News By Edition

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.

The Market Snapshot is a monthly look at closing percentages across the country, brought to you by The Title Report and eLynx. For the month of March, storms seemed to dampen closings in a couple sectors, while the percentages in the South rose. Read on for this month’s map.

On Friday morning of the American Land Title Association Business Strategies Conference, the lenders took to the stage to answer questions from the industry, discuss their position and generally talk through the current uncertain nature of business and regulation today. The conversation both assuaged some of the room’s trepidation and heightened the importance of the regulatory changes and business developments in the coming year.

Thomas Title & Escrow announced that Louis Strawn, executive vice president, and Stephanie Taylor, relationship manager, have joined the company in Dallas. This marks the firm’s first major hiring since opening the Dallas office in August 2012.

Mortgage applications decreased 4.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 8. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached the highest level in more than six months, according to the association. Read on for the numbers.

The American Land Title Association announced on March 12 it has awarded its first National Title Professional designations to five members.

Fitch Ratings released a special report reviewing U.S. title insurance industry 2012 performance, citing improved profitability and providing insight into expectations for 2013. Read on for the analysis.

A very small hitch in the opening general session of the American Land Title Association Business Strategies Conference, ironically, illustrated the main message the association strove to get across during the three-day meeting. Every so often, a persistent Windows update alert would pop up on the screen. In order to keep the presentations and Power Points running smoothly, the tech people would quickly click “update later.” We’ve all been faced with the “update now” or “update later” situation on our own computers. “Update later” is great in the short term, but we click it knowing we are merely delaying the inevitable. Why should agents be concerned about delaying their own “updates?” Read on for insight from the conference.

Title agents often feel like they are under fire, and that the bad apples in the industry have spoiled the reputation of the whole bunch. But the fact remains that the majority of title agents are following procedures and appropriately securing and facilitating the funding of transactions. The message to agents on a recent industry webinar was that now is the time to document these procedures in order to satisfy the increased scrutiny from underwriters, lenders and regulators.  

 

United Lender Services Corp. (ULS), a national title, settlement services and appraisal management company, announced the addition of four executives to its management team. Paul Martin, director of risk and compliance; Jim DiGregory, general counsel; Wes McDaniel, chief appraisal; and Matt Proffitt, branch manager and escrow officer of the Texas branch.

Stewart Title Limited, the underwriter for the United Kingdom, European and Australian transactions for Stewart Information Services Corp., and LEAP Legal Software, a provider of legal and conveyancing software for Australian law firms and conveyancing practices, announced an agreement. Read on for the details.

Demotech Inc. has reviewed year-end 2012 statutory financial data reported by title underwriters and concluded that the aggregate industry results are favorable. Read on for the thoughts of Senior Financial Analyst Douglas Powell and a summary of the data.

Local branch offices of Fidelity National Title in California got into an energy-reduction competition in order to save some energy/money, change wasteful behaviors and have a little fun. For three months, eight branch offices of Fidelity National Title located in Napa, Sonomoa and Lake counties encouraged employees to practice better energy habits. Read on to see the results.

Under a mandate by the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a final rule on Jan. 17 on new mortgage servicing standards, amending Regulation X and Regulation Z. This rule was one of many released by the CFPB in January, and like the others, it requires training, retooling and the implementation of new policies and procedures this year. Read for how this October Research webinar aims to help.

We feature two stories of local title agents doing their part to help the local community in some way. Read on for exactly how Independence Title and University Title have given back to their respective communities.

Nationwide Title Clearing, Inc., a post-closing services provider for the residential mortgage industry, announced that its vice president of client relations has been promoted to chief operations officer.

An eight-count federal indictment was handed down last week involving an escrow officer and two others that were allegedly conspiring in an $83 million mortgage fraud scheme. Read on for more details from the indictment.

Recent housing start data from the National Association of Home Builders looks slightly discouraging, with an 8.5 percent decline, at least if increases in housing starts excite you. But that dip was driven by a double-digit drop in multifamily starts. Single-family starts are actually at their strongest pace since 2008.  There is similar news on the permit issuance front.

MortgageDocs, a notary and attorney signing service company, has recently strengthened its executive team with the additional of a chief financial officer and director of business development. These appointments are part of a repositioning of the company following an investment in 2012.

Data Trace Information Services LLC, a provider of data services to the settlement services industry, announced that it added new title plants and land records to its databases, further increasing its geographic reach, which now covers more than 70 percent of the country.

A locally owned and operated title agency in Missouri has opened up its fifth office location and announced the office manager and vice president of marketing for the branch. Read on for the details.

Mortgage applications had a percentage increase in the double digits from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 1. 

First BancTrust Corp., the holding company for First Bank & Trust S.B., an Illinois-chartered savings bank, reported its fourth quarter and 2012 earnings. For the year, net income available to common shareholders was $3.05 million in 2012 compared to $3.34 million in the prior year. Read on for how the company’s title subsidiary contributed to and slightly boosted the overall results.

The January Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services found significant differences remain in foreclosure pipelines between states with judicial and non-judicial foreclosure processes. But there is a new wrinkle in these distinctions and timelines now as well.

Independence Title announced substantial net income gains for the fourth quarter of 2012 as well as the full year, when compared to 2011, which was driven primarily by increases in real estate closing volumes. In addition to the revenue news, Independence Title also announced the addition of a short sale legal counsel and negotiator.

Just how far can we take the direct-to-consumer concept in the mortgage and settlement world? We reported on the latest settlement service concept from Redfin in the real estate world, and the early response to our Voice of the Title Agent survey questions shows just about a 50/50 split among agents marketing to consumers and those that are not. Now, a new company has a vision for taking loan modifications right to the people.

Voice of the Title Agent is back for 2013! Make your voice heard in our short survey, and you're automatically entered into a drawing for one of three FREE subscriptions to The Title Report! The multiple choice survey will only take 5 to 10 minutes and is meant to capture the opinions and current success/struggles of today's title insurance agent. Along with the multiple choice questions, there are plenty of opportunities to write in your own comments, share insight or just plain sound off.

HEAD RIGHT TO THE SURVEY

Indecomm Global Services, a business process outsourcing company, announced that it named a new director of business development for its lending solutions group. This director will focus on mid-tier lenders, community banks and credit unions to tap into Indecomm’s platform-driven mortgage outsourcing solutions.

Title365 Co., a nationwide provider of title insurance and escrow services, announced the addition of a new senior vice president of national sales who most recently worked at ServiceLink, the national lender platform for Fidelity National Financial.

Experiencing record growth in 2012, New Vista Solutions LLC, a national settlement company, has brought on two lender service professionals, both with prior experience working for Stewart Lender Services.

Investors Title Co. announced a quarterly dividend — Investors of record on March 18 will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share on March 28. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48 percent.

Are two government sponsored entities better than one? Not according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which announced its intentions to create a new joint company for securitizing home loans while also shrinking the sizable footprints of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Redfin is a company of real estate agents and software engineers that are trying to, as they put it on the site “reinvent real estate.” The online real estate organization tries to give the consumer information that other real estate agents do not — leaks, road noise, price history and negotiation patterns, etc. — and it pays agents based on “customer satisfaction bonuses” rather than a commission. What does this progressive, experimental real estate site have to do with the title world?

Growing regional underwriter First National Title Insurance Co. (FNTI) announced the addition of a vice president and underwriting counsel who was a former president of the Texas Land Title Association.

Carrington Mortgage Services LLC announced plans to add approximately 600 jobs to meet growing industry demand as traditional lenders rely more heavily on specialty servicers to effectively manage their distressed loan portfolios.

WFG National Title Insurance Co. added a title officer and North Florida agency representative that will be based in Jacksonville, Fla., and be responsible for growing and maintaining the company’s relationships with agents throughout the northern region of Florida.

The board of directors of Old Republic International Corp. declared a quarterly cash dividend payable March 21 to shareholders of record on March 11. This latest dividend increase marks the 32nd consecutive year that Old Republic has boosted its cash dividend rate. 2013 is the 72nd year of uninterrupted cash dividend payments.

Interthinx, a provider of comprehensive risk mitigation solutions for the financial services industry, has released its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, covering data collected in the fourth quarter of 2012. According to the most recent analysis, overall risk nationwide increased 16 percent over the previous quarter and 9 percent over fourth-quarter 2011. The overriding source of the increase can be traced to a large increase in property valuation fraud risk.