TIME IS MONEY Jumpstart your search Good afternoon, I am Mike Trowbridge, Title Examiner for the City Assessor in Hampton. The City Assessor??? Richmond is the only other jurisdiction in Virginia that I know of that maintain title examiners on their Assessor staff I’ve been there almost 10 years now and while my predecessors were very professional and capable, they did not have the breadth of knowledge a TE possess which is an unrealized skill set to those without that knowledge. We have evolved from pushing files around into a predominately paperless office by simply embracing technology and continue leveraging it to streamline our processes and procedures. Mike Trowbridge Title Examiner Office of the Assessor of Real Estate

Assessor of Real Estate Mike Trowbridge Title Examiner Assessor of Real Estate Hampton, VA Retired Air Force Title Examiner Married – Bella 4 – Children 7 – Grand 1 – Great, in production Here is a snippet of me. The third bullet makes one feel really old. 1990 – CCAF 2010 – Paralegal 2016 – Criminal Justice Hobby: Country Western dance

No Back Title – No problem Traditional techniques Do we have data on this subdivision? Court Computer Grantor/Grantee index Land Book Assessor’s data Comprehensive data Source deed Plat E & R **

Title Examiner in the Assessor’s Office Assessor responsibilities Value property Produce Land book Other programs: Exempt, Land use, Rehab, appeals Assessor DB populates Hampton website Title Examiner - 2007 Process any recording where fee is conveyed Land actions – Merge, Split, BLA, Easement Maintain data base for Land Book Here are some functions the assessor is responsible for. Constantly under review, some responsibilities change. A good example of that was the ability to merge properties for ease of assessment. On the surface this customer service enhancement benefits everyone but in reality creates a disconnect with the land book and court records. Thankfully this ability was removed a few years ago but the damage will linger for decades. These and other critical actions are the foundation for maintaining a Title Examiner on staff in every assessor office.

Hampton Digital Evolution Office migration Green sheets (manual tracking) 1997 CAMA system ProVal Deeds via Microfiche 1998 total migration to assessment computer 2004 Court computer purchased 2007 Green sheet update suspended 2009 RMS login. Green Sheets digitized 2012 Digital plat processing (paperless) 2014 Easement & restrictions processing

Hampton Website – Hampton.gov Print data before you head to Court House Hampton Website – Hampton.gov

Hampton “Green Sheets” Manual records Limitations Attributes I stated earlier that we have migrated to a paper less system but continue to update our data base with any new or updated data from the past. As in all localities, we started with a manual process. Ours was “Green Sheets” A very labor intensive process which has it’s good and bad In the late 1990s we purchased a computer program which allowed us to migrate into the computer age. Not all of the Green sheet data migrated to the data base.

Management is very supportive and we have been able to digitize all of our 50K+ Green Sheets.

Digital Environment City website – Hampton.gov (free) Searchable database Taxes GIS map (interactive) Ownership history - limited Plat data Hampton Circuit Court RMS (pay per view, per printout) Office of the Assessor Property record card ($)

Problem Children Your problem is my problem Errors Break in the Chain? PIN, Legal, Grantor, Grantee Scrivener Death / Heirs unknown Not probated Plat attached – Yeah right Break in the Chain?

TIME IS MONEY Website Assessors Office Yes – Time is money And if you get stuck, the Assessors office may be able to help. Thank you

Question ? Mike Trowbridge 757-728-5130 mtrowbridge@hampton.gov Questions?