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NYT article Angelo Mozillo settlement - Leigh Attridge/MA
10/15/2010 6:27:30 PM (4357 views)

Interesting article on what started the foreclosure freezes. - Dorothy Payne/NY
10/15/2010 4:18:22 PM (4447 views)

Maryland Investigation to determine if Deeds have been executed by Robo-Signers - CHARLENE  PERRY/MD
10/15/2010 10:11:16 AM (2929 views)
Not surprised at this mess - Bobbi Shorthouse, Notary Public/CT
10/18/2010 8:28:45 AM (3184 views)
Re: Not surprised at this mess - CHARLENE  PERRY/MD
10/18/2010 3:26:21 PM (3108 views)
Re: Not surprised at this mess - Barbara Sonafelt/PA
10/25/2010 7:46:54 AM (2956 views)

Foreclosures - why title insurance - Michael Toebe/KS
10/14/2010 7:19:55 PM (4248 views)

Google Instant On Aggravation - Nils Nelson/ME
10/14/2010 2:44:55 PM (3115 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - George Booth/OH
10/14/2010 2:55:33 PM (6400 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Nils Nelson
10/14/2010 3:01:37 PM (3426 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Robert Franco/OH
10/14/2010 3:31:20 PM (3489 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Nils Nelson/ME
10/14/2010 6:29:38 PM (3279 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Slade Smith/OH
10/14/2010 3:35:29 PM (3393 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Nils Nelson/ME
10/14/2010 6:30:59 PM (3324 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Slade Smith/OH
10/15/2010 10:55:23 AM (3371 views)
Re: Google Instant On Aggravation - Nils Nelson/ME
10/15/2010 2:34:40 PM (3274 views)




Trust Title - Josh Lowe/TN
10/14/2010 2:28:16 PM (3017 views)
Re: Trust Title - JEANETTE LEMONS/WA
10/18/2010 9:13:35 PM (3129 views)
Re: Trust Title - Josh Lowe/TN
10/19/2010 6:34:14 PM (3075 views)

NYT article on bank employees - Leigh Attridge/MA
10/14/2010 8:02:53 AM (4119 views)

Smart Solutions - Alix Ott/MI
10/13/2010 6:27:08 PM (5276 views)
Re: Smart Solutions - Kelly Flores/TN
11/9/2010 1:33:03 PM (3400 views)
Re: Smart Solutions - Anita Binns/IL
1/26/2011 6:53:26 PM (3493 views)

JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - Slade Smith/OH
10/13/2010 1:34:44 PM (5134 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/14/2010 2:41:47 PM (3576 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - Slade Smith/OH
10/14/2010 3:26:08 PM (3532 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/14/2010 3:51:57 PM (3293 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - Slade Smith/OH
10/14/2010 4:33:54 PM (3435 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/14/2010 7:16:50 PM (3277 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - Slade Smith/OH
10/15/2010 10:47:25 AM (3324 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/15/2010 11:38:28 AM (3523 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - Slade Smith/OH
10/15/2010 1:11:30 PM (3366 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/15/2010 5:41:33 PM (3285 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/15/2010 5:38:27 PM (3247 views)
Re: JP Morgan comments on foreclosure halt - William Pattison /CA
10/18/2010 12:17:47 PM (3271 views)

Lenders First Choice/Mercury Companies Claims - Rick Hayes/AL
10/13/2010 10:45:15 AM (3060 views)

Reo sales - Thomas Rance/PA
10/12/2010 3:30:24 PM (3125 views)
Re: Reo sales - Robert Franco/OH
10/12/2010 3:42:48 PM (3281 views)

Seasonal Contest - Amy Jensen/OR
10/12/2010 12:17:16 PM (3089 views)
Super Billy and the Records of Doom - William Pattison /CA
10/14/2010 6:22:26 PM (3144 views)

Comment on "Freehold Capital Partners Enters Written Agreement With Fidelity National Title" - Source of Title/OH
10/11/2010 6:29:39 PM (3231 views)
What? - Average American/NY
10/11/2010 6:29:40 PM (5756 views)
Re: What? - Slade Smith/OH
10/12/2010 7:35:57 AM (5761 views)
Exempt Filing - Exempt Filing?/OH
10/11/2010 7:39:31 PM (8574 views)
Re: Exempt Filing - Robert Franco/OH
10/12/2010 10:02:58 AM (5736 views)
Re: Exempt Filing - Exempt Filing/OH
10/12/2010 11:47:14 AM (5759 views)
Stop? - Bobby/AL
10/12/2010 8:58:25 AM (5687 views)
Re: Stop? - Average American/NY
10/12/2010 9:11:42 AM (5609 views)
Re: Stop? - Slade Smith/OH
10/12/2010 11:00:10 AM (5628 views)
Re: Stop? - Bobby/AL
10/12/2010 1:05:58 PM (5617 views)
Re: Stop? - William Pattison /CA
10/12/2010 11:59:25 AM (5536 views)
Re: Stop? - Bobby/AL
10/12/2010 1:21:33 PM (5618 views)

Mortgage assignment issue - Dave Pelligrinelli/GA
10/11/2010 4:59:05 PM (5080 views)
How this will play out... - Amy Jensen/OR
10/13/2010 12:20:18 PM (3209 views)
Re: Mortgage assignment issue - Slade Smith/OH
10/13/2010 1:45:39 PM (3304 views)
Re: Mortgage assignment issue - Bill Garrett/MS
10/25/2010 3:24:28 PM (3055 views)

Is It Just Me - Karen Hurley/KY
10/11/2010 4:11:42 PM (3327 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - Ron McPherson/IA
10/12/2010 4:02:43 AM (3349 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - Slade Smith/OH
10/12/2010 7:43:34 AM (3520 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - William Pattison /CA
10/12/2010 12:12:02 PM (3407 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - Karen Hurley/KY
10/12/2010 2:48:00 PM (3336 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - William Pattison /CA
10/14/2010 12:29:57 PM (3279 views)

 

Always a pleasure to lend ideas to the mix:

  Get familiar with Ancestry.com and get listed on their professional service providers space for things like document look-ups.  These can range from acquiring copies of vitals, to taking pictures of gravestones at local cemeteries.  This is a good introduction to genealogy research which you, as an abstractor, will find quite easy and intuitive. Join professional genealogy associations and get to know their standards and rules and you'll do well.

  Get your notary license and offer signing agent services.  In our area (Calif.) it's expensive to get all the license and insurance, but also quite lucrative for the agent fees.

If you don't already do so, think about becoming a landsman. In your neck of the country, researching rights to oil, gas and minerals is a natural thing to offer. It's a bit more complex than the standard title research, but a very rich field for new knowledge and experience.

Touch base with and make friends with local building and planning departments (city and county). I've gotten dozens of referrals from them. People need title chains in many areas before building permits are issued. With title companies prohibitive in cost or wholly unavailable for the guy wanting to build a mother-in-law unit to his home, you can offer the needed product.

If you're running a home business in abstracting, why not use your name and home to offer agent services as agent for process of service for various domestic corporations and LLC's. Our Calif. Secretary of State has us listed on their commercial service provider page for those seeking such service and we get a few new clients every year. It doesn't take that many years before you build a large, annual client base, trust me.

In the same vein, offer filings and recordings of a variety of other sorts: fictitious business statement filings, state corporate filings, etc... Any added service, including the research of those same records, is an expansion of your business offerings, so don't be limited.

In California, we can do up to 10 process services annually without a license. The license is relatively cheap, so going over 10 is not a problem. We concentrate on high-end clients (like law firms in corporate cases), so we avoid doing more dangerous, private resident process serving. Just a thought.

Final thought on diversification for profit: Debt collection, skip tracing and private investigations. States regulate (or fail to regulate) differently and sporadically. For instance, PI's in Alaska have no licensing requirement, but are heavily regulated in California. Look into the laws of your jurisdiction (they're all online) and see what sorts of work might dovetail with your talents.

I'd admonish any business person to remember that you don't profit by cutting costs, but it does make lean times more bearable. With that said, consider your overhead in these matters:

 

  1. Email: use free services like GMail or Yahoo! or HotMail. They're as good as any paid service and allow you to archive your messages for years for free.

  2. Get a digital camera and take pictures of documents. If you are paying public agencies for copies, then you do yourself and your clients no service. A 10+ megapixel digital camera lets you take super-high definition pics of docs that you can email to people, or review later at home on your own computer.

  3. Drop the land line. You have a cell phone, so don't pay for an unnecessary rotatary-dial tether. Replace your fax with your digital camera (above). There are no papers that you need to “scan and fax” that you can't do the same with a digital cam and email for free.

  4. Get rid of the brick and mortar store. Research and abstracting means that you should be in the field every day at the public records office. Go in at 8am (or whenever they open), set up your laptop at a public work station, and stay until closing. A laptop can be taken anywhere, so use that to your advantage.

  5. Free Wi-Fi hotspots offer free internet access. Use them. All the coffee houses, public libraries, book stores, big box stores, fast food joints, and downtown merchants have them. Get online and search out maps of places in your area, and get on the internet for no cost.

  6. Learn to use freeware. Open source programs like Adobe Acrobat, Open Office and Bit Defender provide you with free word processing, image manipulation and computer security, so why pay hundreds for Microsoft or others when compatible programs are free for the downloading?

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Re: Is It Just Me - Karen Hurley/KY
10/15/2010 12:49:34 AM (3173 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - William Pattison /CA
10/15/2010 6:38:08 PM (3203 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - Edward Brode/CA
10/15/2010 11:40:57 AM (3138 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - William Pattison /CA
10/15/2010 6:20:34 PM (3085 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - s/WI
10/15/2010 12:18:19 PM (3144 views)
Re: Is It Just Me - William Pattison 
10/15/2010 6:28:55 PM (3121 views)


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