I Miss Blogs
In Which We React to a Post on Global Database Searches
It’s been a long time since blogs had their heyday. Blogs, in the era of blogging, shared two key features. First, they were not static. Their authors, “bloggers”, updated their blogs often. Added all day. Blog, the word, was an acronym for weblog, web-log. They were logs. Tracking things as they happened. Logging events and issues of importance. Second, bloggers reacted. And reacted to other blogs. Blogs were ongoing conversations. Bloggers would quote from other blogs or they would “Fisk” another’s post, that is go through a blog post line by line to present counter-arguments. Certain bloggers made an art just in the way they hyperlinked. It is that sense of dialogue, creating an ongoing string of information, that I miss. I’m forced to be my own blogosphere. React to what I just wrote.
I wrote last week about how much I love Global Database searches. To complete the thought, I must address the aggravation they cause me. Worked on a matter over the weekend, which reinforced the good and bad of Global Database searches. What always needs to be done, and why, at the end of the day, I was glad I had my Global Database report.
The Case of the Missing Foreclosure
The mission: look at a witness; find “de-rog”, derogatory information, dirt, ways to make him squirm on the witness stand. The tactics: public records. Look for lawsuits, bankruptcy (in fact, yes!), tax liens, judgements, all things I could find if I looked in the right place. Step one. Find the person. You see, the real start of the searches is to have that Global Search report, but you cannot get a Global Search report unless you know something – like a social security number or home address. When you only have a witness name. You need more. A name alone won’t cut it. I did my stuff and I found him. Step two. Run the Global Database.
As I described in last week's post on Global Database searching, the report is a summary of information and the summary has a summary. The witness summary signaled the findings. The public records. There was the aforementioned bankruptcy. Also, a Notice of Default, a nice finding indicating financial duress.
What is a Notice of Default? Real estate is often bought with borrowed money – a mortgage. Property, usually the property being purchased, is security for the loan. If the loan is not paid on time and as agreed, the lender (the bank), can foreclose or seek to take over the property. There’s a lot of intricacies and rules, hoops to jump through, (rightly so) to do a foreclosure. One thing to do is to file a Notice of Default. Here’s the thing, though – the Notice means trouble. You’re not paying your loan. It’s a valuable piece of public record de-rog. Here’s the more thing. The Notice is filed, is almost always filed, before a foreclosure lawsuit, and often without a foreclosure suit ever being filed. So, a litigation search will not find this record. It will, however, show up on Global Database. Except what if it’s not your guy?
I made it clear in my post last week:
“I’m not disagreeing with Tim and others who point out the limitations of Global Databases, which are not as comprehensive as you may think or as accurate as you hope.”
I do not run to the lawyers with information from a Global Database that said, “Notice of Default” on my guy. I needed to make sure. I’m not sure if this helps or hurts the case for Global Database, but the result I got was incredibly incomplete. Hard to tell where (location) the Notice occurred. The subject of the research had owned many properties over the years. Which loan did he struggle to pay? In finding the right real estate record, in going through lists of documents, in looking at mortgages and default notices, it became less clear whether the Notice cited in the Global Database was for my guy. Like I say, the Global Database is not as accurate as you hope.
Still, they are your salvation. How else could I know I had the wrong record. The totality of information in the Global Database, especially the address and address histories, were critical in figuring out who was the person who defaulted, and the fact that he was not the subject of my research.
When you do research, you are driven by the fear of what will you miss. When you do research, and have been doing it for a long time, you are driven to be accurate. Accusing someone of something not true can have unpleasant consequences. Big picture – the Global Database is a primary source for ensuring you find things. It is also a primary source to help ensure you have what you think, even when the report says otherwise. That’s my response to a post on loving Big Data.