SETCO Services

SETCO Services provides professional title services along the Emerald Coast with 6 locations spanning from Pensacola and Panama City and all areas in between. We pride ourselves on Customer Service and Building Relationships beyond the closing table.  

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Setco was proud to sponsor the Success with Listing expo with Knolly Williams (National Speaker) educating agents on how to be successful at gaining listings by working smarter not harder. #setcoservices #titlecompanies #knollywilliams #kellerwilliams (at Luna's Eat & Drink)

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Tax Day Is Almost Here!

As spring breakers flock to the Emerald Coast, SETCO is rejoicing that the tourism season is here…but that also means it’s tax season. April is here, so don’t let taxes get you down. Here are some Tax Breaks just in time for Spring Break! Real Estate Deductions:

TAX DEDUCTIONS FOR MORTGAGE INTEREST     PAID: Under current tax     law, mortgage interest is tax-deductible. You see it every month on your     mortgage statement and you pay it diligently along with your payment. Now,     get the benefit when tax time arrives.

REAL ESTATE TAXES PAID ARE     TAX-DEDUCTIBLE: Another tax benefit of owning a home is the IRS     allows homeowners to deduct real estate taxes in the year in which they're     paid.

ENERGY TAX CREDIT: The IRS credits more than just     mortgage interest paid at tax-time. It hands out tax breaks for certain     home renovations and appliance purchases, too.

Beware of Fraud:

Protect yourself     from tax fraud and identity theft, too. Watch out for refund credits that     seem too good to be true or sound suspicious.

Only hire reputable     companies to file your taxes and be cautious about the personal     information you share.

Emails may seem like they are from a legitimate source, but fake emails usually have general salutations (Dear Sir), grammatical errors, and unnecessary attachments.

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SETCO Services - Delivering the Security You Need From Your Title Company

There’s a new set of security standards for the real estate industry.  At SETCO, we’re committed to keeping our customers ahead of the curve by providing industry leading document security for this new environment.

SETCO has now partnered with Pioneer Technology Group, a leading developer of secure technology for real estate, courts, and registers of deeds, to provide our customers with the YourDox platform.  With our exclusive technology, all documents and files are protected by industry leading data security, giving you the assurance and protection you need.

Customer Benefits:

Secure, encrypted delivery and storage of closing documents

Print, download, and save their documents using their secure account

Eco-friendly paperless delivery of documents

Easy access to your documents when needed for tax time, future purchases, etc.

Add additional documents to your account at any time for safekeeping and future access

Disaster recovery protection in the event of hurricanes, tropical storms, fire, theft, etc.

Notification of delivery of post-closing policies and documents

Realtor/Lender benefits:

Online branding and marketing to all of your past customers

Customer sites display your picture and contact information

Customer sites link directly to your email and website

“Refer your friends” feature connecting customers back to you

File status dashboards for easy access to your SETCO files and documents

“Lifetime Leads” from past customers when listing or purchase opportunities arise

At SETCO, we understand what it takes to help you meet the new security standards - we’re committed to providing you and your customers with industry leading document and data security on every single closing.

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Florida by Land: Explore Geological Wonders -- National Geographic

Fifteen coastal dune lakes, which are globally rare, formed along the Walton County coast in the northwest region of the state.

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It's Time to File for Homestead Exemption!

What is Homestead Exemption? For those that have a permanent residence in Florida, Homestead exemption reduces the taxable value of that property by up to $50,000. Who Can File? Every person who owns real property in Florida on January 1 and makes the property his or her permanent residence, or the permanent residence of their dependent, is eligible to receive a homestead exemption up to $50,000. The first $25,000 applies to all property taxes, including school district taxes. The additional exemption up to $25,000, applies to the assessed value between $50,000 and $75,000 and only to non-school taxes. When Should You File? You may file for homestead at anytime but for the current year you must register by March 1st. Where You Should File? The application for homestead exemption (Form DR-501) and other property tax forms are posted on the form page of the Florida Department of Revenue and on most property appraiser's websites. Click here for county property appraiser contact and website information. Some county sites have quick and easy online applications. Visit your county's Property Appraiser's website to learn more. Escambia | Santa Rosa | Okaloosa | Walton | Holmes | Washington | Bay 

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Please Welcome Our Newest Team Member!

April is a proud lifelong citizen of Pensacola, Florida and continues to bring her talents to our local business community.  She began her career in Advertising and Graphic Design, including roles such as Graphic Artist, Television Producer, and Radio Account Manager. In 2006, utilizing her Marketing and Sales knowledge, she began facilitating mortgage loans for residential properties in Escambia and Santa Rosa County. In an opportunity to combine her experience of Marketing, with her extensive Lending experience, April is now being welcomed to the SETCO Services team. She will focus on marketing for the SETCO Pensacola and SETCO Perdido Key offices.

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Need Help with Your Holiday Cards?

Reminder that SETCO’s PAPERLESS CLOSER is a great resource for gathering year-end information or even completing your holiday card mailing list!

Real estate agents that close with SETCO have 24 hour a day access to their file information. This includes data for open and closed files and it is stored under your individualized password protected paperless closer account. So, if you are looking to confirm your 2014 successes or just need to find a client’s address to mail them their special holiday card, this is a great place to look.  If you are a buyer or seller that has closed with SETCO, your closing history is available as well under your account. Have you misplaced your password or have questions regarding paperless closer? Do not hesitate to reach out to one of our offices or email us at [email protected].   Need a refresher on how to navigate through paperless closer? Check out the SETCO paperless closer tutorial online: http://www.setcoservices.com/how-to-use-paperless-closer.html

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Welcome Michelle to the SETCO Team!

  Please join us in welcoming Michelle Perry Child to the Emerald Coast.  We are very excited to have Michelle join our team as our new Marketing Representative for the 30A area, as she has been vacationing here since the 1990’s.   She recently moved here from Athens, GA with her husband, David, and son, Carson, in August and has a background in Residential Property Management, Marketing and Public Relations.  After graduating from college, Michelle began working in Custom Home Sales, and eventually moved into Leasing and Property Management.  Once she moved to the Destin/30A area in August, she found SETCO to be a great opportunity to bring her experiences together by working with Real Estate Agents to bring smooth transactions to the closing table. Michelle also enjoys a hobby in photography, and immediately dove into volunteer work for the American Cancer Society’s Emerald Coast Cattle Barron’s Committee.

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Happy Thanksgiving from SETCO!

SETCO would like to extend a special greeting to express our sincere appreciation for your confidence and loyalty to us. We are deeply thankful and extend to you our best wishes for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving Day. All of our offices will be closed Thursday, Nov. 27th and Friday, Nov. 28th, for Thanksgiving as our staff spends the holiday with family and friends, but we will reopen during our normal hours next Monday, Dec. 1st! On behalf of all of us at SETCO, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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SETCO Cost Calculator App for iPhone & Android...Download Today!

Did you know you can use SETCO's Closing Calculator on your phone?  Whether you have an iPhone, iPad or Android device, you can use our FREE Closing Calculator App to calculate your closing costs wherever you are! Search Setco Services in the Apple Store or Google Play Store to download your calculator today! The APP includes a cost and refinance calculator, a link to our survey & the ability to submit EMD information right from your tablet or phone!

You can also add SETCO's Closing Calculator to YOUR website! Sign up to use the SETCO Calculators, and we'll send you code you can import directly into your website. Add a link or embed the closing calculators in your own website template absolutely FREE!

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The WhoManFuMan is a fun & silly contest aimed at raising money and awareness for a charity serving a critical role in our community. Food for Thought provides backpacks filled with easy-to-make meals so children can focus on their development and education, not where the next meal is coming from. This year the Fuligans raised over $5,000 to help feed children in our community. That money will fill 1,500 backpacks this school year! Thank you to all of our Fuligans, supporters and generous donors!!!

Food For Thought is currently serving 11 schools in Walton & Okaloosa Counties and will have at least 670 students in need this school year. 

FFT provided 45,000 Meals during the 2013-14 school year

FFT will provide 60,000 Meals during the 2014-15 school year

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$3.28 Surcharge on Florida Title Insurance Policies

As previously reported to you, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (“OIR”), required all Florida title insurance underwriters to pay assessments for two failed title insurance underwriters, National Title Insurance Company and K.E.L. Title Insurance Group. The Department of Financial Services (“DFS”), as receiver, requested the assessments to pay the claims and administrative costs for both failed underwriters.

Florida law requires that each title insurer pay a pro rata portion (based on market share) of the assessments, and that each title insurer shall recoup its payment by collecting a surcharge on future policies. The OIR has ordered that a surcharge of $3.28 be collected on each title insurance policy with an effective date of September 2, 2014, or later.

We understand the additional cost and inconvenience to your agency of collecting the surcharge, and we want to make this as easy for you as possible. We appreciate your assistance in complying with Florida law and the orders of the OIR and DFS.

Disclosure of Surcharge on Closing Statement 1. The surcharge should be shown as a separate line item on the closing statement as, for example, “Government Surcharge”, “Statutory Surcharge” or other similar label. On a HUD-1 settlement statement form, we suggest you use a blank line in the 1300 series, or if requested by the lender, a line in the 1100 series. 2. The closing statement may indicate that the surcharge is being paid to the underwriter of the title insurance policy. 3. It is to be charged to the party responsible for payment of the title insurance premium, unless otherwise agreed upon between the parties. If an owner’s policy and a simultaneous loan policy are being issued, the $3.28 is charged to the party responsible for payment of the owner’s policy.

Remitting the Surcharge – Payment Form How the surcharge is then remitted to us will depend on your closing software (if any) and your accounting process. You have several options: Option A Generate one check per file for the $3.28 surcharge. You may need to code the charge so the check prints separately from the premium check. Option B Generate one check per file which includes the premium and the surcharge in the same check. Remember, the surcharge is not premium and is shown as a separate line item on the closing statement. Option C Group the surcharges from several files and generate a single check for the total surcharges collected. Surcharges may be grouped as often as desired at whatever frequency works best from time to time, such as weekly or monthly. Option D Use whatever guidelines your other underwriters instruct you to follow. We want to make it as easy on you as possible, and therefore, we are willing to abide by guidelines that your other underwriters may require if that works best for you.

You do not have to use the same method every month, just do what works best for your operation from time to time.

The surcharges can either be sent to us separately as you collect them or they can be sent to us with your premium remittance, either as separate checks or in the same check with the policy premium, or lumped together with surcharges/premiums from several files. Just remember that Florida law requires the surcharge be sent to the underwriter within 60 days of the effective date of the policy for which it was collected.

Where/How to Send the Surcharge For those of you who send your policies and premium directly to our agency accounting department, the address for the surcharge payments is the same as the address for remitting premium: FNTG Agency Accounting 1431 Opus Place, Suite 635 Downers Grove, IL 60515

For those of you who pay your remittance from the monthly account statement, the statement will reflect the $3.28 surcharge for each policy (excluding simultaneous issue policies) with an effective date of September 2, 2014, or later. Please do not include the surcharges in any check for title searches.

-FNTG Florida Underwriting Department

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Stolen Lot

Vacant land or homes are easy targets for criminals. Vacant homes are often vandalized. In some cases squatters move in and refuse to leave, even though they do not pay rent. Vacant lots are used as dumping grounds for trash and debris. Some more brazen thieves are bold enough to even try to steal the property all together. Read on to find out how one such thief was caught!

Tracy Debban–Friberg, escrow officer with Fidelity National Title of New Mexico, opened an order for the sale of a vacant lot. The buyer was a real estate agent and she was one of Tracy's best customers. The sellers were husband and wife. The sales price was $180,000. The order was processed and title began preparing the title report.

When title ran the General Index search in the sellers' names they discovered several judgments which would have to be investigated to determine whether they belonged to the seller, specifically the wife.

Tracy called and reached the husband, she explained there were some judgments which needed to be cleared up and she needed his wife's social security number. The husband stated they were her debts. Tracy asked for the wife's social security number again so she could work on obtaining payoff statements from the creditors.

The husband started back pedaling. Now he said the debts were not his wife's and started asking questions about who the creditors were. He clearly did not want to provide his wife's social security number to Tracy.

Tracy asked him if he knew his wife's social security number and he replied no. She asked him to have his wife call her. He responded she did not speak English. She asked him what language his wife did speak. He stated she spoke Spanish.

Tracy explained her assistant speaks Spanish, she gave the husband her name and phone number, and asked him to have his wife call her assistant. The wife never called.

The buyer was anxious to close. The property was free and clear, and the only items which needed to be cleared up were the judgments title found in the General Index search. The seller was unresponsive.

It was at this point Tracy decided to look closer at the file. Tracy worked with her title department to find a recorded document with the sellers' signatures on it. Since they owned the property free and clear, they had to go back in the chain of title where they found a real estate contract the vendee defaulted on.

Tracy compared the signatures on the recorded document to the signatures on the purchase contract. They were not even close. Next, she noticed the seller made a few mistakes on the purchase contract. He misspelled the city in his mailing address. He claimed to live in Lompoc, New Mexico but he spelled the city Lompac. He also wrote in the wrong zip code. Tracy thought it was odd he made so many mistakes on his address.

Tracy shared her concerns with her colleagues. One of them decided to Google™ the names of the sellers. It is a good thing she did. The search revealed the wife had passed away on April 2, 2014. Her obituary said she fought a long battle with cancer and was in hospice during her last days. Interesting, since she supposedly signed the purchase contract just a few days earlier on March 28, 2014. The obituary also stated the wife was fluent in Japanese, not Spanish as her husband stated.

Tracy resigned from the transaction and refunded the earnest money to the buyer. The phone number for the man impersonating the seller is now disconnected. He has vanished into thin air. The listing agents cannot locate him either. They have cancelled their listing agreement too.

The buyer managed to track down the real owner of the property. She called the real owner and asked him if he entered into a purchase contract with her to sell his lot. He said no. He asked her what the sales price was and she told him it was $180,000. He laughed and said if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The lot is worth much more than $180,000.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Time and time again escrow officers, closers and settlement agents stop a fraudulent transaction by trusting their escrow gut. Tracy slowed down, looked over her file with a more careful eye and was able to stop this fraudulent sale from going through. She probably deepened her professional relationship with her customer as well. Tracy is being rewarded $1,000 for her hard work.

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Beware: There's a New RESPA Sheriff in Town

By Bob Hunt

When it comes to enforcement of the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA), there's a new sheriff in town and it is increasingly apparent that he takes his job seriously. The sheriff is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a creation of the Dodd-Frank Act. While it is not exactly new—the Bureau began operations in July of 2011—the real estate industry is just beginning to understand the extent of the CFPB's regulatory powers and the aggressiveness with which it is exercising them. Recently, RESPA News provided an analysis of the CFPB's 2013 enforcement actions as well as an overview of the Bureau's powers.

The analysis went on to point out that, if the CFPB determines that a law has been violated, it can impose significant sanctions including rescission, refund of money, payment of damages, public notice regarding the violation, and civil money penalties. These monetary penalties include: $5,000 per day for violation of a consumer protection law, $25,000 per day if the violation is deemed reckless, and up to $1 million per day for any violation committed knowingly.

Gary Kidder, managing partner of Weiner Brodsky Kidder PC, says if the penalties seem surreal, "...the reality is they were put into Dodd-Frank to be a game changer." Not only are the possible financial penalties harsh, but also, according to Gary Cunningham, former Deputy Assistant Secretary at HUD, "If the CFPB files suit, the defendant can expect a broadly circulated press release in its home market and elsewhere in industry publications, which state complaint allegations as facts... and seems intended to be very harmful to the defendant's reputation..."

It is no surprise then, that real estate brokerages are being advised to "stay out of the CFPB's crosshairs." Cunningham says, "Companies must seriously review all of their policies and procedures that are subject to CFPB enforcement to be sure they fully comply... From a RESPA perspective this includes affiliated business rules and, I expect, marketing agreements... the CFPB is not backing off. Stay away from the gray areas."

Moreover, RESPA News warns, "Don't think that because you are a small company that the bureau will overlook you... In fact, the CFPB has begun to target individuals as well as companies..."

There is, I suspect, a tendency for individual agents and teams within a brokerage to think that they are under the radar of agencies like the CFPB, and that it is the brokerage, not they, who should worry about things such as RESPA enforcement actions. Not so. Indeed, one of the news-making items in recent months has been a U.S. District Court's certification of a major class-action suit against a team within a major brokerage. The brokerage itself was dismissed. And the charge? That illegal kickbacks were being funnelled to the team through a sham marketing agreement.

Those who wish to review their marketing agreements (often referred to as MSAs, for Marketing Service Agreement) would do well to consult an article It's Time for a RESPA Checkup by the deservedly well-known RESPA attorney, Phillip Schulman. Although written several years ago, it is not only still relevant, it is especially relevant.

Schulman points out that a marketing agreement will satisfy RESPA requirements if it meets two conditions: (1) The payment recipient performs real marketing services; and (2) the marketing fee is commensurate with the fair market value of the services performed and is not paid on a per-transaction basis.

He advises that a marketing agreement should be written and should contain a list of the actual services, and he recommends that "the parties to a marketing agreement create a reporting system under the agreement to ensure all services are performed and measure the level of performance."

As to the payment for marketing services, he emphasizes that it should be a flat fee that is "not tied in any way to closed transactions or to the success of the marketing arrangement." Schulman acknowledges that there is no "one-size-fits-all approach" for determining the fair market value of marketing services. But he does say that "one important factor to consider when determining fair market value is the size of the [entity] performing the services." A large brokerage can produce more marketing materials and reach a larger customer base than a small one. Size matters. If, for example, a five-person team were receiving compensation comparable to that of a 100-agent brokerage, it would suggest that the team was being paid for something more than marketing services. The new sheriff would be interested.

Bob Hunt is a director of the California Association of REALTORS®. He is the author of Real Estate the Ethical Way.

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Move The Needle with SETCO

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. --Benjamin Franklin

Time.  It is our most over-looked resource and probably our most valuable asset.   We all waste time to some degree, some more than others.  Are we accomplishing anything?  Are we (as they say) moving the needle?  Are we making a difference in the company and our lives each week or are we just spinning our wheels to only find ourselves unchanged at the conclusion of 2014?   Moving the needle, making a real difference, is much about what you accomplished this morning, today, this week and this month.  Often I hear people complain “time flies by too fast”.   “Can you believe it is almost July already?”   The most successful people I know…guard their time jealously and fight for each second.  They don’t waste time or take it for granted; they live in the moment and simultaneously plan for the future.   As the ancient Chinese saying goes, “Live each day as if you’ll live for a thousand years and die tomorrow.”  Where does your time go?  Does this Monday seem like last Monday, and all the Mondays before?  One of our gifts of being human is the ability to look forward and plan for the future.  But does it make sense to do so at the risk of the present?  Do you go to work only to look forward to Fridays and vacations? Every moment of today is a gift.  As the author Tom Cunningham wrote, “This is not a dress rehearsal.  This is it!”  Break the mold, shake off the bad habits of yesterday and Carpe Diem (Seize the day)!   Grab it with both hands around the throat and demand of time to give you all that you want and deserve.  And you do deserve it. We all know the saying “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” and so is the next five minutes.  Stop what you’re doing and seize the very next moment to do something special.  It doesn’t matter what, call a customer, do a good deed, give someone a compliment, sign up for a class, decide to open up another office…do whatever it is that you have been putting off.  Seize the very next moment in your work and your life, and then keep going. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Donald Trump and YOU all have one thing in common (at least):  exactly 24 hours each day.  They don’t get more hours and you don’t have less--so make the most of every one and move the needle!

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SETCO has your Homeowners Insurance covered!

SETCO can now cover your Homeowners Insurance needs! Take a moment to get to know our agent, J.B. Ruble. J.B. Ruble joined the company in 2013, tasked with heading up the property and casualty insurance branch of our operations. SETCO Insurance Services, LLC is partnered locally with Fuller Insurance to offer our clients a trusted internal partner for their insurance needs. Raised in New Orleans, LA, J.B. attended the University of Oklahoma for his college education and graduated in December of 2004. He received a Bachelor of Arts in both Communication and Journalism. J.B.’s background prior to entering the insurance field was in sales, most prominently along the Emerald Coast in construction materials. In 2010, he began his career in P&C insurance. J.B. has been diligently applying himself to the craft, along the way obtaining the Accredited Advisor in Insurance designation from the American Institute For Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters. This enhanced understanding of the indemnification process concerning coverages, marketing, and agency operations directly benefits the client via an improved consultative approach. It is J.B.’s goal to always find a way to help a client.

JB may be reached at 850-337-1455 or [email protected]

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APA Recognizes 2013 Great Places in America.

The American Planning Association picks 10 great neighborhoods, streets and public spaces for each year.

Palafox Street, Downtown Pensacola, made the cut this year for one of the top ten great streets in America! The streets history and recent preservation accomplishments helped the street make the list.

Check out the article and visit our Valerie and Mary at our downtown SETCO office on Palafox today!

http://www.planning.org/newsreleases/2013/oct04.htm