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Existing-home sales eased in March from inventory constraints, which continued to pressure home prices, according to the National Association of Realtors, but remain 10.3 percent higher than the 4.46 million-unit pace in March 2012.

A 34-count indictment was unsealed charging five people, including one title agent, with various crimes stemming from their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme between May 2004 and February 2009 that involved fraudulent documents, inflated purchase prices on loan documents for more than 100 Philadelphia properties and resulted in more than $20 million in fraudulent loan proceeds.

A North Carolina attorney was sentenced to three years in prison for, among other things, falsifying HUD-1s. Read on for details of the scheme and the total amount of money he will have to pay in restitution.

Continental Title Holding Co. Inc., an independent title insurance agency in St. Louis, with offices throughout the states of Kansas and Missouri, announced the acquisition of Assured Title Co. of Warrenton LLC. The combined entities anticipate annual revenue for 2013 to be $26 million. 

WFG National Title Insurance Co. added a senior vice president, compliance and national training officer. This latest hire will be responsible for compliance audits as well as employee and WFG agent training.

The following is an excerpt from the 2013 Title Insurance Financial Report. The excerpt is a contribution from Demotech, written by Douglas Powell and Paul Osborne, senior financial analysts at Demotech, and it is also part of the company’s 2013 Edition of Demotech Performance of Title Insurance Companies.

Since 2006, the title insurance industry has experienced significant underwriter consolidation. At its peak in 2006, 96 underwriters reported statutory financial data. In 2012, the number of underwriters reporting decreased to 44.

A majority of the decrease in count resulted from larger groups assimilating acquisitions made from earlier years in an effort to improve operational efficiencies and eliminate redundancies. Other companies voluntarily ceased their underwriting operations due to the challenging economic conditions over the last few years. As market conditions improve, total count in underwriters may increase but should remain far below the market peak of 2006.

The number of recording jurisdictions that are electronically recording (e-recording) documents reached the 900 mark in April, according to Kay Wrucke, recorder, Martin County, Minn., and president of the Property Records Industry Association. Read on for more about this achievement, PRIA’s 2013 goal and a couple new counties added to the networks of Simplifile and Corporation Service Co.

Following seven consecutive months of gains, the list of improving U.S. housing markets remained virtually unchanged in April, with 273 metros on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index. Read on for more about the new entries on the list.

Following approximately three weeks of trial, a lawyer from Louisiana who had worked in Las Vegas as a real estate agent has been convicted by a jury of conspiracy and multiple fraud counts for his involvement in the mortgage fraud scheme involving more than 220 properties and more than $50 million in losses.

The American Land Title Association released its official title insurance industry statistics for 2012. We originally reported on the premium data earlier in the year (and included it in our 2013 Financial Report) but also included in this announcement were the totals for claims and statutory reserves as well.

The founder of Emerge Homes Inc., Michael Hill, has put the remnants of his homebuilding business up for sale after a five-year hiatus, but is pitching his vision for a new homebuilder model because he thinks it is what consumers want, and what the oncoming market recovery will need. Take a look and see what you think.

Themes that have consistently stayed in the headlines the past year are agent vetting and verification and regaining customer confidence. In an attempt to address the issues, one of the larger national underwriters launched a new program to communicate the competency of its agency base to customers. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. announced the Stewart Trusted Provider Program to provide lenders, Realtors, builders, investors and consumers peace of mind in the real estate services rendered by approved Stewart agencies.

“The idea came from agencies,” said George Houghton, group president of agency operations for Stewart, in an interview with The Title Report. “With the emergence of the third-party vetting companies in 2012, as I traveled the country and talked to agencies, what I kept hearing was, ‘what is my underwriter going to do to help me in this environment?’”

It’s key to note up-front that this program isn’t an additional hurdle for agents to jump or a special designation to achieve within the Stewart agency base. Stewart believes its agency network already meets high standards, are vetted properly in order to write policies for Stewart and this Trusted Provider Program is a way to brand that fact and provide transparency into Stewart’s vetting and ongoing monitoring process. 

In The Title Report’s April 8 cover feature about the national agent database concept, it was noted that lenders are looking for assurances as to who the settlement agent is on the end of the transaction. The assurances, very broadly, can be broken down two ways:

1) Is this a valid agency of this underwriter?

2) If yes, then what defines ‘valid’ for this underwriter? What went into that ‘yes’?

Stewart visited national lenders last fall to discuss their processes and their vetting and verification program (which we detailed in the Nov. 12, 2012, edition of The Title Report) to generally build that confidence.  Those meetings and the questions from agencies led the company to the Trusted Provider Program. By adding a layer of transparency into specifically what their agent vetting/monitoring processes are, Stewart hopes to provide a window that will assist inquiring lenders and regulators.

Total dollars insured in the six-county Bay Area region of Northern California has been trending sharply upward over the past 12 months, according to DataQuick in this month’s Western Region Report. Check out the chart of activity as well as the top three title businesses in each county by market share gains.

Universal Land Title LLC acquired the assets of Lincoln Title Services LLC, a Lake Mary, Fla., title agency founded three years ago by Michael Ussery, a former Universal employee. Over those years, Ussery has led the rapid growth of Lincoln into one of the Orlando area’s more successful title agencies.

Facing increasing costs for building materials and rising concerns about the supply of developed lots and labor, builders registered less confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in April, with a two-point drop to 42 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

United Lender Services Corp., a national title insurance, settlement services, and appraisal management company, is expanding its commercial title insurance services. This expansion will provide a national platform for developers, lenders and borrowers for commercial real estate transactions, the company said.

Mortgage applications increased 4.8 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 12. 

ServiceLink, an end-to-end origination, servicing and default solutions provider for mortgage lenders and servicers, announced that a former vice president of business development and marketing for Interthinx has joined the company as senior vice president of corporate development.

WFG Lender Services has acquired Valutrust Solutions LLC, a national mortgage services and technology development business based in Overland Park, Kan. WFGLS is a national, full service provider of title insurance and real estate settlement services for lender real estate transactions. Read on for how this deal will change the operations of WFGLS.

MortgageDocs, a national notary signing services company, has hired a new Chief Executive Officer. The appointment of an established executive in the mortgage servicing industry, signals a renewed focus on growth and innovation for the national mobile notary company.

The RESPA statute is among the most controversial consumer protection laws impacting mortgage and settlement services, and companies year after year defend themselves in court over violations. But industry professionals and business owners can prevent lawsuits and government enforcement actions by understanding what can and cannot be done under this unwieldy federal law and staying abreast of new guidance and judicial decisions.

Have you become accustomed to the high volume of refinance transactions the last few years? For myriad reasons, that volume will most likely not continue, however, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has no plans to end the Home Affordable Refinance Program any time soon, which has been a boost to the pipelines since it was reworked to include more underwater borrowers.

Ernst, a provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industry, has released new functionality for its patented fee engine technology that allows the firm to overlay its data on a geocoding application provided by CoreLogic to provide precise local tax jurisdiction information to its customers.

Adeptive announced an integration for address validation using SmartyStreets. When clients of ResWare either enter a new order or edit an existing order, a property address validation can be performed via the smart data managers of SmartyStreets.

Knight Barry Title Group, one of the largest title agencies in the Midwest, has partnered with Cliq2 Technology to develop a secure email system for title insurance agents known as Cliq2Send.com. The delivery system allows title agencies to quickly and effectively address the third pillar of the ALTA’s Title Insurance and Settlement Company Best Practices. 

NextAce Corp. announced the immediate availability of Title EDITOR 2.0, which gives the title examiner the new-found ability to review from the actual prelim, commitment or title product from the very start of the process, eliminating guesswork and errors.

We reported the 2013 earnings reports from each of the top underwriters, but now we have tapped the experts to tell you what those numbers mean. This annual special report, brought to you by The Title Report, includes reports from the top title insurance companies but also drills down on the financial stability of the title insurance underwriting world, takes a look at the current ratings, explores the market share shifts and details the title premium data.

Wells Fargo & Co. announced a new banking store concept — the neighborhood bank format — that it created to deliver the kind of on-site banking experience that Wells Fargo customers have come to expect, but in a smaller format that allows the company to offer store locations with personalized service, in settings not suitable for its larger stores.

The husband of a mortgage broker/settlement agent/license title insurance agent pled guilty to making a false statement to a bank in a $12 million mortgage fraud case involving his wife and another co-conspirator — their son — reported the FBI field office in Colorado.

Visionet Systems, a provider of outsourcing solutions and mortgage, title and servicing software, has combined many of its successful product solutions to form VisiBanking Suite. This suite leverages rules engines, OCR/ICR, auto-indexing and numerous validation tools, evolving workflow, best practices, analytics and audit for a powerful tool set.

North American Title Insurance Co. announced two new additions last week — a state agency manager for Oregon and Washington and a director of marketing and educational programs. Read on for more details.

Simplifile announces new counties that have added e-recording every couple of weeks. We’ve combined the announcements from April so far into this post, which includes counties in North Carolina, Idaho and Nebraska.

The real secret to a fraud attack is trickery. Even as malware viruses and bots have become more insidious and able to use new technology for nefarious purposes, the attackers still need to rely on the naive, careless or unprepared victim to fall for their trap. We’ve discussed much of this in previous articles on protecting your agency from cyber attacks, but in a recent exchange with Greg McDonald, president of Cloudstar Consulting, he gave another example of how low-tech some of these schemes can be. McDonald thinks that lost in all of this new technology is just how important the human element of the title company really is in terms of protecting the business.

First National Title Insurance Co., a regional title insurance underwriter new to the scene in 2012, announced record revenues and earnings for the first quarter of 2013 as well as a few other companywide news items and goals for 2013.

Mortgage applications increased 4.5 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 5. The most intriguing data this week comes from the split in the purchase application data.

Old Republic International Corp. announced the date and time of its 2013 first quarter earnings report and conference call. Read on for all of the pertinent call in information.

RamQuest Inc. announced an integration with Nations Direct, a nationwide signing service that will enable RamQuest’s customers to electronically order signing services for closings directly from their title production solution.

Title Source, a large provider of title insurance, property valuations and settlement services, announced it has expanded its presence in California and is now licensed to write title insurance policies in all 58 counties in the state.

Thomas Title & Escrow brought aboard three new hires in Texas and Arizona, the company announced in a recent e-news blast from the president and chief executive officer, Frank Busch III. Read on for information about all three.

Demotech Inc. has withdrawn the Financial Stability Rating assigned to Founder's Title Insurance. This action was taken at the Company's request.

Chicago Title Insurance Co. announced it will be an organizing sponsor of the 17th Annual East Coast Gaming Congress & Hospitality Forum, which will take place May 21-22, 2013, at the historic Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Fidelity National Financial Inc. and First American Financial both announced the dates and times of their first quarter 2013 earnings call and financial report releases. Read on for all of the pertinent details.

First National Title Insurance Co. announced the advancement of the company’s underwriting counsel to vice president and her appointment as a member of the FNTI executive team.

Adeptive announced a litany of personnel changes and a new office space as part of its continued growth and expansion. In the last few months, the company increased its space from 1,000 sq. ft. to more than 4,000 sq. ft. Read on for more about several new staff additions.

Parts of the CFPB’s new loan originator compensation rule take effect as early as June of this year. Mortgage professionals are encouraged to get the training they need now in order to ensure compliance by its effective date. Dodd Frank Update is offering a 90-minute training webinar on the rule and how to comply with its various parts. Read on for more on this educational opportunity.

In January, Entrust Solutions sent out an agent alert regarding a phishing scheme whereby crooks were impersonating title insurance underwriters to get a hold of banking account information. The company sent out another update this month, complete with some fraud security advice.

In the scheme in question, Entrust says the perpetrators sent out massive amounts of emails targeting agents and attorneys, telling them to “Confirm Your Wiring Instructions” with them. The emails looked to be as if they were genuine from a trusted source, which is the main weapon of such a scam.

Fitch Ratings announced the affirmation of several Stewart Information Services Corp. ratings, but also upgraded the company’s rating outlook to positive. Read on for the company’s analysis of Stewart as well as factors that could lead to an upgrade or possible downgrade.

There has been a lot of stories in the last few months about agent vetting, verification and regaining customer confidence, and one of the larger national underwriters has launched a new program in an attempt to help solve some of these issues and prove the competency of their agency base. Read on for more about the Stewart Trusted Provider Program.

Medallion Analytics, provider of productivity and compliance tools for the title industry, and SoftPro, the nation’s leading provider of real estate closing and title insurance software, announced that Medallion’s HUD Prep Tool was integrated with SoftPro’s 360 Business Exchange Platform.

Investors Title Co. is a publicly-held North Carolina company whose stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market. It is one of the more well known, reputable regional title underwriters in the country. And the company made the top of a North Carolina business journal list for top revenue-generating companies in the area.

Nationwide Title Clearing Inc., a service provider to the mortgage and financial industry, reported at a national conference on some of the numbers it has seen over the years that illustrate the rapid adoption of e-recording technology in records offices across the country.

First American Financial Corp. announced the naming of a new chief financial officer to replace Max Valdes, who is retiring after 25 years with the company. Read on for more information on the new CFO.

GRS Group, a global provider of commercial real estate assessment services and title services, announced an expansion of its footprint into Dallas. Specifically, GRS Title Services LLC is now a licensed commercial title insurance agency in the State of Texas. Read on for more about the move and the industry veteran brought on to run the new office.

Two of the largest independent regional title and escrow companies in the Pacific Northwest are joining forces. Futura Title & Escrow, the parent company of Alliance Title & Escrow Corp., announced today that it has closed the purchase of AmeriTitle Inc., whose corporate offices are in Bend, Ore.

Agents National Title Insurance Co. announced an addition to its underwriting staff who will handle underwriting duties for the southern region. Read on for more about this latest veteran member of the Agents National team.