1. 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

2. 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

3. 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 **

4. 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
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.

5. 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

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

14. 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.

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

16. 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 ($)

17. 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?

18. 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

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