Sam,

I am sorry to say that I do not agree with you.  If the VMC's and Title Companies overhead is so low, as you suggest, that should NEVER be taken out on the people who enable them to be in business in the first place....the abstractors.  The problem lays with in the company to offer a superior product, not a cheaper one, than their competitors. They way that the industry is going the products that used to be a large part of what made a company wanted, are now being , for lack of a better word, "prostituted" to the lowest bidder.  That is a horrible way to run a business.  In Southwestern PA, there are about 20 Title companies and VMC's.  Does it actually work to be the "lowest in price".  No, it doesn't, but it does work if you offer the best product.  When one of the companies looses a client, the work does not go away.....it just goes to a different company that has been able to meet the time restraints given by the banks, mortgage companies and brokers.   The people that you all deal with everyday are not rolling in the $ either.  People at the VMC are actually paid stupidly low salaries, because the dime a dozen mind set is at work here too.