My wife and I had this discussion the other night in the car, and have had it several times over the years. In this state (WI), there is little to no regulation of the title industry. By itself, that's not awful... I'm not a big fan of any government interdiction in business. However, because of that, we see companies willing to cut their own throats to cut their competitor's throats on pricing. A published price on a piece of title work may be $800, but when you call for a quote, it's magically reduced to $350! I'm not talking about re-issue rates, either. That's for a cold-start, no prior order.

When I'd brought this up to a couple of my bosses (again, over time), and how nice it would be to get the agents in the area to just stick to their blanking published rates so we'd all be able to make ends meet, I was told that would be price fixing, and illegal. OK... so how does the rest of the insurance industry get away with sticking to their published rates? Do the published rates actually mean anything more than the maximum you could charge?

I guess it burns me to think that title companies are stuck putting people on 4-day work weeks, laying off people entirely, and cutting or eliminating benefits, while at the same time self-imposing lower incomes as a company. Does it take a lobbying group to get the OK to stick to your rates? Could a state title association enforce this? Or is it a matter of having the state's insurance commissioner look at the industry and make it a rule? There's a term that has cropped up in NASCAR - "coopetition". Cooperating but still competing. There's really no reason, other than the fact that some companies thrive solely on the basis of undercutting prices, that title companies couldn't cooperate with each other and still be competators in business. Well, there's also the seeming mindset here that any other title agent is the devil, but that's a whole other topic!

Early apologies for the mini-rant... this is one of those things that has bugged me for quite some time.