Executive Title Rides Crest of Southwest Florida Real Estate Wave

Twenty years later, that small city now has a population of about 200,000, and Executive Title Insurance Services Inc. employs 103 people in nine offices in four counties plus two title research plants and an administrative office. And the company president plans to open offices in Punta Gorda and Venice before 2002. “Within that 20 years, we have grown to doing more than twice the amount of business as our next competitor as far as the number of deeds transferred,” says President and Chief Executive Richard Yankowski Jr.

Executive Title has claimed a top spot in market share, as the leader in Lee County for the past six years, Yankowski says. Within a year after opening the Charlotte County office in 1991, the company claimed the No. 3 spot there, and for the past six years, it has been No. 1 in the number of deed transfers. “In Sarasota we’re No. 2 or 3, and in Collier County, we’re working on that,” he says with a grin. “We’re in the Top 10.”

The title company has been riding the real estate wave in Southwest Florida, and as it celebrates its 20th anniversary in December, there are no signs that the surge has slowed. The company averages about 1,000 closings per month, says Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Annie Robertson.

“A couple of years ago we did an analysis on our accounts that showed we put a billion dollars a year through our escrow accounts insuring real estate,” Yankowski says. “There are a lot of small banks that don’t put that amount of money through escrow accounts in Southwest Florida.”

In fact, Yankowski expects the company, which now has some heavyweight help behind it in the form of its relationship with Houston-based Stewart Title Guaranty, to continue growing and thriving. His plans? To double the size of the company in five years. “I want to do 2,006 closings a month before 2006,” he says. “With that, I plan on expanding with three additional offices here within the Southwest Florida market and also growing our market share within our existing markets.”

Longer term, he plans even more growth, but not too fast. “You’ve got to know your markets and you’ve got to spend a lot of time nurturing those new markets,” Yankowski says. “I see the day that Executive Title has offices from Marco to Bradenton and that’s as far as I want to be, because I feel that is the Southwest Florida market.”

Executive Title deals primarily with existing home sales. About 5 percent of its business comes from commercial real estate transactions—it recently handled the title work for the Summerlin Road property where the new Publix stands and for a new post office in Fort Myers. But 95 percent of its business comes from residential properties. In a typical year, 90 percent of the business is resales, 5 percent is new construction and the remaining 5 percent is refinance business. Because interest rates have been so low this year, Yankowski estimates that refinancings have comprised between 15 and 20 percent of the business this year. “With these rates being as low as they are, there are a lot of people moving up. Instead of people refinancing their loan, what they’re doing is moving into a bigger house and there are a lot of first-time home buyers,” he says.

Even with an economic slowdown, Yankowski has no doubt that the regional real estate market will remain strong. “I still think it’s a big dream for most of the American public to retire and I think that the No. 1 destination is Florida,” he says. “Percentage-wise, you probably won’t see a higher-growth area than we’ll see in Southwest Florida.”

Where Relationships Count

A homegrown, family-focused business, Executive Title was incorporated in 1981 by Bill Townsend with just one office. (Townsend’s son, Will, is still with Executive Title as title plant manager.) By 1989, when Richard Yankowski Sr. bought out Townsend’s former partner, Executive Title had additional offices in Fort Myers, Sanibel, Bonita Springs, Naples and Lehigh Acres, as well as, a second Cape Coral office. Now, the company also has offices in Englewood, Port Charlotte and Sarasota. Yankowski Sr., who spent about a year as general manager before buying into the company, eventually acquired Townsend’s share in the mid-1990s.

The younger Yankowski credits his father for instilling in him the company’s business skills. A background in banking, running multiple branches, forecasting and budgeting were not necessarily typical in title companies, Yankowsi says. His dad also built on that foundation by urging Yankowski to complete the Executive MBA Program at Florida Gulf Coast University, helping ensure that the company would continue to have leadership with a good understanding of business practices. Yankowski has been with the company since 1989, when he started as a typist and learned the business by working in its various departments. He opened the first Charlotte County office in 1991. In 1997, he was promoted to vice president. “The company is very close-knit,” says Robertson, who started with Executive Title in 1983 as a processor. “At one point with the Yankowskis, we had all three sons and a daughter-in-law and Mr. Yankowski all working here.”

The company has a number of long-term employees. It’s estimated that at least 25 of the 103 employees have been with the Executive Title for more that 10 years, and probably more than 50 have been there for five years or more. “And you know, in today’s work environment, that’s a rarity,” Yankowski adds.

After buying out Townsend, the elder Yankowski was sole owner until the beginning of this year, when he sold the company to Stewart Title Guaranty Co., a 108-year-old multifaceted and international corporation. Stewart Title also is Executive Title’s underwriter.

The elder Yankowski remains on Executive Title’s board of directors. But his son has taken the reins as president and CEO, and he and Robertson run the company. They retain autonomy from Stewart Title in much of their decision-making and activities, from marketing to plans to grow the business. “We are owned by Stewart Title but we are locally operated. They have over 5,500 companies like Executive Title, which are operated locally with their own boards,” Yankowski says. “They’ve got offices from Australia to Russia to right here in Cape Coral, Florida with over 35,000 people who work for them. So it kind of gives you the power of a national company with local control.”

Executive Title has produced between $8 million and $10 million per year in insurance premiums over the past three years, which represents about 10,000 transactions, Yankowski says.

“I can tell you they are just one jam-up company,” says Peggy Frain, coordinator of Stewart Title’s Region D, which encompasses Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. “They are wiping up the floor with everybody else. They are an extremely, extremely high-producing company,” she says.

One could argue that the company’s revenues are being diverted from the local economy to Houston, but Executive Title’s leaders argue that it continues to feed the local economy. Yankowski emphasizes that Executive Title feeds Southwest Florida’s economy with $3.5 million every year in the form of payroll checks. And the company’s vendors are local, Robertson says.

Yankowski also expects Executive Title to finance its own expansion without Stewart’s financial help. “They let our company make those decisions. We are in charge of expanding ourselves. You can get them to lend the money, but I want to be totally self-sufficient. We’ve done really well and what better way to use your income than to expand with it and make your company stronger?”

A Little-Understood Business

Just about everyone who buys or sells real estate employs the services of a title company, yet many customers never fully understand the nature of title companies and title insurance. Anyone who has bought or sold property remembers the mind-boggling stack of documents that required signatures, but few could explain what each document was. That is the title company’s realm—making sure that all the legal, financial and other measures are taken to help protect the buyer and the lender from unexpected glitches.

What can happen without title insurance? Yankowski and Robertson have seen and heard of several colorful scenarios, such as a former company in Charlotte County that persuaded customers to bypass title insurance. The company, however, was not paying off the mortgages. Because foreclosure notices were going to the company, homebuyers didn’t realize as they moved into their new homes that they were being foreclosed upon. Or there was the time a woman was caught duplicating a check on the company’s account based on a photocopy; she was caught because she didn’t know the color of the original. And there were the times when men took their girlfriends to closings to forge their wife’s signature.