I see your point about a title company not wanting to accept just anyone's search that they do not know.  This would be a good place for the NALTEA certification to come into place provided we can get the underwriters to look at and support it.
     Also on the paid-outside-of-closing issue, it would be the borrower that would pay for the title search up-front and directly to the abstractor before the search would even begin just like the appraisal.

Jay