I agree , Scott. I remember the good old days of the not so distant past when the time allowed here in Connecticut was one week to complete a full search and three days to complete a partial. Price was $150.00 for a full search and $75.00 for a partial of less than 40 years. ..cost of the copies was in addition.

I really have to get a laugh out of the VM's that contact me for abstracting, and want a flat rate including the cost of copies when they have no ability to define their copy requirements. I had one call me a few months ago with this approach. I told her add $25.00 for copying expenses to the cost of the search. After several seconds of dead air on the phone she wanted to know why my price was so much higher than other estimates in my area. I explained that unless she could tell me exactly what her copying requirements were, I would have to assume that she was including the cost of copying both land records documents and court documents for foreclosures (which can be voluminous).

I can't see how anyone can make any appreciable profit on abstracting anymore unless combined with other services.