Chattanooga area Realtors who are seeking free continuing education have an option to attend a no-cost workshop if their calendar is clear the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Presented by Realty Title, the event will include two sessions covering the topics of divorce and probate.
“We’re seeing a lot of transactions in our area that involve divorces and estates, so we’ve chosen these two topics to help educate local Realtors,” says Realty Title closing agent Cristina Rance.
The training will take place 9:30 a.m.-noon on the fourth floor of the downtown branch of the Chattanooga Public Library and include a complementary light breakfast.
Attorney Will Rogers of title insurance company Fidelity National Financial will deliver “All My Exes” at 10 a.m. and “Estates & Wills” at 11 a.m.
Realtors who are present for the event will earn two continuing education credits.
To register to attend, email users.rt.marketstreet@realtytitle.com or call 423 267-2336.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law and a former law clerk with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Chattanooga, Rogers serves as an underwriting counsel for Fidelity, one of Realty Title’s underwriting partners.
Here, Rogers ...
Tell us about your work at Fidelity National Title.
“I’m an underwriting counsel for Fidelity National Title, which has three main title underwriting brands: Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title and Commonwealth Land Title. We’re fortunate to boast over 40% of the state’s market for title insurance and partner with many fantastic agents, many of which are local to or have offices in Chattanooga.
“I have three main objectives: protect our insureds from having to deal with claims on the front end by providing timely and knowledgeable underwriting of transactions while also getting their deals closed, take care of our title agents and their businesses, and help Fidelity provide the best services and opportunities for success for our agents and their customers.
“I split my time between agency and commercial support. With our agent base, if a title agent comes across a title issue and wants to collaborate or needs a risk determination, they can send an email or call one of our underwriters and we can figure out a strong balance between protecting the prospective insureds and getting the deal across the table.
“Some of our commercial agents also utilize our commercial services team and send commercial transactions directly through our operation, so another large percentage of my day-to-day activities is providing that hands-on support as well. Our operation provides services in Tennessee, Northern Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia; I work primarily in Tennessee and Northern Alabama.”
Tell us more about your background.
“I grew up in Birmingham and went to Alabama for undergrad and Tennessee for law school. After I graduated from UT, my wife Lilly and I moved to Chattanooga, and I worked with a prominent title agent for around three and a half years before joining Fidelity in 2021.
“We moved to Nashville at that point, but Chattanooga continued to feel like home, so I transitioned to working remotely and we moved back in 2023. We still live here today with our daughter Margot and two dogs, Theo and Winston.”
Provide a backgrounder on the CLEs you’ve taught.
“The ‘All My Exes’ and estates presentations are probably two of our most popular ones, as death and divorce are very common title issues in real estate transactions. But we also have a host of other presentations including mobile homes and legal descriptions, the enhanced title policy, remote online notarization, cyber fraud awareness, foreclosures and a few others.
“In addition, we give seminars throughout the year for title agents on a range of topics and hold annual agency seminars for additional education and resources.”
Provide an overview of the topics you’ll be tackling Oct. 29.
“These are exhaustive topics. The divorce topic tackles two common issues: when does a non-titled spouse have to sign as part of a transaction? And what are the mechanics of divorce in relation to ownership of real estate?
“On estates, the challenge is pretty straightforward: a dead person can’t sign a deed. So, who can sign the deed? And what are the limitations on their ability to do so? And who else might have an interest in the property?
“I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve had to have a conversation with someone that begins with us saying, ‘Well, you don’t actually own the property you think you do,’ or, ‘Yes, you own this property, but we have to resolve this other issue first.’ I think real estate transactions can often be like a high-stakes game of telephone, so getting out in front of these issues and helping Realtors with coordinating with title agents helps everyone in the transaction.”