Hi Nancy,

There are a few things to consider.  First off, the fall through rate for mortgage loans in our market is well above 10%, and I'd guess it is in yours too.  Also, with skeleton staff working on underwriting the loans, it may be a couple of months before the loan closes, if it does.  At what point do you start checking the records on all of the deals to see if they have closed, funded and recorded?  And that's another thing.  You will need to update each file the customer claims fell through, perhaps repeatedly, until you are satisfied that the loan has fallen through.

Although it sounds like you have already made up your mind to reject the offer, I thought I'd throw out a few items to back up your decision.  Traditionally, abstractors have been paid for the service rendered.  The title agents build the fall-through into the price of the loans that do close.  It is understandable that they would want to reduce their own costs involved with the loans that fail to close.  But not on the backs of the abstractors, unless the abstractors are able to build a sufficient cushion into their fee to compensate for the fall-throughs and the increased liability the abstractors have taken on.  And if that's the case, what is the point of the title agent?