Career
Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers
Search property records to confirm who owns what.
$58,650
Median pay
+2.1%
Job growth, 2025–35
5,300
Openings a year
High school diploma or equivalent
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Prepare and issue title commitments and title insurance policies, based on information compiled from title searches.
- Examine documentation such as mortgages, liens, judgments, easements, plat books, maps, contracts, and agreements to verify factors such as properties' legal descriptions, ownership, or restrictions.
- Examine individual titles to determine if restrictions, such as delinquent taxes, will affect titles and limit property use.
- Prepare reports describing any title encumbrances encountered during searching activities and outlining actions needed to clear titles.
- Prepare lists of all legal instruments applying to a specific piece of land and the buildings on it.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on information & systems, then persuasion & leadership?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Prepare and issue title commitments and title insurance policies, based on information compiled from title searches.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $58,650 a year and 5,300 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Legal Assistant/ParalegalCIP 22.0302
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- File Clerks$43,600 · -15.8%
- Paralegals and Legal Assistants$62,890 · -0.3%
- Appraisers and Assessors of Real Estate
- Court, Municipal, and License Clerks$48,700 · +3.4%
- Insurance Claims and Policy Processing Clerks$49,230 · -1.9%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.