Making an impact

MOSES LAKE — Ami Satterfield loves what her work at Frontier Title and Escrow can do for people.

“In everything I've done, I always want to help people, and make an impact. And what a huge impact (for) a person buying a home, saving up forever, or a first-time home buyer or an investor that's able to expand their rental income. So that's kind of what interested me, being able to be part of something like that,” Satterfield said.

Apparently, others have noticed that about Satterfield, because she was named Affiliate of the Year at the Moses Lake-Othello Realtors Association banquet in January. She’s not sure who nominated her, but she does have the slip attached to the award plaque to tell her why.

“Ami is always busting to get deals done and keep everyone happy,” it reads. “She goes above and beyond with her team at Frontier to get things done in a timely manner while not cutting corners. She has treated Realtors like we matter.”

Satterfield didn’t set out to work at a title company. She’s originally from the Issaquah-Redmond area on the west side, and her education was in education. Satterfield and her husband moved to the area about 15 years ago, she said, to help her parents manage a resort. When the economy went south, they went back to the west side where she worked as a school principal for five years, and then came back to Moses Lake. About a year after that, Frontier Title had an opening, and she’s been there ever since.

The shift from education to escrow wasn’t as drastic as it sounds, Satterfield said.

“When you’re a principal you manage, profit and losses and employees and you handle all of that good stuff. So I started here with the accounting piece of it … where I would just pay out the files. The file would be given to me, and then I would pay the sellers their proceeds, and the agents their commission, and the utilities and all of that. But obviously, you learn more. So I'm now able to make appointments for clients and I work closely with the lender and the agent.”

A title and escrow company is kind of like a cross between a lawyer’s office and an insurance company, Satterfield explained, a neutral third party.

“We're kind of the middleman. We insure the property, obviously. And we offer it free and clear title, making sure there's no liens, but we also work with the lenders and the agents to make sure we're following the contract, that we're handling all the documents and all the money and that everything is being paid off and disbursed correctly.”

Much of Frontier’s business is local, but sometimes it’s necessary for Satterfield to work across state lines or even international borders, which can make things more complicated.

“Technology is fabulous, right? That's one positive from COVID, is that we can electronically sign and notarize people, which is great. One that we just did in Mexico, we were able to prepare the documents in advance, and they got an appointment at the consulate to get everything notarized and then sent back to us. So you just make it work.”

Being a transplant from the west side has given Satterfield an appreciation for the local community. Her husband passed away about 10 months ago, she said, and people rallied around her in ways that she wouldn’t have imagined before coming here.

“One beautiful thing about Moses Lake is it's a community,” she said. “You know, I grew up in Redmond and Issaquah, and ... if your car broke down on the side of the road, people just (drove by). If your car breaks down on the side of the road here in Moses Lake, you're gonna have two or three people who are gonna stop. ‘Are you okay? Do you need help?’ So that sense of community is enormous.”

That sense of togetherness and the unique situations with her job keep her going, she said.

“You know, every day is different,” Satterfield said. “You can come in and think, ‘OK, I'm doing these three files today.’ And then you can go left, right up, down, sideways. I think that's part of the excitement is that you learn something new every day.”

Joel Martin may be reached at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.