Courthouse Research: A Full-Time Job?

by Hava Lyon | More from this Blogger

09 Mar 2007 10:00 AM

This is a mini-series on becoming a courthouse researcher. If you haven't heard of that job before, or if you missed the first part of this series, make sure to start reading here. Otherwise, read on!

Many people start salivating over the idea of having a flexible data entry job that pays them $15 - $20 an hour, and they get really excited, apply at Sunlark / AMD / Wolfgang, and think their life is set when they get hired on with one of the companies. The problem is, yes, the hours are flexible, but keep in mind that you can only do it when the county offices are open. If you need to work nights or weekends, this is not going to work out for you.

The second problem is even bigger: The work is based on houses buying and selling, which means the bigger the county, the more work you have. If you live in a small town though, you are only going to have several hours of work per month. Yes, I said per month. I live in a community of about 15,000, and I had about 8 hours of work per month at my county to do, if that gives you an idea of what you're looking at. It also depends on whether you are living in an area experiencing lots of growth right now. My town is growing, but it's at a fairly sedate pace. People aren't moving to rural Idaho in droves.

So what if you want to make this a full time job? Quite honestly, this type of job was never meant to be completely full-time work (40 hours a week.) This is a part-time job to supplement your other jobs. There is one lady that I know of who does this job 40 hours a week, but she covers a large area and many different counties. If you live in a metropolis, you will most definitely have enough records to keep you busy every day at the same county every time, but the problem is, those areas are probably already covered by someone else. It's not likely a large city is just sitting there, waiting to be covered, although it does happen every once in a while.

One thing to look into is that some of the companies also have other information they need collected while you're at a county, so if you look into collecting more than just the standard info, then you may make the trip to the courthouse worth more by killing two birds with one stone. Not every "side" program is equally profitable, so make sure you completely understand what you're agreeing to before you sign up for it, to make sure it will be worth your while.

I can hear the question now, "If this isn't going to produce a full-time income, then why bother?" For the answer, make sure to check out my next blog. Thanks for reading, and as always, feedback is welcome!

Learn more about Hava Lyon

Hello, my name is Hava or Havs (depending on my mood and yours!) I am a freelance writer who writes for several blogs, both paid ones such as this one, and personal blogs.

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