Article by Glenn E. Rice

Clay County has become one of the first local governments in Missouri to allow real estate title

and mortgage companies to record deeds electronically. Electronic recording of deeds allows title companies to scan their documents and send them through an Internet-based portal. The process eliminates the decades-old need for companies to hand-deliver paperwork or have couriers take them directly to the county’s recorder of deeds office. The process takes minutes instead of days, said Bob Sevier, the county’s recorder of deeds. ‘I am extremely proud that Jackson County could not get it done in time and Clay County beat them,’ Sevier said.

Platte, Jackson and Cass counties are expected to begin using a similar recording method in the
next month or so. A similar method of electronic recording deeds is used in Salt Lake City ,
Los Angeles , Phoenix and Orlando, Fla ., he said. Clay County began using the new filing system in March. That month, the county recorded 5,051 deeds and other documents. Of that amount, about 8 percent of those documents were scanned electronically using the new documenting system, Sevier said. ‘We started recording deeds in Clay County in 1822 and back then there were only two methods,’ Sevier said. ‘After 180 years, you now have a third method.’ It costs the county nothing to convert to the new system. Those title companies that use the service pay the cost.

Dave Mudd, chief technology officer for Mobilis Technologies, which is based in Columbia and
developed the Web recording portal, said the new process improves efficiency and reduces the
possibility of documents being lost or misplaced. The old process required the documents to be hand-delivered to the recorder’s office. Title companies had to wait several days for them to be returned. The new system allows documents to be returned the same day, Mudd said. Bud Whisler, senior vice president of Stewart Title Guaranty Co., said the new system is faster and more cost-effective.

The recorder’s office will continue to accept deeds that are hand-delivered or mailed.