News By Edition

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. agreed to acquire Black Knight, Inc. The cash and stock transaction values Black Knight at $85 per share, or a market value of $13.1 billion.

A definitive agreement has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, pending regulatory approvals.

Read on for more.

Landmark Title Assurance Agency is continuing its expansion in the Southwest with the opening of a branch in Reno, Nev. Landmark opened its first office in Nevada in July 2020 in Las Vegas. 

Read on for more.

Verrill law firm added a real estate attorney to the firm’s Portland, Maine, office as counsel in its real estate group. He represents buyers, sellers, investors, developers, and lenders in the acquisition, financing, development, leasing, and disposition of real estate.

Read on for more

The cost of a 30-year mortgage on the typical home is almost 20 percent higher than it was three months ago, according to Zillow. Even so, the pace and volume of sales picked up in March, showing how many buyers are willing to meet current asking prices. 

Read on for more.

With the pandemic still affecting the housing industry and homebuying experience, buyers are adjusting to navigate the competitive market conditions.

A recent survey by ServiceLink, part of the FNF Family of Companies, analyzed generational trends among recent homebuyers, their attitudes toward alternative paths to homeownership and the role technology plays throughout the process.

Read on for details from the 2022 ServiceLink State of Homebuying Report.

National real estate document preparation services company bundle merged with Rosenberg LPA LLC (RLPA), a recordable documentation provider for title companies and lenders.

Two RLPA principals will stay on post-merger as a legal advisor and in an executive role continuing to work with clients, technology development and operations.

Read on for more details about the merger.

Florida-based CLOSED Title entered a nationwide partnership with Alabama-based mortgage company Hometown Lenders. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Company leaders said through the partnership, the integration of their services will allow for the digitization of two central pieces of a real estate transaction: the securing of a mortgage and the closing.

Read on for more about the partnership.

Ascendant National Title named a senior vice president of Arizona operations. She will lead the company’s Arizona expansion implementing processes, including developing culture and hiring a team.

Read on for more.

Title Alliance named a director of people and HR. She will oversee the department of human resources where she will collaborate with teams, maintain employee relations and cultivate company culture.

Read on for more.

More than 2 in 3 (65 percent) home offers written by Redfin agents faced competition in March, according to a Redfin report. That’s down from 66.8 percent in February, marking the first month-over-month decline since September and a sign that demand is starting to cool.

Read on for more.

Blend will lay off 10 percent of its workforce, or 200 positions, according to its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The workforce reduction plan focuses on “streamlining the company’s title operations,” the filing states.

In a blog post, the company’s CEO said Blend’s title insurance agency is “seeing the negative impact of higher rates and reduced refinance activity.”

Read on for more.

The county of Riverside, Calif., assessor/county clerk-recorder’s office will use First American Data & Analytics’ CovenantGuard solution to help identify and redact unlawful discriminatory restrictive covenants in county recorded real estate documents.

Recently enacted California AB 1466 requires county recorders in the state to establish a restrictive covenant modification program by July 1.

Read on for more.

Ascendant National Title boosted its corporate team by naming a new chief financial officer. He will be responsible for supporting the company’s continued growth and performance objectives.

He comes to Ascendant National from Stewart Title, where he served as senior vice president for the national commercial services team.

Read on for more about the new CFO.

Surety Family of Companies, a title insurance agency serving residential and commercial clients in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and nationally, celebrated 30 years in March.

SaaS platform paymints.io integrated with Notarize. Users will now be able to see if a real estate transaction is eligible for digital closing from within the paymints.io platform.

Read on for more.

Verus Title, a subsidiary of Fathom Holdings Inc., named a managing attorney for the state of Maryland. He will perform title examinations, conduct settlements and advise, as well as manage the Maryland office operations.

Read on for more.

The 2022 housing market is very 2019, according to the March First American Potential Home Sales models. The pandemic years are anomalous, so comparing today’s market with pre-pandemic ones is helpful, according to First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming.

Read on for more.

AmTrust Title Insurance Co. announced a new chief operating officer (COO) for AmTrust Title Holding Co.

The 25-year industry veteran has held leadership positions at several title companies, was regional agency manager for an underwriter and founded a title company in North Carolina in 2006.

Read on for more details about the new COO.

Title Alliance expanded its footprint into Alaska through a partnership with brokerage Keller Williams Alaska Group. The joint venture will be called Title Alliance of Alaska and will service the Anchorage market.

Title Alliance of Alaska marks the first location in the state for Title Alliance and its 12th state overall.

Read on for more about the new location.

NotaryCam, a Stewart-owned provider of remote online notarization (RON) and identity verification/technology for real estate and legal transactions, has performed more than one million RON transactions.

The company has performed RON transactions in all 50 states and 150 countries. As a MISMO-certified platform, NotaryCam meets and often exceeds state standards, according to the company.

Read on for more.

Agents National Title Insurance Co. named a western region manager/underwriting counsel, based in California. He oversees all aspects of growth and operations in the West, initially concentrating on California, Arizona and Nevada.

Read on for more.

Real estate proptech Spruce announced its bulk transaction capability, creating a one-stop shop for bulk title and closing services. The capabilities integrate with investors’ multi-state strategies and remote acquisitions.

Read on for more.

Nearly a third of Redfin.com users (32.3 percent) looked to move to a different metro area in the first quarter, an all-time high. That’s up from 31.5 percent a year ago and from 26 percent in 2019.

Read on for more.

At the 2022 National Settlement Services Summit (NS3), taking place June 1-3 in Orlando, Fla., several sessions will examine the cutting edge of innovations in the title space, including with cryptocurrency, remote online notarization (RON) and cybersecurity.

Other sessions cover the latest in cash-offer programs, sales techniques and how to future-proof your business.

Read on for more.

Title insurance search platform Action Title Research acquired Eastland Title Services, which provides residential and commercial search, recording, deed retrieval and probate/bankruptcy search services to the New England market.

Through this acquisition, Action Title Research will expand its workflow software to customers in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Read on for more.

Austin, Texas-based Truly Title named a chief marketing officer. His focus will be on generating enterprise demand, expanding total addressable market, highlighting the company’s technology innovations and curating content for customers and clients.

He has more than 20 years of marketing, branding, lead generation and entrepreneurial experience.

Read on for more.

Ascendant National Title opened a new office in Boulder, Colo. The office provides title and escrow services for residential, lender, commercial and builder clients.

Read on for more.

National eRecording service provider eRecording Partners Network partnered with 90 more counties in the first quarter. They include all the counties in Georgia as well as counties in seven other states.

Read on for more.

More than 10 percent of homes for sale had price drops in March, the highest share since early December. That’s one sign that the housing market is starting to cool, according to Redfin.

Read on for more.

Notarize named its first chief financial officer (CFO). He will be responsible for guiding the company’s investments to further accelerate high-growth, innovative initiatives across the business.

He joins Notarize during a hyper-growth phase for the company, including multiple years of triple-digit growth and a recent $130 million Series D investment.

Read on for more about the appointment.

Doma Holdings Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Noaman Ahmad will step down effective May 15 to work at a private company in an unrelated industry. Doma’s chief accounting officer will serve as the company’s acting CFO and principal financial officer when Ahmad leaves.

The company plans to conduct an external search for a new CFO.

Read on for more.

Integrity Title released its new title plant platform, Courthouse 3.0. The system’s search interface enables users to perform multiple searches across all counties within a single query and accounts for the various aliasing of names, subdivisions, and other unstructured data attributes.

The company’s acquisition by Enverus made the new platform possible, Integrity’s director and real estate counsel said. 

Read on for more.

WFG founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Stone shared his thoughts about the 2022 economy and housing market during the second edition of October Research’s economic series forecast webinar. He reviewed the optimistic predictions for the economy made going into the new year and compared them with where we are now.

Read on for more.

Ascendant National Title named a senior vice president, special asset solutions. He will oversee the special asset solutions group, with a focus on real estate owned, hedge funds, title joint ventures and capital markets for distressed assets.

Read on for more.

Median-priced single-family homes were less affordable in the first quarter compared with historical averages in 79 percent of counties with enough data to analyze, according to ATTOM. That was up from just 38 percent in the first quarter of 2021, to the highest point since mid-2008.

Read on for more.

The Huffman Team (formerly part of the attorney fee title office of B. Scott Huffman, PLLC) joined Stewart Title’s national commercial services division in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Scott Huffman was also named underwriting counsel for Stewart Title Guaranty Co.

Huffman and his team of senior closing specialists have a combined 90 years’ experience in the title industry.

Read on for more.

APT Systems, a software development and fintech company, launched Spera on the Mainnet, a blockchain that transfers digital currency from senders to recipients which are then recorded on a distributed ledger. The move is a step toward making the Spera stablecoin available for purchase.

Read on for more.

Alliant National Title Insurance Co. named an underwriting counsel for Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. In her new role, she will leverage her nearly 14 years of experience in real estate law to further support agents’ title underwriting needs and offer legal guidance on title and real estate-related matters.

Read on for more.

Homes listed for sale in the second half of April can expect to sell for 2.8 percent more, or about $9,300 on the typical home, according to Zillow. And homes listed Thursdays can sell for about $1,100 more. 

Read on for more about the best time to sell a home.