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County board weighs contract with vendor to automate deed transfers, requests changes to renewal and venue terms
Summary
Board members questioned a proposed contract with vendor JustAppraised to automate straight deed transfers and clear a months-long backlog, asking the company to add an Illinois venue clause and clarify auto-renewal pricing and notice windows before final approval.
Williamson County commissioners discussed a proposed contract Nov. 12 with vendor JustAppraised to digitize and automate straight deed transfers, clear a several-month backlog and feed parcel data into the county’s records system.
Jordan, a JustAppraised representative on the vendor phone line, told the board the company would ingest deeds from the clerk’s office, extract details using artificial intelligence, and transfer validated entries into the county payment/system referenced as ZebNext. Jordan said the vendor’s scope also includes addressing the current backlog so staff no longer must print and rekey every document.
County staff said the backlog dates to the county’s move to DevNet earlier this year and estimated 4–6 months of unprocessed straight transfers; last year the office recorded just under 3,000 deeds, with roughly a third involving splits. County staff and a commissioner said automation would reduce errors and free staff to work on splits, and the county clerk said the work would not eliminate positions.
Commissioners raised contractual concerns. The draft before the board was a one-year agreement with an automatic renewal clause that could extend the relationship to three years. Commissioners asked JustAppraised to add an Illinois venue clause for any litigation and to specify renewal pricing; the agreement currently permits renewals but lacks explicit price terms for those renewal years, and it allows unilateral rate changes with 30 days’ notice. Jordan said the company will consult its legal team and return revised language.
On communications and mitigation of unintended renewals, JustAppraised described a customer-success approach that assigns a dedicated account manager and offers regular business reviews. The vendor proposed a notification/decision timeline; the board requested a 120-day notice with a 60-day decision window before automatic renewal to protect the county from inadvertent rollovers.
Next steps: the vendor agreed to revise the contract language—adding an Illinois venue clause and clarifying the auto-renewal pricing and notification process—and to return an updated agreement for county legal review ahead of the board’s afternoon reconvening at 1:30 p.m.
Provenance: The discussion introducing the vendor and describing scope began when the chair placed a phone call to Jordan and the vendor presentation started (timeline SEG 441–499). The vendor scope, backlog size, staffing impact, and contract-term queries span the vendor Q&A and negotiation (SEG 500–800).
