News By Edition

Chicago Title National Commercial Services California, a member of the Fidelity National Financial family of companies, launched the Chicago Title Hospitality Group.

It will be led by a 24-year hotel industry veteran as vice president, national sales. He said no other title company has a national platform committed solely to the hotel sector.

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Fidelity National Financial named a chief human resources officer, who will assume responsibilities related to human resources, benefits, talent acquisition, employee onboarding and relations, diversity and inclusion and community engagement.

She has more than 25 years of experience leading and managing human resources for several companies, most recently Black Knight Financial Services.

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Westcor Land Title Insurance Co. announced a strategic partnership with Securance Specialty Insurance Services (SSIS) for title agency liability insurance offerings, including E&O, cyber liability/crime, fidelity and surety bonds.

The partnership will help Westcor’s independent agents through SSIS’ multiple carrier comparisons, assistance in expense management, cyber fraud insurance offerings and risk management solutions, according to the company.

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AccuTitle, which owns title management platforms TitleFusion, Landtech, Closers’ Choice and TrackerPro, named a chief strategy officer.

She is the previous owner and CEO of Landtech Data Corp., where she made several improvements to the operations of the business and enhancements to software that led to increased revenue and a successful acquisition by AccuTitle in 2020.

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Rhode Island-based Silk Title Co. named a senior vice president of development. He will focus on new business for the company.

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Compass announced another round of layoffs in a Sept. 20 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In June, the company cut 450 employees.

Compass did not specify in the filing how many people would be involved in this action but did say “a significant portion of the workforce reduction” involves its product and engineering team.

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Millennial Title now offers a way for clients to mint, store and transfer title on real property using NFT technology.

Through its sister company Millennial Blockchain, Millennial Title has developed a unique process for verifying title through a traditional title process and recording, or “minting,” the title to the blockchain.

Read on for more details.

Guaranteed Rate unveiled an expanded Language Access Program (LAP) which delivers every communication within the mortgage experience entirely in Spanish, leveraging both language and nuanced cultural references.

The program allows Guaranteed Rate and its language-certified loan originators in all 50 states to market, advertise and solicit business in Spanish.

Read on for more about the program.

Investors Title named an executive vice-president – North Carolina and commercial market development. He will lead the state’s residential and commercial market development teams and collaborate with operations teams.

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Texas-based a360inc named an executive vice president, enterprise business development. He will collaborate with lenders, servicers, title and settlement companies and law firms to implement a360inc’s suite of solutions.

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Potential existing-home sales in August increased to a 5.61 million seasonally adjusted annualized rate, a 2.1 percent month-over-month increase, according to First American’s potential home sales model. However, that may not be enough to entice potential buyers to jump back into the market.

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Realty Title Co. in Lewistown, Mont., merged with First American Title Co. The company has provided title and escrow services since 1896. Realty Title team members will continue to work with First American Title, according to the company’s owners.

Title Financial Corp., the parent company of First American Title Co., operates in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

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PropLogix named a new chief financial officer.

The 20-year title and finance industry veteran spent almost two years as CFO for Shaddock National Holdings and First National Title Insurance Co. and nearly 15 years with Agent’s National Title Insurance Co. as the CFO and chief operating officer.

Read on for more about the new CFO.

New data from Notarize and nonprofit advisory firm Bridgespan Group examined the positive environmental impact of online notarizations.

The report found that remote online notarization leads to positive environmental impacts for paper, car and shipping-dependent industries like real estate by reducing their dependence on processes that produce greenhouse gas.

Read on for more from the report.

SaaS platform paymints.io integrated with First American Title Insurance Co.’s PRISM digital platform for title agents. The integration enables both title and real estate agents to request and receive earnest money and cash-to-close funds from homebuyers once a buyer estimate is prepared.

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SoftPro released a new integration with Traditional Title Services for title abstracts. With the integration, SoftPro users can order and receive title abstract services from Traditional Title Services through SoftPro 360.

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Nearly one-third (31.4 percent) of home purchases in July were paid for with all cash, according to a Redfin report. That’s near the eight-year high reached in February and up from 27.5 percent a year earlier.

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WFG National Title Insurance Co. launched its National Builder Services division, which will provide escrow, title and underwriting services to both regional and national homebuilders in all 50 states.

WFG appointed a 20-year builder title services veteran as president of the division. He will focus on developing builder business and building a dedicated national operation to support homebuilders.

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Doma Holdings, Inc. reported a GAAP revenue of $124 million in the second quarter, up 10 percent from the first quarter and down 4.6 percent year-over-year.

Doma also reported $49 million of retained premiums and fees, down 5 percent from last quarter and 24 percent year-over-year.

Read on for more from the company’s second-quarter earnings report.

SoftPro released new enhancements to its Fidelity National Financial agentTRAX integration. In addition to creating policy jackets, agentTRAX has new Patriot Search capabilities, new automation of its Starter Search feature and enhancements to high liability approval requests.

It allows the user to set up custom triggers to automatically perform a starter search of the file’s property address.

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CATIC named a Tennessee senior agency adviser to its Southeast team. CATIC was recently licensed in the state and has begun operations there.

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As housing affordability worsens, homebuyers are pulling away from the market, reducing competition and causing annual house price appreciation to moderate. In some cities, the pullback in demand is strong and inventory is rising faster, resulting in a greater moderation of house price growth.

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New Jersey, Illinois and inland California continued to have the highest concentrations of the most-at-risk housing markets in the second quarter, according to ATTOM’s special housing risk report. The biggest clusters were near New York City and Chicago.

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Professional National Title Network, Inc. (PNTN) and CATIC have teamed up to provide attorney-delivered title services in Illinois. Founded in 1986, PNTN supports lawyer-delivered services while developing solutions that keep attorneys at the center of the transaction.

PNTN’s history of attorney advocacy made the partnership a natural fit for CATIC’s lawyer-focused agency model, according to CATIC’s CEO and president.

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AM Best affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent) and the long-term issuer credit ratings (ICR) of a- (Excellent) for the member companies of Stewart Title Group. AM Best also affirmed the Long-Term ICR of “bbb-” (Good) for Stewart Information Services Corp.

The outlook of these credit ratings is stable.

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Homeownership company Ribbon recently expanded into Illinois and Michigan. Ribbon partners with local lenders and brokerages to give buyers and sellers an advantage.

Its Cash Offer program enables buyers to become competitive against challenging marketing conditions. It is a guaranteed close, removing home sale, financing and appraisal contingencies that often cause deals to fall through.

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WFG National Title Insurance Co. named a president of the company’s Colorado division. She was responsible for running the daily escrow operations in the state and will expand her role to include leadership of sales, title and escrow for the region.

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Louisiana-based Punctual Abstract launched PunctualEnergy, a new division specializing in title evidence for the energy sector. The division provides property records and images back to patent for solar, wind, oil and gas, and battery storage land use in all 50 states.

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Homeowners with mortgages saw equity increase by 27.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, for an average of $60,200 per borrower, according to CoreLogic. The total average equity per borrower reached almost $300,000, the highest in the data series.

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Title insurance company Amrock, part of Rocket Companies, announced its eClosings can now take place entirely on a mobile device.

New technology built on the Rocket Platform by Amrock is the final step in Rocket Companies’ creation of a seamless, end-to-end real estate experience clients can use on an iPhone or Android phone.

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Fintech startup Payload is offering a new payment solution through a new relationship with J.P. Morgan. The flexible payment platform aims to tackle the more complex payment workflows of real estate, insurance and legal payments.

Payload will offer ACH, Card Network and Real Time Payments through the API platform.

Read on for more about the new offering.

Morreale Real Estate Services, a national title and closing services provider, launched a new portal. MSite creates a platform for clients and partners to use when working on the real estate process for the buyer and seller.

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Digital closing platform Snapdocs integrated with Byte Software. The integration will allow lenders to use Snapdocs within Byte’s loan origination system to help automate the closing process.

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In August, there were 34,501 properties with foreclosure filings, up 14 percent from July and up 118 percent year-over-year, according to ATTOM’s latest foreclosure market report.

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Foundation Title & Escrow named a commercial attorney for the agency’s commercial services division. She had been a staff attorney for the Lexington, Ky., office of Foundation Title.

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