Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Jason Deleeuw of Piper Jaffray.
Jason Deleeuw – Piper Jaffray
Good morning, everyone.
Parker S. Kennedy
Good morning.
Jason Deleeuw – Piper Jaffray
First I want to touch on the open orders we seen in April here looks like we are back to January levels, but do you guys have any insights in to how quickly the lenders are ramping up for Obama's refinance plan? It seems like the lenders have been slow to ramp up on this with some saying they are not even can be ready to do these reifies until May. So I am wondering what you guys are seeing on that front?
Dennis J. Gilmore
Sure, Jason, this is Dennis. Our open orders right now in April are running at approximately 10,000 orders per day. Up over March, and consistent with what we see going forward. And at this point, we are really not experiencing any uplift from the homeowner affordability refinance programs. So this is just general volume going through the system right now. We are seeing the orders take longer to close, both resale and our refinance orders and that's because the backlog is in the system and difficulty of closing the orders. But still, it doesn't matter we are very focused on our overall operating expenses and even though orders are continuing to up tick in April, we are continuing holding our staff counts flat.
Jason Deleeuw – Piper Jaffray
If any of the big name lenders done any of the reifies under the plan?
Dennis J. Gilmore
I can't answer specifically on any of the lenders. I can tell you they are starting to gear up for the efforts.
Jason Deleeuw – Piper Jaffray
Okay. And then with you are expecting nice margin improvement. How high can you believe your title pre-tax margin can go just one I just look at, you did a lot of open orders you incurred a lot of expenses in the first quarter, but your salaries and your other operating expenses didn't increase a whole lot, so it would seem like you're now going to have a lot of revenue coming on in the second quarter and some of the expenses were recognized in the first quarter. So trying to gauge what you guys think could be possible for title pre-tax margins?
Dennis J. Gilmore
Sure. Let me take that question. A couple of things, first we don't give guidance and that's going to stay your policy. But when I look at over the cycle, it’s clearly we want to run this business in a double-digit environment, when we get a normalized cycle. First when we go back and look over the first quarter we ended January with a weak inventory level, we were losing money in January. We’ve returned to profitability in February that profitability increased in March and we see upward trends in April. So all the trends are good, as we look going into the second quarter. Again, I think we will see a significant signature margin expansion in the second quarter and I am encouraged and we are focused again running the business efficiently, getting the operating leverage out of the business we think we can get leveraging some of our key strengths both onshore and offshore. So bottom line, I'm very encouraged as I look into the second quarter and third quarter.
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