Just to back up what Teresa was saying, and because TransUnion is on this message board..... In NC and SC TransUnion sent my title searches back to Kelly D. Hupp & Associates for review before they sent it on to the banks.  How much do you think that cost?  So the drop in fees with TransUnion across the country happened when TransUnion bought out Atlantic Assurance/Carolina Title Search in Charlotte and relocated there.  Possibly because of the cost of running title searches in North and South Carolina through the attorney, you were asked to lower your fees.
 Let me say, that North Carolina is almost there at ending this escrow state.  It needs to happen.  If you feel that you in another state are feeling the consquences of this NC General Statute, then write your US congressman about it.  From what I hear, the banking industry wants this statute to go away and is talking to the US representatives to put pressure on the NC representatives to end it.  But the die hard NC Bar Association is holding on and most of the NC representatives elected are attorneys.  The NC Bar Association is still trying to keep a handle on the independent abstractors by telling attorneys that we have to be supervised by them should they chose to use us.... when I worked for attorneys under salary in their office... I was never supervised and on some days the attorney could not be disturbed!  I actually felt better by going independent and contracting with an attorney because I knew then that he was going over my work.  The NC Bar flip-flops over their opinions on using the independents.  The latest is that they are going to certify all paralegals which would put the real estate abstractor taking a test in a field of which they are not skilled in.  Luckily for us they are going to grandfather some of us in...should they ever decide what to do.  This has been coming down the pike for years but no action has happened.  By reading all of you on this message board, you seem to have much more opportunities for work than we do in NC and SC. Signed: Pregnant, Barefoot, and In the Kitchen............(hope you have all heard that southern slang before cos I am not pregnant, barefoot, and don't belong in the kitchen)  LOL