Chicago Title Company opened a sale transaction involving a tract of vacant land not far from downtown Austin. The tract is located in a desirable part of Austin where there are very few vacant tracts of land. The purchase contract was brought in by the buyer, who is a real estate investor and previous customer. There were no brokers or real estate agents involved. The contract price for the sale was $316,427 all cash.

The order was opened by Tabitha Jacobs, an extraordinary escrow assistant. She talked to the seller, Davin Rain, on the telephone to confirm the order was opened. He said he lived in Georgia; his phone number was a Nevada area code. Tabitha said Mr. Rain was not forth coming with information and acted very suspicious on the phone. When she explained the closing documents would need to be signed with a mobile signing agent in Georgia, he flat out refused using a Company approved signing agent.

Then, one of the other Chicago Title offices in Austin received another contract on the same property. The system notified the office of an existing open order with Tabitha's office. The other escrow officer contacted Tabitha, and both were confused about receiving two separate contracts with two different buyers and two different sale prices for the same property. Tabitha looked at the appraisal district information and saw the address where the property tax bills were being mailed was located in Austin, which did not match up with the seller residing in Georgia.

Tabitha drove to the address where the property tax bills were being mailed and asked to speak with Mr. Rain. He was an elderly gentleman who confirmed his property was not for sale. He urged Tabitha not to continue with the present transaction and not to close on the sale of his property, as it was not for sale.

When Tabitha returned to the office, she notified her title officer, and an alert was sent to all operations in Texas. She and her escrow officer resigned from the transaction, returning all funds and documents on deposit to their original remitter. The other branch office did the same. Both contract buyers were disappointed; they did not know anything about being involved with a fraudulent seller. They said they saw a good deal on a property, and both jumped on it.

After that, the individual masquerading as Mr. Rain continued trying to sell the property to other buyers, each time opening the escrow with a different escrow branch for a different sale price. Through the offices being diligent and the internal system flagging files, the Company rejected six additional contracts from this individual attempting to sell the property.

In one of the six transactions, the buyer was represented by a broker who was adamant about going forward with the deal even after the Company resigned and informed him the property seller was an imposter. The broker said they were going to move the transaction to a competitor and still close under the contract. Unbelievable! Thankfully, the property has not been illegally transferred.

For Tabitha's due diligence in ferreting out the absentee owner and protecting the Company from a potential loss of $316,427, she has been rewarded $1,500 and a letter of recognition.