If you have no experience with commercial searches, you may not want to do them. There can be tremendous liability and you want to be sure your e&o is sufficient and that you will be covered for commercial work. You have to abstract everything and most want a full title, including easements, leases, etc. You need to let them know about appurtenant properties too--whether or not those properies need to be included in your search. It can get very complicated. You should charge by the hour, as many commercial searches will wind up taking up a lot more time than you think. And whoever is insuring your title work, is getting big bucks. Remember that they are relying on your title work so be please be careful. Commercial title work can be a challenge compared to residential current owner and limited titles, even fulls but it opens up a whole lot of liability issues for an abstractor. And you may spend days on one search; you should be paid accordingly. Good luck!

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