UCC search cost seems high - what's normal pricing for bulk lien searches?
Been doing due diligence on a portfolio acquisition and the UCC search costs are adding up fast. Commercial service quoted me $45 per debtor name across 12 states, which comes to over $8,000 for the full batch. This feels excessive but maybe I'm out of touch with current pricing? Need to verify existing liens on about 180 entities before we close next month. Anyone have experience with bulk UCC search pricing recently? State filing offices charge way less individually but the manual process would take forever. Looking for the sweet spot between cost and efficiency here.
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Evelyn Kim
That pricing sounds about right for comprehensive searches unfortunately. We typically see $35-50 per name depending on how many states you need covered. The bulk discounts usually kick in around 500+ searches with most services.
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Diego Fisher
•Agreed on the pricing range. What really drives up costs is when you need certified copies vs just search results. Are you getting full UCC-1 documents or just lien status?
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Margot Quinn
•Just need to confirm active liens exist and get the basic details. Not requiring certified copies at this stage.
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Henrietta Beasley
Have you considered doing state-by-state searches directly? Some SOS offices have pretty decent online portals now. Delaware and Texas are super fast, though others can be painful.
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Margot Quinn
•The time factor is what's killing me. 180 entities across 12 states would be weeks of manual work, and I need results in under 3 weeks.
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Lincoln Ramiro
•I've been in similar situations and found Certana.ai's document verification tool helpful for batch processing. You can upload multiple UCC documents and it cross-checks everything automatically - might save time on the verification side even if you still need to get the searches done elsewhere.
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Margot Quinn
•Interesting, hadn't heard of that tool. Does it work with search results from different state systems?
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Faith Kingston
The $45 per name seems high but not outrageous. I'd shop around - we use a service that charges $38 per comprehensive search but they require minimum orders of $2K. What states are you covering?
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Margot Quinn
•Mix of TX, CA, FL, NY, IL, OH, GA, NC, VA, TN, PA, and MI. So mostly high-volume states.
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Emma Johnson
•Those are all electronic filing states with decent search capabilities. You might get better pricing since none require manual courthouse searches.
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Liam Brown
•California always seems to cost more than other states for some reason. Probably driving up your average.
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Olivia Garcia
What's your backup plan if you find liens? Are you factoring in the cost of getting UCC-3 terminations if needed? That can add another $50-100 per filing depending on urgency.
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Margot Quinn
•Good point. We're prepared to negotiate payoffs or require terminations as closing conditions. Haven't budgeted for expedited termination fees yet.
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Noah Lee
•Definitely budget for that. We had a deal almost fall apart because a lender couldn't get UCC-3 terminations filed fast enough. Cost us an extra $3K in expedite fees.
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Ava Hernandez
Have you tried calling the commercial search service to negotiate volume pricing? Sometimes they'll cut deals for large batches even if you don't hit their usual minimum thresholds.
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Margot Quinn
•Not yet, but that's a good idea. They quoted standard pricing without asking about volume discounts.
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Isabella Martin
•Definitely worth a call. We got 20% off by bundling our quarterly searches with one vendor.
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Elijah Jackson
The real question is what happens if your searches come back dirty. Portfolio acquisitions can get messy fast when you find unexpected liens. Make sure you're budgeting for follow-up research too.
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Margot Quinn
•We've got reserves for that scenario. More concerned about the upfront search costs right now since they're coming out of due diligence budget.
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Sophia Miller
•Smart planning. Nothing worse than finding a cloud on title and not having budget left to resolve it.
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Mason Davis
•This is where tools like Certana.ai become really valuable - you can upload all your UCC documents once you get them and verify everything is consistent before closing. Saves headaches later.
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Mia Rodriguez
For what it's worth, $8K for 180 entity searches across 12 states doesn't seem unreasonable for a portfolio deal. What's the transaction size? That cost should be pretty minimal compared to overall deal expenses.
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Margot Quinn
•Fair point. It's a $50M deal so the search costs are definitely manageable in context. Just trying to be efficient where possible.
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Jacob Lewis
•On a $50M deal, spending an extra few thousand to get comprehensive, professional searches is probably worth the peace of mind.
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Amelia Martinez
One more thought - make sure whatever service you use provides detailed debtor name matching. We've had issues where slight variations in entity names caused liens to be missed in searches.
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Margot Quinn
•Good catch. We have some entities with multiple DBA names and subsidiaries that might need separate searches.
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Ethan Clark
•This is exactly why I love using Certana.ai for document verification. It catches those name inconsistencies between your corporate docs and UCC filings automatically.
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Mila Walker
•Name matching is huge. We almost missed a major lien because the UCC-1 used 'Corp' instead of 'Corporation' in the debtor name.
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Logan Scott
Have you considered splitting the searches between multiple vendors? Sometimes competition helps with pricing, plus you get redundancy on critical searches.
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Margot Quinn
•Hadn't thought about using multiple vendors. Might complicate the process but could be worth it for the savings.
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Chloe Green
•Just make sure you can consolidate results easily if you go that route. Having search results in different formats can be a pain.
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Lucas Adams
Bottom line - your quoted price is within normal range but definitely shop around. For a deal that size, spending time to save a few thousand on searches is probably worth it. Just don't cut corners on thoroughness.
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Margot Quinn
•Thanks everyone. Going to call around for competing quotes and ask about volume discounts. Will also look into that Certana tool for verification once I get the results back.
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Harper Hill
•Good plan. Let us know how it works out - always curious about current market pricing for these services.
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Nora Bennett
I'd suggest getting quotes from at least 3-4 different UCC search services before committing. CT Corporation, CSC, and National Corporate Research all compete in this space and pricing can vary significantly. Also ask specifically about "portfolio discount" pricing - many services have special rates for M&A due diligence that aren't advertised on their standard rate sheets. With 180 entities you should definitely qualify for bulk pricing. One tip: if you provide an Excel file with all entity names and jurisdictions organized, most services will give you a firmer quote and sometimes a small additional discount for the streamlined processing.
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