A total of nine title insurance and settlement services providers were named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies for 2022. In 2021, 12 firms made the list.
The self-reported list is comprised of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the U.S. based on percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2021. The minimum revenues required are $100,000 for 2018 and $2 million for 2021.
Virginia Beach-based Priority Title & Escrow came in as the top-ranked title company for the second year in a row, ranking at No. 984, with 661% growth rate over three years. This is the firm’s sixth consecutive year on the list and its second highest placement on the ranking. In 2021, it came in at No. 793.
The eight other title service providers on the list included AccuTitle (No. 1115), Celebration Title Group (No. 1149), World Wide Land Transfer (No. 1932), PropLogix (No. 2317), Centurion Land Title (No. 3093), First National Title Insurance Company (No. 3792), TitleSmart (No. 3808), and Clear Title Agency of Arizona (No. 4059).
This is Celebration Title Group’s first year making the list, while Centurion Land Title and Clear Title Agency of Arizona are appearing back on the list after their most recent appearances in 2020 and 2018, respectively. Celebration Title Group is also the youngest title firm on the list, having been founded in 2016 by CEO Amanda Douglas.
Coming in as the second ranked title firm and improvement of one place over 2021, its first year on the list, AccuTitle recorded a solid three-year growth rate of 582%. Its 2022 ranking is also an improvement over its 2021 ranking of 1575. The firm’s CEO Bill Bartzak came from a medical software background and when he entered the title industry, he began looking for ways to streamline the closing process
“We wanted to figure out where we could create some efficiencies and maybe put some companies together that made sense,” Bartzak said.
Initially this meant AccuTitle purchased four closing software providers, including Closers’ Choice and Landtech, but more recently Bartzak said his firm has entered into more strategic partnerships with vendors servicing other parts of the closing experience, such as remote online notarization companies.
“There are all these other ancillary services necessary to facilitate closings and that is what we are looking at now — pursuing closer relationships with those third party vendors,” he said.
As refinance volume dries up and purchase volume decreases, Bartzak said he feels his Ship Bottom, New Jersey-based firm is ready to tackle the challenge.
“It is definitely slowing down,” Bartzak said. “The number of transactions is down, but our business continues to grow. So, as we lose some transaction volume, we make it up in other areas of service and it looks like our numbers this year will be higher than last year.”
Still, despite the challenges facing the industry, including relatively high interest rates and decreasing housing affordability, Bartzak said AccuTitle is doing roughly 80,000 closing a month.
Looking ahead, Bartzak feels that the closing process will continue to be streamlined.
“I think that is going to be the big topic here the next couple of years — just making the process as easy as possible for the agents, underwriters, all the vendors, the search companies, and the lender, and enabling them to communicate under one roof or in this case technology platform, but there are only going to be a handful of platforms that win out and we fully expect that we’re going to be one of those left standing at the end,” he said.
The complete list of title insurance companies on the Inc. 5000 list are below:
