This is not where I thought I would end up...

NOTE: THIS ENTRY IS FOR FAMILY HISTORY PURPOSES. YOU MAY BE BORED....VERY VERY BORED.

I never, EVER thought I would end up as a title  researcher. For that matter, owning my own business never even crossed my mind as a possibility. Title research, as any of my fellow researchers will tell you, is something you just fall into on the way to your dream job.  At first you say "Oh I will just do this until I find a REAL job." Then it's "Wow,  I am actually pretty good at this." The next thing you know it's five years later and you have no memory of where the time went.

I started working for a small title research company in Annapolis, MD in 2001 after I had graduated from college with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. I had moved back in with my parents because my boyfriend had done me the HUGE favor of breaking up with me (no seriously, we were just wasting each other's time). For months, I applied to various criminal justice jobs in various places like the ATF, FBI, Treasury Department, etc etc. I had NO idea what I wanted to do. My mother, in the meantime, saw that I wasn't doing anything useful and started to ask around. She knew a woman, who knew a woman who's husband was working for this guy or something like that. 2001 was the height of the refi boom and Bob (my boss at the time) couldn't get enough good workers. People were making money like crazy. We worked hard and he rewarded us very well. 

I didn't like title research at first because it was just so mundane. Incredibly detail oriented. You are paying attention to the slightest detail like comparing the curve of someone's signature on a mortgage in 1998 to that of a mortgage in 2000 just to make sure the same person signed it and it wasn't fraudulent. So many details to keep track of and if you missed something you could be sued for extremely large amounts of money. We were stuck in a dank room with no windows, sifting through huge, dusty old books filled with barely legible ancient handwriting. The room didn't have proper ventilation so the winter months involved one sickness after another. The record room was filled with about 20 other companies all doing the exact same thing you were doing. Every one of these people had come about their job the exact same way you did so no one really had anything in common except our job. Plus, we were all competing with each other so it got ugly on a regular basis. If someone wasn't wearing deodorant you would know and it would make you miserable all day long.  I stuck with it, though. It turns out I am really very good at paying attention to very small details. I am very good a my job. Who knew?

Anyways....


I was there for a year before the owner's son said "I have a friend that needs a job" and of course our boss said yes since he couldn't find enough people. That's how I met Mark but that's a story for another time. After being together for a year when we decided that we couldn't afford to live in Maryland. 350K for a double wide trailer with no AC? No thank you. I went to college in Richmond and knew the housing market was much more affordable in certain parts of Virginia. We had no family in Richmond but my best friend was eventually going to move back when her husband finished his schooling so we thought "why not?" We always wanted to move around and not be stuck in one place so this was an adventure. Looking back on it, I am pretty proud of the fact that they we uprooted our tiny family for better opportunities. It was very hard to move to a place that was far away from family and support. We still struggle with it, even more so since having children.

Mark and I were hired at the same abstracting company and some friends of ours were kind enough to let us stay at their house until we found an apartment which took about a week. So we had a job and we were getting married in a few months. Everything was right on track. Or so we thought.

Fast forward to 8 months after our wedding. We were still working for the same company and were reassured time and again that our jobs were very secure. Feeling our jobs were secure we felt good about getting pregnant on our honeymoon. Yes, our honeymoon. Then, 8 months later Mark and I were laid off at the same time from the same company. We were devastated. We didn't know what to do. We had always talked about starting our own abstracting business but hadn't started to plan for it, let alone save any money for the business. It was now or never. We could keep going from one abstracting business to another or we could start out on our own and not have anyone to answer to. This rates at the most stressful time in our lives. In almost a week we incorporated our business, got life insurance and started to solicit business.

George Isaac Starkey was born almost exactly 9 months after our wedding on July 31st 2005. We were married on October 30th 2004. You do the math :) Why not? Every single member of my family has :)

So we had a newborn baby, a new business, no money coming in except for some savings and a crapload of stress. We also had absolutely no health insurance. I honestly don't know how the stress didn't eat us alive. It makes me ill just thinking about it.

Everyones knows what happened next. The market crashed. Many of our clients closed up shop and declared bankruptcy without paying us what they owed. Our plans to buy a house were put at the bottom of the list while we struggled to manage with the day to day. For two years we struggled to maintain steady work and steady money before Mark decided to go out and get a "real" job. With that real job, we had stability and more importantly, health insurance. The fear of not having health insurance still haunts me. I can sympathize with young parents who don't have insurance for their babies. I was constantly worried about one of us getting sick.

Another fast forward to today. Sometimes I think I am in the wrong business. I think I have missed my calling in the medical field. When I am not getting any work in from my clients, when my clients treat me like I am nothing, when I don't get paid for the work I do, when the stress seems too much I just think about all the good things this job gives me. Most importantly, this job gives me time with my children. The flexibility to pick them up whenever they are sick, to stay home with them when needed, to be there for the school plays and awards ceremonies.

This business has also given me a beautiful, loyal friend. We are both small business owners working every day to keeps clients happy while trying to maintain the proper balance of family and work. We know what each other is going through because we are going through it at the same time. She is one of those friends that that ALWAYS listens and ALWAYS cares. She is always honest and open. I can always count on her to tell me the truth, good or bad. She has the maturity to know that no marriage is perfect (and none is, those to who claim to have a perfect marriage are big fat liars) and no mother is perfect. This description doesn't do her justice but she needs an entire entry all to herself so I will stop here. She has taught me what being a good friends means. She even hugs me when she KNOWS I don't like it and I just tolerate it. Because it's her...(I heart you, Tanya :) )

So even though I never thought I would be in this business (or knew that it even existed), this is where I needed to be to become the person I am. Owning a business is hard. No one ever tells you how hard it is but I can always go and do something else. This is my choice and there is no complaining. I have no boss and only I am responsible for my success. This business has shown me the bottom of the barrel but I can take credit for every inch of success that I have earned.