California + Los Angeles | January 16, 2021

My Friend, My Mentor, and One of the Best Title Reps

A Tribute to Gil Escobedo By Daniel Ceniceros, CEO of Connect Media

“Just a title rep.” Throughout my career, I’ve heard that quite a bit. But the man I talk about today was so much more. Unfortunately, this doesn’t have a happy ending. The industry has lost a giant. Yeah, he didn’t build skyscrapers or sell billions of dollars of real estate, but he was involved in changing the landscape of the Western U.S. Today, I learned that I lost my dear friend, Gil Escobedo of Commonwealth Title. Until the end, Gil was doing what he loved; serving the industry. Sadly, the global pandemic cut his life short. Nothing was going to stop Gil from doing his job which he loved so much.

I first met Gil in 1998 in the Downtown L.A. networking club. He and Denise Anthony, of Lawyer’s Title, showed me the ropes. They taught me how to fearlessly walk into a broker or lender office and give out my RE SoCal magazines with a smile. For the next 15 years, Gil Escobedo the title rep, Hal Rose the billion-dollar apartment lender and I would meet once a month at the par 3 Los Feliz Golf Course to play nine holes and have breakfast. I was learning about the industry from the best. They taught me about family, integrity and execution. Gil was a regular at my family parties, always in the kitchen charming the women, my mother included.

Gil was old school. He came to every Connect event. I always offered him a comp, but he insisted on paying. However, he refused to use his credit card in fear of having his number compromised online, so he would bring a handwritten check with him every time. I still have a collection of those checks because I never cashed them.

Just a title rep that I always aspired to be like. I will miss his smile and his terrible putting!

I love this industry and the people in it. Please stay safe. I want to see you all soon.

Daniel

Connect

Inside The Story

About Dennis Kaiser

Dennis Kaiser is Vice President of Content and Public Relations for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Dennis is a communications leader with more than 30 years of experience including as a journalist and in corporate and agency marketing communications roles. He is responsible for Connect’s client content operations and is involved in a range of initiatives ranging from content strategy, message development, copywriting, media relations, social media and content marketing services. In his most recent corporate communications roles, he led a regional public relations effort across Southern California for CBRE, played a key marketing role on JLL’s national retail team, and was responsible for directing the global public relations effort at ValleyCrest, the nation’s largest commercial landscape services company. In addition to his vast commercial real estate experience, Dennis has worked on communications and launch strategies for a number of residential projects such as Disney’s Celebration in Florida, Ritter Ranch in Palmdale California (7,200 homes, 22,000 acres), WaterColor in Florida and PremierGarage in Phoenix. Dennis’s agency background included firms such as Idea Hall and Macy + Associates. He has earned an outstanding reputation with organization leaders as a trusted advisor, strategic program implementer, consensus builder and exceptional collaborator. Dennis has developed and managed national communications programs for Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, both public and private. He’s successfully worked with journalists across the globe representing clients involved in major-breaking news stories, product launches, media tours, and company news announcements. Dennis has been involved in a host of charitable and community organizations including the American Cancer Society, Easter Seals, BoyScouts, Chrysalis Foundation, Freedom For Life, HOLA, L.A.’s BEST, Reach Out and Read, Super Bowl Host Committee, and Thunderbirds Charities.

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