As I said, it was a great event.  First American has some great technology for their agents; it was very impressive.  The general message was that our industry is facing pricing pressures from the lenders and consumers and in order to remain in demand, we must lower our fees.  The concensus is that technology can make us more efficient and keep us profitable in the face of declining fees.

Though the event was aimed at agents, I completely agree that technology is going to become increasingly important for us abstractors too.  We must find new ways of providing our services faster and cheaper, without completely sacrificing profitability - before someone in India is doing our job.

Abstractors will NEED to reinvent our processes in order to remain a viable solution.  As a whole, we as abstractors have tried to evade technology and it may now be time to embrace it.  As a group we need to invest in it to ensure that we are able to compete with automated platforms that are becoming stronger.

We at Source of Title are dedicated to developing a system that will help the independent abstractor survive in the times ahead.  As our development continues, we will keep you posted on our progress.

Regards,
Robert A. Franco
SOURCE OF TITLE