Searching

Career Exploration

Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers

Also called: Abstractor, Title Examiner, Title Officer, Title Searcher

What they do:

Search real estate records, examine titles, or summarize pertinent legal or insurance documents or details for a variety of purposes. May compile lists of mortgages, contracts, and other instruments pertaining to titles by searching public and private records for law firms, real estate agencies, or title insurance companies.

On the job, you would:
  • Examine documentation such as mortgages, liens, judgments, easements, plat books, maps, contracts, and agreements to verify factors such as properties' legal descriptions, ownership, or restrictions.
  • Examine individual titles to determine if restrictions, such as delinquent taxes, will affect titles and limit property use.
  • Prepare reports describing any title encumbrances encountered during searching activities and outlining actions needed to clear titles.
On the job, you'll need:

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Safety and Government

  • law and government

Business

  • administrative services
  • customer service

Engineering and Technology

  • computers and electronics

Basic Skills

  • reading work related information
  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say

Ideas and Logic

  • use rules to solve problems
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information

Conventional

People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines.

  • Attention to Detail
  • Integrity
  • Dependability
  • Cooperation
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Analytical Thinking

Data base user interface and query software

  • Data Trace Title IQ
  • Microsoft Access

Presentation software

  • Microsoft PowerPoint

Document management software

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • File management software

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Average.

New job opportunities are likely in the future.

Median Annual Salary: $50,490

Education

High school diploma/GED or bachelor's degree is usually needed.