News By Edition

Stewart Information Services Corp. named a new president of NotaryCam. He will lead strategic growth and focus on expanding the company’s remote online notarization products and services, with an emphasis on increasing mortgage and real estate adoption.

The new president spent two and a half years with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as executive sponsor of the eClosing project.

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First American Title Insurance Co., the largest subsidiary of First American Financial Corp., launched its PRISM digital platform.

The platform automates the quote delivery and title ordering process, eliminating the need for lenders or real estate agents to call their title agent for a quote for fees or to order title.

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Real estate and fintech platform Reali announced it will begin a shutdown and lay off most of its workforce, citing “challenging real estate and financial market conditions and unfavorable capital-raising environment.”

Reali said companies have expressed interest in acquiring specific parts of its business, including title and escrow, mortgage origination and power buying.

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Closinglock closed a $4 million seed round led by LiveOak Venture Partners. The funds will be used to expand its teams across sales, customer success and product development.

Closinglock introduced a secure portal in 2018 to protect title companies and attorney offices from wire fraud. It has expanded its offerings to include secure wire instructions, document sharing, eSignature and loan payoff verifications in a single platform.

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Qualia released Qualia API, which provides real estate businesses and proptech companies looking to start, optimize or scale their title agency operations the ability to connect software tools, integrate with commercial partners and analyze performance data.

The cloud-based platform is designed to meet the needs of real estate business amid shifting macro environments, according to Qualia.

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Pacaso, a real estate platform that helps people buy and co-own luxury homes, announced a partnership with Aston Rose Sports + Entertainment, a luxury national real estate firm that finds homes for professional athletes, entertainers and high-net worth individuals, and its co-founder Rod Watson.

Pacaso manages the entire homebuying process, including escrow, title and reporting.

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Foundation Title & Escrow opened a new office in Panama City Beach, Fla. The office is its fourth in the state, along with locations in Crestview, Fort Walton Beach and Santa Rosa Beach.

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SoftPro released a new integration with Conestoga Title for generating CPLs and commitments and policy jackets. The integration also provides access to state specific rate tables for Conestoga’s approved attorneys across Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Delaware and Virginia.

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About 63,000 home-purchase agreements fell through in July, 16.1 percent of homes that went under contract that month, according to a Redfin report. That’s the highest percentage on record apart from March and April 2020.

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Boston National Title Agency, an Incenter company, launched a second mortgage and HELOC solution aimed at helping lenders optimize their home equity processing, including title, closing and post-closing.

The platform allows lenders to mix and match the right set of title, appraisal and insurance products for each loan type.

Read on for more about the new platform.

QuantmRE announced a partnership with Texture Capital and the launch of its blockchain-backed home equity marketplace, which allows investors to buy, sell and trade tokenized interests in the equity in residential homes.

By partnering with Texture Capital, a blockchain-powered marketplace for private capital, QuantmRE broadens its compliance capabilities, according to the company.

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RedfinNow, the iBuying service from Redfin, launched in Florida. It is already active in the Orlando and Tampa metro areas and will launch in the Miami and Palm Beach metro areas later in August.

Once the Florida expansions are complete, RedfinNow will operate in 34 markets in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

Read on for more about the expansion.

Bank Shot now offers digital checks as a payment option for the real estate market. The digital check feature is available to all mobile app users.

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Sarasota, Fla.-based Williams Parker law firm named a new partner. The real estate attorney has more than a decade of experience with closings and title insurance.

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The median potential first-time homebuyer could afford only 35 percent of the homes for sale nationally in April 2022, down from 54 percent a year earlier, according to First American. Despite the decline in affordability, buyers can find areas where there are still plenty of affordable homes.

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First Choice Title and Settlement merged with Foundation Title & Escrow, a regional title and settlement company with more than 30 offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. First Choice is the first Virginia location affiliated with Foundation Title.

First Choice’s name, staff and offices will remain. 

Read on for more about the merger.

Old Republic International Corp. reported a net income, excluding investment gains and losses, of $210 million in the second quarter, a 5 percent year-over-year drop from $221 million, according to its earnings report.

The title group reported premium and fee revenue of $1.03 billion in the second quarter, down 7 percent year-over-year.

Read on for more from the earnings report.

Patten Title Co. opened a new location in Round Rock, Texas. The move stems from Patten’s strategic plan to build a foundational footprint in the central Texas market, according to the company.

This is the sixth branch for Patten in central Texas and the 13th across Texas.

Read on for more about the expansion.

WFG named a senior vice president for the company’s Southwest, Western and Rocky Mountain regions. She is expanding her duties from running the daily agency operations in Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas as southwest regional manager.

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Stewart Title named a deputy chief underwriting counsel to its national commercial services group leadership team. She will help Stewart expand into markets where it’s been underrepresented.

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Foreclosure filings in July were down 4 percent from June, according ATTOM. However, they were up 143 percent year-over-year.

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Fidelity National Financial acquired AllFirst Title Insurance Agency and its portfolio brands, including FirsTitle, Excel Title Group, Allegiance Title Co., Guaranty Title, Smith Brothers Abstract, Aggieland Title Co. and Guaranty Title New Mexico.

Together, they provide title examination, title plant, abstract and settlement services for residential, commercial, farm and ranch sales in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas.

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Most title agents (86 percent) said cyberattacks targeting title and settlement companies remained the same or increased in 2021 compared with 2020, according to a survey by the American Land Title Association (ALTA).

ALTA’s Research & Analytics Work Group surveyed 569 title agents across the county about their experience with cybercrime and wire fraud.

Read on for more from the survey.

Old Republic Title Insurance Group and ClosingLock are working together to help combat wire fraud for Old Republic’s agents.

ClosingLock provides a secure, easy-to-use platform for title companies, law firms and other financial services to protect themselves and their clients from wire fraud. The company has protected over $100 billion in real estate funds to date.

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Texas-based Patten Title Co. named an area vice president of sales. She will help shape business development in the greater Austin area.

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The Darryl Turner Corp., a sales, escrow, management and leadership coaching organization, named a vice president of client results to its corporate leadership team. She will be responsible for the assurance of all client deliverables nationwide.

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The share of homes listed for 30 days or longer without going under contract rose by 12.5 percent in July, according to Redfin. That’s the first year-over-year increase in “stale” housing supply since the start of the pandemic.

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October Research’s inaugural Women Leadership Summit (WLS) is taking place Aug. 17 and 18 in Savannah, Ga.

The popularity of the Women in Business breakfast, introduced two years ago at the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3), told October Research CEO and Publisher Erica Meyer that the industry would not only support an event like WLS, but would welcome it.

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Knox-Precision Holdings, LLC acquired Lenders Title Group (LTG), a subsidiary of First Horizon Corp. that operates in Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee. The president and CEO of LTG will remain in charge of the title agency after the acquisition.

Turk and Co. served as the investment banker to LTG.

Read on for more details about the deal.

The Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) upgraded its rating of CATIC to “A-.” According to KBRA, an A- rating indicates the insurer’s financial condition is sound. The outlook is stable.

KBRA also upgraded the rating for CATIC Financial Inc. and affirmed the rating of the CATIC Title Insurance Co. Both outlooks are stable.

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The Clearing House (TCH) named a senior vice president of real-time payments product management and strategy. He will succeed Steve Ledford, who is retiring.

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1031 CORP. appointed a general counsel who also will be president of its sister company, Reverse 1031 CORP. He will oversee all reverse and improvement exchange transactions facilitated by Reverse 1031 CORP.

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Nearly half (48.1 percent) of mortgaged properties were considered equity-rich in the second quarter, according to ATTOM. That’s up from 44.9 percent in the first quarter of 2022 and from 34.4 percent year-over-year.

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Atlanta-area real estate attorney firm Cook & James, founded by Kara Cook and Heather James in 2006, launched a redesigned website featuring interactive, animated pages and downloadable, printable closing checklists for buyers, sellers, and agents.

The firm is known in the area for pioneering “at-home” closings.

Read on for more about the updated website.

Virtual financial services industry law firm Garris Horn LLP added a litigation partner. He will work on government investigations and enforcement defense and expand the firm’s services into commercial litigation.

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Northwest Title & Northwest Law named a director of commercial services. As a trained systems engineer and licensed title agent, he will lead the company’s commercial transaction services.

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PropLogix named a vice president of marketplace initiatives. She will help refine key technology initiatives that help title professionals with due diligence and title production.

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