As one of my wonderful fellow colleagues commented (he is always trying to push me to remember my value as a commercial examiner) - if we all band together and refuse to offer doc retrievals at $25 or $30 anymore (not even worth it) or do commercial for $150 or whatever, then clients will force to come meet us at a price. My prices are gradually rising and certainly I charge more for commercial then I ever did.  Some of the counties I do, like McDowell, basically have no abstractors  Rutherford, I'm almost the only independent title search/paralegal who does it.  I strive for excellence and try to provide a good quality, examined product.  I've started just turning the little stuff away.  It's demeaning. My e-mail is flooded with orders and I've gotten two rush commercial searches today.  People will go for quality - why not appeal to the top instead of settle for the bottom?  I really try to help those who are stuck running around doing grantor gap searches and doc retrievals.  Charge the heck out of people for it and if we all do no one will be able to shop around for a $15 assignment search or grab.  Mark up, work up.  Oh, and if you can help a friend, by all means, do it!! It will come back to you.  The abstractors who are doing fulls for $95 or $100 now are doing a disservice to their fellow colleagues. 

to post a reply: login - or - register