I don't assume this at all Judy. In fact, I assume that you are doing just what you said you are doing, trying to make a living.

You are not a Charlatan, neither are you an abstractor. You may be some day, maybe even a great one.

Do you remember when you first came on this site a couple of months ago? You were asking for a mentor. You knew then that you were not qualified to accept orders as an abstractor. You knew that you needed help and you made an honest appeal here for that help.

You may not believe me now but I was considering offering you whatever help I could in a private email. I checked out your web site and found your claim of being not only a abstractor, but an insured abstractor with many years of experience. Curious to me why you would so honestly and humbly seek a mentor here on SOT while telling potential clients that you were in fact already an insured abstractor with many years of experience. So I checked out your listing here on SOT only to find that here you not only claimed all the above but added "a coach to abstractors".

If you were all of these things you obviously did not need a mentor. In fact, wouldn't "a coach to abstractors" be very similar to a mentor? So I never sent that email offer.

I watched to when you posted that you were just trying to make a living and did not intend to take business from anyone. I believed you were sincere but couldn't see the logic of your statement. Where did you think your clients would be coming from? The clients we serve are already being served by someone. Most likely someone with years of experience and satifactory service. What would you offer these clients that they were not already being given? The living you were trying to make could only come from the living someone else had built over many years. You cannot offer the same service the experienced abstractors are already giving. Eventually, no matter how well intentioned and honest you may be you will be forced to either make claims you cannot back up or offer undercut fees to compensate for your lack of experience.

My advice to you had I sent that email would have been to either gain the experience you need by working for an experienced abstractor, title company or attorney. If this was not an option you might have done document retrieval or data acquisition until you gained enough experience to feel comfortable doing a few of the less demanding searches if you let your client know in advance that you were inexperienced. Your clients might have even helped you if they knew in advance that you had really never done this type of work before.

Yes, there always be new people claiming to be abstractors. They will come and they will go. I've seen many over the years. The ones who stay are usually the ones who treat their clients honestly and professionally. The ones who go leave in their wake confusion about what an abstractor is and the service we provide. Clients are often left with large lawsuits resulting from their belief in a new "abstractor" who wasn't an abstractor and now never will be.

Now, the new people claiming to be qualified abstractors need not even be in the same county as the experienced abstractors. They don't even have to be in the same country according to the offshore outsource companies. After all, they are just "new abstractors" too. Just trying to make a living and not wanting to take business away from anyone.

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