David Bloys has
held many interesting and diverse positions which have lead him to the field of
abstracting. From running his own
manufacturing company to chasing bail jumpers, he has always enjoyed the
unconventional. These various positions
have helped him hone his attention to detail and develop research skills that
serve him very well as an abstractor.
Prior to entering
the title business, David had already been involved in many varied aspects of
business. By 1989, David had created a
successful business, Horizon Manufacturing. After
17 years of managing Horizon Manufacturing, the business, which employed over
100 workers, had expanded with offices in several states.
David was ready for a change and ready to fulfill his dream of retiring
by 38. With the two patents he had been
granted and their royalties, along with the sale of his company, David did just
that.
David then taught
computer courses at a local college and to the disabled through a contract with
the federal government. While he taught
the course, David wrote the book, “Hidden Careers, Hidden Jobs” as a guide
for those seeking employment and to serve as an exposé on the unethical
practices of some employment agencies. David published a thousand copies, giving
one hundred to his students and selling the remaining copies on CompuServe.
An Englishman, who helped laid-off workers find new employment, purchased
one of the books as a resource tool for his courses, but needed more copies.
Because David had sold his last the book, he granted the man the
rights to publish the book in the United Kingdom.
“I had written the book to help my students here and was flattered that
it might now be used there to help his students,” he said.
“As far as I know, it may still be available there.”
His skills with research caught
the eye of a student who referred him to a relative who was a private
investigator in San Angelo, TX. David
contracted with the agency as an instructor on how to use the private and public
databases that were becoming available via dial-up access by computer.
Upon completing his month-long contract, the private investigation firm
asked David to open a branch office for them in Lubbock where he could assist
them with database access and with the most difficult skip trace and lost person
cases.
Under Texas law, he had to work
under a licensed agency for three years before opening a private agency;
however, the home office filed bankruptcy before the end of his three year
contract. David then contracted with another agency in Bryan, Texas and worked
under their license. Through recommendations from clients Gavin de Becker and
Steve Rambam, David was able to open his own agency licensed under the name
Davick Services. His work at the time concentrated on corporate intelligence,
political investigations, insurance investigations, protective services, fraud,
deep background investigations and bail enforcement (bounty hunting).
A major aspect of his investigative work led David to examine the titles
corporations held prior to the mergers or acquisitions being enacted.
Often times, David sought advice from local title agencies in these
cases. This also aided him in developing
his own skills in title searching. After
the title agencies realized they were getting multi-million dollar policies as a
result of his investigations, they were extremely anxious to provide any insight
David needed. “For years, they helped
me with any question I might have regarding real property records,” he said.
In 1998, Texas
changed its constitution and began allowing home equity loans to be attained.
Title work gradually became the major focus of David’s investigations.
Though he continued doing investigative work, he only accepted the cases
that intrigued him, or when requested to handle a case for associates.
David received some acclaim for work he did in the field of political
investigations and briefly handled these cases instead of title work.
Yet, he could not ignore the need for skilled title abstractors and soon
found himself focusing more on the title field.
David faced many
challenges upon entering the field because of the explosion of residential title
demands and the lack of qualified individuals to conduct the searches.
Many of the counties where he conducted title searches were extremely
rural and the distance between offices posed challenges to meeting clients’
demands in a timely and organized fashion.
Though he could
hire more individuals to help him carry the burden, David prefers to handle his
company in a different manner. In a
previous position he had managed over 100 employees and rarely found freedom
from employees’ issues and concerns. He
has avoided this at Davick Services by only employing one – his son, Joshua.
“Joshua remains the only employee I have in the business,” David
said. “Someday, when it is his
decision, he may hire more but I am content now with just the two of us.”
With the help of
his son and improved methods of technology, David has made Davick Services a
successful and reliable abstracting company providing service in 47 counties in
both Texas and New Mexico.
INTERVIEW
SOURCE OF
TITLE: What are some of the
challenges you face as an abstractor?
DAVID: I cover 47
counties in Texas and New Mexico within a 140 mile radius of Lubbock.
Some of these counties are so sparsely populated they can’t even
support a gas station in the county. I
put between 50,000 and 100,000 miles a year on my vehicles.
Often it is necessary for me to leave the office by 5:30 a.m. in order to
be at the courthouse when they open at 8:30. It
isn’t unusual to get back to the office after 7 p.m.
The challenges involve more than distance traveled, though. Many of these
counties still rely on handwritten indexes with individual books for each year.
Some do not index the legal description at all and some index civil suits by
plaintiff name only. But over the years I have learned the idiosyncrasies of the
individual counties and found ways to work through them.
SOURCE OF
TITLE: What have you done to
overcome the challenges associated with covering 47 rural counties?
DAVID: The biggest
challenge in working so many rural counties has been how to return the searches
to my clients in a timely manner. Many times I have driven to a distant county
only to return that evening to find there was another order for that same county
that had come in while I was gone. Even when this didn't happen, my clients for
the first county had to wait until I finished all the counties on that day’s
route before I could fax their reports back to them that evening.
We solved this
problem this year by installing a combination of hardware and software into our
vehicles that creates an on-demand on-site mobile office. Now when my clients
fax an order it is received in the vehicle where it can be printed out on the
onboard printer. The search is completed at the courthouse and the original
order, the report and any required copies are scanned by CapShare. We upload and
fax the completed product while driving to the next county. Now we don't wait to
receive an order and our clients don't wait for us to return to the office to
fax back their reports. It saves many hours for Davick Services and our clients.
Our clients are receiving the accuracy of hands on courthouse searches by local
experts at the speed of the Internet. Recently an order was completed and
returned seventeen minutes after our client faxed the order.
SOURCE OF
TITLE: Another pertinent issue
is that of states requiring abstractors to be licensed. How do you feel about
this and is licensing required by the state of Texas?
DAVID:
It isn't required in Texas. I think it probably should be, but
only if the licensing law is carefully crafted. I think very few of the states
require licensing at all. But of those
that do, I haven't seen one that does much to protect the public or the
abstractor.
SOURCE OF
TITLE: As an active member of
the Source of Title community, you have addressed many concerns in your forum
postings. What remains to be your
greatest concern involving personal privacy issues?
DAVID: It is security
issues that are my greatest concern. The publishing of the public record over
the Internet to anyone from anywhere
represents a dire threat to the security of anyone who has ever bought a house,
been divorced, or been a victim of a crime. Wholesale release of the public
record will result in its wholesale abuse. The release of Public Records in
digital form by the government and the subsequent publishing of sensitive
private information over the Internet should be a concern to every citizen.
This information
has always been public and should remain so. Until
its release in digital form, however, its use was more restricted from stalkers,
international identity thieves and foreign terrorists. Its digitized bulk
transmission has resulted in death and ruined lives for thousands of Americans.
The only way to stop this rape of American society is with laws preventing the
bulk transfer of digitized information from the government entities.
The current laws
forcing honest county clerks to release digitized information to anyone anywhere
must be changed in order for honest citizens to continue to enjoy their freedom
of accessing the public record. Local
authorities who bulk release the Public Records of their constituency will find
themselves powerless to protect their citizens from international abuse over the
Internet. Indian outsourcing companies are openly "mining" our Public
Records off the Internet for anonymous distribution to China, Nigeria or anyone,
with their own "need" to know.
In Texas and I
think many other states some public officials have recognized this threat to
their own personal security. Now a law enforcement officer or elected official
can have his name and address removed from the public indexes of databases
maintained by the Appraisal Districts. Trial attorneys are also
discovering these rich new fields and are beginning to file suits against the
counties and other entities when obvious breaches are found - such as the
publication of social security numbers, drivers’ license numbers and
birthdates. These attorneys should be applauded except for the fact that the
local public will pay the settlements for this breach of their own public
record.
SOURCE OF
TITLE: How have your experiences
in the field of private investigation helped you to be a better abstractor?
DAVID: I think many of
my experiences only seem different from those who entered the field through
different gateways. All abstractors are,
to a degree, investigators. All independent
abstractors are by definition entrepreneurs and business people.
My experiences as a private investigator taught me a love for absolute
truth and accuracy, which is shared by every abstractor I have met.
Attention to detail is critical to any investigation and a title
examination is an investigation of the title. All
professional investigators and abstractors are guardians of the public record
and I am proud to call them my peers. They
are also watchdogs of the public record. I
imagine that every abstractor at one time or another has found an error in the
county indexes. When they report it to
the clerk for corrections, they act as watchdogs to the integrity of the county
databases. Good investigators and good
abstractors share a common passion for truth and accuracy.
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