Most of us abstractors work for many different companies.  Many of those companies are vendor management companies - middlemen.  They keep popping up, grouping together a bunch of us abstractors, and going to the lending institutions, or in some cases other VMCs, and offering lower prices to get the work.

Now the strange thing is the abstractors are mostly the same bunch that actually do the work. Yet, every time they go back to the abstractors and say "I'm getting a big new client and I need you to lower your prices" the work is being lost from another VMC which some abstractor (maybe the same one) is already getting.

The point is that every time a group of abstractors is put together under a new umbrella there are more pressures to lower prices.  Why do abstractors keep lowering their prices to get work they are probably already getting from a different client?

There is only so much work out there, and only so many abstractors that actually do the searches.  The only thing that actually changes is the name of the client and fee they are willing to pay.  Those who do the work need to be setting the prices - not the middleman who is only getting the work because they know that they can force the abstractor to take the hit.

Just my $0.02,
Robert A. Franco
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