Top 12 Title Examiner Skills to Put on Your Resume
Building a striking Title Examiner resume means foregrounding the mix of research grit, legal acuity, and crisp communication that keeps property deals clean. Put skills that prove you can dissect records, decode maps, and flag risk without flinching. That shows you don’t just read titles—you resolve them.
Title Examiner Skills
- TitleSearch
- DocumentReview
- LegalDescriptions
- ChainOfTitle
- RiskAssessment
- RealPropertyLaw
- EscrowProcesses
- TitleExpress
- PublicRecords
- SurveyAnalysis
- TitleWave
- ClosingDocuments
1. TitleSearch
TitleSearch is the deep dive into public records to confirm ownership and uncover liens, encumbrances, easements, judgments, or claims—everything that could cloud marketable title.
Why It's Important
It proves who owns what and surfaces anything that could derail a transfer. No clear title, no clean closing.
How to Improve TitleSearch Skills
Sharpen the craft with focused habits:
Stay Updated: Track industry standards and evolving title practices through professional associations and state guidance.
Leverage Technology: Use robust title plants and search platforms (for example, DataTrace) to speed retrieval and reduce misses.
Strengthen Legal Basics: Deepen knowledge of recording statutes, lien priority, and curative actions.
Network: Compare approaches with seasoned examiners and underwriters; swap edge cases and fixes.
Continuing Education: Take courses in real estate law, title examination, and underwriting fundamentals.
These habits build speed, accuracy, and judgment.
How to Display TitleSearch Skills on Your Resume

2. DocumentReview
DocumentReview is the meticulous examination of deeds, mortgages, releases, assignments, judgments, plats, probate files, and related records to confirm validity, priority, and completeness.
Why It's Important
Errors hide in plain sight—misindexed names, faulty legal descriptions, stale liens. Careful review prevents post-closing chaos.
How to Improve DocumentReview Skills
Enhance Legal Knowledge: Keep current on recording rules, statutory requirements, and common defects.
Use Smart Tools: Employ document management, e-signature, and OCR tools to track versions and verify execution.
Checklists: Build targeted checklists by document type; refine them with every exception you encounter.
Continuous Training: Short, regular training beats occasional deep dives; apply learnings immediately.
Peer Review: A second set of eyes on tricky files crushes avoidable mistakes.
Feedback Loop: Log defects found at closing or post-close and bake that knowledge back into your process.
How to Display DocumentReview Skills on Your Resume

3. LegalDescriptions
LegalDescriptions precisely define a parcel’s boundaries and location—metes and bounds, lot and block, or PLSS. Clarity here anchors everything else.
Why It's Important
Without a precise, lawful description, you might insure the wrong dirt. Boundary certainty curbs disputes and curative hangups.
How to Improve LegalDescriptions Skills
Master the Frameworks: Understand PLSS, metes and bounds, and subdivision nomenclature.
Cross-Verify: Compare against plats, GIS layers, prior deeds, and surveyor notes; chase discrepancies.
Standardize Wording: Use consistent phrasing and formatting; eliminate ambiguity.
Include Landmarks Thoughtfully: Note controlling monuments and calls that settle the record when conflicts arise.
Use Mapping Tech: CAD and GIS help visualize closures and catch broken calls.
Consult Surveyors: When lines wobble, get a licensed surveyor’s take.
Keep Learning: Track updates to surveying standards and state guidance.
Peer Review: Exchange reviews on complex tracts to expose blind spots.
How to Display LegalDescriptions Skills on Your Resume

4. ChainOfTitle
ChainOfTitle is the chronological thread of ownership, encumbrances, and transfers that proves how title moved—and where it may have frayed.
Why It's Important
It confirms the rightful owner, reveals breaks and gaps, and sets lien priority. Clean chain, confident underwriting.
How to Improve ChainOfTitle Skills
Verify Across Sources: Align county records, tax rolls, prior policies, probate files, and court dockets.
Update Relentlessly: Pull the latest recordings—sales, releases, judgments, HOA liens, UCCs.
Use Digital Title Plants: Organized, searchable indices accelerate spotting defects and name variants.
Escalate Complexities: For foreclosures, estates, divorces, or entity changes, consult counsel or underwriting.
Leverage Title Insurance Standards: Align curatives with insurer requirements to reduce exceptions.
Ongoing Education: Follow state-specific quirks and recording idiosyncrasies; they matter.
How to Display ChainOfTitle Skills on Your Resume

5. RiskAssessment
RiskAssessment weighs the legal and financial exposure tied to a property’s title—defects, unpaid liens, access issues, survey conflicts, or unreleased interests.
Why It's Important
It protects buyers and lenders, trims post-close claims, and guides what to clear versus what to except.
How to Improve RiskAssessment Skills
Expand Education: Study state statutes, lender guidelines, and underwriting manuals; seek certifications where offered.
Adopt Reliable Software: Use platforms that centralize title data, track curatives, and flag anomalies.
Stay Current: Monitor regulatory changes, policy forms, and market trends affecting defects and claims.
Collaborate: Compare scenarios with peers, escrow officers, and underwriters; stress-test edge cases.
Use Property Intelligence: Supplement record searches with data tools that surface risk patterns.
How to Display RiskAssessment Skills on Your Resume

6. RealPropertyLaw
Real Property Law governs rights in land and fixtures, recording and priority, and lawful transfers. Title Examiners apply it daily to interpret documents and resolve conflicts.
Why It's Important
It sets the rules for ownership, encumbrances, and enforceability. Understanding those rules keeps title opinions solid.
How to Improve RealPropertyLaw Skills
Continuing Education: Take targeted courses in easements, estates, adverse possession, and recording acts.
Use Research Tools: Reference trusted legal research services for statutes and case law.
Standardize Procedures: Create playbooks for common scenarios—missing releases, name changes, boundary disputes.
Strengthen Analysis: Practice reconciling conflicting documents and applying priority rules to real files.
Network with Counsel: Short consults with real estate attorneys or underwriting counsel avert long detours.
How to Display RealPropertyLaw Skills on Your Resume

7. EscrowProcesses
EscrowProcesses coordinate documents and funds through a neutral party until all conditions are met. Title and settlement move in lockstep here.
Why It's Important
It secures the exchange—money for marketable title—minimizing fraud, surprise liens, and timing misfires.
How to Improve EscrowProcesses Skills
Automate Intake: Pull tax, HOA, and recording data systematically to cut manual rekeying.
Standardize SOPs: Clear checklists for funding, disbursements, and document routing reduce last-minute scrambles.
Train Continuously: Refresh knowledge on RON, eNotarization, and eRecording requirements by state.
Tighten Communication: Use secure, centralized updates so lenders, agents, and clients see exactly what’s pending.
Quality Controls: Mid-process audits catch payoff changes, vesting mismatches, and missing signatures before closing day.
How to Display EscrowProcesses Skills on Your Resume

8. TitleExpress
TitleExpress is a workflow platform for title insurance and settlement—orders, production, document prep, and reporting under one roof.
Why It's Important
It reduces rekeying, structures the file, and helps enforce consistency from search to closing package.
How to Improve TitleExpress Skills
Stay Current: Install updates promptly for stability, security, and new features.
Deep Training: Explore advanced modules—templates, automation rules, and reporting.
Customize: Tailor fields, tasks, and dashboards to your market and insurer requirements.
Learn from Users: Join user groups to trade tips and solve oddball workflow issues.
Integrate: Connect with search vendors, eRecording, and e-sign tools to cut swivel-chair work.
Lean on Support: Use tutorials and help desks to squash friction fast.
How to Display TitleExpress Skills on Your Resume

9. PublicRecords
PublicRecords are the official filings—deeds, mortgages, liens, plats, court actions—that reveal history and encumbrances tied to a parcel.
Why It's Important
They’re the evidentiary backbone of your opinion. If it’s not of record (or properly indexed), risk rises.
How to Improve PublicRecords Skills
Digitize and Organize: Favor digital copies and reliable indices; build your own cross-references where county systems lag.
Index Discipline: Track name variations, a/k/a entries, entity changes, and misspellings.
Quality Audits: Periodically sample prior files to spot recurring misses and refine methods.
Staff Training: Teach document recognition, chain-building, and red-flag spotting with real case examples.
Gather Feedback: Ask closers and underwriters which defects crop up post-close; fix root causes.
Monitor Legal Changes: Recording fees, transfer taxes, and indexing rules shift—keep your playbook fresh.
How to Display PublicRecords Skills on Your Resume

10. SurveyAnalysis
SurveyAnalysis interprets boundary surveys, plats, and legal descriptions to spot encroachments, gaps, overlaps, and easements that affect title.
Why It's Important
It prevents boundary blowups, clarifies access, and aligns record title with the ground as built.
How to Improve SurveyAnalysis Skills
Use GIS: Overlay parcels, easements, and aerials to visualize conflicts early.
Keep Learning: Study survey standards, state-specific minimums, and common drafting conventions.
Leverage Survey Software: Tools that check closures and bearings help reveal broken calls quickly.
Organize Securely: Store surveys and related correspondence in structured, searchable folders or cloud vaults.
Network with Surveyors: Quick clarifications on monuments, bearings, or bases save hours.
Tie to Legal Research: Align survey findings with easement law, rights-of-way, and dedication language.
How to Display SurveyAnalysis Skills on Your Resume

11. TitleWave
TitleWave refers to platforms that help request, access, and manage title searches and reports, aiming to streamline examiner workflows.
Why It's Important
Centralized ordering and standardized outputs reduce friction, speed turn times, and improve consistency.
How to Improve TitleWave Skills
Boost Data Accuracy: Validate inputs, normalize names, and set rules that flag mismatches automatically.
Improve Integrations: Connect to public indices, tax data, and recorder systems for fresher information.
Refine UX: Simplify screens and task flows so examiners reach critical documents in fewer clicks.
Train and Support: Provide quick-start guides, scenario playbooks, and responsive help.
Feedback and Updates: Ship frequent improvements based on user pain points; measure adoption.
How to Display TitleWave Skills on Your Resume

12. ClosingDocuments
ClosingDocuments are the final stack—deed, mortgage or deed of trust, transfer tax forms, title policy documents, payoffs, settlement statements—needed to memorialize and fund the deal.
Why It's Important
They prove the transfer, satisfy parties’ obligations, and ensure the title policy issues on solid ground.
How to Improve ClosingDocuments Skills
Verify Everything: Names, vesting, legal descriptions, parcel numbers, addresses—match against the record.
Confirm Compliance: Align with state-specific execution rules, notary requirements, and recording standards.
Complete the File: Hunt for missing signatures, dates, exhibits, or riders before closing day.
Resolve Ambiguities: Clarify inconsistencies early with lenders, attorneys, or agents.
Adopt eClosing Tools: Use secure e-sign, RON where permitted, and eRecording to cut errors and delays.
Keep Learning: Track policy form updates, state law changes, and lender documentation shifts.
Quality Control: Run a final pre-recording checklist; have a colleague spot-check high-risk files.
How to Display ClosingDocuments Skills on Your Resume

