If the increased cost of viewing and printing is limited to on line and electronic title plant searches, but does not extend to the traditional search of the written indices or the public access computers, it may not be all that undesireable. It may make outsourcing financially unattractive to VM's. It may also present an opportunity for the local abstractors to raise their prices reasonably, but still remain more competitive than the outsourced/electronic search. If the rate of $175.00 for a current owner search plus numerous copies  is representitive of the average cost of the search, there is a lot of room for a price increase to something more than was previously paid, but still less than the $175.00. If the new system is creating a bottleneck in the land records office, the waiting time of the abstractors could justify the increased price of the search. In effect they are only being compensated for other work they have to turn away while completing the search.

If it were simply a matter of a few abstractors raising their prices, the VMs' approach is usually to move on to the next abstractor. However, if the county is raising the price for everyone, the VM's have no choice other than to pay more for the searches they order. Just the cost of doing business. The abstracting prices can't be expected to remain static forever.

We have a similar problem here in Stamford and Bridgeport, Connecticut. The written records in these offices are a mess, and the last time I did a search in both of these locations there was an incredible backlogue of entries for their day books. It tooks longer to search the loose records than to do the entire search of the indexed entries. In the case of Stamford, the lines to use their public access computers were usually long. Stamford has recently gone over to a fee based on line system.We charge a premium in addition to the normal search charge specifically for the additional time required to complete the searches in these two offices. Any other way, and we wind up losing money on the deal.