First, I am a vendor manager and it's true that we're not needed.  BUT a lot of companies like to bypass dealing with literally dozens of individuals and have one point of contact -- someone who already has a tried and true group of subcontractors.  It's a lot of work and a lot of time to weed out the chaff.  That's what I do and as an abstractor myself, I'm often able to answer questions and resolve issues (especially in my home state) immediately.

All that being said, Abstracting Life in Texas is NOT Abstracting Life anywhere else.  I found that out when I started to accumulate counties and fees lists in Texas.  The pricing was seriously breathtaking.  And please, no one take offense here because those I work with have been incredibly wonderful -- BUT I get tired of hearing about the distances you drive.  You don't drive any farther than my folks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the northern parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota -- AND WE DO IT WITH SNOW AND ICE.  And isn't it true that to work in Texas you must be local and/or have a company within the state?  That's not true elsewhere.  I'm envious that you can get the prices you're getting...but here's the gist:

Despite the current economic climate, we are a business of supply and demand.  In counties where there are few abstractors I charge more.  But in counties where everybody and their brother has on line access, I have to keep my prices right where they are to maintain the work.  And that goes for counties I do myself, not just as a vendor manager to others.  If I raise my rates, I lose the business to someone else.  Why should the title companies I work for pay me SIGNIFICANTLY more for a search that they can farm out to an abstractor directly?  Or to someone in my own counties who will do it for 10% less than I do?  If they'd have to deal with bad work and unreliable people, that would be different but the fact is there are a lot of people in a lot of areas who do incredibly good, fast work.  If you're shopping for canned goods or toilet paper and just want the basics, why go to Whole Foods when Walmart is 20% cheaper?  You don't.  You go to Walmart for the basics.  Period.  

I am not the only vendor manager who has run into these problems with having to keep our prices low (and, in fact, are asked yearly to LOWER our rates).  I communicate with a lot of competitors here in Michigan and know we're all in the same boat.

Let's use another analogy:  technological items go DOWN in price.  Think about TV's...  This year's LG OLED runs over $2,000 but I have already seen Best Buy drop their price a bit and in a year, that $2,000 TV will be $1200.  Because our industry is also now technological in so many locales, the price of doing our job goes down because more people -- including India -- have access.  Simple 1 owner searches are going away.  Period.  We're not going to be able to compete there much longer (and actually AREN'T competing in a lot of places because the local title companies do all their own work on line in outlying areas and at the courthouse in their own counties).  Maybe it's not true in Texas, but the vault in Lenawee Co. Michigan was full of people just 10 years ago.  Abstractors and local title companies.  Now on the VERY rare trip I make there, I am usually the only one in their huge vault that has 6 work stations.  

It is a fact for most of us that to raise our rates means ALL (rather than most) of the easy work goes away and what's left is only that work that requires expertise and actual courthouse experience.