Closing Confidence

Homeland Title Company’s atmosphere is so festive you half expect confetti to drop from the ceiling when you enter the Cool Springs office. While the mortgage title business doesn’t normally cause such excitement, Laura Perry, president of Homeland Title, brings an effusive energy to her work, an exhilaration about the closing process — and on some days, a margarita machine.
    “People are celebrating, and we are part of the celebration,” says the animated Perry, clearly delighting in her role of helping people purchase their houses. Hence, the commercial margarita machine that begins operation each Friday around noon. Mortgage brokers have started dropping by for Homeland’s TGIF party, under the guise of “checking on clients.” And that’s OK with Perry. The more, the merrier!
    “Laura loves the people!” Perry says of herself. “If Laura isn’t loving the people, I can’t come to work.”
    Since 2002, Perry has been loving her clients at Homeland Title and helping them make their home dreams come true. A graduate of the University of Tennessee (UT) and UT Law School, Perry practiced law for a decade in her hometown of Morristown, Tenn. When she and her husband, John, decided they wanted to move, they “city shopped” for 18 months, finally selecting Nashville, a move Perry credits to her “love affair” with the city.
    While Perry was a stay-at-home mother, a commercial appraiser she knew suggested she consider opening a title business. So, she gave it a shot.
    “It was a complete disaster,” she says, laughing at her early attempt. “I went through six or seven employees in the first few months. I called an underwriter and said, ‘I’m a train wreck; a disaster.’”
    That Perry was ever anything short of competent is hard to believe, but she gives credit to long-time Nashville title company owner, Mary Frances Rudy. The two met and hit it off. Rudy offered to partner with Perry and lend her expertise. Rudy remains a partner.
    Since then, Perry and her team — Pam Smithson, who Perry describes as “the bubbles in our champagne,” and Carol Clawson — have closed more than 6,000 transactions, and she is no less enthusiastic now than she was with her first one.
    “Even with those numbers, we still care about first-time home buyers,” Perry says, describing a recent closing with a woman buying her first home. “I sat and talked with her about what compound interest is and the difference between a conventional mortgage and an FHA (Federal Home Administration) loan.”
    Perry is passionate about her role, and each closing turns into a mini-seminar on managing finances, avoiding the traps of compound interest — “I had owned 13 houses when I opened a title company, and no one told me about this!” — as well as an occasion for a party.
    Perry’s enthusiasm fizzes over into all aspects of her life.
    “We can go into a Wal-Mart,” says Perry’s husband, John, “and when I ask the cashier how she is doing, she says, ‘fine.’ Then Laura asks how she is doing, and the cashier starts spilling her life story!”   
    Perry proudly introduces her staff to visitors, talks about how much fun they have at work (the motif of bubbles and champagne comes up frequently), shows off photos of her family and, before long, has her visitors talking about their own lives, asking for advice on romance as much as on home finance.
    Roger Gore, branch manager of Chase Mortgage in Brentwood, says he recommends clients use Homeland Title for a couple of reasons, the main one being Perry.
    “She goes the extra mile,” Gore says. “She doesn’t let a hiccup in the road deter the process.”
    And, as anyone who has bought a house knows, almost every closing comes with a glitch. The key, says Perry, is to be able to competently manage whatever that glitch might be in order to ease the process for the buyer.
    “There is no way to avoid problems in the closing process,” she says, cheerfully adding, “but you’re not going to ask me a question I don’t know the answer to.”
    Dealing with Perry you will, however, get your transaction closed efficiently. You will also get loads of helpful information about the closing process. You will get an ear to listen to your concerns and the feeling you have made a new friend.
    And on Fridays, a margarita, to boot.