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What Does Title Ins Protect You From-Equity
There are few things in life more important than protecting your home.
From Christophe Choo
Using datafor Profit and Nonprofit Businesses
David Wethe
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
dwethe@star-telegram.comThis list is not intended to be a complete collection of computer resources. Ithighlights some of the most helpful sources available when backgrounding a business.
Company Websites
--This seems like an obvious first step, but it’s almost always the first thing you shoulddo when backgrounding a company. Just about any company has a web site these days.It’s the best way to see what a company says about itself. Often, you can find contactinformation, company history, a listing of top executives and even financial documents orfilings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Even if the company doesn’t havea website, plugging the company’s name into Google (www.google.com) can yieldinteresting chatter about a person or business. That can lead to better questions to ask down the road.
Publicly traded companies
--All publicly traded companies must file regular reports with the Securities andExchange Commission. Their government’s site (www.sec.gov
) seems to be the best forfinding these filings because everything is free. Under “Forms and Filings,” click on the“Search for company filings.” The SEC’s site will also have filings from companies thatare not publicly traded but must disclose key information about themselves. For example,mortgage lenders must file when they offer up large bundled mortgages for sale.
Private companies
--Hoovers (www.hoovers.com
) is about the best free website out there for findinginformation on large privately held companies.
Secretary of state websites
--While it varies from state to state, many secretary of state websites allow you to searchfor corporation names and the key executives associated with them. If you can’t find thesearch option on the secretary of state site, check your state’s comptroller website.--A collection of all 50 state websites (http://www.statelocalgov.net
) offers links to sitesfor the secretary of state and comptroller offices.
County tax assessors office
--If your county has a tax assessor website, this is a great way to find out the appraisedvalue of the property. Counties usually store the tax rolls electronically. If you're up forthe challenge, you can file an open records request to receive the tax rolls electronically.Then you can sort them in a table using Excel, Access or FoxPro software.
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