Good question. There seems to be a lot of confusion over this issue. In my opinion, the new rules really made disclosure of title related fees much worse.
Line 1101 is for "the total for the category of 'Title services and lender's title insurance.'" I think that in most situations, agents are including the cost of the search as "title services" and lumping them in with all of the other fees. I'm not sure if that is appropriate in all circumstances.
The new rules do require that "Disbursements to third parties must be broken out in the appropriate lines or in blank lines in the series, and amounts paid to these third parties must be shown outside of the columns if included in Line 1101." I guess the question is whether or not they are treating your fee as a disbursement to a third party, or if it is merely a business expense for the title agency.
I would hazard to guess that if you are to be paid regardless of whether the loan closes, it is a business expense for the agency and not a disbursement to a third party. In this case, it may be okay to lump your fee into their "title services" fees. On the other hand, if you are to be paid on upon closing of the loan and you are to be paid with a disbursement from the closing, then the fee should probable be broken out and itemized, as such.
For the more see HUD's Instructions.
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