George,

Unfortunately, when a client is set up, it is done through marketing and they do not set up an "hourly rate".  There are a few clients that we are able to go back to and tell them that the fee will be higher and they do understand that this will happen occasionaly.  They, like me, only deal in this one area of the title business.

  Another reason why I ask for a base fee is because there have been instances where the search took 3 hours and I was charged for 6 hours of work.  I have no way to know how many hours are actually put into each search.  This is a protection for me as well as my clients.  As I said before, I am always willing to pay what is owed for a search and I believe that I am pretty generous with what I do pay.

  I am not doing anywork in MI at the moment, but I will keep you in mind if we pick up that state.