You are correct we do see a lot of tough ones because most of CA is on line. But we are grateful for the work and like the challenge. CA can be difficult when there are several sellers especially because we have some fast growing counties and up until last summer investors were buying up property like crazy hoping to make a fast buck. Now they are trying to sell them off and losing money. We are seeing a lot more judgments and liens. Most of our title companies want a 36 month chain now. I don't know about other places but a high percentage of 36 month chains here are technically 2 owner searches not current owner. I guess it is because we tend to move a lot in this state.

Sorry for the rambling... you want to know what I did. I sort of followed everyones advise but did not do an hourly rate. Seems like anytime I bring up the word hourly our clients get paranoid. I took a look at the assessor sight and saw that it had been sold twice in the last 3 years. So based on $50 an hour rate I figured out how much time I thought it would take and attached a per person/couple charge. I explained to our client that since there were so many sellers and because it was technically a 2 owner search we needed to charge an additional fee. I told them that I would rather not charge them for a 2 owner search but that I would only need to charge an additional $6.50 per name... they felt good about getting a break and we felt good getting paid for our time. I had decided that if it really was just a CO we would just do it... like Robert said some are quick and easy... some are not.

I almost forgot... three of the people on this search had liens for state and federal taxes. Investors in trouble.

You three really did help me figure out what to do. Thanks for taking the time to advise me!

Judy
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