Best Practice #5 | Title Production

Our title department at Landmark has been in the field of abstracting and title examining since the early 1980s. Landmark’s vice president of title operations has been well known in all government sections of the courthouse and is well respected by others in the industry.

Knowing the in’s and out’s of title examining is not something one can prepare for in a school or college setting.

Each individual property is abstracted for 40 years per title standards. All public records are searched and copies are made, to include but not limited to deed, mortgage, property tax records, engineering and clerk of courts, probate and civil court actions, and bankruptcy and federal tax liens. Our staff has received training during the early years of our career by a title attorney and a gentleman/partner who had spent time examining titles since 1969.

Although procedures for documenting public records have transformed over the years from hand scribed ledgers to microfiche to digitally scanned instruments, our staff has been operating under excellent checks and balances.

From order entry to final production, a title abstract has been submitted, checked, and reviewed by management and our attorney. The title abstract is ultimately reviewed numerous times during the pre-closing preparation process and also during the closing of the transaction.

Landmark’s timely recording process is imperative to the insurability of our closings. All legal descriptions are “cross read” and checked for accuracy prior to documents being hand carried or overnighted to the courthouse.
We require each step of the pre- and post-closing process to be initialed and dated on the front of each file. Our files are stored on-site until recordings are returned from the respective counties.

Upon receipt of the time-stamped documents, each file goes into a title policy production department where we maintain a policy register in a form approved by our underwriters. This register shows the disposition of all policies and other furnished pre-numbered forms. Landmark Title is always be able to reconcile remittances and policy production with the underwriter, per our agency agreement.

Policy delivery to the insured parties is also our goal to produce in a timely fashion. Our lenders demand it.

We are audited annually for our performance with this duty. And for over 15 consecutive years, we have passed with flying colors.

We understand that the professional service and expert knowledge that we sell to our clients and the community is the very heart of title and closing.

Conveying one’s personal residence or business is often an emotional time and we realize that clients turn to us for the professional handling of their transaction. We pride ourselves on being outstanding in the Dayton area for our customer service and high standard throughout the state with our underwriters.

To review Landmark Title’s detailed Title Production outline structure, please see pages 37-42 of our Best Practices guide as accessible on this page.

Landmark Title Agency’s Seven Best Practices

(click on image to review full document)