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 copy of 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.