Ep. 104 Securing Your Home's Future in Carlsbad

Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Brett I'm the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, and I am your host today. And I'm pleased to have with me 2 guests today. I have Alonzo Castro and Michelle Dena Denaise. Did I say it right?

Yes. Yes.

And they are sales executives with Tycor. I've been messing this up already all morning. Good grief. Tycor title. Good morning, guys.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you for having

you for having us.

Yes. Good to have you. Good to have you. So, Alonzo, I was doing some digging on you in particular, ahead of our time together, And it looks like you have been in this business for over 30 years.

Yes. I have.

That's amazing. Tell us what got you into title in the first place.

Actually, I got into title. I was a realtor for about 22 years, most of that time up in Los Angeles. Sure. In the Hollywood area.

Yeah.

So you can imagine how that was. But I came down here, and someone offered me a title job with a company called Southland Title. And the president of the company was my title rep in Los Angeles. And he kept on saying you'd make a perfect title rep down here in San Diego. So I said, okay.

I'll do it. So I've been doing it, I think, since about 1993, and I've enjoyed it. And I've taken my real estate background into title Yeah. And shared that with my fellow realtors Sure. People in the industry.

And I really love what I do. Yeah. It's, something that I'm passionate about and enjoy it. And I just love serving. Yeah.

And that's what I do. I love to serve people in the community. That's our little logo. Yeah. Serving the community because we're here to help Yeah.

And help the consumers understand what's going on in the industry, be it title or escrow.

Yeah. I in full disclosure, I I did 8 years as a realtor. I jokingly refer to myself as a realtor in recovery now. And, so I can imagine that that makes you exceptionally valuable as a title agent having had your real estate background. So that's that is fantastic.

And what about you, Michelle? What got you into the title business, so to speak?

Well, I've always been in sales for many, many years, but I had a great interest in the real estate industry as a whole from investing on forward, and I had a dear friend that, worked for another title company, in Northern California and started chatting with her about how that worked and the ins and outs and how, like Alonzo said, how we can help the community, and it just appealed to me. And moved to Southern California and have been doing it now 24 years.

Wonderful. Wonderful. So you said moved to Southern California. So we know that Alonzo was an LA guy who came down here. I don't blame him.

He saw the light and came to where did you come from, Jocelyn?

I came from Northern California, small little town called Lodi.

Okay.

Yeah.

And down here now for many years now. And how long have you guys been a team in this business?

Almost 10 years?

Little over, 10 years.

Yeah. I

mean, together, title combined, I think we have close to 50 years

Yeah.

Experience in the title industry. Over. Yeah.

Mhmm. That's phenomenal. So, again, I mean, for those, you know, listening, I I think your clients are typically gonna be the real estate agents. Is that correct? That's typically who you work primarily directly with?

We have realtors, builders, developers, investors. We work closely with the consumers too

Nice. That are

buying and selling houses that that have questions of regarding the title and escrow process. So Yeah.

Yeah. It works that way. We help consumers. We're always on the phone with a consumer, with a buyer or a seller that's got a question Sure. Regarding their title, potential title issue that we resolve, but we're pretty good about that.

We're pretty good about dealing with conflict and resolution.

Yeah. I bet. And and with that, we should probably just take a step back and delve in a little deeper. What is a title company really do? What is the value you bring to a consumer or to a transaction or whatever?

And that, you know, I've like I said, I had a little bit of experience, so I've I feel like I know. But I I would like people who maybe are like, yeah. I've heard about title, but I don't even know what they do. And I don't know what it is. Why don't you share with them?

Sure. So title insurance, imagine when you get your homeowner's insurance for fire, you apply for title insurance. So say you're buying a piece of property, you're applying for title insurance. So what we do is we provide a preliminary title report. And once that's reviewed and we're clear to close and the escrow closes, we issue a title policy, and the title policy ensures that consumer for the, I guess, the the life of however long they own the property.

So it'll protect you against forgery. It'll protect you, ensure your position with your banks, your loans

Mhmm.

And pretty much anyone that could tamper with your title. I know that you'll see a lot of advertisement about title home lock on TV Yeah. Radio. And I understand what they're doing, but if you have title insurance, you really don't have anything to worry about.

You're good.

And one of the things that we offer, Michelle can touch on that, is we offer through the county assessor, a site that'll notify you if anyone's tampering with your title or not to record something that you didn't authorize to get recorded. So, basically, title insurance is great. We insure it for the as long as you own the property. And it's safety. Traditionally, here in Southern California, a seller pays for their title policy, but because of the market, we're a little crazy sometimes because we have a lack of inventory.

Yes. It's negotiable. Sure. You being a former realtor, it's negotiable. You don't wanna pay the title policy.

The buyer can pay it.

Sure.

So, you know, because of the lack of inventory, a lot of buyers have no choice. Like, you want the property? You're gonna have to pay the seller's title policy. So any of those questions we like to answer, and Michelle's pretty good about that.

I mean, at the end of the day, we we call it the seller's title policy. But at the end of the day, it's really the buyer the buyer's insurance that their house is really their own house. It's their house.

Yes.

Well, there's 2 policies. You've got the owner's policy and say the buyer's taking out a loan with the bank.

Oh, yeah.

Then you have the lender's policy that normally the buyer pays for.

Sure.

That's what they pay for, but it's a lot less than say the owner's policy. The owner pays the owner's policy, and that's the policy that the buyer ends up with. Yeah. You know, at the close of escrow, and they'll get that policy probably within 2 weeks after the close of escrow. Yeah.

So you wanna keep that policy with you, keep it in a safe place.

But as you pointed out, I mean, that is very important, you know, peace of mind as the buyer, because it tells you you you have this is your place, you know, that you've now invested in, and, think you own. So that that right? I mean

So bank owns it. Really, we just make the payments. Yeah. Yeah.

And we we co own it with the bank and I paid it out.

But I wanna follow-up on that Brent real quick. There's so many scams going around. Yeah. You know, like I just got one today on PayPal. Like thank you for offering or, authorizing your PayPal of $800 I go, I never authorized that.

It was spam. I just, I just ignored it. And I, we get a lot of seniors in our communities. Yes.

That

are always getting scammed or trying to get scammed. Like, oh, we see a loan on your property and there is no loan on other than whatever you took out. Yes. So they want you to give up your information. And one of the things I talk to about seniors and every never give out your social security number Right.

Ever, you know, because there's predators out there. And so anytime a consumer has a question, myself and Michelle are always around to help them answer, you know, and it's a free call.

Yeah.

Yeah. We're there for as a resource. It's not just for us. We're vested in our in our community. We're vested in what we do.

We're we're we love what we do, so we're there to support the consumer. And and, of course, they're realtors and all, all parties involved, but there's a lot of details in the preliminary title report and the title process that we get called on. And we just hold hands and make sure everybody is clear on what's going on and what what's being covered and what's not.

Yeah. I liked what you said though, Alonzo, about because there's a there's a whole fear based messaging out there around, you know, somebody stealing your identity and buying or selling your house from underneath you or buying your house and you don't even know it, and there's all these things going on. But it sounds like like, at least for your company, you you have ways to help protect people. They don't need to buy into these extra services to do that.

Right. And title insurance will cover you. Yeah. That's why you have it. You have title insurance to avoid some of these scams that are out there.

And everybody's always questioning about how to hold title. And we don't tell you how to hold title, but we have a list through our buyer and seller guide, which we can give to any consumer electronically. It's a great piece, and it'll basically give you your options on how to hold title. And it's just changed from, say, 30 years ago when I was selling real estate. Yeah.

The paperwork is unbelievable. Yeah. What you have to do now to transfer a piece of property, protect your buyers and your sellers.

And we're in San Diego County. We do title all throughout California. Sure. In San Diego County, there's a through the through the county assessors, there is a a site and that we I'll look that up before we we finish here and give you that site where the consumer can basically put in their address and they register their property with an email address, and they'll get an email if someone's trying to file a deed or or do something that's not so above board. They'll get an email and a notification, and that that's nice a nice resource, and I'm pretty certain they've implemented that throughout the state in various counties.

So That's great.

Yeah. And I wanna reassure Brent, owners that say own property here in Carlsbad or North County that don't live in the state anymore but have title insurance, you're covered.

Nice.

You're covered. Don't worry about it. And you might be hearing about beware of this and the scam or that scam. You're going to be covered with title insurance. That's why I'm saying keep your title policy where you know you have it And a phone call to your title company, whoever that was, is important.

And we pride ourselves. We get calls from consumers that had title insurance somewhere else, and we walk them through the procedure, like, well, you need to go and call this Yeah. Particular title person, that title management company to get that resolved.

So let's talk about for a moment, I mean, obviously, your business is related to the real estate industry as we've already touched on. And, Alonzo, I was on your LinkedIn this week and doing some research, and you had some interesting things you had posted there. And just talking about the value of real estate, one of the things you you posted was that since 1975, 166 of the 188 financial quarters homes have appreciated, gone up in value. 166 out of 188. So that's 166.

They've gone up and only what is that? 22 have they not gone up. Maybe they were flat or went down. That's a pretty amazing investment vehicle.

It is. Myself, personally, I like real estate as an investment. I'm not knocking the stock market. I just can't take the stress of up and down. And, while I made some money, oh, I lost some money.

Yeah. I just frankly don't know enough about it. So I have invested in real estate since being in real estate. That's been my vehicle for retirement. Yeah.

You know, I bought a property in Tennessee.

Nice.

You know? And I rent it out. I have a nice property management company. I've never seen the property, but I know real estate, and I had a really good realtor outside of Nashville, and it was a good purchase. Yeah.

It was in a great neighborhood. Little concerned about the weather. Tornadoes like Yeah. You know, we don't have that. We have earthquakes here.

Yeah. Right.

You know? But I'll tell you, real estate is a great investment, and I personally think it's a safe investment. So, you know, we have a lot of potential clients that call us and wanna recommend someone that is looking maybe to, buy a piece of property in Fallbrook that wants to put up a vineyard. We have all those leads for them. You know?

All those things for the consumer to to say I used to live in Carlsbad. Yeah. I'll give you an example. I lived in Carlsbad and I wanted more land. I work in Carlsbad

Yes.

Then I moved to Fallbrook.

Sure.

Because I have almost 2 acres.

Nice.

Yeah. Same thing with Michelle.

Same thing.

You know? She's a horse she's a horse person.

Crazy horse lady.

Not gonna find horse property in Carlsbad.

Not

I had 4 of them at one point in Carlsbad, but yeah. Wow. Didn't own the property there.

Yeah. Yeah. Alright. We're gonna take a quick break. We are talking to Alonzo Castro and Michelle Deniz from Ticker.

Ticore title. I can't just can't get that right. Ticore title. Sorry. We'll be right back.

When we come back, we're gonna continue to talk about real estate and the market and their industry, another thing I noticed as I was preparing for our chat is the net worth gap between homeowners and renters. And I think this might have been something I found also on your page, Alonzo. And this so this isn't like a trend from, like, last year or last week. We're talking about long term trends. Most of the wealth of Americans ends up having some basis in their homeownership.

It does. And you're starting to see a little bit of disparity. You know, the middle class is getting kind of looks, it appears to be getting squeezed out.

Yeah.

And, you know, there are people that own real estate and they are just enjoying the ride because the appreciation is great. The rents are off the charts. I know rentals are probably at an all time high Yeah. You know, right now. So

And they're talking about the rental rate going up in the next 10 years as much as 30%.

Ouch.

That's a big dip. That's a big Yeah.

So I did see recently in the Union Tribune that they, San Diego's rental prices had softened a little, but not not a ton, but a little. So I was like, okay. That's good. For those of us who have young like me, young adult kids who are trying to get their way in, that was positive. But, Michelle, I have the ultimate question for you.

You ready? Ready. K. It's 2024 now. So this is gonna be a seller's year or a buyer's year?

I'm gonna say a seller's year.

Yeah? Tell us about it.

We just have low inventory right now. And for San Diego, we we live in the fishbowl. It's a beautiful place to live all the way around in so many different facets, and people keep coming. So

high high demand? For sure. And minimal inventory? For sure.

And, you know, just going back to talking about where the market is going and for our younger people out there that are looking at real estate as an investment or an opportunity, my advice is get educated, get your professionals in play so you have resources and and and understand some of the programs that are out there in the lending world. From living in rural communities, there's discounts for properties and loans and all kinds of things. So really get educated and get your get your circle in play because it is possible. Like Alonzo said, middle America is getting squeezed a little bit, but but there's there's still programs and opportunity out there.

That's great. We have

a lot of out of area people moving here still Mhmm. From the Bay Area.

Bay Area. From the

Bay Area. Yeah. From Alexandria, Virginia, you know, because, they can't play golf at this time of the year. And then they sit there and watch the farmers open.

That's right.

On a clear day, like today, it's like perfect for the Carlsbad chamber of commerce. Like that's right. You wanna live here. You're on the ocean and that's

right here.

People are, you know, gliding on their gliders and it's just, it's just beautiful.

Imagine.

I mean, my own wife said that's Torrey Pines. I go, yep. Isn't that beautiful? And she goes, wow. Yeah, it is beautiful.

So this is the one place that sticks in my mind. The beach, the desert, the mountains.

We have them all.

You can go to those areas

To have

almost in the same day Yeah. If you really wanted to.

It's amazing. Yeah. That was I had a, my niece was visiting last weekend. She's from Texas, but she currently lives in New York. And her best friend from Texas came out with her, and they're both thinking of relocating here at this point.

And her friend said, well, how far is it, you know, to if you wanted to go skiing? And I'm like, 2 hours. You know? It's like I mean, everything she's like, really? Just amazed.

Right? I mean, you can be this close to the beach and this great weather and still be that close to

Yeah.

Some of the things that they've thought of as great amenities in the past. So for our folks who are listening, so could have some of our realtors or consumers who are, like, learning about you guys for the first time. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you if they wanna get to know you better and, possibly utilize your services? Mhmm.

Again, Michelle Denaes and Alonzo Castro. My phone number, 760-518-5383. Also have an email address, and that is michelle, with one l, michele.denys, d e n y s, atticortitle.com.

And Tikes, spell it for them?

Ticortitle.com.

Ticortitle.com. Since I keep messing up the pronunciation of that.

But you know what? Ty, Tycor Title, we've we're owned by Fidelity National Financial. It's a Fortune 300 company. We have been here for many, many years, and we'll be here many years forward.

I actually saw it. It says over a 100 years

Yeah.

For Tycor.

100 years. And we're down the street from you. Yeah.

I love it.

We're right here on Fleet. We're right next to LEGOLAND.

Yeah. I love it. Love it. Love it. I did see, Alonzo, that, on your it's probably your Facebook page, if I'm honest.

Sorry that I was, trolling you, but I saw you had a cart. A very cute little caddy who was driving your golf cart recently.

Oh, yeah. That's my little granddaughter, Elan. And I always just trying to get them into the world of sports because we live in an area where you can pretty much do any sport for sure around. I mean, you can't do it back east or in the Midwest because of the weather. But I just think, god, we have an abundance of golf courses here.

Yeah. And you know where that golf course was?

No. I don't, actually.

Up in Big Bear.

Oh, was it? Okay.

There's a there's a 9 hole up there, and they let me let her drive. That was adorable. It was adorable. And I was like, don't hit it. Don't hit the marker.

And, you know but she's she's a doll and she was 5 years old. Oh my goodness. Yeah. When she did that, she's, but one step at a time, she's learning how to putt. Yeah.

And it's a lot of fun. And, she's got a sister Cora that's doing that too. And then there's, Hadley. So I've got these lovely granddaughters that I just fun. And, they call me poppy.

That's it. Love it.

I love it.

Yep. How about you, Michelle? Any other, fun hobbies outside of, title?

You know, I am a crazy horse lady.

Yeah. Okay. That's true. You mentioned that.

Yeah. I do, I love to compete doing sorting and team penning with

with

the horses. We also do a lot of trail and, yeah. Horses and dogs and family. That's

Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, guys, thanks so much for taking the time to come down here and, share with us. We love having you as members of our chamber.

And like you said, you're practically neighbors here in our business park. So, and thanks for the service you provide because it's so necessary these days. I I love, you know, you said it really well, Lonzo, peace of mind. And that's what all of us need, you know, these days with the kinda crazy world we live in and people trying to constantly scam and rip off people. So I love that you guys are in the peace of mind business and, just appreciate you.

So thanks for being there.

Thank you so much for having us.

One last thing. Yes. One last thing. We pride ourselves on excellent excellence and customer service, but keep in mind, we do commercial, residential, vacant lots. We do all the real estate things that you would need for consumers, and we're here locally, and we're here to help our clients and our consumers.

Thank you

so much. There it is. Right there, guys. They do it all. They're here local.

They're here to help. Utilize them. Take advantage of it. Reach out to Michelle with that phone number and that email. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app, and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact.