Why Title Professionals Outsource Document Retrieval
Every real estate transaction, foreclosure action, and loan servicing decision depends on recorded documents. Deeds establish ownership, mortgages and assignments establish who holds the lien, and releases prove that old debts are gone. When one of those documents is missing from your file, the transaction stops until someone physically finds it.
That is where a professional document retrieval company earns its keep. Instead of calling an unfamiliar county office, waiting on hold, and hoping the right book and page get pulled, you place one order with us and receive the recorded document back — usually within 48 hours.
What is Document Retrieval?
Document retrieval is the process of locating and obtaining copies of documents recorded in public land records — deeds, mortgages, assignments, releases, liens, judgments, plats, probate filings, and more. Some counties offer online access, but coverage is incomplete: older records, many rural counties, and certain document types are only available in person at the courthouse.
Our nationwide network of in-county researchers bridges that gap. We retrieve documents from any county in the United States, whether the record is in an online index, on microfilm, or in a deed book that has not been opened in decades.
What Makes a Good Retrieval Partner?
When you evaluate a document retrieval vendor, four things matter most:
- Coverage: Can they reach every county you work in — including the ones with no online records? Our network covers all fifty states, courthouse-direct.
- Speed: Missing documents hold up closings and foreclosure timelines. We average 48-hour turnaround on document retrieval orders.
- Accuracy: The wrong document is worse than no document. Every order is quality-checked by our in-house team before delivery.
- Accountability: One point of contact who answers the phone, tracks your order, and follows through. That has been our model since 1999.
The Role of Title Searches in Real Estate Transactions
A title search is a thorough examination of the public records to determine the ownership history of a property and to uncover anything that could affect its title: open mortgages, unpaid taxes, mechanic's liens, judgments, easements, and errors in the record. Lenders and title underwriters require a search before nearly every closing, because it is the only way to confirm the seller can deliver clear, marketable title.
Our trained abstractors perform searches directly in the county records and our in-house examiners review every report before it goes out. The result is a search you can underwrite from — delivered on time, in a format your processors already know.