Economic boom opens doors for closing company

Nor th Dakota Guaranty & Title Co. doubles staff in 3 years

BY KRIS BEVILL

Multi-million-dollar projects used to come along only once in a blue moon in North Dakota, says Tim Atkinson, chairman of the board at North Dakota Guaranty & Title Co. These days, it’s not uncommon for several $100-million-plus projects to be in the works at any given time across various sectors in the state

“It’s an exciting time to be in business,” he says.

“Exciting” may be an understatement, considering NDGT can often be found behind the scenes in residential and commercial real estate deals throughout North Dakota and eastern Montana, providing the admittedly nonglamorous but essential services necessary to complete property sale transactions, including abstract services, title insurance and closing services In just the last three years, NDGT has insured more than $1 billion in commercial transactions It is currently the largest company of its kind in North Dakota.

Company President Nick Hacker says a significant portion of NDGT’s business is focused on commercial and industrial projects in the Bakken and the company has ramped up its energy-specific skills to meet the demands of the oil and gas boom. But he emphasizes that all commercial sectors throughout North Dakota are very active. “Yes, there is a lot of volume that comes out of the Bakken as a result of the oil boom, however we ’ re continually doing roadways, railways, work in the coal corridor, as well as on wind farms and other types of facilities such as government facilities that are being built across the state,” he says “It’s not just the Bakken It’s anything and every- thing unique in North Dakota and eastern Montana ”

About 100 people are currently employed at NDGT’s eight locations in western North Dakota and one in Sidney, Mont nearly twice as many people as there were just three years ago Founded in Bismarck in 1955, the company expanded slightly in 1985 with the acquisition of an abstract company in Mandan. In 1996, it acquired a guaranty and title company in Dickinson In 2007, it fortuitously began expanding more rapidly throughout western North Dakota, initially adding an office in Minot and eventually growing to include locations in Mohall, Killdeer, Watford City and Williston

“We like to joke that we could see all of this oil activity coming in western North Dakota, but of course nobody could,” Atkinson says, noting that the company ’ s main criteria for expanding to a new marketplace is an identified need for a higher level of service than is currently available

Delivering top-notch customer service has been the company ’ s mission since its creation and continues to be a dominating factor in every in-house decision, according to Hacker and Atkinson Earlier this year, NDGT unified the names of its North Dakota locations to make NDGT a more recognizable brand for its customers. The company has also embraced technology to better connect employees across offices and enable them to assist on projects remotely “If a developer is moving a project in Williston but they are located in Bismarck, instead of it becoming more complex they can work with the Bismarck office on the Williston project and not miss a beat,” Atkinson says. “Any one of our offices can help with any project and have full access to all of the people in our company. ”

Hacker says the company also invests in customer service training for its employees and adopts current best practices whenever possible to better serve its customers. “We are extremely focused on the customer and we do that through our people,” he says

Another of its customer-centric tactics is to hire local people who are already familiar with the specific community and train them as needed to fill open positions. “We’re not necessarily out there throwing an ad in the paper for someone with 10 years of experience,” Hacker says “We’ll take somebody with a year or two of office experience and grow them into our industry.”

The company intends to continue expanding in the future, with a primary focus on new markets in North Dakota and surrounding states. Atkinson says the company is considering diversifying into complimentary areas as well as expanding its core business into new markets, but it will stay true to its philosophy of entering only those markets with a need for a higher level of services “Our expertise is really the decades of land title information services that we provide and are recognized for that will continue to remain our core, ” he says “That said, what will our business look like in 20 years? It could be entirely different than it is today Who can say?” PB

Kris Bevill Editor, Prairie Business 701-306-8561, kbevill@prairiebizmag.com

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