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Getting a Recorded Document Into Your System, Not Your Inbox

Document retrieval is a solved problem right up until the document arrives. Then somebody has to file it, name it, and remember where it went. The platform behind this site exists to remove that last step.

The retrieval is the easy part

Ordering a deed is not hard. What costs time is everything around it. The email thread that specifies which instrument, the wait with no status, the PDF that arrives detached from the matter it belongs to, and the person who renames it and files it somewhere the next person will not think to look.

We built the ordering, the status, and the delivery as one connected path instead. Requests come from your system or the portal, documents go back the same way with their recording data attached, and nothing depends on somebody watching an inbox. The stack behind it is set out on the AFX technology platform, which the whole AFX network runs on.

You can still order one document in a browser and get one PDF back. Nothing below is required to do that.

What the platform does

  • Document retrieval by API: Request a deed, mortgage, plat, or release from inside your own system. Token-based authentication, audit logging, and a sandbox to test against before anything counts. Learn more about Document retrieval by API
  • Webhook delivery: Documents arrive as events rather than as replies to a status email, so a file that lands at 4:40pm reaches your system at 4:40pm instead of the next morning. Learn more about Webhook delivery
  • Order management portal: Every document you have ever ordered, searchable, with the recording data attached and the original retrievable years later without asking anyone to look it up. Learn more about Order management portal
  • Multi-format delivery: PDF for the file, Word when language gets quoted, Excel when a schedule gets sorted, and structured data when a system consumes it. Same document, whichever shape you need. Learn more about Multi-format delivery
  • AI-assisted indexing: Retrieved documents come back with the parties, dates, and recording references already extracted, so a scanned 1974 instrument is searchable rather than just stored. Learn more about AI-assisted indexing
  • White-label delivery: Firms passing documents to their own clients deliver them under their own cover and branding, with separate templates per product where that matters. Learn more about White-label delivery

From request to filed document

A retrieval passes through four states. Connected customers see each one as an event the moment it happens. Everyone else sees them in the portal, which is still better than an email thread.

  1. Step 1

    property.add

    You request the document

    A recording reference, or the property and the document type, submitted through the portal or the API.

  2. Step 2

    200 Order Received

    We confirm receipt

    An immediate acknowledgment so a connected system can record that the retrieval is in progress.

  3. Step 3

    property.status.update

    Retrieval progresses

    Status moves as the request reaches the county, including when a document turns out to be available only in person.

  4. Step 4

    property.document.upload

    The document arrives

    The recorded instrument lands as a file with its indexed metadata attached, in whichever formats your account is configured for.

The REST API gives your platform control, letting it request, check, and retrieve on demand, while webhook delivery handles immediacy by pushing each document the moment it exists. Running both is the common pattern, and neither requires an SDK.

Whatever is not integrated lives in the order management portal, which keeps every document you have ordered searchable and retrievable long after the transaction that prompted it has closed.

One document, four shapes

A recorded instrument is an image, so PDF is the honest default and always what you receive. But a document that only exists as an image is a document somebody has to read before it can be used. Structured delivery returns the parties, dates, and recording references as fields alongside the file, so the instrument is searchable in your system rather than merely stored in it.

Word and Excel exist for the same reason in different shapes. Language gets quoted into correspondence, and schedules get sorted. Retyping either out of a scan is where errors enter a file.

Firms passing documents on to their own clients use white-label delivery so the cover and packaging carry their brand. Setup is a logo file and a short conversation about formatting.

Making a scan searchable

County records reach back decades before anyone indexed them usefully. A 1974 assignment is a photograph of a typed page, and no amount of full-text search finds it if nobody captured who signed it. Language models read those instruments and extract the parties, dates, and recording references, which is what turns a stored image into a findable record.

The extraction never replaces the document. You always receive the recorded instrument itself, because that image is the thing of record and the fields beside it are a convenience, not a substitute.

Questions about ordering and delivery

Can we order documents without using the website?
Yes. The REST API accepts retrieval requests programmatically, either by recording reference or by property and document type, and returns the same documents the portal delivers. You authenticate with a token, test against a sandbox, and are generally live the same day you start.
How do documents reach our system once they are ready?
Either way you prefer. The API lets your platform request status and pull documents on demand, and webhooks push each document to you as it becomes available so nothing has to poll. Most volume customers run both, the API for control and webhooks for immediacy.
What formats can a recorded document be delivered in?
PDF is the default, because a recorded instrument is an image of a document and PDF is what a file expects. Word and Excel are available where language gets quoted or schedules get sorted, and a structured data payload carrying the parties, dates, and recording references is available where a downstream system needs fields rather than a file.
Are older documents searchable, or just scanned images?
Both. The scanned image is the document of record and you always receive it. Alongside it, the parties, dates, and recording references are extracted and returned as indexed fields, which is what makes a 1974 instrument findable in your own system later rather than only openable.
Can we deliver documents to our clients under our own branding?
Yes. Delivery is brandable, so the cover and packaging carry your logo, colors, and disclaimers rather than ours. Send a high-resolution logo and we configure the template, including separate templates where different products should not arrive looking identical.

Retrieving at volume, or from a county that makes it difficult? Talk to our team and we will tell you what is realistic.

Order Title Documents

Recorded documents from any U.S. county, delivered in the format your file needs. Order online or ask us about connecting retrieval to your own system.

Order DocumentsAsk a Question

Questions? Call 877-848-5337 or email info@afxllc.com