California Surveyors Forums

As I retire and get back into private work (on a very occasional basis) I'm curious about online sources for deeds, assessor's maps, and recorded maps. I just checked Parcel Quest and their annual fee is $1,800! But I only expect to need 8 or 10 docs a month, probably most months even less.

Is there anyone out there that charges on a per/doc basis? Something reasonable for the small time operator?

You could check with a couple like Courthouse Direct or DocEdge. I think Doc edge has a subscription per year that includes a certain amount of documents per month. I think the base rate on those is around $8 per document.

NetRonline lets you pay per document / map. You need to setup an account and deposit money using a credit card. Then you can purchase against the deposit and add money as needed.

http://www.netronline.com/

I use DataTree, which is a predecessor of DocEdge. I pay by the document, which is the reason I never "upgraded" to DocEdge, despite being told years ago that DataTree was going to be phased out. I also use CourthouseDirect on occasion, but I find their interface to be too clunky to use on a regular basis.

Courthouse Direct can't retrieve deeds by APN, but is cheaper than DataTree. IIRC both use the FirstAm database, and how far back you can go depends on the county. Unfortunately, even here in the Bay Area, there are urban counties where only recent deeds are available, like 1988 on. It's impossible to get older docs unless you go to the county recorder.

I suggest requesting a title report from the client, so there's someone you can email and request older deeds from.

I'm looking for a company that will provide abstracts of title / research for a reasonable price.

Another one that I just started using at my old job, before switching to my new one is called TitlePoint by Black Knight Financial Services. Not sure their availability in other areas of the state, but in So Cal this place is "the title plant". All the title companies have satellite offices within this company's office building and when the title officer says they need to order from the plant, this is who they go to. You can do your own title chains on this site. It's pretty robust and I'm unsure the costs.

http://www.bkfs.com/Data-and-Analytics/ ... Point.aspx

pls7809 wrote:Another one that I just started using at my old job, before switching to my new one is called TitlePoint by Black Knight Financial Services. Not sure their availability in other areas of the state, but in So Cal this place is "the title plant". All the title companies have satellite offices within this company's office building and when the title officer says they need to order from the plant, this is who they go to. You can do your own title chains on this site. It's pretty robust and I'm unsure the costs.

http://www.bkfs.com/Data-and-Analytics/ ... Point.aspx

I thought the title plants were all moving to India.

Anthony Maffia wrote: I suggest requesting a title report from the client, so there's someone you can email and request older deeds from.

I just had a couple of prelims emailed to me from two different title companies that included links to the deeds referenced in the legal descriptions. Very cool feature. I asked one of the title officers about it. She says they provide the service for free, but the person who applies for the prelim has to request it. I can't remember what exactly it was called. An indexed report or a linked report or something?

ePre

Dedkad,

What I call it is the "Title Report with Deed Package".

I have not been getting Title Company support like I used to
there seems to be more and more cutbacks and more Title Plants and closing.

I have been considering Parcel Quest to save time running to the court house.

Brian

I use "Fidelity Passport"

so...where are these companies getting this database of deeds? Yes, of course you can go to the County and buy each one individually, but they're of course not doing this. So what is the source of these digital databases? And how can we as surveyor's get the whole lot of them? It doesn't make sense that we'd have to pay $5/doc. in this day and age, after all, they're public record. Anyone know?

Olin Edmundson wrote:so...where are these companies getting this database of deeds? Yes, of course you can go to the County and buy each one individually, but they're of course not doing this. So what is the source of these digital databases? And how can we as surveyor's get the whole lot of them? It doesn't make sense that we'd have to pay $5/doc. in this day and age, after all, they're public record. Anyone know?

Ripe for the picking:

http://clsaforum.californiasurveyors.or ... 224#p38561

As soon as one person (or association) gets one county to hand over all of their deed images on a CD in this way the rest will fall like dominoes. It may take another lawsuit (at least a filing) to do it. Many counties are no longer charging for digital map copies or downloads. Others are still selling theirs....

Getting the older records scanned may be another matter

I expect that the companies purchase the catalogs form the recorders' offices along with permission for distribution. Pretty good racket if you ask me...