My belief on this is that the abstractor may not be an independent abstractor...They may be an Abstract Company that hires in-house salary abstractors @ say $12 to 15 per hour...not per order like we do.
This type of searching company squashes out the independent researchers; because they have so much volume they are able to give quite a discounted price to the Title Company.
I have been told - the Title Company / client is told they will only get the reduced discounted fees if they give them ALL of the counties that they do research in.
So, if the Abstract Company that hires a SALARY employee to go into a county ALL day @ 12 to 15 dollars per hour; the daily cost is aprox. $96.00 to $120.00 a day. The Abstract Company covers - say 8 counties; and their salary searcher is in 2 or 3 counties everyday; & say they could get maybe 10 to 20 orders completed in a day...
Cost to the Abstract Company is aprox. $96.00 to $120.00 bucks.
The Bill to the Title Company is $ 320.00 for 20 orders @$ 16.00. > Or the more common rate is around $30 dollars per order...that is $600.00 per day .
$320.00 for 20 orders @$ 16.00 minus - $120.00 is still a profit of 200 dollars a day for the Searching Company based on that one Salary researcher. So if they have more than say - even 4 on staff. We independents will continue to fight this losing battle with our pricing. 
Maybe I’m wrong but you do the math…
I continue to have faith that if you do a good job, have outstanding customer service and your client knows you care about their needs - they eventually will come back.
Most large searching companies don’t train their Abstractors well - they train them too quickly and the Carpetbaggers will screw up , cause their client a lien and you will be getting a call back because they miss your exceptional service… 
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