First American Has Changed Their Rates

I was a bit concerned when I saw that First American came out with a new rate for their owners policy. I was told that they had significantly lowered it. Then I saw the flier they had emailed and or passed out. If you look further really the only thing they have done is eliminated their rate for a transaction that doesn't qualify for a short term rate. In essence they are giving the short term price on every transaction. As a competitor I was a bit relieved because 80 to 90 percent of our transactions qualify for short term rate already. That means that on almost every transaction we are still very competitively priced. I started to look a little closer at the rate filing they made with the Department of Insurance and I saw they have quietly changed their escrow rate for Santa Barbara County. In fact they have raised their rate in Santa Barbara. I actually think that is a good thing because Escrow in Santa Barbara has been on sale for years. Santa Barbara could be the least expensive county in the State for escrow. I should cover that topic at another time. So be careful to make sure if you have a price conscious seller that you don't just use the flier to determine their savings. See You In Escrow!