I have to disagree with your position. The animosity between abstractor and VM/Title Company has been a festering sore for a long time which has been exacerbated by greed. As far as I can see the position of the abstractor with respect to outsourcing is beyond redemption. As someone else in one of the posts below indicated the trend is to squeeze every penny out of every transaction in order to maximize profit. Wendi See's posting below is representative of the trend. We have numerous complaints of VM's/Title companies running out on abstractors after running up large bills. There is also the matter of cut throat competitive pricing among the abstractors themselves... animosity among the abstractors? You bet. Working together to build a better tomorrow is a fable. Where is this unity of interest of which you speak? I think you may want to re-establish contact with reality.

In the past eighteen months there have been numerous ideas posted on this board as potential remedies to the abstractor's problems. To date none of them have come to fruition. Those abstractors that have not yet experienced the problem have reached a comfort level which they do not want to disturb. Those that have are in a state of financial panic.

I am in a very fortunate position in that I do not need to worry about what the VM's think of me, but there are many abstractors that are not in that position.The abstractors are disorganized, and the VM's are capitalizing on the disorganization. Naltea for all the good that it is attempting to accomplish is too little too late.

The only thing the V/M's understand is the bottom line on the balance sheet. There is no interest in improving the industry through unity of interest. Take a look at SOT's home page with respect to the aggresive outsourcing to India that FAT intends to pursue. If there is profit to be made the other major title insurers are almost certain to follow. So I suppose if the abstractors wish to compete they will have to expect fees at that "bread and water" level you mention in your posting....unity of interest?

The signing agents are in a similar position with respect to downward pressure on pricing. I invite you all to monitor their notary boards to see how they are handling it. I think you will see that their approach is much more aggressive that the abstractors. In the case of the signing agents it is the lowball signing services which seem to be experiencing the problem rather than the signing agents because the signing agents refuse to lower their prices.