A Conversation With ... Kelly Jones

Lincoln-Evans is the combination of two companies, Lincoln Land Title and Evans Land Title. Both of those companies started in the late 1800s. We’ve got well over 100 years of documentation on both sides. In 2001, Lincoln-Evans Land Title was born and took assets of both companies. We’ve got 62 employees in eight locations. We’re here in Springfield, Republic, Ozark, Nixa, Forsyth, Branson and Kimberling City. I’m an owner (along with) two other owners, Ken Rogers and Gail Fredrick.

Describe your company’s role in real estate transactions.

We are insuring history. When a person offers to sell a piece of property, and somebody accepts to buy it, the buyer wants to be assured that they’re buying what the owner owns and has the legal right to sell. What we do is produce a document that’s called a title commitment … and we go through and do a minimum of 50 years of research on that piece of property to find out the legal position of that piece of ground, and the legal owner of it. We also find out any restrictions, easements (or) liens that are placed on that piece of property, and that’s set out in the commitment as to the legal standing … and what has to be done to legally convey the title to the new owner.

How do you compile all of the history required to do your job?

(We) have allies in the business. Webster County’s a good example. We’ve got a company out there that we work with. We buy information about Webster County from them, and they buy information about Greene County from us. We’ve got a title plant … an index of all of the recorded documents in a county for every transaction. Every document that gets recorded by the (county) recorder’s office, we have a copy of it … and we index it by legal description. We can go to our title plant and put a legal description in, and it gives us every document that’s been recorded against that particular piece of ground. It’s public information … recorded documents are the property of the public, so we pay a fee to get copies of them.

How did you get to this position?

I was with Lincoln Land Title. My father was the owner of Lincoln Land Title, and he passed away in 2000. The Will Lincoln family started it in 1886, and it stayed in the Lincoln family until my father bought interest in the company in 1984, so it’s been a family-owned business the entire time. I came (to the company) in 1994. My father was having some health concerns and asked me to come and help run the business. (Before that) I was a regional manager for American Freightways. I was in a totally different career.

What do you find most interesting about your work now?

It’s historic. You find out interesting facts about real property. We primarily are in Greene, Christian, Taney and Stone counties, and what we have are real estate history records. We have copies of all of the recorded documents back into the 1800s, so when we start looking at a piece of property that’s going to be bought or sold … it’s unique to find different things about it throughout history, especially a lot of the downtown properties.

Is there a piece of property with history that you find particularly interesting?

Agrario’s used to be an old mule barn – it was a staple – and the livery for Springfield. That one comes to mind as much as anything, because there are a lot of references and legal descriptions that use “one corner of the old mule barn” as their starting or reference point in the dimensions where a piece of property is measured from.

These days, much of what you do is computerized. Does that change historical significance of the documentation?

I think it loses some of its historical flavor just because it’s more generic now. We’ve all got our laser printers and all the documents look somewhat the same in how they’re produced. If you go back to the 1800s and the early 1900s, most all of the documents are handwritten. It’s not as personal as it used to be.

Tell us about your family.

I was born and raised in Springfield. My two brothers are Karl and Kenneth Jones, and we all have our own businesses. Karl owns Linda’s Flowers and Karl’s Tuxedo and Bridal, and Kenneth owns Ken’s Mobile Repair and is part owner in All J’s Automotive. My mother was Linda Jones from Linda’s Flowers. I’ve got one son, Charley, and he works with me in the business.

What do you do for fun?

I raise, train and show reining horses. I’ve got quarterhorses and Arabians, and I also like and compete with off-road motorcycles.[[In-content Ad]]