If title agents are the "low men on the title totem pole" then abstractors are truly the "Rodney Dangerfields" of the title industry. We just don't get no respect. I really believe that many title agents just don't understand the time and effort that goes into a properly prepared abstract report. I think the mindset among real estate professionals in general is that title searching is something that is primarily done part-time by retirees and housewives trying to make a few extra bucks on the side.

Now, I'll grant you that there are a lot of fly-by-nighters who think they're abstractors because they know how to look up a deed. I encounter them out here in the field all the time. They're usually high school and college kids, hired by lenders and local agents, who have gotten MAYBE two weeks of training and are turned loose in the Recorder's office, or else they're community college grads who hang out a shingle and offer to undercut the fees of more experienced abstractors just to get clients. I've actually seen a title abstracting course offered online by an outfit out of GA that promises to "teach you everything you need to know to perform a title search". Frightening, but true.

I think those are BIG reasons that abstractors so often are the ONLY ones who are expected to basically work for free if a transaction does not close. No one would ever suggest that an appraiser or a surveyor waive his fee. If I call a repairman out to my house to fix my furnace, I have to pay him for a service call even if he doesn't find anything wrong. Appraisers, surveyors and home inspectors get paid regardless of whether or not the deal closes. Why should the searcher be treated any differently than any other professional? I don't know about anyone else, but I put out a substantial amount of money up-front to get a search to a client's desktop, not to mention the tremendous liability I'm being asked to assume. Why am I the only one in the "food chain" expected to "eat" my fees?

Personally, I'd like to see the abstractor's fee listed as a separate line item on the HUD, rather than being buried in an "all-inclusive" title premium as is the case in PA. I think that some type of licensing or certification would go a long way toward changing things. Our trade association, the National Association of Land Title Examiners and Abstractors (NALTEA) is offering an Abstractor Certification Test at its annual conference in New Orleans this year. It will be interesting to see how it will be received by the industry at large.