Technology
Tying a Recorded Easement to the Right Piece of Ground
An easement search fails in one of two ways. The burden was recorded somewhere nobody looked, or it was found and attached to the wrong lot. Most of what we have built addresses those two failures.
The index is not the record
County grantor and grantee indexes were built to track conveyances, not burdens. An access right created inside a 1962 warranty deed is indexed as a deed. A drainage obligation buried in a subdivision agreement is indexed as an agreement. Search the index for easements and you find the ones somebody labeled, which is never all of them.
So we read the instruments instead. Language models process the recorded documents themselves at a volume no abstractor could, and certified researchers confirm what comes back. The stack that does it is documented on the AFX technology platform, shared across every AFX property including this one.
The second half of the problem is geographic, and that is where parcel identifiers and map overlays earn their place.
What the platform does
- Placekey parcel identifiers: A durable identifier for a parcel, so a lot described three different ways across three instruments still resolves to one place. Map overlays and reverse geocoding confirm it on the ground. Learn more about Placekey parcel identifiers
- Order management portal: Parcels grouped by project rather than scattered across order numbers, with messaging to the researcher working the county and an archive you can pull a two-year-old study back out of. Learn more about Order management portal
- API ordering: Submit a corridor, a subdivision, or a full route study programmatically instead of keying parcels one at a time. Token-based authentication with a sandbox to test against. Learn more about API ordering
- Structured easement data: Every burden as a field rather than a paragraph, so easements land in your GIS layer, your title plant, or the exhibit table without anyone retyping a legal description. Learn more about Structured easement data
- AI-assisted document reading: Easements hide inside deeds, plats, and agreements that were never indexed as easements. Language models read the instruments themselves rather than trusting the index. Learn more about AI-assisted document reading
- Error correction and classification: Deciding whether an appurtenant right and a recorded agreement describe the same burden is exactly where searches go wrong. Anomalies route to a researcher rather than into the report. Learn more about Error correction and classification
Ordering a corridor, not a lot
Surveyors and land professionals rarely need one parcel. A route study, a subdivision, or a utility corridor means dozens at once, and keying them individually is the slow part. Connected buyers push the whole set through in one call and watch the states come back.
Step 1
property.add
Parcels enter the queue
One lot or a whole corridor arrives by API or portal and is matched against county coverage before research starts.
Step 2
200 Order Received
We confirm receipt
An immediate acknowledgment so a connected system can record that the parcel is under search.
Step 3
property.status.update
Research progresses
Status moves as the abstractor works the county index and the recorded instruments behind it.
Step 4
property.document.upload
Findings come back
The easement report arrives with the recorded instruments attached and a structured abstract beside it.
The REST API handles submission and retrieval for teams running volume, and the order management portal covers everyone else, with the same order history, messaging, and archive behind both.
Findings return as a document and, when a downstream system needs them, as a structured data abstract with each burden as a field. That is what makes recorded easements loadable into a GIS layer without a retyping step in between.
One parcel, however it was described
A lot acquires new descriptions every time it changes hands. Metes and bounds in the original grant, a lot and block after platting, an assessor parcel number that gets renumbered when the county reorganizes. Placekey identifiers and parcel maps collapse those into one referent, so a burden recorded under any historical description still attaches to the right ground.
Overlaying the recorded easement on the parcel boundary is the check that catches the rest. It will not replace a survey and is not offered as one, but it reliably answers whether the burden you found sits on the lot you are researching.
Machines read, researchers decide
Language models extract the grant language, the burdened and benefited parcels, and the scope of the right from instruments that were never indexed as easements. That is volume work, and it is what makes reading the documents rather than the index affordable at all.
Judgment stays with people. Whether an appurtenant right and a later agreement describe the same burden, or two separate ones, is the question easement searches actually turn on. Our error correction and classification algorithms surface the conflict and a certified abstractor resolves it before anything reaches your report.
Questions from surveyors and land professionals
Why does a parcel identifier matter in an easement search?
Can we order a whole corridor or subdivision at once?
Can easement findings feed a GIS layer directly?
How do you find easements that were never indexed as easements?
Do parcel maps replace a survey?
Running something unusual, like a rail corridor or a split parcel? Talk to our team before ordering and we will tell you what the records will support.
Order an Easement Search
Nationwide county coverage, instrument-level reading, and parcel data you can put on a map. Order online or ask us about bulk parcel ordering.
Questions? Call 877-848-5337 ext. 138 or email [email protected]