Affinity for public helps exec succeed

Growing up in blue-collar Henderson, Eileen Bechtol never aspired to become a lawyer or doctor or much of anything.

She thought about being a flight attendant, but suffered from severe motion sickness. Or maybe a secretary in the secretary pool she saw on television shows. That looked like fun, she said.

And so, after graduating from Basic High School in 1972, Bechtol took her first job as a secretary, working in the real estate mortgage department for First National Bank of Colorado Springs, (Colo.), where she had moved in 1974.

After more than 30 years in the business, Bechtol has worked her way to senior vice president of escrow administration for Chicago Title of Nevada.

"Someone told me early on I took to it like a duck takes to water. Now it's a trap. It's the only thing I know," Bechtol said.

She has handled some of the most notable real estate transactions in Las Vegas such as the Hard Rock Hotel sale and Focus Property Group's land assemblage for Mountain's Edge master-planned community.

She manages a small staff at Chicago Title's branch office in northwest Las Vegas, sets company policy and procedure, and maintains compliance with corporate and government audits.

"Anyone can do the job," Bechtol said. "But not everybody can be professional and do the job. It's about balancing attention to detail while working well with the public and not everyone can do both."

She served as president of the American Escrow Association in 1992-93 and president of Nevada Escrow Association in 1988-89. In 1990, Bechtol was named the state's Escrow Officer of the Year.

Question: What does a title company do?

Answer: The title side guarantees a clean title to the property for the owner and the lender, that there are no liens or encumbrances.

The misconception is there are relatively few title claims, so where is the value? The fact is there are few claims precisely because we have performed our complicated function. All of the detail work is to avoid potential claims and we are here to catch every problem and clean it up before the transaction closes.

On the escrow side that I manage, we prepare and handle documents and handle the funds necessary to a real estate transaction.

Question: Who were some of your influential mentors in the title business?

Answer: Marie Torrez, one of our escrow officers that I originally started working for in 1975. She promoted me through the ranks and now she works here and reports to me. It's an interesting turn of events.

Question: Some people put money in escrow for financially troubled luxury condominium projects such as Spanish View Towers and now Mira Villa and they're afraid they've lost it. Isn't your money protected in escrow?

Answer: Generally, money put into escrow stays there and unless the buyer authorizes that it be released to the developer, it's still tied up. But because of their agreement with the developer that it can be released, they lost the money and they're going to have to sue to get it back.

In any transaction, it's buyer beware. They've got to read what they agree to. Just because they go into it excited, sometimes they're not as careful as they need to be.

Question: What advice would you give someone thinking about getting into the title business?

Answer: Wait a year. You won't find a job right now. It's an excellent business for someone who doesn't have a college degree, but it does require intelligence and the ability to handle multiple priorities and pay attention to detail.

Question: How do you measure success?

Answer: I think if you're happy, you're successful. It's that simple.

Question: What do you do to relax?

Answer: Go camping. That's my biggest thing. There's no phones, no faxes. You can't clean the house because you're not in it.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0491.