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The Title Report Print Edition
June 16, 2014
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More than sales affect the bottom line Part I
Posted Date: Monday, June 9, 2014
Michael Stone, founder of The Stone Group, spoke with The Title Report about how title insurance companies can use a flexible workspace to control their operations’ costs. The Stone Group, a commercial real estate firm, focuses primarily on tenant representation within financial services such as title and settlement companies.
Stone said his group simplifies space.
“On a consulting basis, we direct transactions renewing locations, finding new locations and helping companies strategize about new locations,” Stone said.
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More than sales affect the bottom line Part II
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Nick Henderson, chief executive officer of TitleCore, has been in the real estate industry for more than 20 years. He’s seen the market turn all the way around and back again. Through the ups and downs, he said he’s learned how to stay in business and succeed. Not that it’s always easy.
For the first 15 years of his career, Henderson worked in private practice as a real estate attorney, and for the past 10, he has been a principal in the title insurance business.
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More than sales affect the bottom line Part III
Posted Date: Thursday, June 12, 2014
Lynette Hale-Lee, regional executive of AmeriPro Funding Inc. said companies underestimate the importance of disciplined communication. Tenura Holdings, Inc., the holding company of AmeriPro, specializes in bundled services for the benefit of the consumer/end-user. It pulls together real estate, brokerage, lending, title insurance and property insurance. AmeriPro focuses on the lending side of the business, but Hale-Lee said she is also trained in title insurance and is a licensed real estate broker. This kind of cross-training helps all the parties at the closing table execute at a higher level.
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Jim Paolino reflects on title industry at 20-year anniversary
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Res/Title Inc. is celebrating its 20th year in the title industry. Chief Executive Officer Jim Paolino spoke with The Title Report about the incredible changes over the past two decades. He said Res/Title Inc. has been successful because the company was able to grow and provide a niche to the industry. Keep reading to learn how Paolino adapted and stayed in business for 20 years.
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Rand Title expands across Florida
Posted Date: Friday, May 16, 2014
Rand Title, a Florida title insurance company, is expanding across Florida offering residential purchase and refinancing services along with commercial property in the State of Florida.
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Alliant National Title pays first dividend
Posted Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Agents Investors Group LLC, the insurance holding company for Alliant National Title Insurance Co. Inc., paid its first dividend April 1. Alliant is an underwriter partnering with independent agents to improve their competitive position.
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Investors receives ‘Excellent’ rating from A.M. Best
Posted Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
In 2013, the Investors Title Co. Inc. statutory surplus level increased for the fifth straight year and expanded its geographic footprint in recent years to more than 20 states. Keep reading to learn more. These are two or the reasons A.M. Best has assigned a financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings of “a” to the two subsidiaries of Investors Title Co. Inc.
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Consumer shopping and understanding critical says FDIC
Posted Date: Friday, May 30, 2014
In the latest edition of Consumer News, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) discussed ways consumers can save money on a mortgage. The advice ranged from comparison shopping for your mortgage to whether or not it is a good decision to refinance an existing mortgage. It also encouraged prospective homeowners to understand which third-party settlement services they shop for.
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Stewart Title Group gets an A-
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
A.M. Best upgraded the financial strength rating to A- (Excellent) from B++ (Good) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to “a-“ from “bbb+” for the member companies of Stewart Title Group (Stewart). A.M. Best also upgraded the ICR to “bbb-“ from “bb+” for the parent holding company, Stewart Information Services Corp. The outlook for all ratings has been revised to stable from positive.
Fitch Ratings upgrades Stewart to A-
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Ernst Publishing celebrates 1 billionth transaction
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Ernst Publishing Co., a provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industries for the past 25 years, announced that a final analysis of its 2013 performance shows the highest rate of growth the company has experienced in the past 15 years.
Jan Clark, vice president of sales and marketing, told The Title Report the company moved from the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) business to the real estate business 15 years ago.
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Third Federal expands coast to coast
Posted Date: Friday, May 30, 2014
Third Federal now offers home equity lines of credit, as well as fist mortgage refinance loans, in 17 states, including Ohio, Florida, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, California, Washington and Oregon.
“We continue to expand our product offerings into new states to reach new customers,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc Stefanski.
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Title industry technology finally starting to be accepted
Posted Date: Monday, June 9, 2014
Peter Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing for Pioneer Technology Group recently spoke to The Title Report regarding the industry’s use of technology. He said title agents are only beginning to realize the benefits of leveraging technology, but some are still concerned about the perceived risk of online technology.
“The issues at Target and some other companies probably have made all of us a bit more hesitant,” Johnson said. “At the same time, these instances can also be instructive, leading us to evaluate what technology we use and how we manage our accounts, our access and our security practices."
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Pavaso’s Christopher Ayoub presents new Digital Close Solution
Posted Date: Friday, May 16, 2014
Pavaso Inc., in collaboration with Farris Title Group, announced the successful completion of digitally processed home sale transactions using the company’s new Digital Close solution. The platform was developed to modernize the home purchase process, to leverage technology to reduce cost and risk for service providers and to provide the interactive, content-rich experience consumers encounter with other technology-enabled products and services.
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Data aggregation relieves title search aggravation
Posted Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Nowadays, the buzz word in the title searches is data aggregation, as title searching is evolving into a far more complex aggregation of multiple data sets. It is no longer solely necessary to conduct a property records search. Craig J. Muldoon, executive vice president - product marketing for RedVision, spoke to The Title Report about the importance of optimizing the automation and assemblage of disparate data sets into a comprehensive title report.
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Hudson United Title adds commercial real estate expert
Posted Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Hudson United Title added New York commercial real estate title expert James Coombs to lead the Westchester sales team. Coombs brings with him more than 25 years of professional New Jersey and New York title services experience. Keep reading to learn more about Coombs and his new role.
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Westcor adds key member to its National Agency Division
Posted Date: Thursday, May 22, 2014
Westcor Land Title Insurance Co. added a new sales agency representative. Westcor’s team of high caliber title professionals has earned a reputation as industry leaders in providing value-added solutions to agents, lenders and servicers.
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Refinances reviewed in FHFA first quarter report
Posted Date: Friday, May 30, 2014
The total volume of mortgage refinances continued to decline through the first three months of 2014, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) First Quarter 2014 Refinance Report. Total refinance volume for the first quarter topped 370,000 while refinance through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) stood at just under 77,000. In March, refinance volume dropped to its lowest level since 2008. Mortgage rates have ranged between 4 to 4 ½ percent since June 2013, but increased in March to 4.34 percent.
Refinance transactions take downward turn going into new year Part 1
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National Notary Association honors JPMorgan Chase
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
The National Notary Association (NNA) announced JPMorgan Chase & Co. as the 2014 recipient of its March Fong Eu Achievement Award. The firm is being honored for launching its One Chase Notary Program, taking on the challenge of standardizing Notary Public procedures throughout the firm nationwide, and implementing Notary best practices across all of its business divisions.
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FAF eyes ‘tuck-in’ acquisitions for core businesses
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
As the U.S. residential housing market recovery continues, and with the peak spring and summer seasons upon us, First American Financial Corp. (FAF) expects modest purchase revenue growth for the full year, driven primarily by price, the company told an audience of investors at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ 2014 Mortgage Finance Conference in New York yesterday.
However, the nation’s second-largest title insurance underwriter told the audience gathered June 3 at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel that with foreclosure activity and inventory declining, refinance activity remains weak — albeit slightly stable, at least for the moment.
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NexTitle unveils GLADiS online ordering platform
Posted Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2014
NexTitle, a full-service title and escrow firm based in Bellevue released its newest suite of online tools known as GLADiS, for real estate and mortgage professionals. This allows them to access the information and documents they need to serve their customers from anywhere.
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Jeff Mattice to expand data licensing business for RealtyTrac
Posted Date: Friday, May 30, 2014
RealtyTrac announced that veteran licensing and business development executive Jeff Mattice has joined the company as vice president of the data solutions team. He is charged with growing the company’s data licensing business.
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LenderLive adds due-diligence industry veteran
Posted Date: Friday, May 30, 2014
LenderLive Network Inc., a domestic-based end-to-end mortgage services provider, added Mark Hughes as senior vice president of Review Services, leading the company’s due diligence and loan review business.
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National home prices slow according to Case-Shiller
Posted Date: Friday, May 30, 2014
Data through March 2014, released by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, a measure of U.S. home prices, show the 10-City and 20-City Composite Indices gained 0.8 percent and 0.9 percent month-over-month. In the first quarter of 2014, the National Index gained 0.2 percent. Nineteen of the 20 cities showed positive returns in March – New York was the only city to decline. Keep reading to learn more.
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Industry shows support for HUD and OMB appointments
Posted Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
President Barack Obama on May 23 announced his nominations to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
President Obama nominated Julian Castro, the current mayor of San Antonio, to be the next secretary of HUD. He would replace Shaun Donovan, who was nominated to be the next OMB director.
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Purchase originations up 57 percent in 2013 according to MBA
Posted Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks made an average profit of $1,242 on each loan they originated in 2013, down from $2,199 per loan in 2012, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Annual Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.
“Full-year 2013 net production profits were respectable,” said Marina Walsh, MBA’s vice president of industry analysis.
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