Thank you for your interest in my company. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself and how my business came to be. As a teenager, I was introduced to the Register of Deeds, collecting names and addresses for life insurance marketing purposes. I was fascinated with the land records and wanted to learn more.

I became an employee of The Title Office, Inc. in 1989. A small office, with a staff of four, it was an ideal environment for a broad education in the title insurance industry. I was trained by Cindy Mather, an experienced and gifted pillar in the local abstracting community. She was both a mentor and a friend, and I am grateful for all that she taught me over the years.

During my employment there, I began to notice an underserved market. As an insurance company, they were disinterested in providing title searches when no policy premium would follow. Of everything I had learned there, abstracting was my passion. I saw this as an opportunity to do more of what I love.

I left their employ in 1992 and began offering title search services on a fee basis. It was a new concept and took time to take off. This was well before errors and omissions insurance, so it was a leap of faith to use an individual rather than a title company.

My big break came when TRW Real Estate Loan Services contacted me for a staff abstracting position. I declined their offer of employment, but explained my idea. They agreed to engage me on trial basis as an independent contractor. The experiment went well, so well in fact, that within a year, all of their staff abstractors became independent sub-contractors.

In years since, their name changed to SMS, then First American RELS, but my relationship with them continues to this day. Mergers and name changes are so prevalent in our industry that a conventional resume’ would read like the book of Genesis. I would rather sum it up as this: I work regularly for agencies of virtually every major title insurance underwriter.

The field of independent abstracting has grown immensely, much competition has come and gone. I am grateful that so many of my customers have remained with me for years and even decades. I am honored that so many coordinators continue to utilize my services, even when they move on to new companies.

These nearly 30 years have flown by, hopefully they are just the beginning. The work is sometimes challenging, the hours can be long and there are no vacations, but there is no place I would rather be, than doing the work I have always loved. I hope I can be of service to your company as well!

Jill Epperson