News By Edition

New American Land Title Association (ALTA) President Dan Wold was sworn in as president in October, taking over from Bill Burding. He is executive vice president of industry relations and strategic initiatives and corporate secretary for Old Republic National Title Insurance Co.

In an interview with The Title Report about his presidency, Wold described ALTA’s strategic priorities for the new year.

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The Fidelity National Financial (FNF) Family of Companies named a new senior vice president and agency divisional manager for Florida and the title underwriter’s southwest and western regions. She will replace Executive Vice President John Obzud, who is retiring.

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Proper Title, LLC, hired an executive vice president of business development. He will be responsible for expanding the firm beyond Illinois, initially into northwest Indiana.

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Housing affordability dropped to its lowest level since 2008, according to First American’s September Real House Price Index. The RHPI increased 17.5 percent compared with last September, the highest yearly growth rate since 2014.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued First American Financial Corp. two patents for the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and text-analysis methods to title production.

The patents allow First American to analyze and select relevant property description data rapidly and efficiently, according to the company, and the AI-driven analysis helps accelerate the creation of the title commitment.

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Doma Holdings, Inc. reported GAAP revenues of $162.6 million in the third quarter, up 34 percent year-over-year. The company’s retained premiums and fees rose 31 percent year-over-year, to $71 million, according to its third-quarter earnings report.

Closed order volume rose 39 percent year-over-year, according to the earnings report.

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The main title production facility of D. Bello, a remote workforce solution partner in the title space, received accreditation for digital security and data protection from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The specific standard met by the company stipulates it has the proper procedures in place to manage data security through its information security management system.

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titleLOOK, a Software as a Service (SaaS) by Mainspring Services, launched new review and reporting automation features that eliminate the manual title review process. The platform works with PDF or Word documents from any production software and transforms the title package into a digital format that works on any device.

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Strong earnings for title insurers are expected to continue next year despite downside risk from inflation, according to Fitch Ratings’ 2022 outlook. Underwriters could see margins and overall profits shrink, Fitch said.

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In October, 60.3 percent of home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition, according to a recent Redfin report. While that’s nearly the same rate reported in September (60.4 percent), it is down from a pandemic peak of 74.5 percent in April.

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All iBuying services are not created equally.

Veronica Figueroa, CEO of The Figueroa Team, brokered by eXp Realty, joined Zillow Offers Vice President of Central Operations Leah Sakas and HomeLight Head of Strategic Relationships Tony Chahal on stage at this year’s National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in Naples, Fla., to discuss some of the myths surrounding iBuying, including that all providers aim to cut out agents and target distressed sellers.

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Are title companies giving enough thought to the security of their virtual closing rooms? Steve Garrison doesn’t think so.

He’s the national account manager – financial services for AVI-SPL, an audio and visual technology integrator for the financial services industry. Bankers and lenders are using AVI-SPL to secure their virtual meeting spaces, and Garrison thinks title would be wise to follow suit.

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Accurate Group acquired eMerge Property Solutions, a supplier of broker price opinions and other valuation solutions. The acquisition enhances and deepens eMerge’s nationwide broker network and will allow Accurate Group to further leverage its property inspection technology, according to the companies.

eMerge will operate as a standalone division, and Accurate Group will retain the eMerge team, including the company’s co-founder and CEO.

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RamQuest’s Closing Market digital network is now integrated with TitleLogix Solutions. TitleLogix Solutions is a Texas-based company that specializes in tax research results tailored to the title insurance market.

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Old Republic International Corp. (ORI) named the former chief executive and national managing partner of Deloitte Consulting’s Human Capital Consulting Practice to its board of directors and to the directorship of ORI’s major regulated insurance company subsidiaries.

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Over the past three years, “For Sale By Owner” (FSBO) listings have made up 4 percent to 6 percent of all home listings nationally, according to a recent Zillow report. The research also found FSBOs are most common in rural areas and tend to be more affordable.

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Shaddock National Holdings acquired a majority equity interest of Homestead Title & Escrow, based in Lakewood, Colo. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Homestead Title & Escrow President Tom Gysin and co-owner Evan Harris will continue to run the company after the acquisition, along with all current staff.

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nCino, a cloud banking and digital solutions provider for the financial services industry, agreed to acquire homeownership platform developer SimpleNexus in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $1.2 billion: $240 million in cash and approximately 13.2 million shares of nCino common stock.

The acquisition expands nCino’s serviceable addressable market, according to the company.

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TitleEase added a new title and settlement services franchisee, Clive Davidson and 904 Title with Select Realty, a full-service real estate broker serving the Jacksonville area and northeast Florida.

Davidson, head of the Buy904 Team at Select Realty, said he believed the franchise opportunity is the perfect way to grow and diversify his business while enhancing his clients’ experience.

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Abstract & Title is the first company to launch GainClients’ remote deposit capture service. The relationship allows Abstract & Title’s clients to make earnest money deposits through their smartphones.

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Title Alliance named a 40-year industry veteran as quality assurance manager. She will support the operations team by overseeing the collection of data and providing analyzation to assure proper procedures are in place.

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In October, potential existing-home sales saw a 0.1 percent month-over-month increase, according to First American’s Potential Home Sales Model. The market potential for existing-home sales increased 10.3 percent year-over-year.

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Paramount Residential Mortgage Group Inc. (PRMG), a mortgage banker and residential home lender, and Blend, a cloud banking platform provider, expanded its relationship beyond lending to include mortgage origination, closing, title, income verification, and homeowner’s insurance.

PRMG also will begin using Blend’s LO Toolkit and real estate mobile app to facilitate digitizing the end-to-end mortgage process.

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Real estate brokerage marketplace zavvie added new buying solutions to its marketplace that aim to offer more affordability and accessibility options to homebuyers. The new solutions include cash offer and rent-to-own programs.

Companies offering buying solutions through the zavvie marketplace include Divvy Homes, Feeasy, Flyhomes for Agents, Halo, Homeward, Knock, Landis, Ribbon and Super.

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Mortgage Coach’s new integration with First American Title Insurance Co. enables lenders to incorporate title fees into total cost analysis (TCA) presentations, providing more insight into closing costs.

The platform allows loan originators to automatically generate and send TCA presentations to borrowers via email, text, or an app. The integration with First American Title makes it possible to import exact title fees into the TCA presentations.

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October Research and The Title Report hosted a discussion between Titan Title CEO Sara Rodriguez, president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, and BancorpSouth Vice President, Community Development Area Manager Stephen-Michael Washington on strategies and best practices for creating diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace.

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WFG National Title Insurance Co. added two industry veterans to its South Texas team. It named its first South Texas regional escrow manager and a regional sales manager.

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The housing market is finally showing signs of moderation typically seen in the fall, according to Zillow’s latest marketing report. A less competitive fall market could mean savings for buyers and additional time to decide on a purchase, according to Zillow.

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Stewart Information Services Corp. entered into an agreement to acquire PropStream, a residential real estate data and analytics platform for investors, Realtors, real estate agents, brokers and lenders. The purchase price is $175 million, and the transaction is immediately accretive.

PropStream will continue operating as a standalone company.

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Radian Group reported its adjusted pretax operating income for the third quarter was $160.6 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, up 10.8 percent from $145 million, or $0.59 per diluted share, a year ago.

Third-quarter revenues for Radian’s homegenius segment were $45.1 million, up 51 percent year-over-year, from $29.8 million, according to the third-quarter earnings report.

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Truly Title, a provider of title insurance and escrow services, announced its partnership with Jackson Hole Title & Escrow, a Title Financial Corp. (TFC) of Wyoming company.

The partnership will maintain the reliability of Jackson Hole Title & Escrow while bringing new technologies to the closing process through Truly Title’s technological infrastructure, according to the companies.

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SoftPro released new functions of its integration with Fidelity National Financial’s agentTRAX integration. Users can now search for starter records, issue closing protection and good standing letters, request high liability approvals, issue Fidelity policy jackets, and upload policy copies without leaving SoftPro’s platform.

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Investors bought a record 90,215 homes in the third quarter, up 10.1 percent from the second quarter and 80.2 percent year-over-year, the second-largest year-over-year gain on record, according to a Redfin report.

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Median single-family home and condo prices increased from the second to third quarter in 62 percent of Opportunity Zones around the country and rose by at least 20 percent annually in 47 percent of them, according to ATTOM’s third-quarter Opportunity Zones report.

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