For more than 30 years, Pioneer Title Agency Inc. has provided its services and information in the real estate industry, such as title insurance background checks, escrow services, homeowner’s policies and trustee sale guarantees.

The company currently employs more than 400 employees across 35 cities in 14 counties of Arizona, and has opened up a new location in Buckeye.

Yet it all began as a small family business in 1985. Keith Newlon founded Pioneer with his wife Cindy and the support of his parents. Pioneer Title Agency has since grown from a small office in a rural community with just a handful of employees into the business it is today.

“While all the other larger companies were laying off people, we were buying offices and constantly expanding in those rural markets even though we were in a downturn,” says Lesa Connell, Business Development Manager for Pioneer. “Obviously the market since the 80’s has seen a lot of ups and downs. [Pioneer] has just been riding that wave of ups and downs, and we’ve just continued to grow from the very beginning.”

Pioneer opened a branch in the growing community of Buckeye. The branch is located at 4252 N. Verrado Way in Suite B-100 and Connell says Pioneer saw a need for a company like itself in Buckeye, which has plenty of land for development.

“There’s a lot of growth in Buckeye and no other title companies,” she says. “It only made sense to us; we started in rural climates, and Buckeye is still considered rural. The motivation was just to blaze the trail and we’ve opened in places where none of the big guys are willing to.”

Pioneer hosted an open house at the new Buckeye location on December 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The entire Pioneer team welcomed the community with complimentary refreshments and treats at the event.

And next year, Buckeye Mayor Jackie Meck and the Chamber of Commerce will be attending the celebration of Pioneer’s location opening with a ribbon cutting on January 24 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

These events help highlight what Connell deems a vital philosophy of Pioneer: commitment to the local communities. Connell says that each branch of Pioneer coordinates its own way to contribute to the surrounding community.

“This year was our 30th anniversary in business,” Connell says. Pioneer’s various branches celebrated the company’s anniversary by collaborating in a “Take a Hike” initiative, which rose money for the Arizona Trail Association. “The goal was $30,000 and we rose $45,000 and that was one of the things that all of our offices worked on.”

In total, Connell says that Pioneer has donated over $600,000 to more than 240 Arizona communities over the past few years. Pioneer also supports communities through the company’s expansion, opening more offices and employing more people.

“The idea for us is to continue to fill in the gaps where there isn’t a title office, and we can come right in and help support those communities with our dollars and what we do.”