News By Edition

As her last day at the American Land Title Association approached, Michelle Korsmo sat down with The Title Report one last time to reflect upon her seven-plus years as CEO and more than a decade of service with the association.

To do so, though, she first had to pry herself from so many in the industry who wanted to talk, say thanks, and share a final moment with her.

CATIC, the country’s largest Bar-Related title insurance underwriter, has been named one of the “Top Work Places in 2018” in Connecticut by The Hartford Courant. 

Read on for more details.

 TitleVest has earned New York Law Journal’s Best Title Agency award, marking the sixth consecutive year the company has earned the prestigious designation.

Read on for more details.

First American Title Insurance Co. has earned New York Law Journal’s Best Title Insurance Underwriter award for the sixth consecutive year.

Read on for more details.

Twenty-one states posted year-over-year increases in foreclosure starting in July.

Read on for more information from ATTOM Data Solutions’ July 2018 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

National Investors Title Insurance Co. has hired a sales and training director.

Read on for more details.

A.M. Best has affirmed the financial strength rating and the long-term Issuer credit ratings of Investors Title Insurance Co. and National Investors Title Insurance Co., the credit rating agency announced. 

A.M. Best said the ratings reflect the group’s “very strong” balance sheet and an operating performance which “consistently outperforms the industry.”

Read on for more details from A.M. Best’s report.

A recent report from the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said more small-business owners had negative impressions of online lenders than positive ones.

On sticking point for small-business owners was the lack of detailed product information offered.

Read on for more insights from the study concerning online lenders and small-business owners.

North American Title Co. (NATC) has expanded its footprint in Indiana with the opening of a new office in Marion, the company announced.

The Marion office is the fifth office NATC has opened in Indiana since 2015, and will provide escrow and closing services throughout Grant County.

Read on to learn who will oversee the new office.

More than half of all eNote closings registered on the MERS eRegistry thus far in 2018 have been closed through Pavaso’s platform.

Read on for more details.

The rate of home price growth dropped for the fifth consecutive month in July to its lowest rate since September 2016.

Read on for more details from Redfin’s latest report.

Stewart Title Guaranty Co. has appointed a Northeast States district manager.

Read on for more details.

California recently approved what is being described as the first insurtech title company licensed and based in the state.

The new company promises to replace the manual and labor-intensive process of writing title insurance with an automated data-driven approach, leading to reduced wait times, modernized title insurance transactions, increased competition, and reduced costs for home buyers and others.

Read on for more details about the new company.

An Athens, Ga.-based company has introduced a service designed to eliminate the need for title companies and other real estate professionals to go to courthouses to retrieve offline documents.

The owner of the company also owns a title search company, and says retrieving offline documents can cost as much as $200 a day in lost billable time.

Read on for more details about the retrieval service.

North American Title Insurance Co. (NATIC) has fully integrated with Qualia’s title, escrow and closing software platform and named Qualia to the company’s AgentMarketplace program.

The new integration will enable title companies and law firms to issue NATIC policies, generate closing protection letters and calculate rates within Qualia’s platform.

Read on for more details about the integration.

The closing percentages of purchase loans in June and July are the highest since Ellie Mae began tracking the data in 2011.

Read on for more details from Ellie Mae’s latest report.

North American Title Co. has named an assistant division manager/commercial business development for its Central Valley region.

Read on for more details.

LenderLive Holdings has agreed to sell its mortgage fulfillment and secondary marketing division to a third party mortgage services provider.

The deal does not include reQuire, the Virginia Beach-based company that provides lien release tracking, title search and reporting services, title curative services, due diligence, quality assurance, asset valuation and business process management technology solutions.

Read on for more details about the sale.

GRS Title Services, LLC has opened a new office in Kansas City, Mo., and has hired a director to oversee it, the company announced.

The director of GRS’ new office is a former commercial title officer for First American and previously owned her own title agency in Springfield, Mo.

Read on for more details about GRS’ Missouri expansion.

An above-average ratio of homes is likely to be sold in the next 90 days in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Atlanta.

Read on for more details from ATTOM Data Solutions’ latest report.

Proper Title, LLC has hired a senior escrow officer for its Northbrook, Ill. office.

Read on for more details.

During the second quarter of 2018, luxury homes sold the fastest in Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

Read on for more details from Redfin’s latest report.

Since legislator William H. Stewart’s son Maco purchased the Gulf City Abstract Co. in Galveston, Texas in 1893, Stewart’s descendants have all played major roles in the development of Stewart Information Services Corp.

The company recently took time to honor the patriarch of the family, Stewart Morris Sr.  

Read on to learn what was said about Morris during a private reception in Houston.

It is important to have a plan and think out what you will need to do in the minutes, days and months after an attack occurs, but it is also critically important to know who to make aware of the situation and how you can help one another.

During the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in Detroit, experts in the field shared how to best work with your partners after a cyberattack.

Read on for more details.

A technology-driven comparison service for title insurance and settlement services has expanded service into a second state, the company announced.

The company now offers comparison service for title insurance and settlement services in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and has plans to expand nationally.

Read on for more details about the price comparison service.

Whenever the words real estate and innovation are mentioned in the same sentence, it is often a safe bet that the last word in that sentence will be Blockchain.

John Heck, director and industry general manager at DXC Technology; Matt Einheber, principal at Transfer: Real Estate Intelligence; and Piper Moretti, CEO of the Crypto Realty Group, detailed how Blockchain is the invisible X factor poised to reshape the real estate transaction during the 2018 National Settlement Services Summit (NS3).

Find out what they had to say about the technology’s potential for reshaping the real estate transaction.