Accurate, legal property records are essential for a wide variety of transactions, including buying and selling real estate, assessing taxes, obtaining mortgages, inheriting property, and many other financial dealings. Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers research and obtain real estate records and other documents to ensure the legitimacy and integrity of property-related transactions. Title examiners spend much of their time searching public and private records for property title related documents. They study plat books, official documents, that describe the history of properties, and their dimensions and property lines. They examine mortgages, contracts, legal descriptions, easements, maps, and other documents. They often prepare reports to describe their findings about a property title, especially any restrictions on a property’s legal use, or debts owed on the property. Exacting attention to detail and record keeping skills are essential qualities in this field. Title examiners prepare documents that have long-term impact for those involved, so they must also be aware of any legislation that pertains to their field. They may assess fees. Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers generally work for law firms, real estate agencies, and title insurance companies. While they almost always work in offices, they sometimes travel to real estate transaction closings, or to specific offices to study documents on site. Most positions require a high school diploma; on-the-job training is provided by most employers.
What they do:
Search real estate records, examine titles, or summarize pertinent legal or insurance documents or details for a variety of purposes. May compile lists of mortgages, contracts, and other instruments pertaining to titles by searching public and private records for law firms, real estate agencies, or title insurance companies.
On the job, you would:
Examine documentation such as mortgages, liens, judgments, easements, plat books, maps, contracts, and agreements to verify factors such as properties' legal descriptions, ownership, or restrictions.
Examine individual titles to determine if restrictions, such as delinquent taxes, will affect titles and limit property use.
Prepare reports describing any title encumbrances encountered during searching activities and outlining actions needed to clear titles.
Arts and Humanities
English language
Safety and Government
law and government
Business
administrative services
customer service
Engineering and Technology
computers and electronics
Basic Skills
reading work related information
listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
Problem Solving
noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it
Verbal
communicate by speaking
listen and understand what people say
Ideas and Logic
use rules to solve problems
make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines.
They do well at jobs that need:
Attention to Detail
Integrity
Dependability
Cooperation
Stress Tolerance
Analytical Thinking
You might use software like this on the job:
Data base user interface and query software
Data Trace Title IQ
Microsoft Access
Presentation software
Microsoft PowerPoint
Document management software
Adobe Systems Adobe Acrobat
File management software
high school diploma/GED or bachelor's degree usually needed
Get started on your career:
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