I'm working on a title for an old Suzuki I found. ITS now charges based on blue book value in "Good" condition. So it went from $85 four or five years ago to about $300 now for my Suzuki 650. ITS is awesome by the way. These guys called me back (on a Saturday no less) after I asked for a quote and talked to me about why it had gotten so much more expensive. Sara was her name I think. Broadway is up to almost $900 now
I'm going through an outfit in Vermont for that 650 now (
http://www.motorecyclenow.com/title-service.html) and the price was $150 plus tax. They tax the book value or purchase price, whatever is higher. The only PITA is that they require a VIN verification on bikes bigger than 500cc. Luckily for me, my stepson works for the county sheriff's office. Don't use their online submission page, just attach everything in an email and send it to them.
As mentioned, you get a valid registration from a state that doesn't title bikes older than 30 years or so. If your state issues titles, they have no choice but to generate you one when you bring in a legit registration. The registration I got when I did my first bike was in some company's name in Georgia. Essentially, they registered it and sold it back to me. With the bill of sale they gave me and a valid registration, DMV gave me a title.
I did a trailer a few years back through Maine. It was a like new 6x10 that a guy bought and then found something better suited for him and sold it to me with a bill of sale. The trouble was that DMV had record of him buying it new from the dealer and insisted that HE needed to register it first. I said, well he's not going to do that since he sold it to me. Furthermore, I'm not going to let him register the trailer and have the trailer registered in his name AND still have my $900. That registration came with my own name on it. The tags they gave me were good for one year but Florida has a law that says if you live here you have to register your stuff in Florida within 30 days.
Some of you guys are lucky with your DMV but Florida will not help a commoner do something like this. If all goes well with this outfit in Vermont, I'm going to have them do my 350 Twin as well.