Title Services Need True Competition

As a real estate broker with almost 21 years of experience, “State Investigating Title Company Kickbacks” (Sept. 11) was about a situation I have been watching for many years. This is not the first time that someone is going to “crack down” on these heinous practices, and it will probably blow over after a little bit of noise is made without any real benefit to consumers taking place.

Your story, however, misses the real problem within the title industry: price fixing. If you were to call any collection of local title companies, you would find that the prices on policies are either identical or extremely close.

Knowing this, the solution to me is obvious. Any title company that is truly opposed to the current system simply needs to stop spending its profits on seducing real estate brokers, reduce its policy prices and advertise its reduced prices to the public.

If competitive pricing existed, and if the public were aware, the kickbacks would disappear overnight.

VLAD WOROTKO

Montrose