Arriving at a single price for each type of report (last Owner, 60-year, etc.) is difficult, as the number of copies requested can be one, two, or several hundred.
A mode average (most frequently occuring number) of copies for my Last Owners seems to be five. But the mean average (total copies divided by the number of searches) is twelve.
No client would pay that much extra for most searches for the sake of balancing the numbers out for the searcher.
Customers who do want Pay One Price Billing are doing so largely to reduce the cost of running their accounting department. Others, wanting to break into a new county do so in order to reduce searcher costs.
Charging above the county fee reflects the time it takes to make, scan and upload or fax the product and the cost of doing business: parking meters, waiting for the copies to be handed to us by the county clerks, computer, scanner, printer, electricity, ISP, Errors and Omissions Insurance, etc. It's basing the fee on the relative cost in time and money for the report.
Not charging above the county fee means that we are performing that task for free. And that task takes time, which is in finite supply. Experienced searchers use less of it to craft a report and make copies. It almost always costs a company more money in hours paid to a salaried employee to make all their copies after the report is delivered, than to receive a completed product.
We don't hide our fee schedules, and are frequently not paid when the costs, even when approved, exceed what a client expected to pay.
to post a reply:
login - or -
register