I was lying in bed trying to sleep and a thought came to mind.

Do court employee have a Union?
Teachers?
Cops?
Clerical Pools?
Are State employees part of a Union? The very ones that give a noticable wink when foreigners come to town with dollars? Do all those nice clerks we see everyday have a Union? I'm sure none of them will be outsourced any time. It's far to hard to date stamp and index a document and run it through a scanner.

The only thing that comes to mind when I see price cut after price cut is the industry is whoring itself out to keep the bills paid. California wants us to give title insurance away. In my opinion they are looking at the wrong group. As a loan originator I was ashamed at some of the fees my co-workers charged. 6.99% to a family that could barely afford the "great" mortgage they were getting. Instead the rest of the industry looks at title insurance to cut back, apparently we are the ones ripping off the customer.
We all know even if we charge 75.00 for a full search, the title agent is gonna slap 300.00 on the HUD for "shared liability / title review". When some 8.00 an hour fresh out of high school kid is reviewing my work, (aka filling in the committment) it makes me sick.

Even in the unlikely scenario the title industry took a stand, the NAR and MBAA or NAMB would make sure we were villified for it. It will take each person to take their own stand to save our industry from the vultures that expect us to work for pennies.

How many have some of you been in this business? 20 years, 30? Some 40? What is your skill and trade worth? How much are you willing to sell your skill for?
It starts with the phone call (if you're lucky) from the vendor manager, "we have another company willing to do it for 5.00 cheaper, can you match that?"  How many times have you said, "Sure, no problem....."

If you don't think very highly of yourself then by all means sell yourself and your services short. If you take pride in your profession, if you know you have a hard earned skill and years of knowledge, just say..... no.