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New ALTA president’s priorities include explaining benefits of title insurance
Posted Date: Friday, October 28, 2022
New American Land Title Association (ALTA) President Jack Rattikin III is not only a third-generation title company owner, he also is a third-generation ALTA president.
One of ALTA’s priorities for 2022-2023 is navigating the regulatory environment, including the debate regarding the risks of title insurance alternatives, such as certain attorney opinion letters (AOLs). Rattikin finds that interesting, he told The Title Report, as his grandfather helped introduce title insurance to Texas in the 1940s as an alternative to AOLs, which consumers and lenders then found lacking.
Read on for more.
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TitleTap acquired by ProfitSolv
Posted Date: Friday, October 28, 2022
TitleTap and its suite of products were acquired by Knoxville, Tenn.-based ProfitSolv, a provider of software solutions for legal, accounting and other professional services firms.
The TitleTap brand will remain intact, said co-founder and CEO Dean Collura and co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Eliot Dill. Collura will continue as CEO and Dill will become general manager.
Read on for more.
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ZOCCAM expands payment portfolio
Posted Date: Friday, October 28, 2022
Real estate payment platform ZOCCAM Technologies will be awarded an additional patent, expanding its patent portfolio to seven. All its patents cover payments and payment data.
Read on for more.
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Stewart launches consumer platform
Posted Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Stewart Lender Services announced the launch of Stewart Enterchange, a platform aimed at improving the consumer experience throughout the title and closing process.
Features of Enterchange include intuitive user-interface on any device, easy upload and download of documentation, messaging with advanced security, multifactor authentication and eSigning capabilities.
Read on for more about the new solution.
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Lending platform to launch title services franchise
Posted Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Lending platform Refinance.com is launching a title services franchise named Pyramid Title LLC through franchiser TitleEase. The new franchise is in Texas and will serve customers statewide.
Being able to provide title services to existing mortgage clients will allow Refinance.com to provide the most efficient closing procedure possible, according to the CEO of TitleEase.
Read on for more.
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Evolve, FirstClose partner on HELOC solution
Posted Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
eMortgage technology solution provider Evolve Mortgage Services is partnering with fintech company FirstClose to automate the home equity line of credit (HELOC) origination process. The collaboration combines FirstClose’s home equity application management system with Evolve’s document engine and eSign and eNotary capabilities.
The new solution will enable lenders to approve HELOCs within seven minutes, according to the companies.
Read on for more.
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LoanCare now offers HELOCs
Posted Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Mortgage subservicer LoanCare, part of Fidelity National Financial, now offers open-ended home equity lines of credit (HELOC) nationwide. LoanCare can accommodate segmented, fully amortized, and interest-only HELOCs and provide interim servicing as well.
Read on for more.
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Accruit names director of sales
Posted Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Accruit named a 12-year real estate veteran to its new role of director of sales. He will focus on growing Accruit’s business development team across traditional qualified intermediary and technology service offerings.
Read on for more.
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Educated millennials hold key to homeownership demand
Posted Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
There are long-term drivers of housing demand that will position the housing market to rebound once the dust settles from the current challenging economic conditions, according to First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi. One of those drivers is education.
Read on for more.
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Amrock closes billion-dollar commercial deal
Posted Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
Amrock’s commercial team recently closed a seven-site, $1.07 billion-dollar real estate transaction. The deal involved casinos located in several different states.
Agencies don’t often land deals of such a size, an Amrock commercial vice president said. She attributed the successful transaction to the company’s track record and long-standing professional relationships.
Read on for more about the deal.
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First National Title Insurance Co. partners with TitleCapture
Posted Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
First National Title Insurance Co. partnered with TitleCapture to provide its nationwide network of title agencies access to TitleCapture’s suite of tools, including a new technology program.
The custom program is designed to provide a first-to-market tech offering that gives title agents access to a quoting platform and digital web experience.
Read on for more about the partnership.
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Covius Title licensed in California
Posted Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
Covius Holdings announced the licensure of Covius Title Co. in California. With the addition of California, Covius is now licensed to provide settlement services in 39 states as well as the District of Columbia.
The new license allows Covius to write title in all 58 California counties, as well as meet demand from credit union and banks that have pivoted to home equity products.
Read on for more.
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Redfin expands brokerage to three new markets
Posted Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
Redfin launched its real estate brokerage into Hilton Head, S.C., Wilmington, N.C., and Green Bay, Wis. The company also launched a listing search for an estimated 570 counties, now covering over 95 percent of the U.S. population.
Read on for more.
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InspectHOA partners with paymints.io
Posted Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
InspectHOA, a platform that concentrates on the homeowners’ association part of real estate transactions, partnered with paymints.io. The partnership aims to digitize more of the closing experience.
Read on for more.
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First-time buyers make up nearly half of all homebuyers
Posted Date: Friday, October 21, 2022
The share of buyers purchasing a home for the first time has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. First-time buyers now represent 45 percent of all buyers, up from 37 percent surveyed last year, according to Zillow’s 2022 Consumer Housing Trends Report.
Read on for more.
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Stewart extends CEO contract, announces C-suite retirement
Posted Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
Stewart Information Services Corp.’s Board of Directors extended the terms of CEO Fred Eppinger’s employment agreement for another three years.
Stewart also announced the planned retirement of Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) John Killea early next year. A 25-year legal veteran will succeed Killea as CLO.
Read on for more about the personnel news.
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Kensington Vanguard launches condo division
Posted Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
Kensington Vanguard National Land Services rolled out its condominium division, KVCondo. The division was formed after Kensington Vanguard was selected as one of the preferred national title insurance providers for CondoTek’s lender services platform, which specializes in condo-document acquisition and lending compliance.
KVCondo will be led by a veteran national underwriter and national operations manager.
Read on for more.
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Voxtur to provide attorney opinion letters on VA home loans
Posted Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
Voxtur Analytics Corp.’s attorney opinion letter (Voxtur AOL) is now available as a fully compliant alternative to title insurance on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) direct and VA-backed home loans.
The VA has never required a lender making a VA loan to obtain title insurance. The VA released revisions to its lender handbook last week regarding title insurance to include attorney opinion letters.
Read on for more.
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Payload integrates with SoftPro to automate payments
Posted Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
Fintech company Payload announced a partnership with Premier Data Services to launch an integration with SoftPro. The integration will deliver secure ePayments for real estate closing disbursements and payouts.
Read on for more.
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First National Title names southeast region agency manager
Posted Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
First National Title Insurance Co. (FNTI) named a southeast region agency manager. She will focus on growing FNTI’s agency base in the southeast and help develop the underwriter/agent relationship.
Read on for more.
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First-time homebuyers have fewer affordable options
Posted Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
As mortgage rates continue to rise, affordability has decreased significantly for all homebuyers. But affordability for the potential first-time homebuyer, those currently renting, have faced the most pressure.
Read on for more.
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Stavvy, Guaranteed Rate partner on eClosings
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Fintech company Stavvy and digital financial services company Guaranteed Rate announced a strategic partnership to drive digitization and enable relationships across the mortgage ecosystem, including title and settlement agents.
Together, the two companies say they are poised to accelerate the number of electronic closings and drive digital transformation in the industry.
Read on for more about the partnership.
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Knight Barry helps Sanibel-Captiva real estate community
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Knight Barry Title is aiding the real estate community of Sanibel and Captiva, Fla., which was hit hard by Hurricane Ian.
Knight Barry is offering the use of its Fort Myers location to any Sanibel title company needing assistance and making its conference rooms and other resources available to any displaced Realtor, mortgage lender or local real estate attorney.
Read on for more.
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AM Best affirms Investors Title credit ratings
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
AM Best affirmed the financial strength rating of A (excellent) and the long-term issuer credit ratings (long-term ICR) of “a” (excellent) of both subsidiaries Investors Title Co., Investors Title Insurance Co. and National Investors Title Insurance Co.
AM Best also affirmed the long-term ICR of “bbb” (good) of Investors Title Co.
Read on for more.
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Spano Abstract adds attorney
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
New York-based Spano Abstract added an attorney to its counsel team. He has represented a wide variety of clients in areas including residential and commercial real estate transactions, institutional and private lending and mortgage closings.
Read in for more.
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Near North Title Group adds commercial manager
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Near North Title Group named a 30-year industry veteran as executive vice president and commercial division manager. She has closed more than 1,000 transactions.
Read on for more.
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Luxury-home purchases plummet
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Sales of luxury homes fell 28.1 percent year-over-year during the three months ending Aug. 31, according to Redfin. That’s the biggest decline since at least 2012, eclipsing the 23.2 percent plunge that occurred at the onset of the pandemic.
Read on for more.
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Doma offering speeds up HELOC title searches
Posted Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Doma Holdings launched a home equity financing offering built for lenders, leveraging its Doma Intelligence platform to accelerate the title search for home equity loans and home equity lines of credit.
The new offerings reflect the shifting housing market, the vice president of Doma title operations told The Title Report.
Read on for more about the new solutions.
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Flueid lands $20 million in funding
Posted Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Real estate technology company Flueid secured $20 million in funding, including a $15 million Series B raise and a relationship extension with Silicon Valley Bank through an additional $5 million in debt financing.
The funding will be used to scale products to support all housing market demands, particularly home equity and loss mitigation strategies for today’s market conditions.
Read on for more.
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Staffing shortages continue to plague small businesses
Posted Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Small-business owners reporting labor quality as their top business operating problem remained elevated at 22 percent in September, according to NFIB’s monthly jobs report. Labor cost reported as the single most important problem to business owners was unchanged at 10 percent.
Close to half of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in September, down three points from August.
Read on for more.
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Agents National Title boosts teams
Posted Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Agents National Title Insurance Co. named two new team members. They added a Pacific Northwest agency manager and a central states underwriting counsel.
Read on for more.
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Vesta integrates with First American’s FraudGuard
Posted Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
Vesta’s mortgage loan origination system integrated with First American Data & Analytics’ FraudGuard solution. The integration allows lenders to leverage the FraudGuard solution through Vesta’s API’s.
Read on for more.
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Housing sentiment nearing all-time low
Posted Date: Friday, October 14, 2022
The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell 1.2 points in September to 60.8. That’s the lowest level since October 2011, according to Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan.
Read on for more.
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