For 37 years, Patricia Gonzalez has provided her Miami Lakes neighbors with help when it comes to buying and selling their homes.
Gonzalez is the president and chief executive officer of Hemisphere Title Company, located in the Villaggio in the Lakes Plaza at 5801 NW 151st St., Suite 100 in Miami Lakes.
The company primarily represents home buyers by making sure a property is free of liens.
It also looks for errors in the documentation; outstanding claims or fraudulent activity.
Hemisphere Title Company will also process documents for a seller -- as long as the company is representing a buyer.
Other services include selling title insurance to new property owners.
Gonzalez has advertised in The Miami Laker since moving her business to town from unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
“Consistently in the last two years or a year and a half,” Gonzalez said about how long she has presented her business in the pages of the community newspaper.
Gonzalez and her daughter Natalee Lima are the title agents at the firm, which has an all-female staff.
Lima was a teenager when she began working with her mother. She began her career by answering the phone and doing tasks around the office before she became a title agent.
Gonzalez says she finds that advertising in The Miami Laker helps her business and has brought clients through her door.
“[People] are able to sit down and look at [the newspaper] and know what’s going on,” Gonzalez said.
She said that unlike cell phones or the computer, the local newspaper is something that a customer will take the time to pause and read.
She counts herself among them, saying she “loves” The Miami Laker.
“They’re looking for things,” Gonzalez said about readers who discover stories about local businesses or interesting people in town.
And while they’re reading, potential clients will come across her ad.