Jan Knapmeyer
Jan is our lead closing agent. Her extensive background comes from owning and operating Freedom Title in downtown Clearwater for 10 years, a successful company which she sold a few years ago.
Jan has overseen the closings of both residential and commercial real estate properties, from simple home refinances to more complex commercial transactions. Her wide experience allows Jan to recognize and address problems before they can delay a closing.
Jan loves helping clients get through the sometimes complicated process of closing on their properties, in a manner that comes to a straightforward effortless close.
In her spare time, she loves spending time with her 2 granddaughters, and is very active in her church.
Paula Hayes
Paula graduated with high honors in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. While working in Houston, Texas for Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst and Young), Paula passed the certified public accountant exam on her first attempt.
Since obtaining her CPA certification, Paula has worked in a number of areas including income tax preparation, participating in the audits of companies, serving as the internal auditor for a group of car dealerships, as the general accounting manager responsible for all accounting, financial statement preparation and inventory accounting for a telephone system manufacturing company (tech startup), and holding the chief financial officer position for a law firm, a hedge fund, a medical detox center, an entertainment company, and a group of related companies in the health & wellness field with an e-commerce business model.
Since 2018, Paula has served as the CFO for a residential home remodeling contractor. She also consults with numerous nonprofit organizations around the country to help them with their compliance reporting and tax preparation.
Steve Hayes
Steven L. Hayes graduated with honors from the University of Arkansas and with honors from the University of San Francisco Law School.
Steve believes that an attorney has an obligation to not only help his paying clients but also to help good groups who are being unfairly attacked. On a pro bono basis, Steve has successfully represented a number of people and groups whose civil rights were being attacked.
Steve has also served as the chairman of an international non-profit education organization and continues to provide pro bono legal services to the organization.
Since 1990, Steve has been in the forefront of efforts to replace the federal income tax with a national retail sales tax. He is now the Chairman and President of Americans for Fair Taxation, a 501(c)(4) organization which is promoting the FAIRtax bill which has been introduced in Congress.
He has appeared on many hundreds of radio and television shows, had numerous articles published in newspapers and magazines, and spoken to citizen groups around the country about why we must eliminate the income tax and the IRS and replace them with a national retail sales tax.
Steve has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee and appeared on panels discussing tax reform in Washington, D.C. and around the country. He is widely sought after as a subject matter expert on tax reform panels and forums and frequently speaks at Town Halls sponsored by Members of Congress on tax reform.
In 2007, Steve and Paula, his wife, moved to Clearwater, Florida to start Novus Medical Detox Center. Novus was a medical facility that enabled people to successfully taper off drugs and, if appropriate, go to a rehab facility. Steve served as the director of Novus for the period from 2007 to 2010. During this period, he testified at hearings on the opioid addiction problem conducted by the FDA in Baltimore.
Steve and Paula have one wonderful child and two beautiful grandchildren.