For Immediate Release
November 10, 1998

STATEWIDE DATABASE OF PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS CUTS THE PAPER CHASE AND STANDARDIZES TITLE INFORMATION

Title searching just got a lot easier in Georgia, thanks to a unique statewide database that puts property information online — a boon for both the real estate community and the general public.

Approximately 1.5 million property deeds are filed in Georgia each year. Up to now, counties have varied greatly regarding the indexing of these documents, making title searches both cumbersome and frustrating.

Georgia's new property database will unify deed information maintained by county officials throughout Georgia. Shown here is the Bartow County Courthouse.

"If you wanted title information before, you had to travel to the individual courthouse to search the deed index. This will save a lot of time behind the windshield," said David Williams, executive director of the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA), the project's sponsor.

In the works for three years, the project was mandated by the Georgia General Assembly in 1995 and will be officially launched in January 1999.

The database, developed by the Economic Development Institute (EDI) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, contains an index of all property transactions, including the name of the seller and buyer, location of property, any liens on the property and the book and page where the actual deed is filed in the county.

The index can be searched free of charge at county courthouses or subscribed to on the Internet. Although its biggest users are expected to be title searchers, banks, finance companies and government agencies, the system benefits anyone seeking property information in Georgia.

"Georgia is taking a leadership role with this project," said John Myers, project director and director of EDI's Center for Public Buildings (CPB). He notes that few states have a such a program.

Myers admits the GSCCCA database is one of the most complex projects that CPB has ever tackled. "One of the things complicating a project like this is you have 159 counties doing business different ways," Myers explained. "There are a wide range of technologies ... some counties are very sophisticated, some aren't automated at all."

Processes also differ, with some counties handling the indexing themselves and other hiring an outside vendor, he added.

Another stumbling block: there are considerable discrepancies as to how Georgia counties enter property information in their deed indexes. One of the first and, perhaps most challenging, components of the project was to develop statewide standards for data entry. Such standards are crucial to establishing a useful database, said Myers.

Without standards, a name can be entered any number of ways — one study cites 65 different possibilities — severely handicapping the accuracy and reliability of information searches.

The EDI team initiated the development of comprehensive data entry standards for the GSCCCA database and turned it over to an outside contractor for further development and training.

"This should offer clerks greater peace of mind," said Williams, noting that virtually all clerks in the state have been trained now. "Serving as custodians of state records is an important role ... you want to make sure you're doing it right. Now, for the first time, they'll have statewide guidelines."

Another major component of the project was developing a network that allows computers on different LANs to exchange information directly. Set up on a TCP/IP protocol, the frame relay network will be the only one of its kind to exist in every county in Georgia.

In addition to making the statewide deed index possible, the network also enhances communications for individual counties, added Williams, noting many counties have not had Internet access until now.

Before installing the complete network, a pilot project of 30 counties was conducted last year, and many of those counties are already transmitting daily files. Installation of the network in the remaining 129 counties was completed by July 1, allowing six months for counties to become acclimated to the new system.

As of January 1, 1999, counties will be responsible for filing transactions daily, sending index records to a centralized location in Atlanta at least once a day. Those records will be checked for errors and then either sent back to the county for corrections or merged into the central index.

Although the actual property deeds remain in county courthouses, future plans are to scan their images into the system, which would enable counties to more easily provide a copy of the record. A backlog for deeds processed from 1996 through 1998 will also be entered into the database. "As we have time and money we will try to go back further," said Williams.

Besides providing the convenience of desktop access, the system also eliminates the confusion that resulted from indexing peculiarities resulting from organization as well as data entry. "It will save you from trying to decipher what a local index means," Williams explained. "You never really knew what you were getting from county to county or region to region."

The pooling of information also enhances security for lenders. Inconsistency in indexing records meant there was considerable potential for disputes over land ownership. "Banks were taking it on faith that land was free and clear when they issued a loan," explains Williams. "Now it will be easy to do a statewide search to see who owns land and if there are any liens."

RESEARCH NEWS & PUBLICATIONS OFFICE
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

MEDIA RELATIONS CONTACTS:
John Toon (404-894-6986);
E-mail: john.toon@edi.gatech.edu; FAX: (404-894-4545) or
Jane Sanders (404-894-2214);
E-mail: jane.sanders@edi.gatech.edu.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
1) John Myers (404-894-3864); Fax (404-894-8738); E-mail: john.myers@edi.gatech.edu.
2) David Williams (404-327-9058); Fax (404-327-7877).

WRITER: T.J. Becker