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What I always tell people is as a consumer, when you're gonna go out and buy a TV for your house, you study it online. You look at all of the different aspects of every different TV. You then shop price. You'll then travel twice 20 miles to get the best deal. Because as consumers, we want what we want for our money when it comes to title insurance, which is protecting what's probably the greatest financial asset of someone's entire life. People pretty much see that control to their return.
Welcome, everybody to the Prendamano Real Estate "PreReal" podcast. We have a value packed episode for you today. We're going to be speaking with Mike Haltman. He's the CEO of Hallmark Abstract Service, a company he started with his wife, Linda, back in 2008. We're going to dive into really the deep details of something that is a part of every real estate transaction. But most of us don't really know the ins and outs of. So I'm really excited for today. Michael, thanks for joining us. How are we doing? We're doing great, James, and thank you very much for having me. It's an honor. I've seen your podcast episodes, and you do a great job at one point in one of them. I think you're year end. You said you didn't know if you were cut out for doing podcasts. Yeah, I knew I wasn't cut out for them. This is really out of my comfort zone. I'm not someone that at least historically was really comfortable getting in front of a camera and certainly not producing anything that was going to the masses. But we're having a blast, man. We're finding that the guests are having a good time. We're able to communicate and get the message out. We're having fun. I've got to tell you. Well, that's the bottom line. And when you want something, you can tell if someone's having fun or just going through the motions and you can tell you're having fun. So that's half the battle. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, folks. We're going to dive right into the title side of it. But but we're also going to talk about the philanthropic efforts of Michael and his wife because he's a part of something that hits home for me. It's very special to me. And we'll get into why. But he has put together something that's quite remarkable. Absolutely requires us to talk about in depth as we move along. But let's start first with give us the history. I mean, you're out there in Long Island, you've got a location on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Quite a lot of success. How did you get into the title industry? It's actually an interesting story, James, and it goes along with your book of overcoming adversity, of dealing with it, of facing it and then hopefully coming to a solution. So let me go back a little bit further. So I went to business school. I was a Wall Street trader. I was a Wall Street bond analyst. My wife was on Wall Street. She was a bond analyst and also a bond trader. Through the years I dealt with mortgage backed bonds. So I kind of knew the ins and outs of title. To an extent, I knew it's important to the industry. Over time, my wife went to a family business, which was hard money residential construction lending. Well, and they would be collateralized by land. And if there's anything more important than title insurance there, I don't know what that is. So she was very well versed in title insurance. After I was a bond trader, I became an equity trader. And then in the early 2000s, I started a commercial mortgage lending company. So once again, title insurance was a key aspect of that. Then we got to 2008 and 2008. I don't have to tell anybody was a horrendous time. My commercial mortgage lending company, from a Friday to a Monday was no longer viable. My wife being a hard money residential construction lender in the most illiquid part of the real estate market. With not necessarily a level borrowers, they were in trouble. The bank pulled their credit, their warehouse line. So 2008 found us both with non viable businesses and two girls in College with a son at home. And we needed to reinvent and quickly
2008. We also lost all our money or the vast majority of it. So it was a time of really hustling figuring out what to do and then implementing the plan. We actually met someone who had been working at a title company who didn't like the way that the owner was doing business. We hired her. And from there, some of the obstacles early on were fairly significant because the best underwriters didn't want to take you on. At that time, they were actually getting rid of people. The lawyers don't want to use secondary underwriters. So it was a dance. Twelve years later, we've done better every year. And here we are. Well, that's tremendous. And God bless you for the tenacity and staying with it and reinventing yourself. Was there any other tie in from the family? It all centers around real estate. Was there anyone else in the family that was involved in real estate in one way or another? Or did it just happen organically? Well, her father started the company. He had sold a business. He had actually done the duct work in the Sears Tower in Chicago. Oh, wow. He sold the company and he was looking for something to do. It was actually a great business. 50 LTV you're collateralized by the land. He used to say nothing. He used to say the only thing that could go wrong is a nuclear bomb hit in Long Island. And I guess you could say that 2008 was similar to a financial nuclear bomb, without a doubt. Yes, he was involved. Definitely. He was the consulate of the organization. Actually, he's the CEO. So for the benefit of the audience. We've got a pretty wide berth now with who we speak to through this podcast. I just want to take a moment to go back and explain to folks exactly what you mean by a hard money lender on vacant land and new construction transactions. So in essence, folks, what Linda would do is if you were a builder and Michael jump in at any time and let me know if I'm moving off script here, if you're a builder and you wanted to purchase a piece of property to build, what was it, residential? Were you doing? One family homes, two family homes, one family for the most part. Okay. So you have a piece of property. Let's say for $500,000 that you want to purchase, Linda would provide the service instead of going to a traditional bank and going through a very extensive and very painful process from a document perspective of getting qualified and the time period it would take. Traditionally, you were talking about easily 60 to 90 days to get an approval, if I might jump in for 1 second. Sure, because they didn't typically lend on land, the land would typically be free and clear, so they would be collateralized by free and clear land. Well, they would fund the construction money and the construction loans would be paid in increments. So when the foundation went in, they would get paid when the what do you call it? The framing. The framing. There you go. When the framing was up, they get paid. So actually, most of their borrowers would not even qualify for a traditional bank. If the deal made sense, they would actually get an approval overnight. They have people who would go out and look at the land. They would know the areas and they would lend an amount commensurate with what a house should be in that area. It was a very clean business. The only thing better than doing a deal where you're financing a portion of the land and a portion of the construction is when you have the land free and clear and you're financing just the construction. So to give the audience some perspective, I did a deal many years ago. People hear hard money lending and they may get the wrong impression. I paid 15% plus three points. So it was 18%. But the deal was such a good deal and there was so much room in it. But I had to act quick. I had to mobilize and I had to close. It was, I think, two weeks or three week deal. We're going back quite a way. But hard money was the solution for me back then. It was Victor Freudman for those in the audience who remember, Victor did the deal for me. And like I said, 15% interest. There was a eight month minimum on the loan that I had to pay back and three points. But there was so much room in the deal and because I was able to perform as quickly as I was with the support of Victor that we did very well with it. So you guys would come in, you would provide a first position mortgage on the land. Right. And then you said work and place loans. So drywells go in. Tranche goes out. Foundations go in. A tranche goes out, framing goes up. A tranche goes out so that the builder can pay their subs the loans because they had a federal exemption with 2% a month with no points. You only paid as you drew money down so that if you could get in and out of the deal in nine months, it was actually much cheaper than 15 and three because the 15 and three you're paying on the entire amount from the weekend. So they were in demand. Yeah. And there's still a place for that. No question. There's still a place. And I think with where we're headed in the market, Unfortunately, I think that there's a tsunami of foreclosures coming. And banks are going to be looking to dispose of paper very quickly if you had money, like they like to say on Wall Street, if you had dry powder in 2008, you could get some phenomenal deals, tremendous deals. And it's going to be the same this time. I sold the deal for I believe Banco Poplar was on the note and capital One, I think it was a syndicated deal with two buildings that were maybe 90% complete. The face value or par value of the notes combined were 25 or 26 million. We sold the notes for twelve. The sell out between the two buildings when it was all said and done was over 80 million. Unbelievable. So there's some opportunity coming, folks. You've heard me talk about it. I'm going to say it again. Keep that power to dry, because I do believe in 2021, there's going to be some unique opportunities. So let's get back to the primary reason that we're here today. Title insurance, if you could really start with the absolute basics, right. What is title insurance? Okay. So title insurance, unlike most insurance. So most insurance, you buy health insurance, you're insuring yourself against something that may happen in the future. Homeowners insurance, again, something that may happen in the future. All insurance, for the most part, is forward looking, protecting you against something that may happen. Title insurance is one of the few that looks backwards. And what it does is go back, takes the piece of property, the home and goes back. It could be 50 years and looks at every mortgage, every assignment, every fine, every whatever it is that's on that property. And you're basically going back and you're making sure that when your buyer is closing on that deal, that they have good, clean, clear title to that property, because at the end of the day, that's what they're paying for. They're paying a title insurance premium to ensure that nobody can come in and say, hey, you know what? I have a mortgage on that property. I have a prior lien. So we protect buyers from that type of situation, and those types of situations actually occur a lot more frequently than one would expect. So, folks, it's not just the glaring issue of a mortgage that was missed or a lien that was missed. There are instances where there can be a complex chain of title in a state with an executor and documents weren't signed properly. And now where we could be 20 years, 30 years. Like Michael said, we could be 50 years later and somebody wants to contest it and say, Hold on a minute. Wait, that's not what we had agreed to back when this was in an estate, and they can actually file a claim against your property. So title insurance at that point kicks in and provides protection for you the purchaser to insure against any claims that may occur on the property. I can give you a quick example of what can happen. It doesn't happen often, but we will tell our client the buyer, we don't think that the deal should be completed because they basically be buying a lawsuit. It was a husband and wife who owned a house, joint tenants with rice of survivorship. The husband owed a lumberyard a certain stomach of money. The lumberyard got a judgment and sold it. And in lieu of the judgment, they took half the house. So they were 50% owners and the wife was a 50% owner. Now, if the wife died first because it's joint tenants with rights of survivorship, they would get the house. If the husband died first, they would get nothing because the wife would get the house. In any event, the wife did die first. So now the third party is the owner of the house and they're going to sell it to my client. However, they had never advertised the fact that the judgment was being sold. The heirs had never had a chance to speak. So basically, if our client bought the house, they're basically buying the potential for an error to come in at any time and say, you know what? That whole thing was done wrong. And I am the owner of the house. So an interesting situation of how situations can arise. So what about things like forgeries, previous forgeries or deed not being recorded properly? Does title insurance protect against those types of things also? Well, here's the situation. There could be a title claim for those things. As a title company, we can only know what we can know. Let's say a deed was never recorded. We have no way to know that we can only know what we know. But if there was a forgery, then in fact, they would likely have a valid title claim. Right. In that case, the underwriter would be responsible if it's something that we miss as a title company, that's where our errors and emissions insurance comes in. But we've been fortunate in twelve years to never have a valid title claim. That's a badge of honor. We wear very proudly, without a doubt. So, folks, for those of you that don't understand. Well, what does that mean? If it's not that they got lucky, they've got underwriters that are going through your title policy, and they're looking for these types of exemptions that would have to be called out and addressed prior to closing. Correct. Correct. Okay. So most folks go in and they speak to their attorney and it just appears on their closing statement. And this is what title is and you pay it. And that's the end of it. But does that have to be the end of it? Do you have the right to select a title company as the purchaser? Yes, you do. So one of the things I spend a lot of time doing as owner of the company is trying to educate people. As you said, title insurance is not something anyone really thinks about. It's not on anyone's radar. They go in, they hire an attorney. The attorney at the closing says, write a check to ABC title company. And they do after bitching about how much the premium is, which happens. What I always tell people is as a consumer, when you're going to go out and buy a TV for your house, you study it online. You look at all of the different aspects of every different TV. You then shop price, you'll then travel 20 miles to get the best deal on the TV, because as consumers, we want what we want for our money. When it comes to title insurance, which is protecting what's probably the greatest financial asset of someone's entire life. People pretty much see that control to their return. Part of the education that I tell people is and regardless of who you use for title is one who's the underwriter of your policy. As I mentioned early on, when we first started, we were on with secondary insurers in the financial crisis. Unfortunately, a couple went out of business, so people who had bought title insurance from those companies are uninsured. Wow. Which is why today we only underwrite through the largest and best capitalized insurance companies out there. Because, like with any insurance, you pay the premiums. They're good at taking the premiums. But I don't know if you're a Seinfeld fan, but they're good at taking the reservations. Not so good at keeping the reservation, but they take the premiums. But when it comes time, if you do have a claim, you want to make sure that those people can pay the claim. Who the underwriter is is definitely a key. Then there's the aspect of the title bill. So you'll get a title bill. When you sign the contract, your attorney will send the contract to their title company and they'll send you back a title bill. The premium is going to be the same regardless of who you use. But there are other fees on the title bill that could be different. So the premium is fixed. It doesn't matter who you go to. That's a set calculation, correct. And does it go by state? Well, in New York, each state has a different schedule. So in New York, the premium varies by the price of the house or the price of the commercial building. The other fees on the bill, what they call the junk fees, the ancillary fees, the searches, the Patriot search, the municipal search, all of those things. The title closer fees. Do they charge for this? That and the other thing, they can vary by hundreds of dollars. What we usually advise people is whoever it is you're using for title. Get a second opinion. You get a second opinion on everything. When you're going to do renovations on your house, you don't go to one guy, you go to three guys, right. And you don't necessarily choose the cheapest. But get an idea of what the job is worth. Same thing with this. And if somebody came to us for a second opinion and our bill was lower in cost, they can go back to their attorney and say, look at this, go back to the title company and tell them that they need to adjust their fees. Wow. So that's something that I can guarantee you. Most of the folks in the audience didn't know it took me a couple of years in the business before I realized this. So folks, basically what Michael is saying here is outside of the fixed costs for the premium, which is going to be the same no matter where you go. So first of all, you have a right to go where you want to go, you can go out. You can price shop. This. The additional fees, the pickup fees and the title review fee and the title closure fee and all these other fees that Michael referred to as junk fees are negotiable. So make sure that this is something you're taking a close look at because they add up and they add up pretty quickly. Now, are there any fees that go beyond the closing or is everything paid? Is this something that you pay every year, every month? Is this a one shot deal? The title insurance is a one time premium. You pay it once there are recording fees that are included in the closing, we take care of everything. Whatever title company takes care of everything and you're done, there could be money held in escrow for various things, but for the most part, when you're done with the closing, you're done. If you're in the process, when is it appropriate to start shopping around for title? I mean, literally, you could do it before you even find your subject house. But as soon as the contract is signed, typically, the attorney is going to send it to the title company, but we actually have software. And I had sent the link to Becca where somebody can put in the price of the house that they're looking to buy the mortgage amount that they're looking to get, and they'll print out a title bill. So before they even go to the closing table, they can get an idea of what their title fees should be. You've got a really great calculator on the site, too that folks can go in and play around and get a really good estimate on not just the title cost, but the closing cost. What's the website address for folks that want to reference that? Hallmarkstractllc. Com got it. You're making this payment, you're closing your deal. Is there any other? So, for example, let's say you own the house. Let's say you took out a 30 year mortgage. Okay. And you're now in year 31, you've been blessed. You've paid your home off or your property off. What happens in year 31 or 32 or 35? Does coverage end at the time that the notice paid off? No coverage does not end the coverage for the lender. So when you buy a house, there's a lender's policy and an owner's policy. The owner pays for the owner's policy, and the lender will require a policy protecting them. Your owner's policy is there for the lifetime of your ownership. The lender's policy. If the mortgage is satisfied, obviously, they no longer need the coverage and the coverage there will lapse. But your owner's policy is good until you sell the house. So in short, folks, again, just to boil it down for the audience at the closing table because the bank is funding for you 80%, 90%, in some cases, 100% 60%, whatever portion that the bank is providing for you in the cap stack, they need to also be protected. Now they need to make sure that there's no claims against them. So you're actually getting two separate policies. Now the buyer is paying for the bank policy. Also, yes, the buyer pays for the bank policy as well. But again, in context of what you're paying for your house. So you have a house for sale at 25 Midland Avenue. I'd run a sample bill based on a million 725 purchase price, a million 232 mortgage, 30% down. So the owner's policy is a little over $6,800, and the lender's policy is about $1,275. So that's the price of those two policies for that house at Midland Avenue. And those are the fixed premium prices. Correct. Correct. Okay. So how long does the process take? From the point that you're retained, how long does it take and what actually happens? How do you pull the searches? What does that whole thing look like? Okay, so we have third party vendors we use who actually go to the records and get us the abstract of everything there is to know about that property. With Colton, it's been a struggle in most towns and counties and some worse than others. The town of Smith Town on Long Island. They don't even answer their phones before COVID if somebody came to us with an order, the attorney would typically have a completed title back within a week, which is well before the deal is going to close. Lightning fast. Actually, that's really fast. Yeah. So the information we get from our third party vendors, we have a title officer who reads it, assimilates it, and then creates the title policy. And we're very fortunate to have the person that we have. She's a gem, depending on who you have doing it, depending on the speed with which you can do it. I think it's not unreasonable to think that somebody should have whatever company you're using. I think a two week window precovid should be reasonable. Yeah, I would say it's more than reasonable. We've come up against many instances where, believe it or not, where we've cleared conditions with the bank, we're ready to go to a closing and we often hear back. They're still working on title or title hasn't been cleared yet, which when we get a deal that has any issues, there's a mortgage that was never satisfied or whatever it is we work to alleviate the Attorney's need to do as much as possible, so that when the attorney gets the title, it's for the most part, as cleared as we can make it. Sometimes the attorneys, we have a saying our tagline or one of our taglines is we've never been to a closing where the title wasn't cleared. And while that on the surface, obviously, but we work to get it done and to take as much off the Attorney's play as we possibly can, because obviously they're busy. So I have to ask. And this will tie into Covet. So we've invested very heavily in technology over the years. We had seen pretty early that the disruption was going to be profound. Yes, digital assets for us have become woven into the very fiber of everything that we do here as a company. You guys have a pretty slick app. I wonder how much of what you do has been disrupted by technology. Can you talk to the audience a little bit about what technology you are deploying and how does that tie into the tidal world years ago? Maybe it was three years ago or four years ago. They started talking blockchain, and they started talking about how the blockchain was going to destroy the title industry or take over. And I had written articles about it at the time because first of all, the counties and towns are broke unless they enlisted the help of a third party information that they would have to put in, the blockchain is so vast and far flung. And who is providing the information that's put in the blockchain that I can rely on anyway? Long story short, I didn't think that technology was going to be a disrupter, and to date, it has not been so when COVID hit immediately, we started as a firm figuring the way to do a remote closing, whether it was DocuSign with Zoom, with whatever way we could figure out so that closing could still take place. And it took a little while for the industry as a whole for underwriters to accept it. Many banks would not accept it. Many lenders would not accept virtual notorizations. And actually some of the solutions were extremely low tech to Govy drive by signing, going to somebody's house sitting outside their screen door and watching them sign through a window. We have attorneys where we have a closer who would go drop the package off in front, watch through the window as things got done. I mean, it's been a project of innovation and really having to think outside the box. Thank God Cuomo or Governor Cuomo enacted the executive order allowing for virtual notarizations. Yeah, that not happened. It would have been a big problem. As far as other technology. We have our app that allows buyers and sellers to figure title bills, buy versus cell analysis. We develop that in conjunction with a third party because in our mind, it was a great tool for you, the real estate agent for the real estate attorney, for the mortgage broker, for the home buyer, for the home seller to figure out information about a closing that otherwise they're pretty much in the dark about. So we thought it was that kind of technology is a great tool. Without a doubt. Are the municipalities online much? Are you able to source a lot of the data online, or do you still have to send folks, let's take covert out of the equation for a moment. Do you still have to go down to the county clerk and do a lot of this manually, even if not manually. A lot of stuff is online accumulating it putting together the package. We do still, for the most part, send people to the counties whether they're doing it virtually or in person in person is very difficult of the boroughs. Staten island is really the only one who's not on the electronic island. Yes, I know all about it, actually, when I did that CLE I mentioned at St. John's, the head of the building Department in Staten Island was there and she was great. Good stuff. Yeah, that's good to hear you touched on something earlier that I think is fascinating, and I wanted to expand upon it a little bit for the audience. Michael talked about blockchain verification, and there's a lot of chatter, and there's a lot of noise out there in the industry about being able to through blockchain verification, eliminate the need for a title policy just to give some context and some perspective here. Essentially, what those people are proposing is that if something can be verified with such surety that you wouldn't need to insure against any type of a claim you would have to have. I don't even understand the Genesis of where they came up with how this would apply. There would have to be such pristine information that would have to have been relied upon from the most untouchable sources. And there's a lot of chatter about blockchain verification. A lot of people will get excited about. Oh, we can possibly get away from title premiums, folks, pay your title premium. Okay. This is something that of all the things and all the ancillary places where we can pick up a couple of Bucks along the way through a real estate deal. Title insurance is not the place you want to play around, I might add, neither is the attorney. I can't tell you the number of people who say, you know what? This attorney is? $2,000. But I got a guy who 999. It's like you're buying the most expensive asset of your life. Why wouldn't you go with a guy who does real estate for a living and who's going to ensure that there are no issues? It's hard to understand. No, you get what you pay for, right? It's plain and simple. This is not a place folks to play around. You want to make sure that you're using a well seasoned, well versed attorney and that you're going to is it still the Big three, Michael? Is it the Big Three insurers that are out there? You got Stuart, you got Old Republic First American and Fidelity Fidelity, the Big Four. You want to make sure that your policy is being underwritten by one of the Big Four? As Michael had mentioned earlier, it can be quite a nightmare if you're going through a different carrier and you wake up one day, folks are out of business. Title. That's really the key that unlocks the security for you in these investments. Title is vital. Title is vital. I like that good stuff. So COVID it's turned our industry upside down. It's had a really profound impact in how we do basically everything every step in the process, but especially on the marketing side. Are there any other things that you've seen impact on the title side with COVID, or is it limited to what we had talked on earlier? You know what? It's pretty much limited to the mechanics of a closing. That's been the largest single factor that's impacted our industry. I know with real estate, it was like in person closings versus virtual closing showings. And have you show an apartment if you can't take someone there to look at it. So our impact was, I think, much less impactful than for the real estate industry as a whole. So we actually sold dorinkova our first listing where the purchaser never set foot in the house until the closing. It's amazing. It really is. The technologies out there are so sharp and so neat that you really can get a fully immersive experience. And if you have the maniport tours, it's pretty remarkable. We're actually contemplating. We had talked about this a few episodes ago, we're actually contemplating making it a requirement before we let someone in the home, especially during all this craziness that they must have gone through the virtual tour because it becomes a retail at that point. Right? That's how accurate they are, no question. But you know what? Technology wise surveys by drone are starting to get more common. So that's one other piece of technology that has come into play. It was kind of in play before covet, but a drawing survey is quicker. Can be cheaper. Very cool. Yeah. Very cool. So you've done some out of the box things. We're going to get to the fun stuff now, folks, we covered the important stuff and the value. So you've done your fair share of charity work and given back in some odd ways. Everything from the polar bear plunge to boxing and repelling off a 17 storey building. Can you talk a little bit about the passion? Some of these events, what drives you? And then I want to get to the Heroes to Heroes Foundation. Great. So Polar Bear Plunge, my oldest daughter had donated bone marrow, and she was an advocate for she was doing a fundraiser. And as a way to build awareness, I decided to do the Polar bear plunge with my son. I know a PR guy who got me News Twelve and the Daily News. So it worked out fairly well. It was hard to breathe in the water, but it was a good experience. When I got to about 50, I started stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit more. So the boxing. I was at a networking event, and I overheard someone talking about the Long Island fight for charity, and I thought it sounded great. So I signed up. I raised 17 grand for some great Long Island charities. God bless you. I trained at the Glenco Boxing Club, which it's a real boxing club down to dirt Road. No Frills club. And the main event was the Monday of Thanksgiving five years ago at the Hilton Long Island in the ballroom with 1200 people in the audience. And it was again outside of my comfort zone in a big way. Wow. So what drove you to do this? Have you always been passionate about this? Is this something that as you've gotten more comfortable and enjoyed more success, it's evolved? Tell me a little bit more about it because it's fascinating. I've always been charitable, but in terms of going outside of the comfort zone to engage in that charitable work again, I don't know why, but kind of like at 50, I started doing that and it's been great. My next thing is, I think I'd like to skydive for a charity. Well, we would be happy to be a participant on the donation side. I'm not a fan of jumping out of perfectly safe airplanes. I'll stay grounded, I think. Well, I think it's wonderful. And I think that I had a friend who has become a friend. He was a colleague who is very much involved in charity. His name is Corey Schiffer, and he's a dynamic guy. I tell him he's kind of the face of Staten Island. He's out there at these events, and as you've done, he does out of the box things right? It's not just your normal charity. Any charity is wonderful and appreciated, but he took it to a different level, as you have. And it inspired me. It inspired me to we do something called the Season of Giving here every year now, where those types of things are impactful in many ways, beyond the actual event or the actual work that you're doing for the charity. It really is inspirational. I applaud you for it. I think it's wonderful. And please keep it up, because we need a lot more of that in this world today. No question. Which is really interesting. Which took me to the Heroes to Heroes Foundation. So again, I was at a business club in the city and a woman was sitting across from me doing work. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me about the Heroes to Heroes Foundation through spirituality and a reconnection to faith, saving combat veterans at serious risk for death by suicide who are suffering with moral injury. And she told me the statistic of 20 vets a day take dime by suicide. And that was an amazing 20 vets a day. 20 plus and COVID has been the loneliness and solitude of covet has exacerbated the problem big. That's an amazing statistic, right? So shocking. These guys come home, you see the people who have physical injuries that's easy to see. But the people who have unseen injuries, you don't know, you don't know what they're going through. And moral injury is an interesting thing. I don't know. Are you familiar with that? No. Basically, you've done something that's so abhorrent. So against everything you hold dear. One example is a guy who was with his platoon and a guy approached them with his ten year old son. And he gave the ten year old son his gun. And this vet had to kill the ten year old, and then he killed the father. And you think about, how do you get that out of your system? It's not something someone's going to talk to me about, but the crux of our mission is and it's nondenominational. We send teams of twelve vets to Israel, the birthplace of religion. And there they find the strength to reconnect with their faith. And it's amazing. So this vet who killed the ten year old, it was coming out of the Holocaust music going through the Holocaust Museum, where he realized what he did wasn't an atrocity. It was part of his job as a soldier. And he's with us today and healing. So we've sent over 300 vets and it's in a phenomenal charity. I had a podcast I think it was last week where we talked about the spending bill that was recently passed, and I was pretty animated and pretty upset about some of the things that were included in the bill. And this is the kind of stuff that brings it home. There is so much money available in this country, and there is so much waste in this country, the unimaginable sacrifice that our servicemen and women
doesn't get talked about. Nearly enough. Correct. It doesn't get the attention that it deserves. And we quite simply don't take care of them the way that we should. And I can speak from experience here. My grandfather landed on D Day, and this guy's tough as nails. This is a guy for those of you who know Grandpa Joe, we love Grandpa Joe. He stormed the beach, he marched through Europe and he pretty much never talked about it as he's gotten older. He's now 96 years old. My son recently had a project for school who was his hero. And he had picked my grandfather and he still can't talk about it. He gave some short answers and he did what he had to do to help my grandson out. But he's still so profoundly impacted about what happened when he was overseas and they're not taking care of the way they should be. He came back and he's legally deaf from the shelling when he had served. And some of the things they deal with over there trying to get care and get treatment. It's unbelievable. It really is unbelievable. You think about I had mentioned you would ask me if I had served and I didn't. But I appreciate so much what these guys do and did that. It's my responsibility. I didn't have to serve because they did. My kids didn't have to serve because they did. And we owe them an incredible debt of gratitude. And like your grandfather, the woman's father who started his charity, her father was in Battle of the Bulge, and he was Second day Normandy, but never talked about it. And in those days, PTSD was not something that was. It wasn't a thing. But I can't even fathom what your grandfather saw and did and had to deal with. So God bless him. Well, I appreciate that. And I appreciate you for what you're doing here. Can I just skip the website? No, I apologize, folks. I'm getting a little choked up when I talk about my grandfather as usual and the sacrifices he's made. So please, by all means, share the website. How do we find the Heroes to Heroes Foundation? And how do we find Hallmark? Right? So Heroes Heroes is herothoheros. Org that's the website for the charity and Hallmark Abstract service is just Hallmarkstractllc. Com. Great. Anyone has any questions about title insurance? It's our pleasure to answer them whether you use a different firm or not. It doesn't matter. Well, folks, at the bare minimum, I urge you to go check out the website. We played around on it. As I had said, there's a really neat calculator. There one of the questions we get all the time is, what are our closing costs going to be? So I urge you to go check the calculator out. It was very easy to use. Very easy to navigate. Definitely check out the website. Michael, thank you very much. We really appreciate you joining us today. Please extend our appreciation for Linda and keep up the great work. Man. This is really good stuff. You know what? The pleasure is all mine. You're great and you do a phenomenal job. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Everybody out there. We're turning the page here on 2020 and into 2021 let's put this sucker into to rearview Mira and upward and onward folks. Thanks, everyone. Appreciate you and stay safe.