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© 2002-2006 Title Solutions, Inc. Web Site By Title Solutions, Inc. 
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Our History
Grand County Title (GCT) started out as Grand County Water and
Land Title Company and was incorporated on March 6, 1975. The first office was
located in Granby, Colorado. Its sole principal at inception was a local
attorney, John Baker, of the law firm Baker, Cazier & McGowan.
For the first few years of its operation its only employee was Liz Woods. Liz came to GCT as a skilled title examiner, having worked for Grand County Abstract Company, which was the only title/abstract company in Grand County at the time. At John Baker’s urging, Liz agreed to build a complete land title plant from scratch for Grand County. She literally read every document ever recorded in the real estate records for Grand County and posted each to a geographical land tract index system. As a result, GCT can now boast that it has the only complete title plant for Grand County. In addition to building the title plant, Liz performed paralegal work for the law firm of Baker, Cazier & McGowan, which was at the time issuing title insurance commitments and policies for Attorney’s Title Guaranty Fund, Inc.
In 1978, an agency relationship with Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation was established, which has continued since.
In 1979, the company changed its trade name to Grand County Title Corporation and conducted business under that name until 1991.
Prior to 1984, GCT confined its business to title matters, including such products as title insurance commitments and policies, abstracts, ownership and encumbrance reports and foreclosure certificates. In 1984, it became necessary to add closing and escrow services in order to remain competitive. A closing department was established, and an additional employee hired. GCT has continued to offer both title and closing/escrow services since that time.
In 1985, Lawyers Title closed its Denver regional office, causing some interruption in the working relationship with GCT. Consequently, GCT entered into an additional agency relationship with Ticor Title Insurance Insurance Company. That agency relationship also continues.
Liz continued as the Manager of GCT until January 11, 1991 when she moved from Grand County. Upon her departure, GCT employed Kent Whitmer as a title examiner and manager.
Kent came on board as a young attorney only two years out of school. Prior to coming to work for the Company, he had been working in Wyoming for a sole practitioner whose practice focused exclusively on representing oil and gas interests, which, as luck would have it, included doing a lot of title work in the course of issuing mineral title opinions.
At the outset of 1991, GCT was still relatively small, employing only 4 people.
In August of 1991, Kent purchased GCT from John Baker. The company’s name was changed to its present name, Grand County Title and Escrow Company, Inc. Also, at this time, an additional agency relationship was established with United General Title Insurance Company, while continuing to maintain agency relationships with Ticor and Lawyers.
In 1991, Grand County--as with much of Western Colorado--was emerging from a
lengthy economic downturn that had began in the mid 80’s. There were over 50
repossessed HUD homes on the market in Granby alone, a city with a population of
only 2000 at the time. Despite the prior bad economic times, there was cautious
optimism for the future among local business people.
That optimism was borne out over the course of the next three years, wherein GCT doubled in size. This growth precipitated the opening of a branch escrow office in Winter Park in 93’/94’.
In 1996, Curtis Lange purchased a 49% interest in GCT from Kent and came on board as an employee/owner. Curtis is a CPA by training. His initial and present responsibilities with GCT include overseeing the escrow operations, accounting and information technology.
In 1998, not only did the economy catch on fire, but also interest rates were reaching record lows. The combination of these two factors led to a record year and growth for GCT.
By 2001, GCT had moved its principal office from Granby to a new 9000 square foot office building in Hot Sulphur Springs, the county seat. Also, in 2001, an additional escrow office was established in Grand Lake. All three office’s (Winter Park, Hot Sulphur, and Grand Lake) computer systems are networked and linked via satellite technology.
Since 1991, through all the ups and downs in the economy and increased
competition, GCT has grown steadily. This growth rate seems to have paralleled
the population growth rate of Grand County. In 1991, the total full-time
residents of Grand County numbered only a little over 6,500 people. Now, it
numbers over 18,000, and is projected to be over 30,000 in 10 years.
Over the course of the last 15 years, GCT has expanded and contracted its personnel in accordance with what the market dictated. At present, the Company employs 10 full-time people. With all of its locations and excess physical capacity at the Hot Sulphur office, the Company has the ability to quickly expand to meet market demands in the future.
OUR OFFICES |
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Main Office |
Grand Lake Office |
Winter Park Office |
| PO Box 38 129 E. Byers Ave. Hot Sulphur Springs, CO 80451 Phone: 970.725.3200 Fax: 970.725.3250 Toll Free: 888.852.2368 | PO Box 1939 721 Grand Ave., Unit B Grand Lake, CO 80447 Phone: 970.627.0400 Fax: 970.627.0401 Toll Free: 800.471.5706 | PO Box 1350 21 Kings Crossing Rd., Unit #101 Winter Park, CO 80482 Phone: 970.726.0228 Fax: 970.726.0229 Toll Free: 866.505.9456 |