News By Edition

Documentation issues aren’t all on the lender. According to sources at Indecomm, there can be an issue with title agents not sending back final documents post-closing. Read on for what their team and lender customers are saying about the issue.

There is a lien release problem in this country. When satisfied mortgages are released — lenders and borrowers (and even regulators) go home happy — but the documentation stating as much is often not properly recorded, which leads to a host of issues. The reason for this problem isn’t anything malicious; rather it’s often a matter of incentives, or a lack thereof.

The mortgage lien release is important, and all parties will say as much. A land record world without them isn’t far from pure chaos. The act of actually releasing said lien, however, when prioritized among the various tasks and procedures throughout a mortgage closing, isn’t important enough to any one party to get it accomplished in a consistent manner. No one has the proper amount of incentive, despite various techniques implemented to try and create these incentives.

Total dollars insured in King County, Wash., trended significantly upward during 2012, but December was its strongest month of the year, with more than $8.3 million in total dollars insured, according to DataQuick in this month’s Western Region Report.

Old Republic Title Insurance Group sent an announcement that, effective immediately, its Site Management Services division has changed its name to Old Republic Commercial Due Diligence Services. Read on for the company’s announcement.

Nine people involved in a long-running, large-scale mortgage fraud scheme that caused losses of approximately $10 million were charged in two complaints with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. As part of the alleged scheme, those accused are said to have opened up companies with names similar to established, licensed title agencies in order to open up their phony bank accounts and funnel the funds. Read on for the alleged details.

The American Land Title Association has made several headlines the past few months for new initiatives regarding professional standards in the title insurance industry. We asked all of you about the debut of the group’s professional designation to gauge your thoughts. Will it impact the industry?

ClosingCorp, a provider of residential real estate closing cost data and technologies for mortgage lenders, real estate professionals and consumers, said its data services will enable clients to remain compliant with any changes to mortgage disclosure requirements, which are expected to be finalized in 2013 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Ernst Publishing Co., a provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industries for the past 24 years, announced that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has awarded the company a new patent for a feature in its recording fee and tax calculators.

Independence Title, located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., announced the addition of a senior closing processor who has several years of experience in the real estate field, including owning her own title agency. 

North American Title Insurance Company announced that the Indiana Department of Insurance has issued a certificate of authority to insure title in the State of Indiana. This brings the total number of authorized states NATIC does business in to 31. NATIC said Indiana is part of its overall growth strategy to cover the major metropolitan areas of the country.

Entrust Solutions was the first to widely warn title agents to watch out for a new fraud scheme going around that is looking to drain your escrow account. Read on for the details from Entrust’s website.

First American Financial Corp. (FAF) announced the pricing of a public offering of $250 million of its 4.3 percent senior notes due in 2023. The offering is expected to close on Jan. 29. The notes will be general senior unsecured obligations of the company and will rank equally in right of payment with the company’s existing and future senior unsecured indebtedness. Following the announcement, Fitch provided its thoughts. Read on for all of the details.

Regional title insurance underwriter Alliant National Title Insurance Co. announced the hiring of a senior vice president and Midwest regional manager, effective Feb. 1, 2013, that will be responsible for developing, marketing and managing Alliant National’s Missouri and Kansas agency programs. Read on for more details.

Remember the recent story of the six co-conspirators in Miami that were sentenced for using straw buyers and false HUD-1s to purchase residential property at an apartment complex? Mentioned at the end of that article was Raquel DeJesus Martinez who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in a related case. She was recently sentenced for her crime. Read on for the sentencing details.

Old Republic International Corp. reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2012, and news from the title insurance segment remains positive. Read on for a full look at the title numbers, the factors the company cited as an explanation and an update on the run-off of the company’s troubled mortgage insurance segment.

reQuire LLC, the an online release tracking and reporting company, announced two personnel moves this week. Jeff Stechmann has joined its account management team and Jay Jones has been named to a new product manager position.

Lender Processing Services Inc., a provider of integrated technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, reported the following “first look” at December 2012 month-end mortgage performance statistics derived from its loan-level database representing approximately 70 percent of the overall market.

Stewart Title Co. was recognized as a Texas Treasure on the House/Senate floor by two representatives at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas. Stewart Title Co. also announced that Lisa Guild of Stewart’s Englewood, Fla., office was honored as Business Partner of the Year by the Englewood Area Board of Realtors.

Mortgage applications increased 7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Jan. 18, 2013. The most notable figure is the new two-year high from the purchase application index.

Fitch Ratings has updated and published its report titled ‘U.S. Title Insurance Industry Sector Credit Factors.’ First off: no ratings are expected to be affected by this updated report. However, the updated report did make several changes to Fitch’s Risk Adjusted Capital ratio, which is a primary measure the firm uses to assess title insurance companies. You could look at it as RAC 2.0.

January proved to be a significant month in the housing regulatory landscape, as the mortgage and real estate sector was hit with an abundance of new rules, one of which has stood out as having a major impact on the entire mortgage, real estate and settlement services industry. Read on for information about an educational opportunity on the CFPB’s ability-to-repay final rule.

Clerks, recorders and registers offices are often handcuffed by outdated technology, resulting in delays that provide opportunity for real estate fraud and create havoc for businesses that rely on timely access to documents and information. Now, the development of new recording technology is allowing clerks to streamline this process, ensuring timely recording and providing better access to the real estate industry and the public.

An Ohio couple pleaded guilty to a $7 million fraud scheme three days after the start of their trial. Deborah Kistner, who operated Premiere Title Co. in Hilliard, Ohio, and her husband, Mark Kistner, are said to have carried out their scheme between June 2006 and July 2010.

To start 2012, there were warnings of the market being re-flooded with foreclosures, as those held back in the wake of the robo-signing controversy finally came to the forefront. A year-end report from one data company shows that the early prognostication wasn’t really fulfilled, at least not in non-judicial closing states.

Data continue to show important progress across many key indicators with the housing market bottoming out nationally and clearly turning a corner – as home values continue to rise and home sales remained strong in November – although officials caution that the overall recovery remains fragile.

The Ability to Repay Final Rule officially issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Jan. 10 established a 43 percent debt-to-income ratio threshold for qualified mortgages (QM). The industry had been watching this determination in particular, concerned that a stringent standard would eliminate a percentage of potential borrowers and potentially alter the nature of affiliated business relationships.

Your company should strive to maintain an aura of competence, flexibility and tenacity, says Alexander Crompton, director of corporate communications for the Mandrien Consulting Group. Prospective and current clients notice the little things — and are more than willing to go with another option if they don’t like what they see. Read on for more from Crompton’s marketing column.

Solid gains in both single-family and multifamily housing production resulted in nationwide housing starts rising 12.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 954,000 units in December, according to newly released data from the U.S. Commerce Department.

Harriet Taylor, co-owner and manager of two title insurance companies in Maryland, was officially sentenced to two years in prison for her role in a wire fraud scheme. She reportedly used more than $1.5 million in mortgage closing funds for personal use and to operate her title companies. In addition to the two years of prison time, Taylor will have five years of supervised release and pay more than $1.5 million in restitution.

Siskiyou County Title and Escrow Co., after more than 100 years in the business, officially closed up shop but transferred all of its open files to Mt. Skasta Title Co., according to the Mount Shasta Herald. Read on for more about the deal from the initial report.

Stewart Title Co. announced the addition of a business development officer for its northern Colorado division who will be responsible for developing new customers and accounts in Larimer and Weld counties.

Meridian Title Corp., formerly known as St. Joseph Title Corp., was established in 1938 as The Abstract Co. of St. Joseph County Inc, It opened for business in South Bend, Ind., to serve the land record data needs of St. Joseph County, Ind.  Meridian Title Corp. now celebrates its 75^th year in business. Read on for more from the company’s anniversary press release.

Most business owners understand some of the dynamics of selling their business but few understand the value drivers that create dollars for the purchase price, says contributor Carl Grimes, broker/owner of CBI-Sunbelt Business Advisors. Grimes gives us a look at what he calls the five hidden treasures that exist in your title company. For those owners looking to or thinking about selling, it’s important to note these assets.

Adeptive Software, the developer of ResWare, and Quandis Inc., a provider of default management technology solutions, announced an integration that  will provide the Quandis’ interface to the government's Public Access to Court Electronic Records database for bankruptcy searches to ResWare users.

Mortgage applications increased 15.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Jan. 11, 2013.  Read on for the full weekly break down.

First American Financial Corp. announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend payable on March 15. Read on for the information.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was unchanged in January, remaining at a level of 47 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. 

The National Association of Independent Land Title Agents (NAILTA) released a white paper advocating the use of a premium-to-surplus ratio rule to help prevent escrow theft. 

The white paper was written in light of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) efforts to draft a white paper to give regulators and insurers tools to combat and prevent escrow theft. One of the suggestions put forth in a recent draft of the NAIC Title Escrow Theft and Title Insurance Fraud Whitepaper is the creation of escrow theft reserves at the title underwriter level.

“The preliminary idea from NAIC is to require insurers to contribute revenues to a separate escrow defalcation reserve account apart from ordinary capital and SPR requirements,” the paper stated. “The funding mechanism for the reserve would come either from CPL income or by premium set-asides. The reserve would be used solely for the payment of defalcation related losses. Although, unclear from the paper, the cost to consumers is likely to increase in order to pay for the reserve. These issues and more are currently being determined by the affected title insurance underwriters, the American Land Title Association and the NAIC.”