Interesting Data Perspective

[Terrel L. Shields]

DataScoutPro is a vendor from Arkansas that plans to expand into Oklahoma. They will be cheaper than PVPLUS which still uses the citrix technology I despise and basically is a DOS program superimposed upon a window. It desperately needs updated. It also will best the fees of Oklahomacounty.org and OKcountyrecords.com

But DSP' s C. Scott, in a presentation to our NW Arkansas group said something that made lots of sense. Copies vary in price in Arkansas at the courthouse can generally are 50¢ or 25¢ but in OK everything is a $1 per page. Years ago the ledge allocated money for automation of data for each county. Many of those counties have not implemented squat and do not want to share data...and importantly, they don't want to lose that $1 per page charge. To get the databases, these companies often have to sue under the FOIA, or arrange for the county to be paid their precious little dollar. And they then attempt to price the service of "downloading" (often a few second process) with outrageous prices (for instance, in non FOIA states like Louisiana the data dump in Caddo Parish is $5000...far more than the vendor is likely to recoup.

I know that Payne county appears to have implemented the automation process so that this data can be accessed and downloaded for free. I think Tulsa and Oklahoma counties may have something similar but I don't work them. Canadian county is also like Payne county. All the others I typically work cost me a ton of money to pull up deeds. I cannot determine if the deed is useful or not until I look at it and thus, I "burn" a few hundred in a year - compared to perhaps half that in Arkansas where I do more work than in OK.

This is public data. It ought to be available at cost (as per the FOIA) but clearly county clerks are protecting their turf and frequently have a lot of unspent cash that was earmarked by the ledge for getting this stuff on line. I can call out Garfield county, as an example, where I have to physically go to in order to get deeds. I am confident Enid is a large enough system to avail themselves a better way for us to get data.

I can also call out Delaware county as a county where they attempt to (and actually do) stop people from taking a camera shot of the deeds. This is the way many of the landmen for oil companies operate and do so with no quarrel in most counties but Delaware county is outside the oil biz...It is time for the atty general to pound a few of these clerks...not that it will happen...maybe datascout can do what no one else has been able to do.

I cannot prove it, and am not accusing anyone of it, but I have often wondered how that $1 is spent. Is it sent to the state or county treasury? Or is some part of it used as a nice little slush fund to pay for flowers, entertainment expenses, or Christmas gifts for staff? That happened here a few years ago and the county clerk ended up indicted.

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

I bet Slush fund.

The data should be free, or available to you at their cost.
Realist usually has all I need to verify sales prices etc.
Price of that included in MLS fees. No need to review the deeds in these parts.
I think they can be got from Realist for maybe $5 each, if you insist.
Looking up this stuff at the County office does not happen. No need, it's on line.
This is very different from the country I know.
But the slush fund plan remains the same.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Mineral deeds are rarely on line via assessor in AR because they don't know how to deal with them & fear oil companies will under report if made too public, & OK does not tax mineral as ad valorem so all are in county clerk/ recorder office.

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

Mineral deeds

I plead Emily Littlela defense than.

 

[gojira]

I use okassessor for Oklahoma. It's not too bad other than that the transaction details are always a few months behind.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

the transaction details are always a few months behind.

That is because the counties are gouging the vendors. Most download monthly. During tax season the assessor may not update records until after March from the first of the year. Some counties are better at it. OKassessor is too expensive for me due to the counties unless they have changed their ways. The beauty of ActDataScout is that it has 2 versions. A freebie and an easier to search version which charges by the day or month. So if I am working multiple counties, I can do a search and log off. In OK it is all monthly and OKcounty charges by the month and limits you to "view" 100 pages for $45...then charges a pass thru $1 if you actually want a printable copy from the clerk (you can download their copy but it is secured). Apprentice charges by the minute. $100 will last me months. Both of the Arkansas systems are much cheaper than the OK systems. PVPLUS allows you 3 counties and adding one is $10 a month or you can pay what? $100 for the whole state? PVPLUS had to take Benton County, AR to court to get access to the database. When they succeeded, Apprentice systems rolled out a much faster interface and allowed some searching without a charge, just like ActDatascout which is the free side and Datascout pro is the pay side. This database is created by a mass appraisal firm...as is OKassessor.

You can pull up all the deeds and print them for free (unless you want a certified copy) in certain counties like Payne however. Canadian, also. Garfield? again, you cannot get it on line. And the sorry part is that the legislature allocated money for these clerks to ungrade like Payne and Canadian, but they don't want to .... will miss that $1 a copy cash cow...or charging the vendors outrageous prices for frequent data dumps.