Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster and Wright counties
Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster and Wright counties
YEARS
YEARS
ABSTRACT ASSOCIATES
Abstract Associates of Iowa, Inc.
Abstract Associates was born out of friendship between the Jerry Schnurr and Ted Hugghins families in 2009. A family owned business to serve Webster County was the idea. In 2014, services were extended to Calhoun and Wright counties in Iowa. In 2021, Franklin County was added as an additional location and in 2023, Hamilton County was added as well. The title and abstracting service seemed to fit because of Jerry’s experience with title opinions and land transactions. Ted has managed business operations that rely on prompt, courteous customer service, laced with attention to detail.
Our staff consists of a group of professional associates with banking, real estate, accounting, project management, and quality control experiences. Our Associates are assets to our company and our clients.
We all value fast, accurate & friendly customer service.
YEARS OF “Fast, Accurate & Friendly”
Calhoun County Office
418 Main Street
Rockwell City, IA 50579
Phone (712) 220-5863
Email info@abstractassociatesofiowa.com
HOURS Mon-Fri: 9:00am-3:00pm
Franklin County Office
119 First Avenue NW
Hampton, Iowa 50441
Phone (641) 456-4551
Email info@abstractassociatesofiowa.com
HOURS Mon-Fri: 8:00am-4:30pm
Hamilton County Office
1919 Superior Street PO Box 152
Webster City, Iowa 50595-0152
Phone (515) 832-3123
Email info@abstractassociatesofiowa.com
HOURS Mon-Fri: 8:00am-4:30pm
Webster County Office
Located in the Wells Fargo Center: 822 Central Avenue, Suite 304
Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501
Phone (515) 576-7922
Email info@abstractassociatesofiowa.com
HOURS Mon-Fri: 8:00am-4:30pm
Wright County Office
209 North Main Street PO Box 598
Clarion, Iowa 50525
Phone (515) 532-0065
Email info@abstractassociatesofiowa.com
HOURS Mon-Fri: 8:00am-4:30pm
Ted Hugghins & Jerry Schnurr
Abstract Associates of Iowa stresses fast, accurate & friendly
By BILL SHEA bshea@messengernews.net
To the uninitiated, an abstract for a piece of property is a mind-boggling stack of papers filled with legal descriptions, dates, and lawyerly jargon.
But if someone wants to own, buy or sell property, they need to have an abstract.
For 15 years, Abstract Associates of Iowa, based in Fort Dodge, has been providing abstracts to customers with fast, accurate and friendly service.
The business, initially called Abstract Associates of Webster County, opened on Sept. 21, 2009. It has since expanded to Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton and Wright counties.
The company has 16 employees called associates. Six of those associates have earned the designation of Iowa Land Title Association, Certified Land Title Professional. Fewer than 60 people across the state have earned that designation. Abstract Associates of Iowa has more certified land title professionals than any other abstracting company in the state.
The company was started by Jerry Schnurr, a longtime Fort Dodge attorney, and Ted Hugghins, whose business career included serving as the manager of the JC Penney store in the old Crossroads Mall.
“I just always thought it would be a good business to get into,” Schnurr said.
After he and Schnurr discussed the idea of an abstracting company, Hugghins took a class on legal descriptions of property at Des Moines Area Community College. There, he saw abstractors really excited about their work. He was also intrigued with the subject matter of the class.
“I just soaked it up like a sponge,” he said. “I thought, wow, this is very interesting.”
Schnurr and Hugghins decided to go into the business. Schnurr provided his years of experience of working with abstracts as a lawyer. In addition to his new found knowledge of legal descriptions, Hugghins provided his knowledge of customer service developed over years in retailing.
“Ted’s one of the best there is at customer service,” Schnurr said. “He set us up with practices and a culture that emphasizes customer service.”
That emphasis on customer service resulted in the company’s commitment to being fast, accurate and friendly. Those are the traits the company’s associates apply to every abstracting project.
Schnurr described an abstract as “the best documented history of a piece of property that we can provide in the land transfer business.”
He said it is a summary of all documents related to a piece of property. The ultimate goal of an abstract, he said, is to make sure that land owners have a clear title to the property.
“It’s a really important thing to have,” he said.
Preparing an abstract requires poring over documents in courthouses and putting all the information in those documents together like pieces in a puzzle. Hugghins said people who like to read and do puzzles might be good abstractors.
ABSTRACT ASSOCIATES
YEARS OF “Fast, Accurate & Friendly”
About two weeks before the doors of Abstract Associates of Iowa opened for the first time, Schnurr and Hugghins started telling real estate agents, banks and other attorneys about the new business. Within the first week, customers started coming in.
“We welcomed them with open arms,” Hugghins said. The company was first located in the Carver Building on Central Avenue.
It then moved to the Snell Building at Central Avenue and Eighth Street before settling in its current home in the Wells Fargo building at 822 Central Ave. in late 2013.
The company’s first expansion came in 2014, with an office in Clarion in Wright County.
An office in Rockwell City, the county seat of Calhoun County, followed in 2016.
In 2021, the company expanded into Franklin County. Then in 2023, it expanded into Hamilton County.
Over the years, the company has completed the abstracts for some high profile projects. The first of those was the Lundgren Wind Farm, which is what MidAmerican Energy calls its turbines in southern Webster County. That project took three years to complete.
Abstract Associates of Iowa did the abstracting for the Fareway store at First Avenue South and 12th Street. Hugghins said that was a complicated project because many different additions to the city come together in that spot.
“The abstract was large,” he said.
The company has also worked on Corridor Plaza and the Williams Bend neighborhood.
As it handles more and more projects, the company may not be done growing.
“We’re always looking for opportunities,” Schnurr said.
Ted & Jerry “twinning” at a board meeting
Danielle abstracting in Franklin County
Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster and Wright counties
Hamilton County Office
Ted, Abby & Danielle at the Annual Convention 2022
Wright County Office
Wright County Office
Amanda in Hamilton County
Danielle, Abby & Ted in Webster County Office
15
YEARS OF Knowledge
Abstract Associates of Iowa has been a member of the Iowa Land Title Association since 2009.
The Iowa Land Title Association was designed to be a network of Abstractors, Attorneys and Real Estate professionals working together to be the voice of the real estate title industry in the state of Iowa, to set the standards of professional excellence.
Abstract Associates has always focused on education and training, and being active in the ILTA has been crucial for business, catapulting the business and working to provide the most knowledgeable staff throughout the state.
Ted was given Honorary ILTA Membership in 2023
Evidence of this is that Abstract Associates has 6 Iowa Land Title Association Certified Land Title Professionals. The company has the highest number of ILTA CLTPS in Iowa at this current time.
To receive this designation, Abstractors must attend courses designed by Attorneys and Land Title Professionals in the areas of Voluntary Alienation, Involuntary Alienation, Legal Descriptions and Legal Entities and Special Circumstances.
Under these categories, the education ranges from knowledge of the judicial system and its processes, Dissolutions, Estates, Land disputes, Eminent Domain, Tax Sales, Bankruptcy, Legal Descriptions, mapping out Legal Descriptions, among many other topics.
Iowa Land Title Association Certified Land Title Professional (ILTA CLTPS)
All of these topics are taught at length by Real Estate Attorneys and Land Title professionals, over the course of a year, in 4 day-long classes, followed by a same day examination, in which the Abstractor must score a 90% to pass.
The goal is to ensure that the Abstractor has the knowledge to be the “Expert” in the field.
List of Abstract Associates ILTA CLTPS
Danielle Michalski – September 23, 2014
Jennifer Brown – September 9, 2022
Abby Dorsey – June 20, 2023
Hannah Campbell – September 26, 2023
Pam Haack – September 27, 2023
Destiny Benavidez – April 12, 2024
ABSTRACT ASSOCIATES
YEARS OF “Fast, Accurate & Friendly”
Danielle receiving her ILTA CLTP certification
Abby receiving her ILTA CLTP certification
All receiving ILTA CLTP certification
Destiny
Pam
Jennifer
Hannah
Ted Hugghins President/Abstractor (retired)
Hannah Campbell, ILTA CLTP Abstractor Webster County
Danielle Michalski, ILTA CLTP General Manager
Pam Haack, ILTA CLTP Abstractor
Abby Dorsey, ILTA CLTP Assistant Manager
Brenda Rowley Abstractor Calhoun/Webster Counties
Jennifer Brown, ILTA CLTP Abstractor Webster County
Cassondra Plagge Abstractor Webster County
Fast, Accurate & Friendly Staff
Joy Schauper Executive Administrative Assistant
Destiny Benavidez, ILTA CLTP Abstractor Franklin County
Sue Dencklau Administrative Assistant, Webster County
Ashleigh Wright Administrative Assistant, Franklin County
Exiquia Lemke Abstractor Franklin County
Hart Indexer
Carson Brim Abstractor Hamilton County
Amanda Wuebker Administrative Assistant, Hamilton County
Laurie Schreur Administrative Assistant, Wright County
Debra
ASSOCIATES YEARS OF “Fast, Accurate & Friendly”
North Central Regional Meeting 2022
Danielle & Abby taking in an abstract from Ernie Kersten that “my dog ate”
Abby delivering lunches with Meals on Wheels
Jennifer, Danielle & Abby at Growth Alliance golf outing 2023
Courtney Balkenende, Danielle, Abby & Jennifer after PRIA meeting
Jennifer & her leadership class
Joy delivering holiday treats to Mark Crimmins
Brenda delivering a thank you to Heartland Bank
YEARS OF Documenting History
We get this question a lot. What exactly is an Abstract?
An Abstract is collection of all of the public records that have happened with a piece of land or the owners of that land over the course of time. The current Iowa Abstracting standards require an abstract show a history of 40 years, but many Abstracts include a chain of documents that start back when land was first patented by the United States. If you own a piece of land in Iowa, chances are, you have an abstract. And if you ever want to sell a piece of land, you’ll definitely need an Abstract. It is a legal requirement in Iowa to have an Abstract and title opinion when you are buying/ selling property.
In the beginning, circa 1800’s, Abstracts were a hand written document, created by a quill and ink, that showed the chain of events happening with the transfer of land in the county in which the land lies.
And today, the concept is the same, in fact those historical Abstracts are still floating around, in some cases, they still play a role in the work we do today.
Abstracts are still created in the same format, but the technology is vastly different. Gone are the days where anything is hand written, gone are the days where Abstractors spend hours upon hours in the offices of the county Recorders office.
When Ted Hugghins and Jerry Schnurr started Abstract Associates, they both knew that learning a modern way to utilize technology would be important.
Currently, Abstract Associates has the index information and actual physical documents for 5 counties and is able to more efficiently do the work needed to help support the Land Title business of Iowa.
Each county that we serve has a digital title plant, which is a digital space in which all of our documents needed to create the abstracts of today are stored. That being said, some of our offices still rely on tract books, while our staff continues to integrate our digital footprint into each county that we serve by indexing old documents.
Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster and Wright counties
Hannah abstracting in Webster County recorders office
Pam abstracting in Wright County recorders office
ASSOCIATES YEARS OF “Fast, Accurate & Friendly”
Fun Fact:
Associates working on a big project in Webster County recorders office
The combined number of documents we have in our office, stored digitally is _______. Our Associates have maintained the upkeep and indexing of these documents since the beginning of our company.
We are honored to make lives better together throughout Fort Dodge.
Fun Fact Answer: In total, Abstract Associates currently has over 903,000 stored digital records in all 5 counties!
Hannah abstracting in Hamilton county
Reasons to choose Abstract Associates of Iowa, Inc.
> Twelve time Winner MESSENGER Readers Best Abstract Company
> Our friendly, accurate, experienced staff
> Our fast turnaround times
> “Know what you pay for” with published price list of basic fees on our website
> Itemized invoices: never any question of what services were performed
> Free pick up and delivery locally
> Our Certified Title Plants in Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster and Wright counties
> Easy online order services for Calhoun, Franklin, Hamilton, Webster and Wright counties
> Easy access to Attorney Title opinion services
> Complete adherence to Iowa Blue Book Abstractor Standards
> Membership in Iowa Land Title Association
> Participating member in Iowa Title Guaranty
> Our handsomely bound abstracts, delivered in a protective plastic sleeve
