Black-Owned Father-Son Real Estate Title Insurance Biz Achieves $2 Billion in Transactions

by Fern Gillespie

A Black family-owned real estate title insurance firm with a history in Brooklyn, headed by founder and president Osei Rubie and his son and partner Nadir Rubie, recently achieved a milestone of $2 billion in closed real estate transactions with residential, commercial, and faith-based housing clients.

National Standard Abstract, founded by Rubie in 2015, is a New York City and New York State-certified MBE and the New York metro area’s only Black-owned father-son title insurance company that has closed over $2 billion.

“Title insurance is absolutely critical in the home-buying process. It is one of the most important aspects of buying a home,” Osei told Our Time Press. “The moment home buyers are in a contract, a very serious step they need to understand is what potential problems, issues, and threats might exist with that particular property. Whether it’s a single family or a multi-family, they have to understand it’s important for a title report to be ordered on their behalf by their real estate attorney.”

“When a title report is ordered, we are responsible for going back 40 years from the contract date. We research on a local level whether there are violations on the property,” explained Osei. “Is it in foreclosure? Who is the correct and rightful legal owner? If it is in arrears for past real estate taxes or arrears on the water and sewer. This includes unsatisfied mortgages, liens, judgments, open permits, or other recorded claims against the property. Also, are there hidden risks like fraud or forgery in previous documents, improperly executed deeds, or deaths in the chain of title.”

Home buyers need to be fully educated on the history of the property. “The due diligence process is one of the most important aspects of buying a home,” said Osei. “Title insurance gives the new owner, the buyer, a marketable and clean title.”

Working with his father, partner Nadir is a third-generation Black entrepreneur. His grandparents Bernardo and Yvonne Rubie were owners of Golden Ribbon Playthings, located in Williamsburg, which produced and marketed products focusing on African pride from Afrocentric clothing to the award-winning Huggy Bean, America’s top-selling Black character doll.

“I grew up in a family legacy of Black entrepreneurship. I am proud of what my father and I have accomplished by being true to ourselves by servicing the New York metropolitan’s predominantly Black communities, organizations, and companies,” said Nadir.

As a child, Osei attended third, fourth, and fifth grade at Brooklyn’s famed Pan-African schools, Jitu Weusi’s Uhuru Sasa and Ayanna Johnson’s Weusi Shule.

“It was a magnificent training ground to immerse young Black students in the greatness of Black history on a global level. There was an entire regimen of martial arts, athletics, and healthy eating,” explained Osei, who once lived in Liberia when his parents had an importing company and now has the Osei Rubie Charitable Fund, a philanthropic arm of NSA, which donates to racial justice organizations. “This is why my son Nadir and I are owners of NSA and stand on the shoulders of so many greats. It’s given us a wealth of knowledge, self-confidence, and determination that we cannot only compete but outperform.

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