Expert Notary Interview: Calvin Darville and Gannon Hall

In this interview, Calvin Darville of Comfortable Closings and Gannon Hall of Superior Title and Escrow discuss Expert Notary Tips with Katie Tremulis.

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Start: Hi everybody. My name is Katie. I’m the Notary Relations Director and today I have Gannon and Calvin here with me. We are doing a meetup, a little interview while we eat and greet. So do you guys, Gannon, do you want to start by introducing? My name is Gannon Hall. Shout out to Katie for having us here and bringing us all together.

With your fresh socks. Trying to be. I own a title company in Columbus, Ohio called Superior Title Escrow and I’ve been using Katie’s services for maybe like a year almost now. She’s been fantastic. She actually reached out to me via email. And now we have a growing relationship. It’s good. And then she introduced me to Calvin which will introduce himself in a moment, but it’s been a really great power of networking and helping each other out.

It’s been awesome. Yup. Yup. And my name is Calvin Darby. I’m the owner of Comfortable Closings. So we’re a nationwide mobile notary service. So we help. Mainly title companies, but all real estate professionals and anybody who’s looking for a notary locate notaries around the nation. So we have trained and vetted notaries in each state.

And the U S territories. And I’m happy to be here with Katie Gannon. We all do business together. We all work together. So, and I know we’re going to talk about the power of social media, which is how we met, you know? So, I mean, do we want to kick it off with the power of social media? And, you know, maybe how we connected with each other and how you guys are utilizing social media.

Sure. Sounds great. So obviously I started out with the social media. From one interview, I got contacted by actually Blue Notary to talk about Blue Notary and my business. And then it just kind of blossomed through there with the more that I’ve been putting myself out there, the more people that I meet and the more connections and like just the referral.

Did you get a lot of followers from that Zoom we did? I don’t think you shout out your social though. I didn’t shout out my, but yes, I did. You did your Zoom? That’s good. Yeah. So yeah. Well, what about, did you, did you? I guess, yeah, yeah, because, have you heard of Long Sonny System? Yeah. Yeah, so they’re like the biggest notary training company, so I’m actually the ambassador for Long Sonny System, so whenever I do the videos for that.

Like he posted, he reposted and everything. So a lot of the notaries follow and, you know, they’re interested in, you know, doing the the meetups and all that and seeing what we’re talking about. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, again, we connected on social too, man. You do a lot there. How are you, how are you using it?

And I, I just started doing like posting videos about title and stuff just this year for the first time. It was definitely out of my comfort zone, which very important to get out of, but it’s. It’s been fantastic for me just in a short year I’ve probably gotten 10, 12 deals from it. So, you know, a couple tens of thousands of revenue just from putting out some videos that cost me like a grand a month maybe.

So the investment is well worth it if you do it right, do it with, you know, professionals and have the words and the, the cool cuts and stuff. I would say that. It’s helped me expand my reach. Not that I’m trying to, you know, be anywhere outside of Ohio cause I only operate in Ohio, but my reach to new realtors and lenders and just.

Getting the name out and the brand out is just super important for brand recognition, you know, I don’t love doing them But you know We spoke a little bit before we we stepped in here and you know It’s leaving money on the table If you’re not because in this day and age you have to and if you’re not someone else is yeah And that’s the biggest reason I do it is because there’s no other title owners I’m not doing it because most of them are like 60, 70 years old.

And they don’t even know what Instagram is. Yeah. So I just, you know, hop on, make some videos, try to educate about, you know, title and how it affects real estate closings, realtors, their clients. And there’s a big need for that because I would say no one understands title like in general, but even people in real estate hardly realize like the full ins and outs of it and how it affects closings and the whole process as a whole.

They’re like, Oh, you just show up and sign. It’s way more than that. You know, we’ve got a clear liens and then debts and then all these things. But yeah, power social media is very, very powerful. Yeah. Yeah. Not definitely that for me. I mean, it’s the same thing, what you’re saying, you know, just trying to expand that reach, you know, get new customers.

Help more people. So, I mean, it’s super, super helpful and like just getting your story out there so people can connect with you and like, you know, what you’ve been through, you know, how you started your business and you know, what, what you’re looking to go to. So, so people can support you and everything.

Videos are fired. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So if you’re saying like as a title owner, I’m like, he knows what’s up because you know, I’ve had other closing companies work for me in the past that, I’ve really kind of dropped the ball with many, many things detail wise or service wise. Calvin’s been great.

We’ve been working together for a few months now, but you know, top notch service and I appreciate that. I’m really grateful for both you guys. Yeah. So I wanted to ask you, so in in Ohio, so in Florida, typically the realist, the listing agent chooses a title company per county, depending on the county of Florida.

So how is that in Ohio? Is it the listing age or is the buyer’s agent? So in Central Ohio, it’s the listing agent, which is not common for like the rest of the country, which is unfortunate because all of our lender partners don’t get to like You know pick us or push our way. We have to get the listings.

So that’s a challenge, but so are you guys in Central Ohio? Yeah, so sorry Columbus So Franklin County is all listing based and most of the surroundings as well But once you get out of that, it’s buyer picks. So that’s that’s challenging But you know, it’s all about the relationships and can you keep people, you know Happy and entertained and and liking you because again if you don’t someone else will So do you market more towards Realtors rather than lenders since they’re the ones that are kind of Yeah, right now we’re putting a better, or rather a bigger effort to get with lenders because we believe, and so what we’re hearing is that like the rates will hopefully come back down again soon and it’ll be another E5 boom.

So I’m telling my sales people to get in the pockets now of lenders because when the So, boom, happens again. We need to be top of mind. So, to answer your question, yes, mostly realtors right now because they have the listings. Yeah, okay. I wanted to ask you how you started your title company. Yeah, that’s a great question.

I did not. That’s it. Keep it. Sure. No, I’ll, I’ll get dive in. So, my mother founded the company 10 years ago. Okay. She passed away, expectedly in 2020, and I was actually working for a different title company at the time. Mm hmm. I started with her you know, the very early role of like processing and answering phones and stuff.

Learned all the, the stuff that and how title works and then, you know, what it takes. And then I got headhunted by a large company and they actually just put an office down here. I won’t name drop them, but they probably won’t. And they you know, they made me a really ridiculous offer for a 25 year old with like full benefits and stuff.

And, you know, I couldn’t return it down. My mom should not have matched, nor probably could she, right? So, that was really difficult to leave her company in the midst of all that. But, what we agreed on was that if I was to do this, I would, you know, Bring back some Intel and and help grow her company with what I was learning there So I did that for a little over a year and I was actually at that company the day that she passed away so she passed away on Friday and You know handled that in the weekend, but on the next Monday, I went into my office to hear your title address the staff And, you know, told him, hey, this sucks, this is not great, but like, you know, for her, we’re gonna keep it going, and we’re gonna be bigger, better than ever, that’s what she wanted, you know, this was gonna happen at some point, the plan was to take over, but not in that, the fashion that it did.

Yeah. It was really challenging because I didn’t get to pick her brain, right, she didn’t have it, like, written down. Like how to run the title company or anything was all in her head. So that knowledge went with her. So, you know, the first few months or six months I worked probably every single weekend to, to like learn what it takes to own a business and you know, the ins and outs.

Right. I didn’t even know how to pay the bills at first. Like I had two months to stack up the bills and I was like, I don’t know, I don’t know how to pay these bills. Yeah. So it was literally, you know, my learning curve is super steep. I only knew how to do things in the process, but I didn’t know how to own a company or manage people or any of these things that I do now.

But I will say it’s been a blessing. I have a legacy now and that’s what keeps me going. I will say also that part of my favorite thing is like I got to these real estate networking events and stuff and people are like, I know who you are. I knew your mom. I don’t know who the hell they are. Yeah, and I’m like, that’s so great because she touched a lot of people and I’m just super happy to to have a legacy and a blessed life because of all of her hard work.

Wow. That’s a good story. How long have you been running it? Like three years now. December will be three years. So 2020 was when you Yeah, 2020 I took over, I was 26. And it was also hard because like, the employees knew me as like, the coworker. The boss’s son. I’m the boss. And so there was a lot of friction there, but you know, we worked through it.

I proved myself to them that I can do it. And, you know, since then we’ve had two record revenue years in a row. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. What’s the goal of the company? The goal of the company, right now we have one office hopefully we have a second one here soon. I would say, I don’t want to get too big, I want to say maybe like three to five offices.

Maybe Come down to Florida? Well, my family is from here, so I would like to do that, escape the cold. But, you know Golf your round. I can golf your round, great point. But for now, you know, just keep growing and see what’s really possible. I don’t know, maybe 5 million revenue would be cool. Nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you for asking me that. I’ve wanted to put that on camera for so long. What’s your story? My story? How’d you get started? How’d you get into, how’d you get into business? You know, what was your, what were you doing before? So before I was in finance so I worked at a private bank down in Naples and then I had my son and they weren’t going to be flexible with nine to five.

And so I had some life changes and then I just needed to find something that was a little bit more flexible for me. Then I started doing loan signings cause I had already been a notary for, I think, nine or 10 years at that point. So I didn’t do the documentation. I did like a refresher course and then jumped into loan signings.

Found out about virtual, started doing that and then started working with Blue Notary immediately. And then like a little bit of fast forward, but now I’m the notary relations director for Bloom Notary and do everything like that. But then also we’re in the business. Oh, cool. So, yeah. Nice. I don’t see other Ron people like anywhere doing stuff.

I mean, you probably do, but Well, yeah, I do, but that’s just because like now we all hang out and stuff. But, yeah. Are you the leader? No, no, no. But as far as like the marketing and everything, I think that it’s definitely, there’s room for growth as far as The remote online notarization community because I know like the Ron community always thinks that it’s oversaturated But like for you, hell no.

Exactly. Nobody even knows that it’s a thing. Thank you. In my world, at least. And I tell them like, oh, you can like FaceTime people in clothes. Yeah, they’re like, what are you talking about? You know, and then once the lenders hop on That’s the at least do you agree that that’s like the main bottleneck right now is that vendors will not oh, yeah That is where I literally had that today like on my way here.

So one of my clients I guess she has a closing where the guys in Germany right now. He’s in the middle to infinite military So he was on base. Yeah, so they’re trying to get it closed and I’m like, yo, we can do we’re on but so she was like She’s like, all right, I’m going to hit that lender up, see if they’ll, they’ll approve it.

But I guess USA, USSA doesn’t approve of Ron, so it’s like, yeah, most don’t. And it’s a lender because I mean, we do seller packages all the time. I mean, we literally do them almost every single day. Yeah. Cash. Yeah. Give me their email. Like, yo, you need to get on board. It’s just, it’s just more recognition of, of just that it’s available.

Yeah, and You feel like you are pushing that. Exactly, 100%. And like, I’m not the only one. I know that there are other RONs that are actually advocating and lobbying in different, like, sections of the government to get that approved and like, let people know the safety of the I mean, you got the KBA questions if they’re U.

S. citizens, so not only are they, you know, checking the ID, but then you have, okay, answer these questions about your credit history. So I mean, it’s super secure. It’s not like, I don’t know, it’s not like anybody can just hop on there and like. Pretend to be somebody. Exactly. And if you think about it, essentially, if you’re like not knocking traditional in person, but the only fail safe is that notary looking at an ID.

Exactly. You know, there’s no, there’s no scan. There’s no KBA in person. There’s nothing that it’s just looking and like, you know, see, I mean, I love in person, honestly, that’s a lot of my business,

you know, but Ron is I think I think it’s just, just kind of that thing where it’s you know, people will eventually adopt it, you know, send new tricks. So people got it in, like, you know, this industry is, there’s a lot of older people in the industry. So, you know, if you’re used to doing something a certain way, you don’t want to switch that up.

Yeah. But there are also at the same time, there are some negatives to run that I see, you know, whenever there’s a positive, there are negatives, you know, because With there being older people, like we have this all the time, you know, like the, it’s, it’s hard for them to get on lock. You know, it’s not, you don’t have to be super tech savvy, but you do have to be some way.

It’s not like DocuSign where you just hit a link, press a button, boom. You actually have to know how to like get on there and get through the ID process. Yeah, there, there is some caveats to run. And that’s especially for the tech challenge community. But if there is a Ron that you are working with a little bit of a thing that I tell them is ask them, like ask the signers nicely to bring someone else in during that signing.

So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that’s like a little bit, but it is an issue like in general. Yes. And then, I mean, another, so you focus primarily on Ron. You don’t do any in person. I do some extra work. I just asked her that. Yeah. I do some in person, but it’s like usually for friends or if like a title company, they work with your book or you’re like 90 percent of your business is wrong.

100%. Yeah. And I think that’s a, that’s a good thing. So. And to go back to what you guys were talking about, you know, if there’s a lot of Ron notaries we work with, well, I know of a lot of Ron notaries, but the best Ron notaries that we have are the ones who focus primarily on Ron, because you guys are more resourceful because that is all you do.

You know, when we have notaries who just do Ron here and there, they’re like, Oh, I’m Ron certified. Right. But they don’t actually use it, you know, when they run into issues like, Oh, the guy can’t get on past the KBA or he can’t get his ID uploaded or they’re just having some technical issues with whatever.

They’re not as resourceful because that’s not all that they do. Yeah. You know, so I think that’s a great thing that, you know, you focus primarily on that because. You, it allows you to, you know, whenever you just run into issues, you can, you can, yeah, like I know, like, all right, did you try different browsers?

Like walk them through exactly. Yeah. The things like that. Did you try different browsers? What you’re saying about making sure you have someone in the room to help you just in case you run into any technical issues, you know, all of that, all those things, you know, because I mean, Ron signs essentially they should be what, 15, 20 minutes tops, you know, but I mean, we’ve had them where they’ve drawn out the two, three, four hours, just, just not even the sign, just getting online.

Yeah, I had, I had someone, this was like one of my, and the client was very, very nice, but he was. A little bit older and he could not figure out how to hold up his ID to the webcam. And so I spent probably half an hour like, okay, move it a little bit. Let’s be fair. It’s not as easy as they make it seem.

I don’t know if it’s certain platforms, but I was on a platform myself cause I was coming on to be a witness. And even the witness has to verify their ID and I’m sitting there like. Forgive my words. I’m like, shit, like, how do I get this ID? I’m like, yo, if I was 60, 70, 80, I would not be able to do this. I promise.

No. Okay. The workaround for that is that you send it as an SMS to your cell phone. So then if you, if you can upload a check on Twitter. See, she sent it as her SMS. You’d think an old person would read that. She’s like, what? I know you know. But like, yeah, you send it to a text message on your phone. We can get into the QR code and you’re all like, come on now.

It’s easy. For, I feel like eventually it will be, it will eventually, that will be, yeah, that will be the norm. It’s absolutely the future. And I’m telling a lot of people that like, you know, get ready, you know, it’s a great additional income. Yeah, it is the future. And once the lender’s hop on, it’s, it’s over.

Yeah. It’s just a matter of time. Yeah. Have y’all heard of. Crypto and real estate at all. Yeah. So, I’ve actually been talking with my underwriters about what’s like, how do we do that? How do we accept crypto? And how do we, you know, I want to, you’ve had people actually, I’ve not had it happen yet. I don’t know if you guys have stories about that, but I have been talking to my underwriters about like, can we, how does it work?

What’s it look like? Cause I want to be like on the forefront of that. Yeah. One of our clients actually, from my understanding, I believe they closed the first crypto deal in America. I’m pretty sure they use Bitcoin. That’s amazing. Yeah. So they got an article about it and yeah, I mean it’s crazy, you know, it’s all that’s coming.

Yeah, that’s happening too. That’s happening too. Now I will say real quick, relative to blockchain, I’m a little scared of blockchain. Because, for what? For title. For title, because why would they need me to go search, you know, 42 years history, or whatever it is, per state, if the blockchain has just got all that?

I think that technology isn’t there yet, though. It’s not. But I have people telling me, like, oh, you got like 10 years. And I’m like, oh, that’s really scary. We’ll still need a settlement agent, right? An escrow. But We still need quality service, you know. I think, when I think technology, AI, all of that, it eliminates It’s service that is not quality.

People don’t care about what they do. People who don’t have passion, you know, and like educate themselves, they will be eliminated. But the people who really, cause you, you still need that personal touch. You can’t replicate the human. A quick story. I used to work at Best Buy when I was fresh out of college.

I used to work at Best Buy for like 11 bucks an hour. The whole thing there was like, this was probably what, 2017, 2018. The whole thing was Best Buy versus Amazon, you know, because it’s like and that that’s that’s Best Buy’s biggest competition is Amazon But the only thing that Best Buy has over Amazon is when you go into the store and not to say that they actually do This but this is the only thing they can actually have over Amazon is when you go into store getting that personal experience from somebody Who works at best by like, yo, you’re looking for a camera.

Like I got the Sony here. Like the Sony does this, it does that. You zoom in, you come here, you do that. Like that’s the only, cause when you go online, you can’t get that. I mean, you go on YouTube and research it, but you know, so that, that, that’s what I’m saying about just like the personal touch, you know, that’s, that’s what it’ll keep us Keep it.

I mean even my business, you know, so I mean run and then you know, I mean even if there’s blockchain I may not be even need a note and you won’t even need a notary potentially I think that that that has come up as far as like conversations within the group and everything that I am in I do not think that I mean Being a notary has passed through it’s been like since I think the roman empire I don’t know.

No way. I don’t think so. I feel like And even if not, I’m going to say that it has been yeah. Don’t be too critical on us, guys. Yeah, all right. We’ve been thinking about the Roman Empire a little bit too much. But, I think that it’s going to be something that is going to be timeless. So, and as far as like, for these home closings, there’s always going to be, going to need it to be a human element.

Because it is mostly the biggest purchase of everybody’s lives. And it’s super emotional. Yeah. We had one Where it was a buyer cash due, you know, a lot of buyer cash dues don’t even need notarization. No, we don’t. Yeah, so. We dobbled the ball of ours. Yeah. The buyer was like, no, I want a notary. Like, I want to have that feeling like I’m buying my first home.

I don’t want to do it all docu sign. Like they literally wanted someone to bring the documents to them. They signed them. So people like. It doesn’t matter how much we advance, and you can argue that the more that we advance, people will even want the personal experience even more, because we’re going to be so That’s a good argument, right.

They’re going to be so dependent on the tech, that eventually they’ll revert back and want to touch. Well said. I hadn’t considered that viewpoint. Yep. Yeah. We talked about our history and how we started. Could you please talk about, you know, Best Buy, but like, how did you go from Best Buy to something closing?

Yeah, it’s been a long journey, a long story for me. So, I grew up playing football my entire life. Football led me to Florida A& M University in Tallahassee. I was all football. Nothing like the man I am today, you know, just all football. If people ask what I majored in, I say football. Come here, play school.

Yeah, exactly. So, So, yeah, I played, I played ball all four years. You know, went into my senior season as a captain, you know, looking to go to the NFL. I went out for my first game. We were killing him, crushing him. Coach yanked him out of the game. He’s like, yo, he yanked me out of the game. Then he’s like, do you want to go back in?

Cause we were, we were killing him. And I’m like, yeah, why not? I’m a competitor. Defensive end. Okay. Yeah. So I’m like, I’m like, yeah, I’ll go back in. So go back in and then come off the ball. Boom. My Achilles pops. And that was it for football. Yeah. So when I understood I had to go into surgery and I was out for the season and everything.

And, you know, eventually that ended everything with football. So after that, I ended up graduating, still picked up a couple of side jobs, working construction, working at Best Buy. And And then I found out about, so I was working my, my construction job and we were on break and I had graduated and me and, well, before we were on break, me and my boy were like moving these wheelbarrows a hundred yards back and forth.

I’m like, I’m like, Oh my gosh, is this, is this what my life has come to? So then we go on break and click on YouTube and a video pops up. How to make money, wholesale and real estate wholesale. Yeah, this was before notary. Right. Yeah. So how to make money, wholesale and real estate. I knew not, I didn’t know what an interest rate was.

I didn’t know what a mortgage was. I didn’t know anything. I looked at the video and it intrigued me. So, the dude was selling the course and I’m buying the course. Or whenever I was scouting properties to wholesale, I would always put a podcast on. So whenever I’m looking like, just driving around looking for properties and all that stuff, I put on podcasts.

So, podcast comes on about mobile clothing industry. Mark Wills, shout out to Mark Wills, that’s my mentor, my dog. He changed my life, shout out to him, he’s always on the system. So his podcast comes on about how to make money as a notary and he was selling a course as well. And this was 20, this was around like maybe 2018 or something.

And so I ended up purchasing this course and then I ended up moving to Tampa going all in on the notary business. And when I started I was just an individual notary working with title companies and now I’ve scaled it up to where. I contract all the work out to other notaries and we do it around the nation and that’s we’re doing about three, four years now and it’s going great and I love it.

I enjoy it. One of the main things I, I really loved being the notary at the table because I mean, I mean, just to be honest, like it is a good feeling, like being a part of that trip, like being a part of like, because it’s such an emotional experience when someone’s buying their first home or someone could be selling a home that’s been in their, their family for a long time.

Like, it’s a, it’s a very intimate, you know, thing. So, you know, I do miss that. I do miss going out and meeting people, but I love what I’m doing, so. That’s a great story. Where do you source your notaries that, like, aren’t local? How do you find these people? Yeah, so, we have a, we have a database of over 40, 000 notaries.

As far as sourcing them, we choo So the, the database actually allows us to see how many closings they’ve done on the platform. So we try to stick with notaries who’ve done above 300 closings and also notaries who have the Loan Signing System certification, because that’s the trip I took to get into the business.

You know, we talk to them on the phone you know, just try to figure out, you know, just try to like, just talk to them to figure out what type of person they are, you know, cause you can hear people’s attitude when you, when you talk to them, like, are they positive? Are they negative? You know, ask them certain questions, you know, to figure out, you know, their experience and you know, everything.

So. Oh man, how are you? ? I was wondering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, I mean, that’s the story, man. And the goal for me is kind of to do a move, kind of what Mark Fleming did with signature closers to grow the company to 65 million and sell off to maybe a title company. I’m, I’m Ms. Mark Fleming, Jr.

Man. my guy. Yeah. Nah, he’s a passionate guy. You know, I don’t know him personally, you know, but I, I, I’ve heard of his story. I’ve actually bought one of his courses, as you can see, I’m big on courses here. Yeah, education is important. Yeah. I mean, Mark Fleming, I mean, he’s, he’s a, he’s a, he’s a good dude. You know, and he does a lot for the notary community.

He sold for 65 million. That, that, no. So the company was doing 65 million in annual revenue. Even worse. Yeah. So they were doing 65 million annual revenue. So, I believe it. So he sold. Yeah. So he sold once they got there. I mean, he probably sold at the best time because I’m pretty sure he sold in 2021 when the market was freaking.

So he, I’m holding it. And that was the best time to cash out. That’s right. No. Was Mark plumbing? I’ve heard of signature closers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s, he’s he started that company. Okay. Okay. They’re essentially my competition. So we’re coming for now. Now Signature was cool, I mean, I used them for 8 or 9 years when Mark Fleming owned it, right?

But they sold to Stewart Title, which is a massive underwriter all across the country. And probably 2 years ago, and then since then, there’s like Service has not been as accountant, but yeah, and then it’s like, that’s what let me accountant. Yeah. And it is, I mean, it’s kind of like, you know, every morning you kind of kind of figure out what, what you want, you know?

So I look at it like this, like when I’m marketing someone, I understand that everybody’s not for my company. You know, I, I want them to work with us, you know, but everyone’s not for my company. Cause you gotta, what you were saying, like, you don’t want to grow too big, you know, because. Maybe because you, you want to have relationships with your clients and you know, these different things.

So, you know, as you grow, you know, you kind of, you lose that because you’re, you’re getting so big. So. You know, you just got to, you got to kind of figure out like, well, like, I mean, maybe some companies want a huge signing service, maybe some, cause if they, like, if it’s a huge company, maybe they got a lot of business to give them and they got to be able to support the business.

Right. You know, but maybe somebody wants somebody more hands on in their company who can, who can like really watch the files and make sure everything’s going, going good. You know, they’re not doing 200 signings or 300 signings in one day, you know, maybe they’re only doing 20, 30 in one day, you know, so they can be.

More hands on with the file. Something that I found really, really critical in my company is the balance between incoming volume and service level, right? Mm-Hmm. . We’re trying to sell a premier product, superior service. You know what we say, right? So it’s, you know, the difference of working with a random title company that may or may not.

You know, send notaries out to anyone. You have to come to the office or they close at four on Fridays. They’re not available after five. I know it’s unbelievable, right? They’re on, you know, they don’t offer marketing to the realtors, you know, things like that. So having the service level be, even if you’re paying more overhead and payroll and making less, your ability to grow is infinitely more because like you were talking about when you delegate, you know, you have.

time to do what it takes to grow the business, work on the business, not in the business. Right. So like, you know, I try to have a new processor anytime I have a rep that’s gonna, a new rep that’s gonna produce. Just to keep it, you know, kind of like this. Because you always want the service to match. If the service drops, people notice.

Even if you grow huge, I mean, that’s great. That’s what we’re all striving to do, but not. At the expense of the service. And I just want to touch on that because that’s a huge thing and Katie I would love to see you potentially take a leap of faith and and start outsourcing some of this stuff and hire someone.

Yes. I will. I will. Okay. She said it on camera. Yes. She said she will. Gotta hold her accountable. Yeah. Gotta hold her accountable. Yeah. Because Otherwise, I’m just, I’m just doing things that, like, I don’t necessarily, I could, I could delegate. You could. I don’t know. Yeah. I mean, what he was saying is important, like customer, because customer retention is important, you know, and you can only have customer retention by providing value, you know, so we all want customer acquisition, you know, we all want more customers, more money, marketing, you know, everyone wants to market, market, market.

You know, but at the same time, and what you’re saying is, and I’ve never, I’ve never heard that from a title company, but every time you hire a rep, you hire a processor, you know, because every time you, you obviously, if you’re hiring a rep, you, you believe that that person is going to bring in business. I mean, that’s, that’s kudos to you for also like looking out to.

Not only the clients that you’re going to be getting, but the clients that you currently have, you know, because you want that, you still want that service level to be there, you know, and I mean, I was listening to I was just scrolling through Instagram the other night and, you know, it’s, it just goes back to the old saying money follows value, you know, everyone’s chasing a buck, but what you really should be chasing is how much value, like truly like, like thinking like how much value can I bring this individual with.

You know, and then you won’t, you won’t ever have to worry about money. Yeah. Like I think that a little bit of a different mindset shift when I started marketing is instead of saying, Oh, I can do this for you. It was more of like a, what kind of value that I can bring to the table. And so that I didn’t feel like I was selling things because it’s like, I have a solution to your problem.

Because I listened to what you have to say about like the different things that are going on in your business and and this is how I can help like if you have a signer somewhere else, I can help you with that. So it was kind of like providing solution and bringing that value and it wasn’t, it wasn’t, it didn’t feel like me selling things.

So a lot of people don’t know what they need because they don’t know it exists, right? And you have to show them that, which is really crazy, but like, that’s so true. You know, I sell my reps, but these people that these realtors that you’re trying to sell to, they don’t realize our level of service exists.

They think it’s all mom and pop attorney shops that like just, you know, close at four, right? And you can’t get to them after hours. You can’t get a net to sell around the weekend. They don’t know that they need that because they don’t know it exists. So you got to, you got to show these people, Hey, here’s what I do.

Here’s the value it’s going to bring. Here’s the difference it’s going to make. And then that’s, you know, if they don’t know why, why would they even use you? Because they don’t know that what you do is as valued. No, I mean, you have to preach that because it’s, I mean, you have to be able to communicate, you know, and I don’t want to say sales, but just your communication and pushing how you can help someone because If they don’t know that you exist and they don’t know that there’s a better way, a more efficient way for them to, that will help their business, you know, like you have to just get that out there for them.

You know, so I mean, we’ve worked with title companies who. Before they started working with us, they were going online, calling notaries themselves. From Google? Yes. Damn. Like going on Google. At the time for that. Right. Who has time for that? Time is money. So just what we were talking about before we start, you know, the whole mechanic and this, that like, okay, you’re going to go on Google.

It’s going to take you probably anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the location. It could take two, three, four hours to find a notary. You’re going to have to negotiate with the notary, give the notary instructions, do all this when you could just. Give that to us. They’re not even going to do scambags either.

Right. You know, you could just give that to us and then what you could be doing, you could be spending time with your family, you could be building your business, you could be pouring into your team, you could be loving on old clients, funding files, doing stuff that’s more important than Googling, you know, so I mean, it’s on us to communicate that to whoever we’re, you know, marketing to, how we can help them.

Yeah. Because I’ve, I’ve talked to a couple of different title companies that need. Some mobile, like in person notaries that are in areas that I don’t go to, you know, they’re like three hours away. So then it’s perfect because I just text you or you know, email your company or anything to be able to find the notaries that are.

That know what they’re doing so that way when there’s a client that comes to me and they need something that I cannot provide, like I have something that I can be a resourceful. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Like, and one thing I’m big on is try my best not to say no to somebody like someone who needs help.

Like, if I can’t do it, well, maybe I know someone who can do it. Or maybe there’s a workaround to this, you know, like even the whole Germany thing I was talking about. It wasn’t, it wasn’t like she was like, hey, can you do a closing in Germany? Really? I could just be like, no, I can’t. But it’s. No, I can’t necessarily do it in person closing, but we could possibly do a run if a lender is okay with that, you know, so being resourceful, I mean, that’s, that’s a major thing.

Yeah. Yeah. You get that from networking and, you know, social media is a powerful thing, you know, depending on how you use it. It’s a powerful, it’s a powerful thing. You know, just building relations and you know, whenever you have a chance to help someone, like truly, truly helping them. No, even if you don’t actually get something in return, like, you know, you.

If you were for me, you don’t necessarily get something in return, you know, but you’re still helping somebody, but I find valuing like the building of connections because eventually there is, there is, there is value, but most of you don’t have that mindset. Then like, if I don’t get that book right away, I don’t get that dollar right away, but like you say, it comes back around because you, you are becoming known as a connector as someone who is reliable, you know, so, and not to be said that there’s not Potentially money be made there.

’cause I know people that are making boo boo money. Mm-Hmm. just introducing people and connecting dots and sending emails and Yeah. But I, but before then, they probably, they probably, but it was probably a passion before then. They were just, they weren’t even thinking about the money. They were just thinking about value.

Yeah. You know, most people that you have to have. Mm-Hmm. When you’re thinking about, like, when you’re really thinking about that value, it, it is just different. Mm-Hmm. , you know, because you really become valuable. Because you, you’re thinking about value, like how can I provide them value? So now you have to learn ways I can really provide them value.

So then you make yourself become valuable and now people want to give you money because you actually are valuable. But the other thing that I like about networking so much is that I find so many other types of businesses that I never would have realized. thing. Like I didn’t really know about signing services before I started doing any of this.

And now there’s so many people that ask me about signing services and it’s something that I can tell the Ron community like this exists. So that way, you know, you guys can try and make some revenue without having to necessarily market. So it’s, it’s nice to continually be networking and like marketing and just hanging out with everybody.

So that way, Like, you just learn different industries. So, and your network is your net worth, obviously biggest thing, but like connecting the dots and just being a value in any way you can, even if it’s not directly, like you were saying, you might know somebody and you might get a finder fee. You don’t know that.

Yeah, I’ve done that a few times. Yeah. Then you guys wanna hone in on, on the scaling thing and Yes. You know, so I got a question for you again. And so, so right now you have eight employees? I do. Okay. So. What was it? Okay. So let’s go back to your story. So when you took over superior, how many employees were there?

Only three. There was three. So, okay. So what was it like? It sounds like you, there was a decision made. Like I want to grow this company. You coming in as a new business owner, you know, you already got three employees. I can imagine that because for me it was like hiring one, two, three, you know? So like each, every time you hire one person, you know, you kind of learn a little bit, but you just off the rip, you’ve got three people you got to manage.

What was that? What was that like? And how was that? Yeah. You know, that what was that mindset that like, I want to scale this on a broadest to eight people. It was tough because like, you know, I don’t ever claim to have been the founder or started from the bottom. Right. Or, or started from scratch. I really admire people that do that.

Like yourself, Gavin, you know, I did have. You know, I wouldn’t call it an advantage because the circumstances but you know I had a nice base level that she created and it took her seven years to do so So I definitely acknowledge that piece of it for sure but coming in like you said I had no management experience Really?

They were all women you know older than me. So, you know, like why would I listen to this punk kid, right? So I had to prove. Hey, I can do this surround myself with the right Mentors and be in the right rooms to educate myself on how to handle these situations, but I never saw it as Any other option like hmm?

Yeah Now I did have meetings with people that you know We’re maybe trying to vulture or scavenge what she had started and they were like maybe watching a bio, right? That took us meetings just to see, but you know, that wasn’t ever something I really wanted to do. Right. The plan was to take over. I wanted the latest.

That was always the plan? It was. Yeah. Her and I talked about that a lot. It just didn’t happen in the way it was supposed to happen. But like I said, I didn’t feel like I had any other option. You know, I was handed a great opportunity, again, despite the circumstances, but because of how hard she worked and what she wanted for me and her company, I was going to do whatever it took.

And again, back to mindset, like, you know, black people don’t want to work more than 40 hours or do what it takes to get shit done and move ahead. Like, if you want to really move ahead in business and life, you have to work outside of 9 to 5. Oh yeah, for sure. Can we Yeah, please. I got a question. Somebody answer this comment.

Can we say 9 to 5 is when you have to work? Yeah. I mean, like, really think about it. Why is it only nine to five? Why at five o’clock, I’m just turning everything off. That’s a good question. It’s a great question. And the answer is that, that bottlenecks them. You know, they, they are slower to progress that way.

And, you know, you have to, gotta be grinding all the time. If you’re not at least grinding, you have to be thinking about it. Or, you know, if you’re not physically doing the action, the action’s happening up here, and you’re thinking about the action that be taken. But then it comes back to actually taking the action.

A lot of people think about it, talk about it, but they’re not Doing it. Executing it. You don’t have to be afraid to take the action. But again, I never thought that I had any other choice. I was, I was not going to fail. Well, let me pose this question, you know, because I’m sure some people are probably listening to you right now, like, Yeah, I get it, man.

I mean, yeah, I want to grind, you know, but like, when do I get to turn it off? When do I get to work? Like, hey, it’s like, you know, what is, when you make it. And when’s that? Right? You know, I was at an entrepreneur’s conference two weeks ago in Detroit, and I talked to this guy, and he said something that really stuck with me.

He said, Work yourself out of a job. I was like, damn, that’s what’s up. And, cause, you know, if you work hard enough and you do all the right things and you take the leaps and you have teams and stuff, like, you can work yourself out of a job where, you know, business automates itself. You don’t have to do much maybe 10 hours a week at some point, right?

And then you start looking at what can I do next, you know? It’s really important to to realize the level of commitment and, and hustle it takes to further yourself. It’s just, you can’t just put in 40 hours. It’s not going to get it done. And then when I first started out, like I first started out as like a low in sunny Asian, I was like, okay, cool.

This is, you know, I can do it within the working hours and you know, it’ll be super flexible. Fast forward to that is not at all what it is. And I, I started tracking it and I, I stopped cause I stressed myself out, but I was working like 110 hours. And I was like, I was like, all right, I need to, I scaled back and like, you know, you have to make sure that you’re not going to do a burnout.

But at the same time, like I was so ready to like learn different things about the business. Like it was such a steep learning curve. And I mean, I mean, we were just telling you, you should hire someone. So you, she’s working a hundred, 10 hours a week. I’m sure, I’m sure 40 hours could have been delegated to somebody else.

Yeah, sure. I’m sure. So I’ll tell you what’s a good thing. So I’ve been to, you know, some workshops and everything about scaling and there was this guy and he was talking about. Take a piece of paper, make two lines, one line and another line. So you got three columns. The first column is things that I do that drive the business forward.

No question. Yeah. Second column is, you know, things that I could just delegate to somebody else or I don’t necessarily, I enjoy doing them, but they don’t necessarily drive the business forward. And then the third column is just like stuff you hate and it doesn’t drop. This is for take all the stuff in those two columns.

And that’s what you hire somebody to do. And then you just focus on the first problem. Things that actually drive the business forward. Yeah, but like, I have a bit of a control issue as far as like, Oh, that’s interesting. But like as far as like giving up any type of like control within the aspects of like the business but I get that and like I know that that’s like a mental block for me just to be able to get to the next step of like where I want to be, which is not working 110 hours anymore.

I mean I think you could like Things like email management, like putting like your closings on your calendar, like maybe following up on invoices. Yeah, especially. You know, like those, yeah. Anyway, yeah, mindlessly being a good dad, right? Yeah, that’s just like, you know, you can get people to do that and, you know, I’d probably free up a couple hours out your week so you’re not working so hard.

Yeah. Well, quick story about that, like, the biggest thing that took my business to the next level was promoting from like within because when I took over it was just three people, right? And I told them when I got there, y’all all equal. That was a mistake. And the moment that I made one of them my GM, and gave her the empowerment to like, look, this is your office, alright?

You do what you think is best. That was the separator and it was really hard to give up control because like like you said like I’m also super organized I want to have all the control to make all the decisions and this that the other but you’re so limiting yourself Yeah, you know and you have to trust that like you’re gonna make the right decision hire the right person And if they are the right person, they’re gonna They’re going to have the same values, the same company stuff that you want done, how you want it done, if you train them right.

And they’re going to take you to the next level because, again, that was the biggest separator, the biggest difference. Shoutout Michelle. Shoutout Michelle. Shoutout Michelle. We’ve talked on emails. Me too. That’s right. Yeah, they know Michelle. Shoutout Michelle. That’s my girl. Man, it makes such a difference because, you know, and it also gives you a level of separation between them and others, which I think is also very important.

Yeah, he’ll be there. We’re gonna help you. We’re gonna make sure of it. Yeah. But that’s the other thing that I appreciate so much about hanging out with, like, or surrounding myself with people that are also in, like, business mindsets. Oh, it forces you, yeah. It’s 100%, like, absolutely ridiculous because there’s, there’s people that, you know, you complain about an issue and then, like, they complain about an issue too.

But instead, like, you guys are both pushing me to do more things as far as, like, Making myself better rather than just like sitting in misery. Or I think we have the platform and know how to do so. And it’s like, I mean I don’t know you that well, we just met today. But! We just met today! First, there you go.

Who are you? I just saw you and I’m like, hey, you wanna do some coding? But like, you know, at least from the limited knowledge I have of you, it seems like you have the tools to do so. Yeah, you can do it. I can do it. But it’s all I mean, you know, it’s just like it’s just a learning process Yeah, there’s things I wouldn’t like on my first hire I wouldn’t do now, you know because I learned and like even the managing process and you know I mean once you hire like I mean you really got to learn how to pour into people I mean, you know once you once you get a team you gotta learn how to pour into people because I mean, a lot of times you get around business owners and they’re always like complaining about their employees, but that’s really a reflection on them.

Yeah. It’s just like a learning obstacle or a learning what you guys have already heard. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And then it’s like, you have to be able to attract talent, you know, like, like if you can’t find, I mean, and this is just stuff that I’ve, I’ve learned, you know, from listening to people who are like mega, you know, business entrepreneurs, like doing big things, like Like, if you can’t find talent, it’s probably a reflection on you.

Yeah. Right, they’re not attracted to you. Yeah, they’re not attracted to you, right? You’re not giving it, like, cause I mean, think about it, like, I mean, everyone wants the best employee, but it’s like, okay, if that person’s the best, they want the best opportunity. Yeah. You know, so, you know, you just gotta figure that out, you know, and You know, just make sure you’re pouring it to your people.

Mm hmm. I know, it’s yeah. One of the reasons why I, like, pushed way more towards Brawn of, like, remote instead of in person is because of this one. I went to closing, and it was at someone’s house, and I go and they have like a cute little dog, so I’m petting the cute little dog, and I’m at the closing table, and I’m like doing the notarizations, and I feel stuff like biting my feet.

Oh wow. We’re not, like, we’re too far in, like, for this to be no CMs. The whole house had fleas! And I was like, oh no! So, yeah, that was probably the fastest closing that I’ve ever done. Because I was like, alright, I’m getting out of here. Like, we’re getting this done. And I’m going home. So, yeah, that was one of the reasons why I was like, Okay, I’m going to start promoting Ron.

This is why she switched from in person to Ron. This is why, this is why. Yeah, but, I mean It is interesting going into people’s homes and just kind of, sometimes some people live crazy. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. No, no, but the, I have a different one, but that would be very appropriate. Well, no, they would just know exactly who it was.

So I can’t, this is real talk. We’re all about, I can tell you guys after, but hold that thought. Man, I would say, you know, we do. So many, but the one that sticks out to me the most is probably it was the second catalyst to why I, you know, started working with Calvin now prior to the, you know, the issue we had that I told you guys about, but before that, you know, I had, I got a phone call after the closing from the client actually from the realtor and she was like, Is this notary like one of yours?

I was like if my question happens something’s not good, right? Yeah, usually and I was like I’ve never heard about an exorcist I was like, I mean Did the IRS consider someone? Hired him, but they don’t work for me as period title. So they’re like, why what’s up? What happened? They’re like, well, they showed to the closing and it looked like they had just rolled around in pig sty and they smelled like a barn This was the other company.

I was like, Daniel, well, sorry. Like, you know, I, I had a really profusely apologize. That’s completely unacceptable, right? Yeah. The level of professionalism that Yeah. You know, like, you guys know, people show up dressed nice and handle the closing like they should. Yeah. And they’re telling me this, this person, you know, rolled out of the barn and then showed up to the closing can, we, can, can, and that was the last time, man.

How should you show up to a closing Guinea man? Like, even me, like write it out. Like her, like, I mean, like, honestly like, I mean, you don’t have to put on a three piece or whatever, but. Come correct. You got to come correct. It is an important like it’s important people are making the biggest financial investment they’ve ever made in their lives, treat it as so.

Whether it’s a seller, buyer, refinance, like, it is important. You should be professional, you shouldn’t have jeans on, and, and, you know, your sneakers. I mean, I got sneakers on, but, I mean, just come correct, like you said. Hey, unless you’re your boss, that’s alright. Unless you’re a hero. That, that, that extends into anything, not just closings, I mean, if, if you want to portray that, you know, you’re doing it and you got your shit together, like, If you don’t look like it, no one’s going to believe you.

Right, how are you going to go to a job interview? Are you going to go to a job interview like you just rolled out of bed? Or are you going to go like you actually want the job? In fact, I actually had an interview a few years ago where a buddy showed up in some sweatpants. Are you? He didn’t even want the job.

Of course. He could have said anything, he still wouldn’t have gotten the job. It’s really that simple. But also, back to the crazy quotations, my favorite ones are the like The divorce situations. So they come to the table, not always together, but like a lot of times they come together. Oh man, and then it’s like, oh, I should have never married her.

And then, you know, one of them, I’d have been nervous. One of them threw a pen across the table at the other one. I mean, it can get crazy. And that’s again, to Calvin’s point, the closings are not always Hooray and happy, right? Like, sometimes there’s sensitive situations. Deaths, or divorces, or estate stuff, right?

So, you want to play each one based on the situation. But, I mean, that’s some crazy stuff. And as the closer, you guys really gotta wrap it up and read the room, control the room. Oh yeah, definitely have to read the room. Keep the situation. Definitely have to read the room. That is, how do you read the room, Danny?

I mean, you show up and, right, and you know, you introduce yourself, you’re like, Hey, this is, this is what I’m here to do. And you know, try to start it off friendly and happily, right? And usually that is reciprocated, right? Yep. But not always, right? You know, you show up and it’s, they’re upset where the family’s on their own for 50 years and they’re sad to leave.

Like it’s not always a happy thing. But you know, you don’t want to make them feel off put or even more upset. This is, I mean, that, that, that’s great. This is good. Like for, this is good for notaries and education because reading the room is so important because it’s going to, you have to be able to, you want to be able to dictate like the way to close, like the way you want to close in and go.

So if you show up to. If you show up to a closing and, and you’ve read the room and you’re like, okay, I feel a, a sense of sadness. Mm-Hmm. , you know, you probably don’t wanna go in there joking around. No. You know, now, but if you’re going in there with a first time home buyer, you can crack some jokes. Yeah.

You can joke about the amortization schedule. Like, oh, look at all your payments. You want to do this around 60 months. Yeah. You know, you know, you can joke about that type of stuff, but if you know, if you can, if you go in there and you introduce yourself and you can kind of see that if, if it’s a seller, like they’re, they’re hesitant or there’s some type of, like I said, sadness going on, then.

You want to be, you know, you want to kind of just be more you definitely don’t want to joke around. That’s all I’m going to say. So reading the room is important. The other thing on the same thread. Is some of my favorite title companies is that if you Tell the notaries what is happening beforehand because i’ve had title companies call me and I really really appreciate that and they’re like Hey, these people are getting a divorce So just so you know This is what’s happening.

Oh, yeah. Now that could be advice for title companies. For title companies, yes. Some title companies don’t do that. No. They’ll throw you under the fire. Exactly. You know what you’re walking into. I already know that. Yeah. And, and like that is something that I would want to know because I can kind of act differently.

I’m not going to have the signers sit together. I’m going to have them, you know, move a little bit. Farther away or like something like that or talk to the title company about changing the the notary block So that way we can do a separate signing I think a lot of title companies just they won’t tell you if it’s like a huge transaction for like a huge client So like if it’s like a million dollar plus deal, they’re like, oh, it’s a million dollar plus deal be on your best favor but even for other type of deals like are you saying like if it’s a divorce situation like Let the notary know.

Yeah. You know, or let the signing service know, you know, so they can, so they can handle it like ly Yeah. If they don’t know and you walk into the bad situation, I mean, there’s a chance it doesn’t close ’cause you didn’t know. Exactly. Hundred percent. They get upset that you’re not aware of the situation and maybe you say something on accident that, you know, that triggers, triggers them.

All of a sudden they get up and leave. Yeah. You think the title company’s gonna ever hire you again? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, I’ve heard, I’ve heard interesting stories about like, now this is more towards law firms or anything, but estate planning of the notary saying something like, Oh, you’re writing your son in law out of the wheel or something.

And I’m like, Oh yeah, let’s get into a lot of stuff here. You’re opening up. Exactly. As a notary, like you guys want to talk about as a notary, what, what can you talk about what you can’t talk about? And what you shouldn’t know about. Yeah, definitely not about like, how about this? This is, I mean, this is great.

So we got the owner of a title company right here. So what do you expect if a notary is doing their closing? Like, what do you expect them to go over with the client? And like, what, what is, what is too much and what is, you know, like, you shouldn’t do this. I mean, you definitely want to hit all the important stuff, right?

Make sure they, you know, see the purchase price is correct, see the address, see their name. Obviously, number one, make sure their name is perfect. And a lot of times people will like just glance at it and sometimes it’s wrong and they’re just silly and don’t realize it. But name first, obviously that date, purchase price, loan amount, rate, and monthly payment.

Yeah. Cash cash to close. All that stuff is super important. But, you know, there are some things you don’t want to touch on, right? You get the 1033, which people don’t know that is the loan application, which goes over like all of their income and accounts and, you know, how much net worth they have and all their assets.

You should really skip through that, right? You don’t need to be like. Screaming all that out loud. You know, there’s one central spot, boom, you’re done. Yeah. Make sure income. Right, right. Mad . Or if you’re with the seller, you know, you know, like you got all these liens, they know they got all this debt. You don’t need to be like, yeah, here’s, here’s how you did pay this person.

You know, you don’t need to pick ’em apart of that. They know. So you just gotta be sensitive to, you know, and always, another thing that’s huge is review your package before you show up. Mm-Hmm. . I mean, some of ’em don’t do that. And there’s some special docs that like you. You might not have seen before, you don’t know, OFA seller docs, right?

Or pages could be cut off, or something like that, if you could catch it beforehand. Yeah, or you know, the mortgage doesn’t match the deed, right? Very important things that you can be caught, can be caught prior, and save the deal, save the funding, or you’d have to delay like a whole day sometimes.

And these people got They’re stuff pack. They’re ready to move in. Right. I mean, for you guys, it’s just another day at the office. It’s a leg, but like these are a lot of back end stuff going on there. Sellers weigh no money so they can buy a new home. Right. So all these contingencies and stuff, but yeah, just review your docs, you know, be sensitive to what’s going on.

Don’t be yelling out, you know, huge numbers, personal information, socials. I, what I do is like they’re social. Great. You know, I don’t need to read it to them or, you just got to be aware and, and confident in what you’re talking about, but sensitive to it’s just, you know, client confidentiality. What would you say is too much, too little?

I, well, for everything. For real estate. For real estate, I definitely wouldn’t talk about like, when you see the numbers as far as like how much they make, you definitely can’t talk about the interest rate. You definitely can’t talk about the interest rate, but when you say talk about it, what do you mean?

Talk about interest rate. So some people will say like, oh, you got a bad interest rate. Oh, you should have waited. Or, oh, you, but you can show them their interest rate. You, you can show them the interest rate, but if it’s a 15%, hey, don’t make no comment. Right. We all know like, well, we gotta say nothing. No.

Yeah. No, I definitely. You like, you definitely wouldn’t say anything. And as far as for me, if there is an issue or anything, like I would not throw anyone else under the bus. Like, so I wouldn’t throw the title company under the bus. I wouldn’t throw the realtor under the bus because, Oh my gosh, this is, we are opening up a can of worms here.

And this is, so, so sometimes it is difficult though. So this is great education for notaries because when you’re sitting at the table, like sometimes It doesn’t go right. It doesn’t go right, but sometimes the buyer or seller could be upset with the title company and they’re saying negative remarks, how do you handle that as a notary?

Because it’s like, they’re like, I’ve been at closings myself and they’re like bashing the title company. They’re like, Oh, they were horrible. They were this, that, and the third. And it’s like, Yeah. Yeah. You don’t really know what to say. I honestly don’t want to agree with them, but they’re saying it and I’m talking to you, like, it’s just, you guys, they’re like, and you want to feed into the conversation.

So like, how do you, has that ever happened to you? I mean, you, I know you own a title company. Maybe, maybe like they were bashing the agent. And then I was just gonna say, that’s what I see the most is. You are talking bad about the other side or the realtor or my favorite is when they’re like the realtor Alright, we sit down.

Have you seen the Ulta yet? Have you seen your numbers? Look at the agent, right? Hand to them They’ve seen it. You send it out. We send it out to the agent a week in advance That’s sometimes right and they’ll be like no, they’ve not gone over with us And then the agent was like, oh I didn’t get it and I was like lady Listen, I’m not gonna throw you on the bus right now, but you both know you got this.

In this instance, they’re not. Confident enough in what they’re reading to explain it to the client. So they just act like they didn’t get it and throw me under the bus, like, Wait a minute, you chose us. And that’s a reflection of yourself. Like, if you think we’re so bad, why’d you choose us? No, you’re just not knowledgeable.

So, okay. On that note, what do you think about, like, When I get Ron’s in, I get, obviously, the closing documents. Have you ever done it where, like, I know that you send the documents to the signers beforehand, but that doesn’t always happen. Do you think that it would overstep the notary to send the closing documents to the signers?

See, that’s always, like, the thing. You’re saying, would the notary send the docs to the signers? Yeah, like, as an email, like, hey, Like, prior. Prior, yeah, like, we’re gonna go over this, and then I just want to have you have a second set of eyes. Because, Some people and some agents do like that. They want to, But, but very rarely I run into that.

They, they might wanna see the docs prior, but not usually. Maybe if it’s like an attorney or something, or an accountant that’s like hanging about, are you talking about like a sell, like the, like a buyer seller? Right. If they like, want to see the package before they show up. That’s, that’s pretty rare. And also, we don’t always have the package ready that soon if we’re waiting on lender docs, but you know, they, they, they, they should have leased.

Have a they should see the numbers and know either what they’re bringing to the table or how much they’re making like if they hadn’t seen That at least three days before closing someone dropped the ball. Yeah, man, like that’s so crazy Yeah, and a lot of times they’re you know, again, we didn’t we haven’t seen it.

We didn’t know and I’ll look at agent We don’t I mean, I think this all goes back to like what you were saying about reading the room Yeah, you know like you just like and to me in my opinion the closing is an art Like it is like it’s an art. You have to know what you’re doing. You don’t want to say the wrong thing.

You know, you don’t want to say too much, but you can’t say too little, you know, so just get on what you were saying. I think as far as that question goes is hit the fees, you know, show them their numbers, you know, go down line by line with them, with their numbers. You know, a good question. I always ask before is have you seen this?

Because sometimes they don’t want to see it if they’ve already seen it. Yeah. So they said they already seen it. Just show them their cash or clothes or. What, or what they’re getting back. And if they’re like, Oh yeah, it looks good. And boom, signed. If they haven’t seen it, go through it with them. If it’s a buyer, monthly payment, cash to close interest rate, you know, don’t have a judgment.

Don’t give advice, but show them. And then a general overview of each document. Like this is your note. This is your contract. You know, this is your payment letter. Yeah. It’s your mortgage. Make sure your name spelled correctly for vesting. You can almost say vesting. I’m like, yes, we’re in it. We’re going to, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, we can go, we can talk about that. What’s vesting. Best deed is how they are taking title, but it has to match the mortgage, so Like the mortgage rate does not actually tie you to the debt. That’s what the note does. A lot of people don’t understand that. The notes is what’s promising you pay it back.

It ties you to the debt. Legally you can sue. Mortgage is security, note is tying you to the debt. Yeah, so the mortgage is an instrument that is just recorded at the county level to recognize That’s pretty much it. There’s that on the house. Right. Yeah. But they’re different things and you want to, you know, like make sure you go over every single document thoroughly, but also don’t spend too long because they probably don’t need to know or want to know all that.

No. But like just, just general, just like a two or three second explanation of what it is. If they have more questions, sure. Yeah. Like you don’t need to read every line by any means or, I mean, take excess time. Nobody. Has time for that. No, because it is kind of a little bit of a balance and like an art of like going more into detail or less.

Because I’ve had people where like, they just want to read everything line by line by line. And then like I don’t think I would let them do their thing. I do too, because Yeah, exactly. It’s like, alright, I’m just gonna text my other, like, you know. That’d be the worst. Nothing I could do. I’d go through line when I pulled the mortgage.

There’s a copy. Like, you can have a copy if you want to go through it. Exactly. Yeah. Please don’t read this. Sorry. Because like, you know, the 20 pages, it’s all just nothing. She’s arguing. I’m like, look, you know what you’re getting. Yeah. And as long as the numbers in your names are correct, really everything else is like, they don’t even have control over it.

Even if they don’t like it, you can’t change anything in a mortgage. If your name is, if your name is right and the loan amount’s right and the address is right, you ain’t taking nothing else. Like, you win. Yeah. And most people don’t need to read all that, like, they’re so far already in the process, you think they’re gonna get to the table and just read something, and page 12 of the mortgage, and be like, oh, nevermind.

Like, that’s not the case, but. Again, reading the room and controlling the room is super important. Yep. Yep. But on that note, like for me as the notary, I would rather take the blame of like whatever is going on for the signers rather than either the title company or like the signing agency because I would rather have the relationship with either the signing agency, the realtor, like I’m not going to throw anyone under the bus and like, if you want me to be the scapegoat, I can be the scapegoat before they’re not going to meet you again.

Right. Well, I mean, they might, but like, For the most part, like, I’m fine with doing that to keep the relationships with the title company. And like, they know that I have that, like, bond with those people. That’s your client. Your client is the title company, not like a buyer or seller. Yeah, so I’m not going to sit here and like say, okay, you know, like they waited so long to give you those documents because they’re the worst.

Like, I would never do that, you know, so. Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean the closing, closing is an art. It’s a beautiful thing, you know, so yeah treated as such I mean anything else you guys, I think you’re my crazy closing story. Oh, yeah Yeah, that’s great. I have what I’m talking about there. I had a divorce one and it’s not super crazy, but it was funny.

So, so I walk into the house and wife’s there, ex husband’s there. So I didn’t know this though. I just thought it was a couple. I walk in there and you know, I’m reading the room and everything. And I’m still trying to feel the room out. Like some, like, I feel like when I walk in, I’m always super positive.

Like if people can feel that. So I’m doing my, my normal corny jokes that I do at close to dinner and that people laugh at. Get nothing. So I’m like, okay, like, this lady must not like me. I’m like, she’s signed everything and then we were the husband just needed to sign a deed. But I didn’t know any of this beforehand.

So, signing the paperwork, you know, making my jokes, nothing, okay, nothing’s flying. And, get to the deed. So, husband comes up, he signs it real quick, and she signs, and then the witness is signed, and then he leaves. And she’s like, Oh my gosh, that was my ex husband. I hate him. I’m like, Oh, and I’m like, Oh, I thought you hated me.

She’s like, Oh no, no, no. I just can’t stand to be around him. I’m like, Oh, okay. Yeah. So, so, so after that, the closing was smooth. And I mean, it was, it was just funny cause we were talking about divorces and everything. And that, you know, it changes everything. Should I let you know? Tyler Coffman should let you know.

That’s exactly what I was thinking. Yeah, then I wouldn’t have went in there cracking jokes. No. You would have been in and out. You’re right. I would have been in and out. I probably would have did a deed first. First, yeah. So we could get them out. But any other crazy closing stories? I mean, I’ve been in houses where I mean literally bugs are crawling on the paperwork and like.

And then that’s an awkward situation because it’s like, there’s literally a bug on the paperwork and it’s like, I don’t want to tell you, like, your house is dirty as hell, but like, bro, there’s a bug on the paperwork. Yeah. Let me ask, where’s the, where’s the, some places that you guys have closed? Like, I’ve done a few in prison, lots on oh yeah, trucks.

I’ve never done. And personally, I’ve never done, I’ve going to the prison, but not an actual inmate. So it was just like a guard that came outside. Okay. So I’ve never actually been, we’ve set up some for other notaries to go into the prison, but I haven’t personally going into a prison truck. Who’s in the car?

Oh my goodness. I’m, I’m a pro in that now. I have a clipboard after like, after like I did like five, I was like, right. Yeah. Clipboard. I’m not doing it. After they start flying around a couple of times, you really learn how to do those. Yeah. Covid, did you guys do the Covid through the window? We didn’t do that in Ohio.

In Florida it was a thing. Through the window? It was like, it was, they called it a drive thru closing. No, we would do it like, outside, like they would be in the car and we’d be like speaker fied with them. Like, that’s how we were talking to them. And then they would be, like, we’d hand it to them real quick, put it in their sign in.

And they’re like, I’m on this document. Yeah, we’d like be over their shoulder through the window. Like, on the phone. Mine, my, my weird, or my least favorite, aside from the flea one, was I went, it was right after the hurricane, so there was like a ton of flooded Houses and I am driving and the title company was like, oh, yeah, it’s a flooded house So he like set everything up outside So that way you don’t have to go to the house because it was literally gutted Sure and full of mold and like full of fans.

Well, it started raining So I had to go into this house that was full of mold Full of like it was still wet like as I was walking like we did the closing and everything But I was like, I don’t like this. I didn’t bring a mask. I didn’t I was not prepared for this I thought that it was gonna be you know a different situation, but that was not an ideal Sign you in closing.

So they’re not all great. Sometimes, sometimes they’re amazing. It’s first time homebuyer. They’re thrilled and you feel like part of their journey, right? And you wrap it up nicely at the bow and it’s perfect. Yeah, and then sometimes what we just talked about. It’s a it’s a wide spectrum doing these closings.

But what was your experience like with covid first hit? What was what happened for you man? So it hit and you know, no one really knew like. What was gonna happen, so just business as usual at first, then it kind of got more serious, and you know, they had to shut down. Well, we were deemed essential, which was good because, you know, we deal with all these originals and people still have to buy it and sell property and move and stuff.

So we were essential. We stayed open. We did not have any remote work at all. Everyone still came in the office. So that was a challenge, you know, working through masks and distancing and stuff like that. But. I think the biggest challenge there was the counties closed. So, which actually would have been a good thing because now they’re all online and like simplifiable, right?

You can record online now. You couldn’t really do that before COVID. Yeah, COVID pushed a lot of stuff. Yeah, and that was actually nice for the real estate. Yeah, because, you know, before that you’d have to Send someone down to the counties with the originals and drop them off to the auditor, whatever, and get them recorded.

But when they closed, it was really challenging because typically a recording, at least in Ohio, is like Three to four weeks before it takes a while before it’s like actually recorded. I mean, we were seeing like two months, ten weeks, like triple the time because these counties were closed. That was probably the biggest struggle.

But then also back to the closings, you know, people were freaked out. Full gloves. I’ve seen all kinds of crazy head gear apparatuses. Lots of Again through the telephone of the car or we just didn’t know no one knew and it was it was challenging to work through But at the end of the day they needed the house They needed to sell the house like, you know, we got it done.

You should be sensitive to the situation As you do with all of them. Yeah, it’s so crazy how many people got in the business like at that time I got to talk to so many people who got into business like around 2019, 2020 and 2021. And it’s just like, I mean, that was just one of the craziest times in real estate, like in the history of real estate.

And it really, you know, like I said, I had the two record revenue years, you know, not cause of COVID, but like, you know, the COVID years The best for everybody, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy and, you know, no one loves COVID, but you know, damn, it was popping then. Bring a little COVID back. Well, supposedly, I mean, I have seen trends that there are more shutdowns.

I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, I haven’t been paying attention. I’m down in Florida. Y’all got it good down here. Y’all still doing regulations up there? No, but Talking about it. Yeah. Wow. You can miss me with that. Honestly, I don’t know But no Yeah. 20 20, 21, 20 and even early 22, like the market exploding was just so great.

Mm-Hmm. , all the refis. Oh man, I miss that. Yeah. Like I, I got in right when everything dropped off, so I was like, oh, cool. Yeah. I started my, my timing’s perfect. It was great for me. ’cause 2020, I was an individual notary just doing, closing myself. And then I started assigning service in 21. So, I wish I started in 2020 though, cause I don’t, I don’t, that refib boom, ish!

No, the refib boom was awesome. Like, so many. We were waiting for it to come back, but now we’re at 8 percent and it’s, yeah. Yeah, ain’t nobody refib right now. Alright, so we have covered everything that we are going to talk about today, but I wanted to give you guys each a chance to kind of plug your own information, so that way more people can find you.

Kevin’s answering closing calls, so I’ll go first. Again, Gannon Hall, Superior Title and Escrow out of Columbus, Ohio, specifically Grandview, but we do all of Ohio. You can follow me at TheOnlyGannon on Instagram and you’ll see my Superior Title page there as well. Happy to, you know, network with any of you listening.

We’d love to be a resource, teach you guys some stuff about title, clothing, just real estate in general, business scaling, you know, all those things. Very grateful for Katie and Calvin to Be here today and set this up. This was really fun. Yeah, I don’t think I ever plugged my own Instagram or any of my own stuff, but I’m I own you should I’m going to right now So I own notary southwest florida.

It’s swfl and then on instagram. It’s just notary swfl So I post Bunch of stuff. Lots of good content on there for inspiring notaries for sure. Calvin Darville on our comfortable closings, IG comfortable closings personal IG Calvin J Darville and then on LinkedIn Calvin Darville, Facebook Calvin Darville.

Get at me. Yes. Thanks for having me. Yeah. All right. Thank you guys for coming all this way. This was nice.