Hi, Tom Casill, MacGregor, Abstract. And I’m here to discuss what makes MacGregor different? When you look at the New York title insurance market, you have your title insurance companies, you have your title insurance agents.  They probably number, I’m going to guess and say north of fifteen hundred different entities out there selling title insurance to the real estate professional in New York. The fees that we charge for title insurance policies are generally all the same. The product is all governed by New York state. I can’t change the forms. It can’t be any different from one company to another. 

So what makes one title insurance company advantageous over another? What gives you as the real estate professional an advantage using MacGregor Abstract as opposed to anyone else? Oh, anyone can say that their customer service is better than everyone else, but how do you really know and how do you really judge? Well, I’m here to address one of those things. We at MacGregor have a very high value when it comes to coming up with creative solutions.  Coming up with the depth of understanding of title, of law, of risk management, and putting together solutions for otherwise very difficult problems when it comes to title insurance. I’ve come to the realization a long time ago that on your average transaction, it’s very difficult to look good. Someone can look bad if they really dropped the ball.  But if there are really no problems, it’s hard to look good and everybody can do an average transaction. 

It’s only when you come up with something that’s unusual, different, that’s when it’s time to shine. Now, having said that, I invite everyone that’s seeing this, that when you have a difficult transaction, when you have the title insurance company not coming up with the solution, I want you to feel free to give us a call free. I want you to feel free to get my staff a call. Put the problems in front of us. Let us put a fresh pair of eyes on it. Let us give some fresh perspective. Now, I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to insure just anything that comes through the door. Some things are just not meant to be insured, but sometimes we’re able to come up with solutions that are fresh, different. An example: Not too long ago, we had an investor client of ours refinancing a building loan mortgage in New York City. And if you’re familiar with New York City, one of the big issues in New York City is mortgage tax. There was a small building loan mortgage, if I remember correctly, I’m going to say it was three million dollars on the property. We were getting ready to insure a new building loan. I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly.  I’m going to say it was thirty to thirty five million dollars. Nice transaction. But in order to get the savings on the mortgage tax that they already paid, we needed to ascertain that the building loan that was currently on the property, that advances were still allowed under the terms of the building loan. It turns out that they were not. There was an agreement between the borrower and the lender, and they had a specific period of time. That time expired years before we were trying to do our transaction.  Rather than just say, Mr. Investor Client, I’m sorry, but you’re not entitled to that deduction or that credit toward your mortgage tax. We put our heads together. The people here that come to work here either come with an innate ability to think creatively or they catch on as they’re going along. And what we did is we came up for a solution with my investor client.  My investor client, the owner of the property, came into a new agreement with his then existing lender, modified the building loan, which extended the time frame that enabled advances to be made. I think there were only one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand dollars worth of advances already made. They needed to make the rest of the advances to get advantage of the rest of the mortgage tax credit.

So they entered into a modification of the building loan agreement, extended the period of time that gave them ample time to make additional advances, and they were able to take full advantage of the $3 million worth of mortgage tax that was already paid. Now, I don’t know that I’m the only one that would have come up with that solution, but that is our character. That is our claim to fame. That is what we do that makes us different. If you have transactions out there and you have an unusual problem, an unusual set of facts, and unusual circumstances, and the other title company that you’re dealing with is not coming through with good answers for you. Free consultations, please give us a chance, give us a shot and if we can shine, I’ll be frank with you. Sometimes you come up with the right answer and give it back to the investor. They go back to their title company. We don’t even get to close the deal, which it happens sometimes, but that’s what we do. We enjoy the challenge. I’ll be frank with you, forty five hundred, all right angles. I can fall asleep. The staff can handle that themselves. Give us the challenge. If you have something that’s difficult. Give us a call. We’d love to hear from you.   Once again, I am Tom Casill at MacGregor Abstract.

For more information from Tom Casill, visit our Tom Talks page.

MacGregor Abstract Corporation