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Summit session preview – Voice of the Independent Agent
Posted Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
The speakers for the 2012 National Settlement Services and Compliance
Summit are working diligently preparing their presentations. We caught
up with the members of the Voice of the Independent Agent panel to see
what is on their minds for discussion. Read on for the details.
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Welcome to the 2012 Voice of the Title Agent
Posted Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
Welcome to the 2012 edition of Voice of the Title Agent, a special report from The Title Report that takes the pulse of our title agent readership. We want to
know how business is faring and where it is headed. We want to know your
thoughts on the big topics of the day and how you conduct operations. Read on for links to all of the features, charts and download information.
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 Have you lost an underwriter? And which underwriters do you like to work with?
Posted Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
Underwriter/agent relations seem to ebb and flow along with the market
place, and at the moment, that relationship might be near one of the
lower points in this cycle. The last few years, the national
underwriters have gone through a process of thinning their agency ranks,
so we asked our agents if they’ve lost an underwriter in the past year
and what type of underwriter they prefer to work with.
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Industry transparency, closing protection and processes
Posted Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
The American Land Title Association has placed a greater emphasis on
transparency this year. With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
advocating on behalf of consumers for more transparency in all financial
processes, the feeling is now is the time to speak up and start telling
the story of the title industry more persistently. See what our title
agent respondents had to say about marketing to consumers, closing
protection letters and a host of other operational processes.
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New forms? What year is this again? 2010?
Posted Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
Our questions about regulations focused on the biggest elephant in the
room right now — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s creation and
adoption of the new settlement forms and disclosure documents and
rules. See how closely respondents have been paying attention to the
latest form changes and how they anticipate the process playing out.
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Fraud, standards highlight top industry storylines
Posted Date: Monday, April 30, 2012
Fraud is always a big topic in the pages of The Title Report,
including fraud crimes, fraud prevention, fraud technology and so on.
Those stories draw the most attention because of the money at stake and
the parties that are affected. So we asked a few different questions of
our title agent readers: Is enough being done in the industry to secure
escrow funds? Should ALTA start raising standards? And more.
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Tips for creating compliant, non-AfBA business partnerships
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Not necessarily a fan of affiliated business arrangements (AfBA) but
looking for some type of synergy with your local clients? The recent
Real Estate Services Providers Council’s (RESPRO) 2012 Annual Conference
provided some tips on alternative strategies for approaching this type
of business.
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Stewart in the news: A.M. Best rating; partnership on new international initiative
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Rating firm A.M. Best updated its financial strength rating and outlook
for Stewart Title Group and its parent company. Read on for more from
A.M. Best’s analysis. Also, we have news on Stewart Global Solutions’
latest partnership in an effort to modernize international land
administration.
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ClosingCorp partners with mortgage quote platform
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012
ClosingCorp announced a partnership with Nebraska-based Mortech Inc., a
mortgage technology software company specializing in solutions for
mortgage banking operations and secondary market teams.
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Former LPS executive to lead ISGN product and technology strategy
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2012
ISGN Corp. named a director of corporate technology strategy with more
than 30 years of mortgage industry and technology experience to develop a
strategic roadmap for ISGN’s delivery of products, services and
technology. Read on for more about this announcement.
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Title365 adds transparency, social networking capabilities in latest update
Posted Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Advantage Title Inc., providers of title insurance and escrow services,
debuted a new release of its Title365.com platform that brings a new
level of transparency to the transaction for all parties. This update
has a new consumer-facing focus that goes beyond the closing and
includes functionality similar to a social networking platform.
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Western Report: Total dollars insured jumps 33 percent in SoCal from last year
Posted Date: Monday, April 23, 2012
The Title Report has teamed with DataQuick to provide a monthly
Western Region Report, which will look at the housing trends in one of
six Western regions in DataQuick’s database, and a look at the top three
title companies in those areas in terms of market share. This month,
Thomas Cruse, product manager at DataQuick, focused on Southern
California.
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RamQuest adds release tracking company to Closing Market
Posted Date: Friday, April 20, 2012
RamQuest Inc. announced the addition of Final Trac to the network of
service providers on its Closing Market digital network. Read on for
more about the integration and the Final Trac services.
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Fitch rates First American, new credit line
Posted Date: Friday, April 20, 2012
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Insurer Financial Strength rating of the
First American Title Insurance Co. and assigned a rating for First
American Financial Corp.’s new revolving credit line. Read on to see
what Fitch had to say.
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Fraud roundup: Embezzlements at Ticor, Hexagon; HUD bans title agent
Posted Date: Friday, April 20, 2012
Last week there was an indictment handed down to an accounting manager
at Ticor Title Insurance Co. in Crown Point, Ind., a prison sentence
doled out to an employee from Hexagon Title, and the banishment of an
agent in Pittsburgh by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Short sales trendline continues to point up
Posted Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012
RealtyTrac debuted a new report outlining expected short sale trends in
2012 that was presented exclusively in a live broadcast produced by the
Charfen Institute for Certified Distressed Property Experts. Read on for
information from the report.
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eLynx tightens requirements for listing closing agents in database
Posted Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012
eLynx announced that it has strengthened the requirements for closing
agents registering with the eLynx Electronic Closing Network. eCN
contains a large database of closing agents registered in the U.S, and
closing agents must be registered in eCN to receive loan documents from
lenders using eLynx’s delivery services.
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New underwriter enters market place, affirmed by Demotech rating
Posted Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012
Joseph Petrelli, president of Demotech told The Title Report in
2011 that there could be a few small, agency-owned regional underwriters
popping up in the industry, and one of them officially emerged in the
state of Texas. Read on for a more information on this new company.
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Refinance numbers leap forward; purchase activity drops
Posted Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012
Mortgage applications increased 6.9 percent from one week earlier,
according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly
Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 13. Read on for
the changes in refinance and purchase activity.
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Title agents optimistic about 2012 business; concerns remain about economy
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Analysts in our 2012 Title Insurance Financial Report said the industry
might be at bottom because 2011 showed less of an operating loss; better
net income; relatively flat premiums and surplus. The national numbers
are holding their own and not continuing to head downward. The response
from the agent community in our “2012 Voice of the Title Agent” might
add some anecdotal evidence to that theory. Read on for a sneak peek at
some of the 2012 results.
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Title, mortgage, real estate teams partner for short sales in Arizona
Posted Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A title company has aligned with Integra Group Real Estate LLC and
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. to form a well-oiled short sale
producing machine in Arizona as the popularity of these transactions
start to heat like the desert sun. Read on for more about this
partnership.
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Housing market potentially positioned for recovery
Posted Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The latest FNC Residential Price Index indicated that U.S. home prices
declined steadily in the last half of 2011, but looking ahead, the
housing market is potentially positioned for a recovery in 2012 as
policies are being deployed to promote bulk sales of foreclosure and REO
properties to investors for rental conversions. Read on for more from
this FNC report.
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Fidelity amends $925 million credit facility
Posted Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Fidelity National Financial sent out an announcement about the amendment
and restatement of its existing $925 million senior unsecured revolving
credit facility that was scheduled to mature on March 5, 2013. Read on
for more.
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Universal Land Title acquires Florida agent, talks national platform
Posted Date: Monday, April 16, 2012
Universal Land Title President and CEO Michael Glass told The Title Report
that his company is always open to new growth and expansion
opportunities, and one of those opportunities just closed as Universal
completed an asset purchase of an agent in Florida. Read on for more
about the deal and the company’s next steps.
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Title Talk: Joe Mowery on default space today, title’s role in it
Posted Date: Monday, April 16, 2012
Back in March, Joe Mowery joined the LenderLive Network as
president of its settlement services division. Recently, The Title
Report reached out to him for a Title Talk. Read on for our conversation
with Mowery where we discuss this new division for LenderLive, his
plans, the default space, his concerns for the title industry and his
favorite sports team.
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First quarter foreclosure filings down 16 percent
Posted Date: Friday, April 13, 2012
RealtyTrac released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for the first
quarter of 2012, which shows foreclosure filings were down 2 percent
from the previous quarter and down 16 percent from the first quarter of
2011. Read on for more from the report and what RealtyTrac makes of the
numbers.
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S&P optimistic for homebuilder segment
Posted Date: Friday, April 13, 2012
Operating conditions for U.S. homebuilders have improved over the past
six months, and the sector's overall credit quality has steadied as a
result, according to a new report published by Standard & Poor's
Ratings Services. Read on for more from the ratings firm.
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Mortgage market sees middling results
Posted Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012
Mortgage applications saw a slight decline from the previous week,
according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest weekly stats.
Read on for a breakdown of the current refinance and purchase market.
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Nevada ends 62-month streak as top state for foreclosures
Posted Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012
Just how bad is the housing situation in Nevada? According to the latest
U.S. Foreclosure Market Report from RealtyTrac, Nevada foreclosure
activity decreased by 62 percent year over year and still maintained the
worst rate in the nation. But, it did lose the top spot for the month
of May. Who is No. 1 now? Read on for more information.
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BofA changes short sale process — are your customers ready?
Posted Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012
Short sales are booming across the country and will continue to do so
for the foreseeable future. At first, lenders and investors seemed
reluctant to go this route and short their income in such a way, but
that sentiment has turned. The biggest lender in the country has even
revamped its entire process in the hopes of better streamlining an often
frustrating and complicated process. Are your customers prepared?
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Clear Capital: Buying season numbers look promising
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 11, 2012
There is still some trouble in the Midwest, but the rest of the nation
looks to be strengthening, according to the Home Data Index (HDI) Market
Report released by Clear Capital with data through March 2012.
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Survey: Fraud concerns up across industry segments
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 11, 2012
We all read the stories and hear the experts discuss the state of fraud
in the real estate industry and the causes and solutions and preventive
measures that exist or should exist. But what does the industry itself
think about the problem? That was the question asked by Ernst Publishing
in a new survey that debuted at the American Land Title Association
Business Strategies Conference.
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Mortgage origination stats from Ellie Mae, MBA
Posted Date: Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Reports from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and Ellie Mae this
week provided a snapshot of just where the mortgage origination market
is these days as the industry heads into prime homebuying seasons.
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Analyst breaks down Fidelity v. First Am management strategies
Posted Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A Morningstar post this week analyzed the different strategies taken by
Fidelity National Financial and First American Financial in acquiring
their dominant positions in the title industry and how the results of
those strategies to date favor one company’s strategy over the other.
Read on for a summary of his thoughts and a look at the numbers.
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