I have done work for Direct Title Solutions in Winchester, Virginia for about 3 years. I recently had a significant downturn in work. In fact, it almost disappeared, except for some judgment searches, recordings for searches I had not done, and deed retrievals (always for old deeds). Last week, they inadvertantly sent me a finished search by them THAT I DID NOT DO (it was intended for their client, not me).  It was for a 20-year foreclosure search that DTS only ordered a judgment search for from me.

I finally realized that they had gotten subscriptions to the online deeds (at $50 per month per county) in the 3 counties where I am online, and where I get the bulk of their work from. I confronted them with this. They denied it absolutely! They in fact, sent me an email chastising me for disloyalty for even thinking such a thing. They promised me that no such thing had occurred, and asked me to "ride out" this "slow season" with them, as their work was down 40% from this time last year.

I believed them. Sort of.

However, after speaking with all three Clerk's Offices, it turns out that DTS does have online subscriptions in all of those counties. Furthermore, I'm not alone, it turns out. As I began to have indirect contact with abstractors in counties outside my home area, some were accusing other abstractors of "stealing their work", not realizing that DTS itself had decided they would do all the gravy work and leave us only the work we actually take a loss on.

So, here's the Caveat: If you are contacted by Direct Title Solutions in Winchester, Virginia to do "abstracting", be advised that you will ONLY be getting the work that they cannot do with an online subscription in your counties: recordings, deed retrievals, judgment searches (if your county doesn't have 20 years of documents online).

Don't believe what they tell you! The only work that you will get is the stuff I already mentioned, with ONE exception. If a search turns out to be difficult, and there's no money in it. They wioll send THOSE to you. And that's the ONLY search work you will get from them.

Since I see no other posts about this, I may have been the first of their vendors to realize what they're doing, and I wouldn't have been certain myself, if I had not received the finished search intended for their client. I believed their lies, and I assume most of their other vendors had enough trust in them to believe it as well.