What benefits do “title search companies” have over physically visiting a land records offices?
Title agencies perform several things: Research the title for defects. You may not know what you're looking at, unless you're a real-estate professional, but some titles have strings attached to them (like, conditions for resale, usage, changes, etc). Research title issues (like misrepresentation of ownership, misrepresentation of the actual property titled, misrepresentation of conditions). Again, not being a professional in the domain, you might not understand the text you're looking at. Research liens. Those are usually have to be recorded (i.e.: the title company won't necessarily find a lien if it wasn't recorded with the county). Cover your a$$. And the bank's. They provide title insurance that guarantees your money back if they missed something they were supposed to find. The title insurance is usually required for a mortgaged transaction. While I understand why you would think you can do it, most people cannot. Even if they think they can - they cannot. In many areas this research cannot be done online, for example in California - you have to go to the county recorder office to look things up (for legal reasons, in CA counties are not allowed to provide access to certain information without verification of who's accessing). It may be worth your while  to pay someone to do it, even if you can do it yourself, because your time is more valuable. Also, keep in mind that while you may trust your abilities - your bank won't. So you may be able to do your own due diligence - but the bank needs to do its own. Specifically to Detroit - the city is bankrupt. Every $100K counts for them. I'm surprised they only charge $6 per search, but that is probably limited by the State law. "Basically what @littleadv said, but let me amplify what I think is the most important point. As he/she says, one thing you're paying them for is their expertise. If the title on record at the county office had a legal flaw in it, would you recognize it? In a way your question is like asking, Why should I go to a doctor when I could just make my own medicine out of herbs I grow in my garden and treat myself? Maybe you could. But the doctor and the pharmacist have years of training on how to do this right. You probably don't. Is it possible for you to learn everything you need to do it right? Sure. But do you want to spend the time to study all that for something that you will do -- buy a house -- maybe once every ten years? Will you remember it all next time or have to learn it all over? But really most important is, title companies offer insurance in case the title turns out to be flawed. That, to me, is the big reason why I would use a title company even if I was paying cash and there was no bank involved to insist on it. If there's some legal flaw in the title and it turns out that someone else has a claim to my house, and I lose in court, I would be out about $100,000. Your house might be costing you much more. That's a huge risk to take. Paying the couple of hundred dollars for insurance against that risk seems well worth it to me. And by the way, I don't think the ""due diligence"" is easy. It's NOT just a matter of making sure a title is really on file at the court house and has the proper stamp on it. It's all about, Does someone else have a legal claim to this property? Like, maybe three owners ago someone forged a signature on a deed, so the sale is fraudulent, and now the person who was defrauded or his heirs discover the issue and claim the property. Or maybe the previous owner failed to pay a contractor who did repairs on the house, and now he goes to court and gets a lien on the property. It's unlikely that you have the expertise to recognize a forged document. You almost surely have no way to recognize a forged signature of someone you never met on an otherwise valid-looking document. And you'd have to do a lot of research to find every contractor who ever worked on the house and insure none of them have a claim. Etc."
Principal has probably distributed your money to a company that holds dormant retirement plan account balances. I work for a third-party administrator and we usually use a company called Penchecks. They receive dormant accounts and try to locate the people they belong to. They don't do this for free though, so the sooner you find your account the better. Principal would have to keep a record of where they sent your money, although I don't know for how long they are required to keep that record. For example, doctors are only required to keep records for 7 years. The PBGC will help you find your lost balance. They are a gov't agency that protects retirement plan participants. They have a search engine for this kind of thing: http://search.pbgc.gov/mp/ Also https://www.unclaimedretirementbenefits.com/ is a registry of unclaimed retirement plan benefits. "Just what exactly are you trying to do here?  Are you trying to defend Susan being the Chief Information Security because she could not learn Systems security?  &gt; and a C-level position requires administrative and personnel management skills and understanding of security policy, not specialized technical engineering knowledge of protocols, cryptography, etc.  Are you assuming or biased that any real security expert cannot do administrative and personnel management?   Trust me that if you can master the latest security protocols, you can do mundane ""administrative"" and ""personnel"" things.  Further, you can have great human and presentation skills.  &gt; (And not database lol.)  You also have no clue about security. FYI, all data is sitting in databases. And if you do not organize the databases correctly, you have no security. For example, social security numbers, masked, cannot be in the same database as personal information. Instead you have a pointer from the personal information the record of the socials security numbers in another database.  And just these two databases make life miserable for hackers because they have to steal data from two databases and correlate each one to the other.  So I know MUCH MUCH more than you about security. Don't challenge me in that respect.  &gt;&gt; she has no clue about security.  &gt; When have I ever defended her actions?   Just above, and constantly since day one.  &gt;&gt; So give me a possible way how Susan got her job.  &gt; Five years at HP, a year at Sun Trust Banks, four years at First Data Corporation  Do you realize that after she got her music degree, all those positions you listed she was ""Vice President""?  So again, how does Susan get all her jobs and titles? What could possibly be that she has such a meteoric rise in the corporate level? Pure talent and skills?  &gt;&gt; If contractors are more expensive than in-house employees, nobody will use contractors.  &gt; omg where to start. I'll just chalk that comment up to inexperience and lack of understanding of total staff costs over time.... point out that employees cost more over time, demonstrating the benefit of using contractors...)  Exactly! Contractors are cheaper than in-house staff which is what I said. Thanks for confirming that.  And you said that Contractors get paid more. No they are not, except real experts and almost exclusively in IT field." Investing $100k into physical gold (bars or coins) is the most prudent option; given the state of economic turmoil worldwide.  Take a look at the long term charts; they're pretty self explanatory.   Gold has an upward trend for 100+ years.  http://www.goldbuyguide.com/price/ A more high risk/high reward investment would be to buy $100k of physical silver.  Silver has a similar track record and inherent benefits of gold.  Yet, with a combination of factors that could make it even more bull than gold (ie- better liquidity, industrial demand).   Beyond that, you may want to look at other commodities such as oil and agriculture.  The point is, this is troubled times for worldwide economies.  Times like this you want to invest in REAL things like commodities or companies that are actually producing essential materials. "Your statement - ""not practical"" -  presumes that the primary goal of having the store is to allow the store to thrive. But if you subscribe to the idea that stores and other companies are just organizations of people, that presumption is false  we humans form social structures that benefit people who live within the social structures - towns, cities, teams, companies, political parties.   the success of ""the store""  or the company or the team, or the ""city"", is not the primary goal. The success of the people ought to be the primary goal.   Example: hospitals weren't originally conceived to make money and grow. They were conceived to aid people who were sick. These days hospitals make a LOT OF MONEY , despite being classified as nonprofit institutions in the USA. As a result we have bad medical practice - over prescription of opioids, over use of surgeries, over-use of diagnostic tests, etc., - all of which benefits the hospital but not the patients.   It's not always a clear line - look at the real jobs vs environment issues in mining or fracking.   But the balance we have struck now, gives great profits to the companies (profits are at record highs) while income inequality is also at record highs. How is that sensible or sustainable. Or moral?   My key point here is that your statement that ""it's not practical for the store"" is misguided. The store's well being cannot be the primary goal of commerce. We need to place a higher priority on benefiting people. (Broadly framed - not just owners of the store)" The loan agent surely knows that having a combination of loans greater than the value of the property (less some margin) is illegal, but also impossible.  Your first mortgage, mechanic's liens, tax liens, and so forth are a matter of public record.  In most states the records can be viewed online, by anyone, for free. The title search prerequisite for getting the second mortgage looks beyond the low hanging fruit for things like aborigines claims for parcels of land that include your property.  The loan agent is trying to sell you a home equity line of credit. Almost everyone gets one after building up some equity.  There's often no closing cost and it's not necessary to ever use it.  Keep it for emergencies. All Companies Can Take Advantage of [Local Business Listing](http://come2ourdeals.com.au/) .First of all, a company is not a enterprise. 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