The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-07-20
TORREN'S SYSTEM ADVOCATED
registration of Lands to Decrease
Cost of Transfer.
To the Editor of The State

call the attention of the land owners
OF the State to the burdens under
which they are laboring in the An.
nual payment of many thousands of
dollars for the useless investigation
of titles and the lack Of credit they
r'cet in the money markets of the
"Crld. Every man in the State who
owns land, however small the amount
may be, knows how difficult it is for
MIN to go to any of the money lend
ing institutions of our country and
OBTAIN loan for the improvement Of
MS property or for the promotion of
new enterprises. A national bank
VIII not make a loan at all with real
estate as security and the process by
winch 1T is obtained from a State
bank or an individual is very expen-
sive. The natural question is WHY?
Because OF the cumbersome, tedious
and troublesome procedures in our
courts for collecting the same i'm case
the borrower fails to repay the money
at the proper time and the enormous
expense incurred in investigating
titles. Compare the case of a real
estate owner with the owner of bank
stock and see the difference. The
bank stock owner can write his name
across the certificate which he holds
N o1 ncS
and obtain a loan equal almost to
the face value of the stock without
any expense whatever. The publish
ed reports of the bank, together with
the report of the bank examiner,
show the condition of the bank finan-
cially, hence practically no time is
lost in ascertaining the value of the
stock in the market, and in the
transferring of the stock no cumber-
some and expensive procedure has to
be gone through with.
On the other hand, the owner of
real estate is fatty refused any loan
at all from a national bank, and if
one is obtained from any other source
considerable expense is incurred I'm
the investigation of titles, drawing up
of papers, ETC., all of which could be
obviated if we had the Torren's sys-
tenn. Every time a piece of property
changes hands these same expensive
details have to be paid for, however,
satisfactory the title is to the present
owner. The result of all this is a.
lack of proper appreciation of land
as security and a lethargy in business
where real estate is involved.
For example, take a concrete case,
which recently came within my own
knowledge. Only a few months ago
Mr.. A. bought a tract of land from
Mr.. B. who was perfectly satisfied
with his title, he having had it in
vestigated when he purchased it
some years before. While the owner
assured Mr.. A. that he believed the
title all right, still Mr. A. in fairness
to himself, paid an attorney to in-
vestigate it for him. A few months
later this land was to be used as a
security for loan and another attor-
ney's fee had to be paid for investi-
eating this same land, although just
as good lawyer had said, only a short
time previous that the title to it was
perfectly good. Now, if this piece
of property were to change hands
each year or had to be used as secur-
ity with a new party the same expen-
sive details and delay would have to
be met. Such a burden as this al
ways confronting you hampers busi-
ness enterprises when everybody,
who has any knowledge of real estate
at all knows there is no better secur-
tty, so far as actual worth is concern
ed in the world.
Now, if real estate is as good or
better property than bank stock.
then why shouldn't we have some
system by which it could be used or
transferred as easily as the bank
stock? Such a system would be an
incentive to the improvement of all
real estate, to the establishment of
new enterprises and to the better
ment Of all concerned, buyer seller.
borrower and lender. There is no
class or profession of people who
would not be the beneficiary of such
a plan. There are some second class
| lawyers who now oppose it on the
ground that it would deprive them of
a few fees for investigating titles
forgetting that while they might lose
IN one direction, they would make
decided gains in another in aiding
the establishment of new enterprises