The past year has ushered in significant changes for McSteen, including the opening of a new location in Indianapolis, Indiana, and expanding services to 24 counties across this new state. As a whole, McSteen now offers land services throughout all 88 counties of Ohio and surrounding counties in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Kentucky, including those Indiana counties. This geographic growth has highlighted the necessity and potential of streamlining our service offerings, focusing on what lies at the heart of McSteen: Mortgage Locations | SLRs, Boundary Surveys, ALTAs, and Construction Draw Inspections.
A Focused Approach to Securing the Land
As we approach 2025, our goal is to solidify our position as the primary survey resource for our title, lending and real estate clients. While Mortgage Locations and SLRs remain fundamental to our operations, we are committed to also demonstrating our capability to deliver high-quality and efficient boundary surveys and ALTAs with the same geographic coverage as our other service lines.
In a recent conversation with leadership team members—Molly Woeste, President; Kevin Woeste, CEO; and Maureen Feller, COO—it became clear that there is a strong desire to excel in our core competencies rather than attempting to be everything to everyone. “If you have a real estate need that’s not a mortgage survey, we still want you to think of McSteen first as not only the quality provider but also the one that can turn the work around quickly to keep the transaction moving.”
A pivotal force behind this sharpened focus has been our team’s participation in Scalerator NEO at the beginning of the year. Scalerator is a six-month, cohort-based educational program designed to help entrepreneurs and leadership teams in Northeast Ohio rapidly grow their businesses by focusing on strategies related to “the 3 Cs of growth”: Customers, Capacity, and Cash. This program provided a framework for crucial discussions that propelled us toward actionable steps. “I feel like 2025 is going to be a big change for us as a company—even more focused on really living out our four core products and having everyone on the team aligned on that idea.”
The McSteen Standard
To achieve this vision, we have examined every aspect of our operations, ensuring everyone on the team is working toward a common goal. Part of this common goal is establishing and adhering to a ‘McSteen Standard’ in our client deliverables. This standard will assure our clients that no matter which surveyor is assigned to their project, they can expect consistent, high-quality land services. This commitment translates into minimized repeat visits to properties and faster turnaround times.
By providing our title clients with the same level of quality and efficiency in Boundary Surveys and ALTAs that they have come to expect from Mortgage Locations and SLRs—along with quicker response times—we believe we can deepen our relationships with both new and existing clients. As we look forward to 2025, this shift in focus and the standardization of processes have positioned us as one of the few providers of comprehensive real estate survey services throughout Ohio and beyond.
Expanding Service Areas
The opening of our Indianapolis office was largely driven by the internal improvements we’ve made in our processes and team alignment. Once we confirmed that we could offer the same level of service in Indiana as we do in Ohio, it became clear that expanding into Indiana was a logical next step. We are now building an entirely new division in Indiana, having hired field crews and enhanced our drafting team to support the influx of new business. As Molly shared, “This year has been a building year, and we’ve already seen great progress as we round out the end of the year with significant volume increases and positive client feedback.”
Core Values and Purpose
As we look to 2025, we feel this shift in focus, standardization of processes, and expanded service area has positioned us very well to be one of the only providers of real estate and residential and commercial survey services statewide in Ohio and into surrounding areas. Whether our new Purpose Statement developed in 2024 drove this focus or vice versa is up for discussion. But at the end of the day, our whole team helped us develop our purpose and is living it every day for our clients:
To secure the land where we live, work, and play through the unparalleled delivery of a customer-crafted experience and innovation that propels us beyond boundaries.
At McSteen, we are securers of commercial and residential real estate. That’s who we are. Securing the land where we live, work, and play is not just our mission—it’s our passion. As we move forward into 2025 and beyond, we are excited about the possibilities that new technologies and methodologies will bring to the surveying industry. Together as a team, we will continue to adapt and thrive, ensuring that McSteen remains a leader in providing exceptional land services for years to come.