| An unexpected start to a title insurance career
F inding someone to refer you to a new job isn’t unusual. For Web Raulston, though, his entrance into the title insurance industry came from, let’s say an unexpected source.
 “I was back in town and at the dentist getting my teeth cleaned, and he said, ‘What do you want to do?’” said Web, now the owner of Team Title Services in Chattanooga, Tenn. “I said I’ve got real estate law experience and a degree in real estate finance, I’d worked in insurance … and he said, ‘I know the guy in town to talk to.’ ”
The dentist took Web to visit with Bill Jones, who had worked in the industry for three decades. Jones offered Web an internship, which turned into a full-time position in 2011 and eventually a business partnership.
By that time, Web said title insurance had gotten a hold of him.
“My old partner once told me that this industry can become kind of addicting,” Web said. “What I like is, as an attorney, I consider this happy law. For the most part, buyers and sellers are happy by the time they get to the closing table. Seeing the joy of buying a home and bringing those people together, for me, it gets in your blood. And the title search and work, that’s like a grown-up scavenger hunt.
“So for me, it got in my blood. And then I started to see how antiquated the business and the operations are.”
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“Once I knew this was for me, then I knew there was a great opportunity to capitalize on really pioneering and taking this industry to the next level.”
Web Raulston
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Web and Jones stayed in business together for four years before Web’s eagerness to move technology forward in the title industry led him to open Team Title Services in November.
After just four months, the 33-year-old’s company has five offices and about 35 employees, and is doing about 300 closings a month. He hopes to hit 500 closings a month by May and 1,000 a month by the end of the first year.
“The legal industry and title industry are completely ripe for disruption,” Web said.
Enter Team Title Services. The company provides back end support and basic functions for other title companies, operating in a hub-and-spoke model from its base in Chattanooga. The company now has operations in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, with plans to reach Colorado and Texas by the third quarter.
“We facilitate pretty much everything from a $25,000 trailer property to a $500 million major development or complex,” he said.
Web works to find partners in markets, connecting Realtors, brokers and homebuilders with title companies, using technology to streamline operations for title companies which may be struggling to keep up.
“Our goal as far as the operations side is to have anything you possibly need through the homebuilding or commercial process,” he said.
That means offering property/casualty insurance, home warranties, contract-to-close services and utility connect services, all through the company’s technology platform.
Web said the company looks for agents in the top 15 percent of local markets when it enters new areas, then looks for the same kind of builders or developers who don’t have a title affiliation. They get grouped as they see fit – either together as an affiliated company or just as partners in the transaction – then Team Title Services helps provide support to get closings done.
“It’s getting a piece of the revenue stream which would not normally be available to people,” Web said. “We’re an all-encompassing services technology company. Our goal is to create the most efficient closing process and one-stop shop that you can possibly get.”
The focus on using technology to disrupt the industry might stem from Web’s interest in tinkering. He is a “serial starter,” working on multiple projects until the point in which he can turn them over before his interest wanes. That includes some exposure in the health and wellness sector, work on real estate development and short-term vacation rentals by owner – and even owning a part of the new Naked River Brewing Co. run by his brother, Jake.
“But the title industry has been the most challenging and stimulating thing for me, more than anything else,” Web said.
That has set his sights high. Web believes that the real estate industry is working toward a uniform platform, where a real-time exchange of information in the transaction will take place. Although the idea of portal communication started to emerge when the new TRID processes were implemented in 2015, Web said there was fragmentation that got in the way of progress.
 “Everyone went in their own direction, and there was no market industry leader – and there’s really still not,” he said. “The question is going to be how we tie into the live, streaming information, and how do you interpret that and make that as efficient as possible?”
Having just returned home from the Keller Williams Family Reunion event in New Orleans, Web talked about Keller’s discussion of a technology platform creation, and the kind of impact larger players such as KW could make.
“The bigger challenge for title agents going forward is, if you’re not already as fully digital as possible, you’re definitely not going to be ready for the next hurdle,” he said. “I think we’ll see a bigger exodus from the industry for the next hurdle. This new stuff, especially things like eNotary, it’s a complete change to our business process for many people who are trying to battle because they’re used to the old way of doing things.
“Just like the banks have gotten bigger and absorbed smaller ones, I think you’ll see title go that way. I think the new disclosures and making everyone work together was just the start of what was to come.”
As the revolution comes to the real estate industry, you can expect Web to be working hard in the middle of it, admitting he’s at his best when he’s “very busy.” He stays on top of it all with the help of his staff.
“I have a fantastic team, and the credit for all of it goes to my employees,” he said. “I empower them – to me, happy employees translates to happy customers. So it’s having a great team, a wonderful personal assistant, Chloe (Brackett), who helps keep my life on track. And I compartmentalize everything else.”
But there is time to get away from the world and recharge, and for Web, that comes in the outdoors.
“I love the mountains, I love the west,” the avid skier said.
Although his hometown of Chattanooga doesn’t provide many snow skiing opportunities, Web said he is just as comfortable getting out the water skis, or wakeboarding. Having the opportunity to be out with his two children – 4-year-old Parks and 2-year-old Alley – along with their chocolate lab named Mousse is the right formula for Web.
“Whenever I can get outside, into the national parks, and play, that’s what I like to do,” he said.
Rest assured, though, it won’t be long until Web is back at work. Whether that’s going through emails with a cup of coffee in the morning, checking in at night, or even attending closings to remain close to the happy nature of the homebuying process, this millennial thinks he came along at the right time to the right industry, ripe for change.
“When I came in (in 2008), everyone else was getting out, so I’m kind of the lone wolf age-wise in this, and I saw that opportunity,” he said. “Once I knew this was for me, then I knew there was a great opportunity to capitalize on really pioneering and taking this industry to the next level.
“We’re really the last ones to the table. The lenders are digital, the Realtors have gone digital outside of showing a house, all the big realty companies are bringing technology and disruption to the market. Who’s bringing disruption to title? When I started, nobody around me was.”
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