)
Well, in my, the latter of my career, was managing my own branches, right? So I had my own employee. was operating like I was my own little franchise, although I wasn’t right. And a few of those title companies, I was the face of the company, but I didn’t reap any of the rewards. And none of those owners wanted to give me ownership, even though the bread and butter, right? And so, you know, I still managed my own team. I still hired and fired.

Mike Hambright (04:03)
Okay.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (04:27)
my own team at a smaller scale. So I already had the leadership skills, guess the foundation to if I was going to start my title company, I knew that I could do it to a certain extent, right? Like I knew I wasn’t not not confident in that. It was just the scary part of actually just taking the chance, right? Because the failure part of it is what really ⁓ I just didn’t want to fail. ⁓ And so now that I’ve transitioned into owning a company and operating

a company right now we have 26 employees with Stellar and let me tell you it is probably the most difficult part of owning a company I think would be the personnel and the hiring and firing and turnover I guess that’s probably stressful. ⁓ We don’t I don’t always want that you know but a lot of times in the title industry is it’s based off knowledge I know we discussed that before and so you don’t know really know what somebody knows or their experience

Mike Hambright (05:12)
Yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (05:27)
or their knowledge until you put them to work. And so, you know, I put in a lot of training in places ⁓ where I feel like people, you know, lack in, you know, what people do well in. I try to kind of adjust ⁓ my employees to who they could be, you know, ⁓ how can, how they can better bring value to the company. So there have been situations where, ⁓ you know, I’m not going to terminate this person. Does it fit well in this office?

Mike Hambright (05:30)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Aguirre (05:57)
but maybe I can give her this new role and she’ll flourish in it. And so, I’ve had to make those decisions. But overall, ⁓ the operations side of a company, I think is the same. You have your accountants, your reconciliations, you ⁓ have your attorneys, you have all those that kind of help you. I think it’s just scaling your employees ⁓ where there’s leadership stacked ⁓ so that it kind of relieves the

stress and ⁓ that type of workload on my shoulders. So that’s basically what I’ve been doing ⁓ this past year is just making sure that I’m staffed correctly so that I can take a lot of that responsibility off my plate and I can go out and represent the company.

Mike Hambright (06:45)
Yeah,

what are everybody that is an employee for somebody, not everybody, but everybody that is an employee for somebody and aspires to do their own thing, which you did ⁓ often says like, well, if I owned this company, I would do this differently. Right. And sometimes you can go put those things in place. And sometimes when you become an owner, you’re like, well, I see now why that won’t work. Right. I there’s probably all kinds of lessons. So what are some of your kind of key learnings from

being ⁓ not an owner to an owner that are kind of different than what maybe you thought it was gonna be.

Crystal Aguirre (07:19)
You know, I would be… ⁓ I think that it would be just being smart with your dollars. Not…

all the money you make you get to keep. there’s a section of that as well. The thing with title companies is a lot of people think that we’re just a bank, right? We have all this money in our account that we can just give to everyone. ⁓ so I think that it’s more on the, a great accountant is gonna be your number one, reconciliations. It’s so quickly to obtain losses at such a large scale.

Mike Hambright (07:30)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Crystal Aguirre (07:58)
One of the most important things that I learned in my first year and a half of the company is that a bad employee will cost you $250,000 in the lifetime that they work for you, right? I currently am experiencing that and so, know, a past somebody that I knew who was an owner of a company used to tell me that and I’m just like, you know, I didn’t really understand it from my point of just being an employee branch manager, right? Until I got into it and then I had some

Mike Hambright (08:10)
Wow.

Crystal Aguirre (08:27)
from

a few really horrible employees. And I realized, holy shit, excuse my language, but like, this has now cost the company X amount of thousands of dollars for their negligence. Because you want to trust your employees, you don’t want to micromanage. And so there has to be a good medium of not micromanaging, but still overseeing. And so that’s what I’m learning how to do this year.

Mike Hambright (08:57)
Yeah. Yeah. What would you say in this climate? know we had some conversations up front of the challenges of finding good people. I’m sure you have some good people that work for you, but just finding new good people when you’re trying to grow. And ⁓ I know that you said, you know, one of the challenges is, and this is this is whether it’s a title company or any other company, think people, ⁓ owners always struggle with finding really good people. Right. And sometimes there people that have been in the industry maybe for a long time. So on their resume,

looks like they’re great, but they’re not necessarily great or they’re not necessarily a fit for you and your culture. talk about like, you know, some of maybe how you’ve overcome some of those challenges, because I think every business owner, every business owner has those challenges for sure.

Crystal Aguirre (09:42)
Yeah, you know, I’ve give everyone an opportunity when they come in to just be honest, right? You can go through the interview process and when you’re in the interview process, I understand that they’re gonna say, yes, I can do it. know, yes, I can handle it. Yes, I know it. I mean, that’s just part of the interviewing, right? Because they want to get hired. So when they do, I’ve learned now that, you know, even if they did, they said they could do something and they don’t as I learn how they work and their knowledge.

Mike Hambright (09:59)
Right.

Crystal Aguirre (10:12)
It doesn’t mean automatic termination, right? It’s just okay. Just be honest with me, bring it to my attention and let’s work on it. You know, yes, you said you knew this, but it’s okay that you don’t. You’re not really savvy in it. Let me help you. I would rather have them come to me and be honest and say, hey, actually, I really don’t know this very well, than for them to not bring it to my attention and then cause a loss or a claim, right?

Mike Hambright (10:37)
Yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (10:38)
of me being a business is to not lose money. And so I really, really try with my staff just to say, hey, if you don’t know it, just ask and never assume. And so ⁓ that has really been a big factor with employees that even if they came in and they’re not who they probably said they were, I really just tried to teach them before I say, okay, hey, you may not work. I’ve actually…

and on the topic of ⁓ fitting in with the culture. ⁓ I’m really big about ⁓ just trying to communicate with them, hey, what’s wrong? Just really more, it’s more on the emotional side, especially because I’m a woman driven industry. Let tell you, managing 25 women, it’s pretty, pretty tough. And I’ve learned a lot about women in this process of owning a Tanda company. It’s a shocking world to me now.

Mike Hambright (11:24)
Yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (11:36)
say this, emotionally just words of affirmation letting them ⁓ know, hey, it’s not survival mode, we’re all a team. You have to try and them to understand, no one’s out to get them kind of thing. so a lot of the personality or culture issues that we’ve had is not necessarily because there’s bad people, it’s just letting them know,

your team, I’ve got your bag, it’s okay. And so with women, it’s a lot of comforting. And so I do a lot of comforting.

Mike Hambright (12:09)
Yeah.

Yeah. How do you

tell me how you stand out as a title company in an area where, know, from an investor side, you and I worked together for a long time. There’s some people that I worked with for long periods of time. I would typically work with a closer and sometimes when they would move companies, I would just follow them because I’m like, well, I don’t I want to work with you. I don’t really care what company you’re working for me. I think that’s relatively common for investors, probably also for agents and other people. So how do you and I’m not saying that.

Title companies are a commodity, but like, how do you stand out to get people to work with you where, you know, a retail buyer and seller, like they usually don’t care who they’re working with their, their agent or somebody told them, well, here’s who I recommend. Right. And so you kind of have like to influence people to want to work with you. So how do you kind of build those relationships and what do you do to stand out as a, as a title company?

Crystal Aguirre (13:06)
Well, one of the things that stellar is…

known for is just being well-rounded. We can close every type of transaction in real estate, whether it’s a innovation deal, an investor, double closing, assignments, commercial, land, mobile home, we close it all. And so we’re basically like a one-stop shop, you know, but one of the things that has set us apart is because, you know, there is a title company on every corner, right? I mean, what it is is that, I mean, we’re competing and what we all do the same thing.

Like there’s nothing that we’re doing internally in our process that’s different from anything that anybody else is doing except for your customer service. And so I’m really on communication and customer service. ⁓ I was taught early on in my career that you needed to give a response quickly before they called the office. And so you can give a response via email, get detailed ⁓ updates, then you can relieve the phone calls coming in. And so I’ve always worked that way. ⁓ And because of that,

Mike Hambright (13:50)
Right.

Crystal Aguirre (14:11)
everyone knew and could rely on Crystal’s always gonna respond and she’s gonna respond quickly and that’s kind of how I built my book and my referral partners in the industry in order for me to be able to open my own title company. So I instill that in my employees as well. That’s what sets us apart is that I don’t want an email sitting there for more than 30 minutes. I’m really big on to sundown. If at 530 when you cut off before the end of day give everyone an update. Hey we’re not touching it and we can’t

get to it now but we’ll get to it in the morning. Just any type of communication so that our clients are not left wondering. And when you wonder, a doubt sets in and I don’t want the doubt set in with the clients. I want them to always think that Stellar is going to be dependable. So yeah, so I mean I think that that’s what what sets Stellar out separately from any other title company is that we’re not just specific to one niche or

of a transaction in title, Texas, you know, real estate markets, but we’re also, we’re really big on customer service and communication.

Mike Hambright (15:11)
and try to…

Yeah,

that’s great. And honestly, from my perspective as an investor, that was always the most important thing to me. Like, I don’t want any surprises, like just clear communications. And there are people that I’ve worked that I’ve worked with over the years, not you, that like, I felt like, why do I have to keep asking them for a status update? Like, why can’t they just keep me posted? mean, because I’m, you know, effectively, I’m trying to go generate more business that I can send to them, like, make this, ⁓ just keep me keep me in the know of what’s going on. Right. And so

I would say communication is definitely key. That’s Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about, so you work with, I’m sure, I know you work with investors still and you work with the retail side. So what, what makes a good client for you? I’m sure that there’s some investors that have driven you nuts over the years with just maybe their expectations are unrealistic or maybe their contracts are always written up and they cause problems or, you know, whatever, but.

What makes a good investor client, would you say?

Crystal Aguirre (16:20)
I would say it would be the team aspect of we’re a team, right? If you don’t close, we don’t close. You don’t make money. We don’t make money, but we have to do this together. Now the title company can act as like a transaction coordinator in certain ways, right? And so we’re really good about that at Stellar. But in no way, or form do we work for you and can you disrespect or belittle the title closing team? And so I have actually fired

Mike Hambright (16:28)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Crystal Aguirre (16:50)
Clients and told them to take their business elsewhere and this is why is The investor niche is already so stressful and high-strung We don’t need the added stress in our email of people talking down to my closing team Especially because I know how hard and how late we work, you know, we’re we’re clearing very difficult distressed title, you know title work and so it’s one of those things like the hey, know, patient give us some time a lot of times it’s just like like

of the finger of, why can’t you get this done quickly? And it’s just like, you know, there’s 12 people dead on title, you know, like you just brought us a contract three days ago, you know, like, you know, just give us some time. So it’s like unrealistic on the investor side, but I think more, it’s just educating them to let them know. Cause I know that they’re just, a lot of times these investors, ⁓ they don’t understand the process on our end and how detailed oriented it is. And so I like to say, hey, realistically, I like to like actually talk with them.

And you know, sometimes they get it and sometimes these investors like, no, like you work for me, do as I say. And so that’s really, really tough. I like to, when we do get a new prospect client who reaches out to us and say, Hey, I’ve heard about you. I want to work with you. That’s one of the first things that I say is just like, you know, we have to be a team together and I will always back my clients. Like if you were, you were my employee, ⁓ it’s one of those things where I will do anything I can to help my clients be successful.

So the only thing that I ask for is just respect of my closing teams and my employees. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (18:26)
Yeah,

that’s great. Remind me, what markets do you work in again? All the markets?

Crystal Aguirre (18:30)
So

yeah, I have an office in ⁓ Houston, San Antonio, Grapevine, and Frisco.

Mike Hambright (18:38)
Okay, and so

you have your ear to, mean, these are major markets where there’s a lot of real estate activity going on. You have your ear to the ground, like few people in a unique situation, you see title issues, see lender delays, you see like all kinds of stuff. So kind of tell us what you see that’s going on and maybe like where some problems are and where things may be getting better. Like maybe let’s start with kind of like the lender side. Do you see things?

Crystal Aguirre (18:56)
Thank

Mike Hambright (19:05)
Like how are they comparing to maybe how they were over the past six months? Are things getting better? I know there have been some delays. How’s that looking? ⁓

Crystal Aguirre (19:13)
So on the retail side, on the lending side, feel like ⁓ things are steady. ⁓ They’re not as bad as what it used to be when the interest rates dropped, right? But I don’t see if we’re seeing it.

going back to lower interest rates unless there’s some miracle on our right. But I just feel like we’ve kind of I feel like the culture and the economy has shifted truly into the creative side of real estate. I feel like our market won’t be a traditional go back to that traditional mindset of real estate where the realtors kind of rolled the market. Right. I feel like the investors have kind of transitioned to being at the top because there’s more creative

Mike Hambright (19:32)
Sure, yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (19:59)
ways to buy real estate now. And so I’m seeing a big shift in that in our market where I believe that the market, it’s very, so there’s a misconception right now. A lot of questions that I get ⁓ is, know, it’s so slow, know, realtors, lenders, you know, I’m not busy, it’s so slow and it’s like, well,

Mike Hambright (20:01)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Aguirre (20:23)
I’m not in that position. We are a high volume just because we deal with investors and they’re really surprised and it’s just like, know telling these realtors like you have to get creative You’re depending on a retail interest rate to drop so that you can acquire, you know Buyers, I mean there’s just it’s just one of those things where we’re not in that market anymore in that culture of real estate I really don’t think so, especially in Texas. I think it’s gonna stay investor driven for a while Yeah

Mike Hambright (20:52)
Yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (20:53)
Yeah, but I’m seeing it all

Mike Hambright (20:54)
Yeah, yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (20:55)
places. Houston, the same way, San Antonio, ⁓ there’s always going to be hard money and so that’s always been, that’s coming into play. I’m seeing hard money now competing with retail conventional loans. ⁓ If you’re in the hard money business, you’re probably doing really, really well. mean, we are closing a lot of transactions where people are now opting of not using their own capital and… ⁓

you know, leveraging it. And so ⁓ that’s probably the number one question right now that I get is, Chris, so I need a hard money lender. Do you know anyone? And of course I do. And so hard money lending, if you’re in that, if you want to get into that, I feel like this is the best time to do that. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (21:29)
Wow.

Yeah, yeah.

Wow, that’s great. Well, how about would you say there’s been a lot of, know, there’s been this belief that a big part of the slowdown, this is probably more on the retail side, is that people don’t want to give, you know, people don’t want to give up their two and a half to 4 % mortgages. And I’m sure that’s true. Like people, know, property values have gone up, interest rates have gone up. So some people just can’t afford their next house, given the fact that values have gone up and rates have gone up. So

The belief has been a big part of the slowdown is people just don’t want the asset of the mortgage they have is greater than the asset of the house in some instances. So but I have heard some rumblings that like people are starting to refinance even at higher rates and stuff just because they’ve got trapped equity and they need capital. And so are you seeing do you feel like you’re seeing a lot more people kind of give up those those cheap mortgages that were bought during the years where mortgage rates were really low? Is that feel like that’s an uptick right now or?

Crystal Aguirre (22:35)
Yes, we are seeing that for sure. We’re also, along with that though, we’re also seeing people who got these mortgages with these low interest rates not able to afford the mortgage payments anymore, right? Because they were first time home buyers with low interest rates, giving grants, and now they’re at the point where they’re going into foreclosure. So we’re seeing a lot of those properties going into a subject two type transaction because they just want out of their mortgage. And so a lot of those homes, I mean,

Mike Hambright (22:35)
Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (23:03)
just recently the amount of new builds that are coming across my desk that are from 2023, 2024, no, no 2022, 2023 that are, are…

are going in foreclosure that are now, you know, we’re doing a sub two transaction, it’s mind blowing. like, yeah, so I think that these people are stuck and but you know, if there’s a way out for them, ⁓ they will absolutely take those just to walk away free and the investor can take it over sub two just because there is no equity. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (23:23)
Wow. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, people

don’t. mean, a of people don’t realize, like I guess when the national news talks about stuff like this, like well, they people might have a, you know, inexpensive rate on their house, but their cost of living has gone up. Insurance rates have gone up. Taxes keep going up. Property taxes keep going up. And so a lot of people, even if their mortgage is affordable, like all the other things that become unaffordable, and that’s just part of the package that they might have to sell just ⁓ just to get out of that situation. Yeah, yeah.

Crystal Aguirre (24:03)
Yeah. ⁓

Mike Hambright (24:07)
Well, Crystal, thanks so much for spending some time with us today. Good to see you always. If folks want to connect with you, Stellar title, learn any more about what you’ve got going on, where can they go?

Crystal Aguirre (24:10)
Yeah, likewise.

⁓ There is a website, StellarTitleCo.com ⁓ and there there’s ⁓ my different offices and team emails that they can you know send a request to and we have our main line there.

Mike Hambright (24:33)
Awesome,

awesome. I encourage people, especially in major Texas markets to check you out because you’ve always been great to work with. So appreciate you and thanks for joining us on the show today.

Crystal Aguirre (24:42)
Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you. ⁓

Mike Hambright (24:44)
Yeah, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Hope you guys. It’s good insights today from the title side. I think a lot of investors have worked. Sometimes work with contractors. Sometimes it’s title companies that you feel like are like a necessary evil and you’re trying to find the cheapest person or whatever. But at the end of the day, I think once you start to develop the mentality that you need to build a team of people that are in different roles and different companies to help facilitate your business, you’ll enjoy your business a lot more. You’ll have friendships that pay off in ways that you didn’t expect so.

to encourage you to ⁓ listen to today’s show and hopefully get some insights on how to run a better shop. So appreciate you guys. We’ll see you on the next show.