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The Title Report Print Edition
November 8, 2021
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The key to referrals is relationships
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Referrals are a mainstay for many in the industry. But they’re not the focus for Title Alliance CEO Jim Campbell and BancorpSouth Vice President, Community Development Area Manager Stephen-Michael Washington.
The pair spoke at NS3 about how they grow their businesses. Rather than focusing on getting referrals, they said they concentrate on building and cultivating relationships.
Read on for more.
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Endpoint secures $150 million from First American
Posted Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
Digital title and settlement services company Endpoint secured an additional $150 million in funding from its parent company, First American Financial Corp.
The latest investment will allow Endpoint to augment its technology team, further invest in title and settlement automation, and expand its capabilities to deliver a reimagined home closing process, according to the company.
Read on for more.
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TitleEase adds new franchisee
Posted Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
Title and settlement services franchise business TitleEase added a new franchisee, a collaboration between Northwind Financial, a lender for private commercial real estate transactions and residential loans, and CFSI Loan Management, a provider of construction loan risk management services.
The new franchise is in Grand Rapids, Mich., and will initially serve customers in Michigan, Colorado, Florida, and Georgia.
Read on for more.
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National Title & Escrow opens fifth location
Posted Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
National Title & Escrow, based in Dexter, Mo., is opening a new office in nearby Sikeston, the company’s fifth location.
The Sikeston location is the second new National Title location in the last 12 months. In December 2020, the company came to Charleston, Ark., after it acquired Mississippi County Abstract & Loan Co.
Read on for more.
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Alliant names Southwest agency representative
Posted Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
Alliant National Title Insurance Co. named a Southwest agency representative. She will split her time between agency responsibilities and providing continuing education materials to Realtors.
Read on for more.
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ChainLogix names vice president, operations
Posted Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
ChainLogix Mortgage Solutions named a vice president, operations. She will be responsible for expanding the company’s title and mortgage services.
Read on for more.
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Boomers beating millennials in battle for homes
Posted Date: Friday, October 22, 2021
Despite the huge millennial generation aging into its peak homebuying years, young buyers make up a smaller share of the market than in previous years, according to Zillow. The share of recent homebuyers who are 60 years and older grew 47 percent from 2009 to 2019, while the share of recent buyers ages 18–39 fell 13 percent.
Read on for more from Zillow’s analysis.
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CoreLogic acquires ClosingCorp
Posted Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021
CoreLogic completed its acquisition of all outstanding shares of ClosingCorp. Through this acquisition, CoreLogic will expand its suite of digital solutions to enhance the homebuying process for buyers and sellers, according to the company.
ClosingCorp will continue to be led by CEO Bob Jennings and remain headquartered in San Diego.
Read on for more about the acquisition.
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Zillow Offers suspends signing new contracts
Posted Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021
Zillow Offers, the iBuying arm of Zillow, announced it will not sign any new contracts to purchase homes through the end of the year “due to a backlog in renovations and operational capacity constraints.”
Zillow will continue to market and sell homes through Zillow Offers during this period, according to the company.
Read on for more.
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Axis launches smart data extraction service
Posted Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021
Axis Technical Group launched Axis Smart Data Extraction for land and title documents. The new subscription service improves efficiency by accelerating the process of how data is extracted from unstructured documents, according to the company.
Based on preliminary results, the service can deliver a data extraction accuracy rate of 95 percent or higher, according to the company.
Read on for more.
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ALTA Registry now includes agent E&O data
Posted Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021
Outgoing American Land Title Association (ALTA) president Bill Burding announced at ALTA ONE that the ALTA Registry, the national database of title and settlement agents, added a feature that allows companies to provide errors and omissions (E&O) policy information more easily to underwriters.
Read on for more.
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AmTrust Title names new head of technology
Posted Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021
AmTrust Title Insurance Co.’s New York agency division named a 30-year IT veteran as its new head of technology. She will be responsible for all aspects of technology for AmTrust Title.
Read on for more.
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Foreclosures see significant increase as moratorium ends
Posted Date: Thursday, October 21, 2021
There were 45,517 properties with foreclosure filings in the third quarter, up 34 percent from the second quarter and 68 percent from a year ago, according to ATTOM. There also were 19,609 properties with foreclosure filings in September, up 24 percent month-over-month and 102 percent year-over-year.
Read on for more from ATTOM’s Q3 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
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Closing costs up 12.3 percent in first half of 2021
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
The national average closing costs for a single-family property in the first half of 2021 were $6,837 including taxes, a 12.3 percent year-over-year increase, according to an analysis by ClosingCorp.
The national average closings costs for a single-family property excluding taxes were $3,836, a 10.5 percent year-over-year increase, according to the company.
Read on for more, including the states with the highest average closing costs.
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Small business labor shortage worsens
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
A record 51 percent of small-business owners reported job openings they couldn’t fill in September, according to the National Federation of Independent Business’ (NFIB) monthly jobs report. That was up 1 point from August and a record-high reading for the second consecutive month.
The NFIB report said 92 percent of those owners trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants.
Read on for more from the report.
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ICE Mortgage launches eSigning solution
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
ICE Mortgage Technology launched Simplifile eSign Events, an electronic signing solution that supports eSigning and eNotarization.
The platform offers agents in the Simplifile network a streamlined signing workflow that includes In Person Electronic Notarization (IPEN) and Remote Online Notarization (RON). By having eSign capabilities embedded into RON and IPEN, it also provides support for state-specific requirements.
Read on for more about the new offering.
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CountyRecords.com expands Texas footprint
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Online records search and retrieval service CountyRecords.com has added all the major Texas metro areas and surrounding counties to its coverage area. With the expansion, the company provides online access to records and images filed in more than 200 county courthouses in the state.
Read on for more about the expansion.
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AmTrust Title names New Jersey underwriting counsel
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
AmTrust Title Insurance Co.’s agency division named a 40-year industry veteran as its New Jersey underwriting counsel. He will be responsible for providing counsel to the company’s independent agents in the state.
Read on for more.
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Homebuyers get best deals in October
Posted Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Homebuyers who close in October traditionally get the best deal, according to ATTOM. October homebuyers deal with a 2.9 percent premium, compared with May homebuyers, who experience an 11.5 percent premium.
Read on for more from ATTOM’s analysis.
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Altisource accepts cryptocurrency through Premium Title
Posted Date: Friday, October 15, 2021
Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. teamed up with ForumPay, a cryptocurrency payment and conversion service, to allow customers to buy real estate listed on equator.com and hubzu.com with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum or Bitcoin Cash.
Buyers who select Altisource affiliate Premium Title as their title and escrow provider will be given the option to purchase property using cryptocurrency.
Read on for more about the new arrangement.
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RedfinNow launches in North Carolina
Posted Date: Friday, October 15, 2021
RedfinNow has expanded into North Carolina, launching in the Charlotte and Raleigh metro areas. Initially, the iBuying service is making offers on single-family homes and townhomes built after 1950 in select neighborhoods.
So far this year, RedfinNow has expanded to 11 markets and is serving homeowners in 29 markets in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
Read on for more.
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Fitch upgrades Fidelity’s outlook to positive
Posted Date: Friday, October 15, 2021
Fitch Ratings affirmed Fidelity National Financial’s (FNF) long-term issuer default rating of ‘BBB+’, senior unsecured rating at ‘BBB’ and insurer financial strength rating at ‘A’ (Strong). The rating outlook for FNF and title insurance subsidiaries has been revised to positive from stable.
FNF’s title insurance operating subsidiaries have strong capitalization with a risk adjusted capital score for 2020 of 199 percent, Fitch added.
Read on for more.
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Title direct premium growth more than doubles
Posted Date: Friday, October 15, 2021
The title insurance industry saw direct premium growth of 16 percent in 2020, the largest year-over-year increase since 2012, according to a new AM Best report. The growth in direct premiums written more than doubled the 6.6 percent growth seen in 2019, according to the report.
Read on for more.
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Doma names Pennsylvania agency manager
Posted Date: Friday, October 15, 2021
Doma (formerly known as North American Title Insurance Co.) added an agency manager for Pennsylvania. The licensed title agent in Pennsylvania and New Jersey supports Doma policy-issuing independent title agents and secures new business.
Read on for more.
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Florida Agency Network merges with International Title Partners
Posted Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Florida Agency Network (FAN) completed its merger with International Title Partners (ITP), a Clearwater, Fla., title agency, expanding FAN’s presence in the Tampa Bay area. The merger brings the total number of FAN offices to over 30, with nearly 300 employees located in Florida.
The previous ITP CEO will stay on with the company
Read on for more about the merger.
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NFIB: Supply chain disruptions affecting more small businesses
Posted Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Half of small-business owners reported supply chain disruptions have a significant impact on their business, according to a recent NFIB Research Center COVID-19 survey. That’s up from 32 percent in July.
More than half of impacted owners said the supply chain disruption is getting worse, and four out of five expect the disruptions to continue for at least five months.
Read on for more from the survey.
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BSpoke Title Holdings names management team
Posted Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
BSpoke Title Holdings recently made several executive management appointments.
The company named a 30-year industry veteran who held executive management positions at Fidelity National Financial, Stewart Title and Old Republic as its chairman. It also named a CEO, president, general counsel/executive vice president and chief financial officer/chief information officer.
Read on for more about the appointments.
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Redfin expands Direct Access home tours
Posted Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Redfin launched a nationwide roll out of Direct Access, which lets homebuyers self-tour vacant homes with or without an agent, using an app to unlock the door. Redfin also partnered with home security company ADT to provide smart locks and sensors and 24/7 monitoring of Direct Access homes.
Read on for more.
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SoftPro releases integration with Agents National Title
Posted Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
SoftPro released a new integration with Agents National Title Insurance, allowing agents to generate closing protection letters and policy jackets through the SoftPro 360 portal.
Read on for more.
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Second home transaction volume drops from pandemic peak
Posted Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2021
After soaring through the pandemic, second home transaction volume has started dropping, according to real estate platform Pacaso’s second home market report. Even so, the overall market share of second homes is still up from pre-pandemic levels.
Read on for more from Pacaso.
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Expetitle closes $2.3 million financing round
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
Digital title company Expetitle closed its $2.3 million Series Seed Plus financing round. The round included participation from Beagle Ventures, LAB Ventures and TBD Angels. Other contributors include Silicon Valley Bank Miami Head Patrick Dwyer and Brex Director Shai Goldma.
Expetitle said the investment will help it expand its sales and marketing efforts.
Read on for more.
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PropLogix acquires ASAP Tax and Lien Search
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
PropLogix acquired ASAP Tax and Lien Search, a provider of municipal lien searches. With the acquisition, ASAP customers will gain access to a suite of closing due diligence services and software integrations with PropLogix, according to the company.
ASAP Tax and Lien Search, founded in 1999, serves Florida.
Read on for more about the acquisition.
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Agility Closing & Title Services launches website
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
Agility Closing & Title Services has a new website, which it said was updated to better match its experience, success, and company motto: effective, proven, agile.
The new site highlights Agility’s team, services, and partners, and includes a dedicated “Giving Back” page that mentions some of the community causes the Agility team is involved in.
Read on for more about the new site.
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Flueid names VP of product strategy
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
Flueid named a vice president of product strategy who is responsible for driving the growth and evolution of the company’s digital real estate solutions suite.
Read on for more about the new vice president.
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Home asking prices hit all-time high, pending sales slow
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
Asking prices of homes increased to an all-time high of 12 percent, according to a Redfin report. However, pending sales were up just 4 percent, the smallest year-over-year increase since June 2020.
Read on for more from the report.
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