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by Stephen Parezo

Mark Drewes

September 19, 2005—In an industry that is currently undergoing some consolidation due to lower volume on the refinancing side, Fiducial is fortunate to have a lending manager in Mark Drewes who keeps a close eye on any developments.

With the potential of increased government rules entering into the mix, Drewes noted that some of the smaller players are deciding they don’t want to deal with increased regulations and are getting out of the market. This opens up new prospects for companies like Fiducial.

“Consolidation presents opportunities to expand our business,” said Drewes from his office in Indianapolis, IN. “I think that high-quality style companies are going to benefit if there are increased regulations because they have the expertise to deal with them.”

With regulations governing the title industry passed by Congress and enforced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), there’s a tendency to increase regulations with the intent of protecting the consumer while at the same time having to balance that along with the costs which ultimately get passed onto those same consumers.

Volume in the industry appears to be down at the moment, Drewes says, mainly because interest rates are a little higher which has affected the volume. He’s noticed a lot of new residential construction is taking place along with a number of property transfers but the refinancing area remains off.

Those consumers buying a property need to have title insurance to protect themselves to make sure that the property they purchased does have a valid title.

“Title insurance is essential because if, for example, you have a $200,000 property that you’re obligated to pay for but if you don’t have a valid title you still owe that debt,” he said. “That’s our core business. We like to help consumers through the transaction by keeping them informed and explaining the variety of documents since a typical closing package is 50 to 100 pages long.”

Ensuring there’s a good fit

It’s also important, Drewes says, to make certain that there’s a good fit between the property buyer and the insurance underwriter. “You want to make sure that they’re fundamentally sound,” he said.

Fiducial deals with Stewart Title on a nationwide basis for all its insurance underwriting needs.

For many property buyers, though, the concept of title services is still hard for them to understand. Basically, title insurance is a guarantee that the title to real property is not affected by anything and is free from disputes that may exist in the public records for your property.

“Even if you’ve paid for a certain property it may turn out that, in fact, you don’t have any right to it because it belongs to somebody else,” he said. “Before that happens, title insurance will step up and pay your claim. It would make you whole. If you did owe money on the property it would allow you to pay that off.”

In the title services sector Drewes believes there’s “enormous opportunity not only within our area but within the various communities where we have offices.”

Real estate activity, for instance, is booming at the moment in Florida and Arizona where the attraction of the climate and quality of living has caused prices to soar.

“A lot of people there are seeing a significant increase in property values,” he said. “The only danger is the real estate bubble because prices are extremely inflated and eventually are going to pop.”

Stephen Parezo is the Media Manager for Fiducial

Whatever your small business needs, your Fiducial tax and financial professional can analyze your situation and recommend an appropriate action plan. To locate a Fiducial office nearest you on fiducial.com, see the Zip Code Locator located in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you have a particular topic that we should be writing about that can help your business? Please send your suggestions to: stephen.parezo@fiducial.com.