Old mines, surveys and information make for a tough Virginia City real estate market

Ghosts of the past are haunting the Virginia City real estate market.

Selling real estate on the Comstock was always a challenge, with conflicts over surface rights and mineral rights, plus a survey done in the 19th century that wasn't accurate by today's standards.

Now, the inability to obtain real estate records online in Storey County is causing Stewart Title Co., the only company to offer title insurance in Virginia City in the past few years, to consider halting its service.

Jerry Miller of Stewart Title Co. in Carson City declined comment because the Nevada Appeal would not let him see this story in advance of publication, but Elena Ehrens, assistant chief of the property-casualty section of the state Insurance Division, confirmed the company's position.

"Due to the downsizing of their staff, they don't have available staff to send to Virginia City, and that's due to the fact that it's a manual search," she said. "But their open orders, they are continuing to complete those."

Even that confirmation comes with some conflict, however, since Jed Spendlove, chief operating officer of Stewart Title's Northern Nevada division, said in some cases the company will continue to do business in Virginia City.

"We are still underwriting in Storey County and if there's any misconfusion there you can have them (Realtors) contact me," he said. "There is a change as far as we are being more selective on what we will be underwriting and what we won't be. We'll be reviewing every one individually."

Spendlove added that "in any given county we may or may not choose to underwrite any transaction."

Storey County Manager Pat Whitten said the reason given for ending service - the county not having records online - was solvable.

"If that is simply the reason we can definitely look at solutions," he said. "We're in the process of making, not so much the documents available online, but making the indexes online. I'm willing to look at that."

Whitten said he had spoken to representatives from Western Title to talk, but hasn't yet scheduled a meeting.

He said in the past, mining issues have gotten in the way of title companies and their work.

"From time to time we face these issues, and certain title companies and their underwriters seem to go in and out of the market because of the unique issues up here," he said. "We've had almost all of them, at various points in time, not want to (insure in Virginia City) and when they do, a lot of them secure with so many exclusions that it's difficult to finance."

The situation may not be as difficult a sit seems. Ehrens said officials at Stewart Title have assured her that four other companies - First Centennial, Northern Nevada Title, Western Title and First American were interested in working in Virginia City if they had the staff available.

Sylvia Smith, of Western Title, said they will insure homes in the Virginia City Highlands, other areas of Storey County, or on a case-by-case basis in Virginia City, but not in the downtown section of the town.

"If it is in the downtown section, we are unable to insure it because the official map recorded was not tied to any kind of monument," she said. "Also, a lot of those properties rest on top of many underground mining rights, and that makes title insurance a huge challenge."

She acknowledged that the inability to obtain title insurance can pose problems for buyers and sellers, but said even those issues are resolvable. She sa there are times when the mining rights holder will sever the surface rights for a price. If they are willing, she said, a property's title can be insured.

Shon Morton of Ticor Title and Escrow said his company also would not insure titles on Virginia City property.

"Our underwriting does not allow us," he said, adding that surface rights disputes are one reason.

Wade Mease of Northern Nevada Title said First American Title may insure some properties, but no one from First American would comment.

First Centennial chief title officer Lisa Quilici said her company does not insure titles on downtown Virginia City properties because of poor surveying in the 1800s.

"The survey done a long, long time ago was never fixed," she said. "Properties all sit on each other's boundaries on Main Street. It was all surveyed incorrectly and never been fixed."

Mark Struble of the Bureau of Land Management said many old towns in the West have the same problem.

"They(surveyors) went off of rock piles, and now we have lasers and GPS, and we're dealing with horse-and-buggy-type surveying," he said.

Dave Morland, a BLM surveyor, said his office was in the process of surveying the area around Virginia City, but can't survey private land.

He said the agency was updating the old 1800s Township survey and putting updated monumentation at corner points.

The effort began in the late 1990s, he said, and should be finished this year.

"It's extremely complex with all the overlapping mining claims, and when you are entering private land or leaving," he said. "What our survey does once we complete it is help settle the survey issue. It's the first step to resolving all the issues."

Realtors are hoping they won't have to worry about the problem, what with already working through a slumping market.

"I don't know if it's going to affect me at all," she said. "So far I haven't had any problems, but everything is hard to sell in Virginia City, period. Not because of that, but I still would not like that additional problem. We work very hard as it is."

•Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 881-751.