In Maryland, instant recording is sometimes a thing of the past. There are counties that are 3-4 months behind. Some counties have instant recordings, if they are not backed up. I know of one county that will only let you drop off I think 2 at a time, then they will call you to let you know if there are any problems with the documents. If there are, you come back and pick them up, fix them and bring them back again. The bad thing is, the first thing they find wrong (recording checks not correct, whatever) they stop. You can pick it up, bring it back and drop it off again, they may find  ANOTHER mistake, call you, again and again you go through the process until it gets recorded. Too bad they don't find all of the errors before they call you. This is very inconvenient for the abstractor. Don't you think that the county clerk would think that this is an unnecessary waste of time for all of us. Most of the counties in Maryland that I cover, mail in recordings get put in the pile on a first come first serve basis. You have to wait like everyone else. I tell my clients up front about the counties that I cover and their policies about recording. In one county, unless you have an address of where the docs are to be returned on the first page of the document, they hold it. They forget that is what the intake sheet is for here in Maryland.