Most people would probably rather eat bad oysters than make a trip to the DMV. However, sadly, driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations and the like are a fact of life.
Fortunately for people in the Mid-City area, there’s a closer-to-home option for handling these and similar legal niceties: Dat Title, located in the American Can building at 3700 Orleans Avenue, suite 105. Since opening in 2019, the company’s staff of five has offered vehicle-related services such as licenses, license plates, Real IDs, title transfers and registrations, along with regular notary services.
Co-owners Jane Mentz and Scott Simmons are native New Orleanians, with Mentz having grown up in Mid-City. This made selecting the business location an obvious choice.
“We were looking for a space that had some residential density around it,” she recalled. “We wanted that neighborhood/community type of location.”
“And some parking and a storefront facing the street,” added Simmons. “Mid-City is super-convenient.”
“This neighborhood has consistently supported its neighborhood businesses,” Mentz added. “It’s a great place to be.”
While Dat Title cannot offer every DMV service, it does provide the most common ones and is working to expand. Being qualified by the state to handle these transactions is a detailed process, and Dat Title has been adding services carefully, making sure that each one is done correctly.
As with many neighborhood businesses, Dat Title has found that community involvement is key to building its customer base.
“We have joined the neighborhood associations, sponsored teams at local schools and playgrounds, gone to the universities,” explained Simmons. “We are trying to be supportive of our neighbors, and we find that word of mouth is most effective.”
“Our biggest challenge has been getting our presence known, trying to target the market,” Mentz observed. “Ninety percent of our clientele comes from the Mid-City area.”
Dat Title recently opened a second location in New Orleans East, at 9954 Lake Forest Boulevard, Suite 3.
“We saw that area as underserved, plus we had an employee who really wanted us to have an office out there,” noted Simmons.
At this point, however, Mentz and Simmons said they are more focused on expanding their services to include the full spectrum of DMV offerings than adding new locations.
Dat Title also offers notary services for a wide variety of documents, most common being financial forms, property transfers, and city and state license applications. Again, being able to provide this for people quickly and close to home is a major selling point.
Mentz clarified that there is a convenience fee added for the DMV services, but at the same time, the processes get completed much more quickly.
“People say, ‘I’ll pay anything to avoid having to go to the actual DMV,’” she said with a laugh.
Time is indeed money, and unless one has a lot of reading material to catch up on, the expedience and convenience of having these necessary services close by is worth the small charge. Now, about dem ersters…
DAT TITLE 3700 Orleans Ave. Suite 105 & 9954 Lake Forest Blvd. Suite 3 // 504-766-6432 // DatTitle.com // @DatTitleNOLA // @dattitle // @Dat_Title
