RFQ 26-004-78 Questions and Answers No. 1

Location:	Tennessee
Posted:	May 4, 2026
Due:	May 19, 2026
Agency:	Shelby County
Type of Government:	State & Local
Category:	80 - Brushes, Paints, Sealers, and Adhesives
Publication URL:	To access bid details, please log in.

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Shelby County

Tennessee

Lee Harris, Mayor

Questions and Answers II

Issued: May 4, 2026

RFQ 26-004-78 Title Services for Shelby County Tax Sales

(Trustee’s Office)

TO ALL PROSPECTIVE BIDDERS:

The following questions were submitted by a potential vendor. Our answer is listed

in red below:

1. Do you intend to award the entire contract to one company, or are you expecting to

split it between vendors? Depends on cost per parcels on the bids and how many

parcels each company and complete within the year.

2. What is the timing of the 3 batches? When you say “1250 parcels at one time for title

services for two of the tax sales and 500 on the smaller third sale”, does all of that fall

between the November and February dates on the Tax Sale Schedule you provided?

July 2026 will be assigned 1250 parcels for Tax Sale in April 2027. July 2026

around 500 parcels will be assigned for a Tax Sale that will occur in 2nd or 3rd

quarter of 2027. Or is that schedule for just one of the sales, and if so, what is the

timing of the other two? See above

3. Will the Re-Certifications you request this August be the responsibility of the

incumbent vendors who originally completed the title searching for the parcels in this

year’s sale? Yes

4. What is the required search depth or period of record for these files (e.g., a one owner

search, strictly to the last transfer for value, or a certain number of years)? See RFP

Page 19

5. If the answer to question 4 above is that the vendor must search for a certain number

of years, are name searches for Bankruptcies, Lawsuits, Divorces, and Federal

Judgments to be run against the current owner of record only, or against all prior

owners within the chain of titles?" RFP Page 19

6. For scope item 4(b), regarding when parcels require 'less and excepts' verbiage, is the

vendor expected to act as surveyors to manually draft new legal descriptions, or is the

expectation to provide the Assessor's GIS legal description or an exact transcription of

the last recorded vesting deed? Need Deed descriptions and last conveyance

7. For scope item 4(e), regarding 'Death Notices', is the vendor required to purchase and

provide official vital records/death certificates, or are screenshots of public obituaries

and public death indexes acceptable?" No purchase of death certificate required

8. For scope item 4(f), regarding locating heirs for deceased owners, does the County

require the vendor to search only the Shelby County Probate/Will records, or does the

expectation extend to obituary searching, skip-tracing, or other means? Yes, need to

do skip tracing

9. For scope item 4(h), is the search for divorce pleadings limited to decrees and

agreements that have been formally recorded in the Shelby County Register of

Deeds, or are searchers required to pull dockets directly from the Shelby County

Circuit and Chancery Courts? Pull by whatever means to acquire them.

10. For scope item 4(i), do you require the vendor to search for bankruptcy in the federal

PACER system for the Western District of Tennessee, or nationwide? Nationwide

11. For scope item 4(l) Condemnation Orders and 4(m) Neighborhood Preservation Acts,

are searchers required to pull local dockets directly from the Shelby County

Environmental Court (General Sessions), or only judgments that have been formally

recorded with the Register of Deeds? Pull by whatever means to acquire them.

12. Does the Debt Manager system require the data file to be in a specific layout? If so,

what is the layout? Vendor does not have to worry about the layout as the

information that vendor inputs into the County’s Workflow Software System

flows into the County’s Debit Manager System.

13. Does the Debt Manager system require the data file to be a specific file type (CSV,

XLS, XML, etc)? If so, which one? See answer to number 12.

⚫ Page 2

Sincerely,

Signed original on file

Caterra Farmer, Buyer

Purchasing Department

Shelby County Government

⚫ Page 3

This is the opportunity summary page. It provides an overview of this opportunity and a preview of the attached documentation.

RFQ 26-004-78 Questions and Answers No. 1

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