How much research do you typically do?
Often it's simple, but of course it can get messy.?ÿ
I'm constantly in the vault but they shut down this week, can't get there.?ÿ
For me I have extensive records if I want to fight through my scanned jobs so it saved me along with my title connections.
The main issue this week was a string of deeds, 1902 Smith (patent issued to Smith) deeded to Jones 11Ac, 1949 Smith deeded to Johnson 12 Ac easterly of Jones but included some of the Jones Acreage, 1952 Jones deeds to Samson a strip being most of the overlap area, then shortly deeds another strip to Samson, now the entire area is Johnson-Samson. Today Johnson's land is in probate and they need to know what it is, it's never been developed, the strip in question are lands occupied by a road mostly, so no fencing along the boundary, it's complicated because the owner isn't a US citizen and probate is happening out of the country.?ÿ
But, luck had it that I have all the deeds from previous work. One job was 875 pages of scans, the other was only 350, it took me over two hours to find and print them all out. In the Vault it would have been 15 minutes since these are large family owned ranches with very little transactions since the patents were issued.?ÿ
Problem with the local vault is that although they scanned some books they stopped going back about 2003.?ÿ
Seems this is enough for most people's needs, not mine.?ÿ
The state has a 40 year +1 deed rule, sometimes it's relevant, but like the above example, it often isn't.?ÿ
Thats's Awesome! 875 pages is impressive!
When I worked at the county, even though they had purchased 2 OCE scanner printers(nices ones, too nice to use ever...) scans were random at best.
I was grateful to have the access i did to dig into the original books dated back to the late 1850s, so I could follow that chain of title etc and often update and fix what some yutz in 2013 had entered or drafted incoherently into the GIS poorly, in the wrong area, and then blame the owner for asking for legal advice when their deeds didn't match the GIS.
How much research do you typically do?
We're lucky enough to have a private GIS company in the area that puts plats and ROS online, so it's pretty easy to get all of the relevant maps that way.?ÿ They don't show the deeds for each property but they do list the instrument numbers so with that it's usually just a matter of e-mailing a title company and getting a copy.?ÿ Doing all the research from the office seems almost too good to be true but fortunately I haven't had any bad experiences with it yet.
This right here is the best argument for developing a relationship with a title examiner or two. They??ll usually have fingertip access to everything you need. I??ve found that sending a pizza or a 12-pack over to the exam department every few months is an extremely prudent investment to maintain my ability to dial up any needed document all the way back to headrights.
I am so spoiled. The county I live in and do 90% of my work in has every deed and plat going back to 1793 available online.
When I was in Oklahoma it was a routine thing to drive across the state to visit a deed room. I loved doing it because it was an opportunity to get out of the office and see some of the country, and the bosses expected it. But I knew that there was a better way. And I did it that better way often enough to know that it was possible.
Here in Oregon, 25 years, I've been to the deed room maybe 4 or 5 times in all that time. And that is probably 4 or 5 times more than 99% of my peers. We just don't do it here. The title company has a copy of practically everything in their database. You call or email a title company's Customer Service line and they will send you the current vesting deed for any tax lot or civic address you give them, no charge. If you need a specific book and page ask for it, you will have in an hour or so. If you need a full report or a chain of title you might have to pay for it, but at PLS billing rates you can definitely charge cost plus to the job and be money ahead.?ÿ
So to overcome this COVID related issue, call up your local title company and ask them what they can do for you.?ÿ You might find a whole new way to go about it.?ÿ ?ÿ
We have it pretty nice here. We're a filing state so all surveys are supposed to be filed with the County Surveyor, all on a searchable web site. Legal description information can be researched on a similar site and all deeds and plats are available on line through the the Register of Deeds office. Everything else like topo, shoreland stuff, topo, photo, etc.. is also available through the GIS site. I can completely research a project without ever leaving the office and, other than deeds and plats, its all free. Really nice if you're trying to get a little weekend work done.
I worked in a county recently that was like that, all I had to do was sit at the computer, call up all the relevant info and go to the field with it all loaded up in the DC and survey it. I occupied a 1/4 corner with state plane numbers shown on a DOT plat that was on-line and I simply surveyed, locating all the monuments that I had calculated from plats rotated to the DOT SPC maps. Everything checked within a couple of tenths.?ÿ
However, the county to the east,,,,,,,,,good luck with that one. You aren't getting anything without hours in the vault, ask the title companies for anything and you are going to be disappointed.?ÿ
Here it's a mixed bag, I have good relationships with the title companies, I help them, they help me. But I don't ask for everything and they can't give me some items. They will give me a sheet for difficult ones, but I still would have to pull the records, a physical trip to the vault. Plus they don't have corner records, ROS, ect.?ÿ
It is pretty sweet. I like being able to research a job almost completely without seeing it in person. I can get a good handle on it and give a decent estimate, not perfect but it sure helps a lot. All section corner info, highway project mapping and original survey notes are all out there as well. It leaves no excuse not to completely research your parcel and those all around for legal descriptions and existing surveys.
Some neighboring counties are not quite as good and the ones using Tapestry to access records are terrible. You have to know exactly what instrument numbers you need first and then it'll cost you twenty bucks for a two dollar copy.
I usually try to stop by the register's office every so often just so they remember who I am.
Same here, all plans & deeds back to 1629 in my county.
The original book 1 was destroyed by the Selectmen in or about 1645 when the decendent of the original grantee of the original grant from the king was sending agents over to check things out and they wanted to hide all the common land that had been conveyed to private ownership to avoid paying quitrents.?ÿ