Posted by CommLoanPA on 7/8/12 2:41pm
Msg #426000
Any abstractors out there?
I recently lost my part time job as a paralegal and hope to replace the income as an abstractor for lenders and title insurance companies. I'm using my signing agent database of title companies that I have either worked for or applied to for my initial marketing efforts. As I review their requirements and application packages, E&O insurance appears about 95% of the time. The E&O premiums are huge, and a year's prepayment is required, and I hesitate to purchase until I determine if the abstracting effort is viable. Are there any NSA's who are also abstractors who can give me advice? I'm in a rural area with no title companies within a 60 mile range, and the 2 local abstractors who have been in business forever aren't about to give me start-up tips, and I can't blame them. Although I have never been employed as an abstractor, I have searched courthouse records, and reviewed abstracts and actual documents in my previous jobs.
| Reply by Karla/OR on 7/8/12 2:50pm
Msg #426001
Just curious what the term "abstractor" means. Thanks. n/m
| Reply by Carolyn Breckenridge on 7/8/12 2:54pm
Msg #426002
Re: Just curious what the term "abstractor" means. Thanks.
Title searcher. So, much of searching is done online now. I wish you the best.
| Reply by Linda_H/FL on 7/8/12 3:22pm
Msg #426006
The E&O for a title abstractor is very expensive because the risk is so very very high. Not sure what you did as a paralegal, but the abstractors' expertise is relied upon to market clear title, to issue title insurance policies and is also relied upon in drawing document properly.
You said "Although I have never been employed as an abstractor, I have searched courthouse records, and reviewed abstracts and actual documents in my previous jobs."
I would beware jumping into the water with what appears to be very limited experience in this arena. If you don't know how to follow a chain of title from root to present, and how to pick up on all the little deviations title can take along the way, I would seriously consider getting some form of training in that field before you embark on this path. Without proper training, and knowing what you're doing, you're a negligence or malpractice case looking to happen.
I don't wish to be mean, but them's the facts - a 3-hour online course in abstracting isn't going to cut it. At least not my based on my experience as a real estate paralegal for 25 years.
JMO...and good luck.
| Reply by snowflake/PA on 7/8/12 7:46pm
Msg #426033
I agree with Linda. I learned to title search while employed with a title company when I first started in my real estate career. If you don't know what a full search is (my former co. went 60 years back into the chain), bringdown, etc., it can be frustrating. And mistakes are costly. That is why the E&O premiums are so high. You are searching for any outstanding liens etc., by prior property owners of the premises to be insured. If in the search someone died within the chain - off to the Recorder of Wills office. Start reading the will and you may stumble upon the fact that there is a missing heir in the chain, etc. The saga continues.
I wish you luck in you endeavor.
| Reply by Linda_H/FL on 7/8/12 8:21pm
Msg #426036
"If in the search someone died within the chain - off to the Recorder of Wills office. Start reading the will and you may stumble upon the fact that there is a missing heir in the chain, etc"
Ya just HAD to remind me of that nightmare closing, didn't ya??!! - now I won't sleep tonight - ugh!! ... 
| Reply by Les_CO on 7/8/12 4:31pm
Msg #426009
I think I’d try brain surgery instead, it’s easier to learn, and if you make a small error, no one but the family/ heirs, will complain.
| Reply by MW/VA on 7/8/12 6:14pm
Msg #426022
See msg. 403068 n/m
|
|
