Building a Title Plant

Building a Title Plant Doug Bello D. Bello Associates, Inc. Pasadena, California 2004 halFILE User Group Austin, Texas

Building a Title Plant Introduction • There’s no “road map” to follow • There’s no “right way” to do this • You will only do this once, no second chances!

Building a Title Plant What to expect • This is a big time commitment • Don’t think this will be easy

Building a Title Plant Before you begin • Talk to other title companies: they are a great resource for do’s and don'ts • Talk to someone at hal Systems: they’ve been through a few of these over the years • Appoint a project manager, give someone this responsibility.

Building a Title Plant Set-up Checklist • Obtain all source documents • Plat edits • Establish all keying/posting rules and put them in writing • Locating/arbing procedures

Building a Title Plant Establishing Keying Rules • Understand necessities vs. luxuries; Everything you key costs $$ • Understand the purpose of what you are keying: Will you be searching from the title chain or looking at each document? • Don’t ‘go crazy’ in the portion of legal or the remarks field

Building a Title Plant County Name Indexes • Can you obtain an outside source of grantor/grantee names? • Do you agree with the parties that are picked up from the documents? • Is it consistent and reliable? • Always have a back-up plan

Building a Title Plant Dealing with Locates • What is a locate? • Count on 10-12% of all recorded documents to be located • How do deal with locates in a backplant vs. daily keying

Building a Title Plant Testing & Quality Assurance • Always complete a sample keying test • Continue testing until you get satisfactory results • Quality check work on a regular basis • Never assume that a good sample will continue forever – things change • What is an acceptable error rate?

Building a Title Plant Ensuring Quality • Single pass vs. double pass • Sight verification vs. key verification • How does key verification work • Plat edits: verifying lots and blocks as well as valid Sections, Townships and Ranges

No in-house staff training, no hiring, no firing No overtime when recordings soar Lower plant maintenance costs Start-up is a lot of work Less ‘control’ over personnel Continued QA will be your responsibility Building a Title Plant Outsourcing: Is it for me? Cons Pros

Building a Title Plant Outsourcing: Selecting a Vendor • Obtain and contact multiple references • Ask specific questions: “How would you..?” • If they don’t know what sectional property is, you are probably talking to the wrong vendor • Do they understand title? • Do they have other capabilities such as to search or arb?

Building a Title Plant Protecting your Data • Back up your plant and images • Use at least one off-site source of data storage • Be sure to back up plat edits, PIN lists, and any other tables or data • Hard copy data should be filmed or scanned directly into halFILE

Building a Title Plant Success and Failure stories…

Building a Title Plant Famous Last Words • “I wish I had talked to someone who had done this before.” • “I didn’t know how hard this was going to be.” • “I didn’t budget enough time.” • “I didn’t understand how the title searching software worked with what I had keyed.” • “I wish I had understood this from the start.”

Building a Title Plant Questions & Discussion

Building a Title Plant