Actually the real estate end of my practice has done pretty well since we cut loose abstracting and refocused on closings. I just went through the numbers for the first quarter, and we are up 40% over a year ago this time even with the slump in the market.

We no longer do the title searches unless they are ordered in connection with the closing. We do not offer volume discounts because there is no way to control the volume that a client promises to provide. Instead we offer a similar discount if the client offers us the closing as well as the title search.

This way we charge a fee for the search + closing fee (Fee doubles if we act as a disbusement agent) + title insurance agent's commission (Statutory 60% of policy's face value in Connecticut) if we issue a policy + title update and recording fee.

Over a period of time we have come up with an average of these costs from examination of the expenses listed on a number of HUD 1 forms, and structured our pricing to stay within the average. Document preparation remains with the title company.

These are services for which a title company needs to contract during the various stages of the closing process. We simply offer them as an a la carte style package early in the process. So far it has worked pretty well for the past three or four years.