News By Edition

A session dubbed “AI 360” at the recent National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) provided insight on the title industry’s current use of artificial intelligence, the technology’s future growth and potential legal pitfalls.

Jonathan Holfinger, CEO of Northwest Title and Northwest Law; Tori Shinohara, attorney and partner at Mayer Brown; and Jennifer Mason, CEO and founder of TitleWise, lent their expertise.

Read on for details from their NS3 session.

Florida-based AgentHome LLC, a national network of independent title agents, has officially finalized its acquisition Corinthian Title Co., a California-based provider of title insurance and escrow services.

AgentHome’s plans to acquire Corinthian Title were first revealed in early 2023. Further terms of the deal, including financial compensation, have not been disclosed.

Read on to find out more information.

ZSuite Tech, a provider of digital escrow and subaccounting solutions, announced it has reached a new banking platform milestone, reaching across 26 states.

The company announced a partnership for digital escrow services with John Marshall Bank earlier this year and with Dime Community Bancshares, Inc., the parent company of Dime Community Bank, in June 2023.

Read on to find out more.

True Title Co., LLC has brought on a 10-year industry veteran as commercial escrow officer and commercial division counsel.

Read on to find out more.

IT and cybersecurity provider Premier One has earned SOC 2 Type II certification for the 10th year in a row, verifying the company’s compliance with top data security standards.

Read on to learn more. 

ATTOM’s first quarter Special Housing Risk Report showed the highest concentration of markets at risk of decline were in California, New Jersey and Illinois, with large clusters in New York and Chicago.

Read on to find out more.

Lighthouse Title Insurance Co. of South Carolina has formed a partnership with Closinglock to combat real estate fraud. Company leaders shared details with The Title Report.

Clients of Lighthouse Title will have discounted access to Closinglock services, which include wire instructions, secure payments, identity verification, payoff verification, document exchange and eSigning.

Read on to find out more information. 

First quarter market share analysis from the American Land Title Association shows net income at the seventh-highest mark for a first quarter in industry history.

Total first quarter industry assets were almost $11.3 billion, while the statutory surplus was at $5.1 billion and statutory reserves were $5.7 billion.

Read on to find out more information.

Fewer small-business owners are planning to raise compensation in the coming months, according to a new report from the National Federation of Independent Business.

The share of owners reporting labor quality as their top small-business operating problem rose one point from April to 20 percent, but remained lower than recent months.

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Radian Group Inc. is partnering with BatchService to provide the real estate data and technology company’s community of investors and other customers with access to its digital title and home closing platform, titlegenius.

Read on to find out more.

Michigan-based Vanguard Title Co. has named its president a new partner, crediting her with diversifying revenue streams and placing a higher focus on residential home sales and commercial transactions.

Read on to find out more.

Housing markets on Florida’s west coast are cooling faster than anywhere else in the country, while Rochester, N.Y., and Buffalo, N.Y., are heating up, according to Redfin.

Read on to learn more.

Iain Bryant, Stewart Information Services Corp.’s new group president of agency services, sat down with The Title Report to lay out his company vision and recap the journey that brought him to the seat.

Bryant takes over for Tara Smith, who recently departed Stewart after a more than 10-year tenure.

Read on to find out more information.

A 10-point plan offered by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) offers solutions to tackle housing inflation and affordability hurdles at the local, state and federal level.

Avenues recommended by NAHB include the elimination of “excessive regulations,” promotion of careers in skilled trades, overturning of “inefficient” local zoning rules and more.

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Real estate industry technology provider RESAAS entered into a marketing partnership with Chicago-based NetCo Title, a subsidiary of AmTrust. NetCo provides title and escrow services in all 50 states.

NetCo and AmTrust join RESAAS’ other ancillary service partners, which include HUB International Insurance and Rocket Mortgage Canada.

Read on to find out more information.

Fathom Holdings has tapped a long-time financial executive and real estate brokerage manager as its new chief operating officer.

Read on to find out more information.

Digital closing provider Snapdocs and Republic Bank & Trust Co. are teaming up to accelerate Republic’s adoption of eClosing.

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Homeowners are breaking free from rate lock with new listings rising nearly 13 percent since last year and inventory up 22 percent over the same period, according to Zillow.

Read on to learn more.

Remote online notarization and identity-secured transaction provider Proof is releasing an artificial intelligence-powered fraud detection tool.

Through use of the tool, businesses receive a risk score for every transaction, highlighting specific fraudulent issues behind every authorization, signature, notarization, or identity verification. It can detect traditional forms of identity fraud as well as deepfakes.

Read on to find out more information.

New data from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Beige Book show a continued expansion of economic activity across districts, albeit with some varied results in specific metro areas.

Most districts reported slight or modest growth, while two noted no change in activity. The latest data was prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas based on information collected on or before May 20.

Read on to find out more.

Errors and omissions insurance provider TIAC has been named an elite provider by the American Land Title Association.

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Optimal Blue has appointed a new CEO with more than two decades’ worth of experience across the mortgage, finance and technology industry.

Read on to find out more information.

Affordability will likely remain a drag on the housing market until house-buying power recovers or house prices cool, according to First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming.

Read on to find out more.

A recent seller impersonation fraud attempt at Graceland, home of music icon Elvis Presley, involved scammers trying to auction off the property before court proceedings stopped the process.

Experts sat down with The Title Report to discuss how title insurance and due diligence processes can often stop such crimes in their tracks.

Read on to find out more information.

Hera Title launched closing services in Colorado and North Carolina, with remote closing services available in more than 20 states.

Company leaders also spoke of Hera Title’s collaboration with its affiliate company, Georgia-based law firm Cook & James, which has completed more than 400,000 transactions in attorney states.

Read on to find out more information.

Grid151 subsidiary Gridbase has released a new online application platform for its partner, Westcor Land Title Insurance Co.

Company leaders said the platform aims to streamline the onboarding process for agents and administrators in the title insurance industry, offering a mobile-compliant and user-friendly solution for enhanced efficiency and security.

Read on to find out more information.

Viking Sasquatch has brought on a new product manager who will help lead the rollout of the company’s recently launched 24|Seven suite.

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SoftPro announced an ionFraud enhancement to Fidelity National Financial’s agentTRAX integration designed to identify fake sellers and help combat seller impersonation fraud.

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More homesellers are cutting their asking price, suggesting sale-price growth could soften in the coming months, according to Redfin.

Read on to find out more information.

Arch U.S. MI Holdings Inc. has completed its acquisition of Old Republic International Corp.’s run-off insurance business, a deal first announced in November 2023.

Leaders said in November that consideration was expected to be approximately $140 million. Additionally, Old Republic announced an expected final fourth quarter dividend in relation to the transaction.

Read on to find out more.

Maine-based titleLOOK by Mainspring Services is enhancing its title-centric knowledge curation model by using artificial intelligence (AI), leveraging the capabilities of Azure AI services.

titleLOOK automates hyperlinking to the title search documents, summarizes title exceptions, alerts users to clearance tasks and grades and publishes to a responsive web format designed for all devices.

Read on to find out more information.

National 1031, a new 1031 exchange company from Michigan-based Sun Title, will facilitate all forms of tax-deferred exchanges with a focus on security.

Sun Title leaders cited security features such as email filtering, endpoint detection and response, and email eavesdropping prevention tools to secure and encrypt all communications.

Read on to find out more information.

Fidelity National Financial has appointed a chief artificial intelligence officer, an expanded role for the company’s current chief digital officer.

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Blockchain and real estate technology firm Ubitquity is releasing a business process automation tool for the company’s NFTitle Network.

Read on to find out more.

First quarter reporting from ATTOM showed home-mortgage lending was at its lowest level since the turn of the century, down nearly 70 percent from record highs in 2021.

Read on to learn more.