This time of year you can expect to see lots of articles about the best housing markets across the country, the places where the experts think home prices will appreciate and the sales volume will grow. Realtor.com has one set of rankings. The National Association of Realtors has their own top 10. So we thought … Continue reading Do You Work in One of the Worst Housing Markets for 2020? ...
All in all, 2019 has been good for real estate buyers so far. Home prices stopped soaring, and mortgage rates dipped. Although there is less competition for buyers, CoreLogic told Forbes the market remains a sellers? market. Despite this slant, buyers can still enter the market. Here are the experts’ predictions for the housing market … Continue reading Expert Predictions for the Housing Market in the Second Half of 2019 ...
Though the news is full of dire warnings about the housing market, real estate agents can feel secure moving forward as more buyers are expected to enter the market in the coming months. Even though the market may not bounce back to early 2018 levels, lowered interest rates are appealing to many buyers. Some markets … Continue reading What Housing Market Slowdown? ...
The U.S. Census Bureau has released its 2018 Characteristics of New Housing report, and it has literally everything real...
This year is likely to be a watershed for the mortgage industry. Mortgage originators must be prepared for change...
Could the housing market see positive changes in 2019? Rising mortgage rates, low housing inventory,...
When transferring property from a seller to a buyer, the items included in the purchase are not always clear....
A property lien is issued when there is debt that hasn?t been paid on a property....
Everyone dreams of one day living in a rich area like Beverly Hills, California. While it is easy to find out the average monthly rent of properties in this area,...
In 2008, when the housing market crashed, over 30% of homeowners were upside-down on mortgages. Fast-forward 10 years, ...
Fixed Rate 30-Year Mortgages Accounted for More than Half of U.S. Home Loans Last Year Fixed rate 30-year mortgages accounted for 52.8% of all mortgages last year,...
Effective immediately, Fannie Mae is allowing lenders to assist home buyers in paying their closing costs for GSE-backed mortgages....
When the new federal budget was recently passed by Congress, there was a provision pertaining to VA loans that could eventually ...
Home sellers still have the upper hand in the housing market and there are no signs that this is going to change any time soon....
Ellie Mae has acquired a cloud-based intelligent sales automation system called Velocify in an effort to speed up its delivery of a true digital mortgage solution to lenders of all sizes....
Mortgage refinance loans accounted for 38% of all closed loans in September, according to Ellie Mae, the leading cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry....
Housing markets across the U.S. will remain strong through the end of 2018, with a housing bubble not anticipated, according to......
In its new ?Looking Ahead to 2018? report on the economy and housing, Freddie Mac predicts that the moderate economic growth that we?ve experienced this year,...
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) wants industry leaders to work together to develop electronic ...
Home prices were up by close to 7% in July, and are considered to be overvalued in many top U.S. cities, according to the latest CoreLogic US Home Price Report....
Mortgage servicers need to focus heavily on the digital space because it?s closely linked to customer satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power 2017 U.S....
Wondering what housing markets will be the hottest in 2018? Then you?re in luck. ...
Confidence in home sales among title agents and real estate professionals rose sharply by 9.1% in the second quarter of this year, according ...
What are the most significant homeownership barriers right now? Prepared by Rosen Consulting Group, ?Hurdles to Homeownership...
Is a June rate hike around the corner? In today?s post we take a look at the state of the US economy and how it may influence the Fed....
Commercial real estate ownership is most commonly vested in a limited liability company, or LLC. In order for an LLC to be fully operational, it must be in compliance with the law of the state in which it operates....
Last month, Ally Bank commissioned an online mortgage survey of 2,167 U.S. adults to understand consumer preferences when choosing a lender for a mortgage....
According to Redfin, a web-based real estate marketplace, 2017 is the fastest housing market on record with sharp increases in home prices and rapid contract turnover times....
Some consumers? credit scores are about to get a big boost. While this is good news theoretically for those with poor credit, lenders and others ...
As mortgage interest rates continue to rise steadily, many lenders are taking a second look at the standards they use to qualify buyers. ...
Reports that the Federal Reserve Bank may be considering a significant interest rate hike in response to a perceived bubble in the commercial real estate...
We live in an age where success in real estate is always tempered by caution. Fear of the next housing bubble is palpable. That?s an enduring legacy of the last housing crisis,...
Commercial mortgages could be the next wave of delinquencies and foreclosures in the real estate market....
Foreclosure inventories are still in decline across the U.S. According to the CoreLogic National Foreclosure Report for November 2016,...
Qualifying for a mortgage can be a challenging proposition for some borrowers. Lenders consider a wide range of factors when determining eligibility for mortgages....
Have you taken stock of what went well in 2016 and what areas need improvement? Have you set an agenda for 2017, creating clearly defined goals?...
As we enter the new year, it?s a good time to look at the mortgage origination trends for purchase transactions and refinances. According...
A recent article on Inman featured 8 real estate experts that shared their beliefs about which direction the housing market would take in the coming year....
Acuity National Real Estate Solutions is proud to have an A+ Rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Perhaps you?ve seen other businesses...
In 2016, email remains the primary means of business communication. Nearly all business today flows through the conduit of email....
While the housing debate didn?t have a great impact on the 2016 presidential race, President-elect Donald Trump and the new sessions of Congress...
2016 has been a tumultuous year for the real estate sector, with the presidential election, Federal Reserve rate hike, and Brexit-spurred interest fluctuations...
Demand for residential real estate was at near historic records throughout the summer of 2016. With buyers clamoring to snap up the available properties,...
Affordable housing options in the U.S. are declining. ATTOM Data Solutions tracked 414 counties across the country and found that 24% of them...
The real estate industry is enjoying such a renaissance that it?s breaking financial barriers that haven?t been disturbed since the tech boom of the late 1990s....
In a rapidly changing and highly regulated industry like lending, there are always going to be plenty of topics up for debate....
Have you submitted your feedback on the proposed changes that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released this summer? ...
Pending homes sales ticked upward in July, but the latest data shows that trend was unable to sustain itself in August....
Newly built home sales rose in July to the highest they?ve in almost a decade, signaling continued momentum in the U.S. housing market....
Powerful new evidence shows that the U.S. housing market has a lot of healthy momentum in its favor. Homebuyers continue to benefit from low interest rates,...
Foreclosure starts are still at their lowest level since the turn of the century, but they just rose for the second month in a row. According to a report from...
Eight years ago we went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In its wake, banking practices were reformed to prevent a similar recession in the future....
As we discussed in our most recent newsletter, the citizens of the United Kingdom made the historic decision to leave the European Union on June 23rd...
JP Morgan Chase has quietly launched their first 3% down mortgage lending program, providing a low-cost outlet for first-time homebuyers ? backed by lending giant Fannie Mae....
With ever-tightening TRID regulations ? all the way from organizations down to the individual ? and an increasing supply/demand mismatch,...
What does a recent Supreme Court decision on Spokeo.com, an online personal information aggregator, have to do with TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure?...
The US House of Representatives have passed a bill that may signal big changes for how loan originators do business. Moving to the Senate this coming legislative session...
The financial crisis of 2008 was nearly a decade ago, but its massive ramifications are still felt in every corner of the mortgage sector. From private buyers to federally-insured loan originators...
The biggest barrier to entry for young, would-be homeowners is credit. Millennials find themselves in a difficult situation as the first generation to enter...
Nationwide spending on construction rose to the highest number seen in 8-? years in March. According to the Commerce Department, U.S. construction jumped 0.3% to the highest level seen since October 2007....
In early April, a large group of influential technologists, bankers, service providers, CIOs, COOs, and CEOs met with mortgage industry leaders in Los Angeles...
On May 5, when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) holds its next field hearing, the agency is expected to release its long-awaited proposal...
Once the object of derision among financial professionals, reverse mortgages have come into their own in the current financial landscape....
The first week of April saw long-term interest rates dip to the tune of approximately.125% ? not a precipitous drop, but when the worldwide economy has been teetering so close to zero...
While it?s true that housing prices have largely recovered from the crash, and the housing market is on strong footing, regulatory burdens are still making it difficult for...
Nowhere has the US economic recovery been steadier than housing?which makes sense given it was among the hardest hit by the financial crisis of 2007-2008....
In a speech to its Consumer Advisory Board, Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), put forth nine goals to guide the Bureau in the coming years....
According to Fannie Mae, most lenders expect to expand their businesses for the remainder of the year, and few are reporting plans to downsize....
In the recent past, homeowners looking for equity in their homes looked to a cash-out refinance, possibly influenced by the housing crash and record low interest rates....
People watching the Super Bowl this year were treated to a knock-down victory by the Denver Broncos...
The Department of Labor (DOL)?s new proposed change to overtime regulations in the Fair Labor Standards Act could have a major impact on lenders...
Year after year, the three top concerns for mortgage lenders are quality, compliance, and cost: quality requires attention to detail and organization of data;...
As you know, the mortgage lending world was turned on its head last October with the implementation of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure....
A new survey of top mortgage originators conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association suggests that multifamily and commercial...
Following a brief surge, interest rates on 30-year fixed rate mortgage loans fell 4 BPS (basis points) in the week ending January 8th...
Freddie Mac recently delivered its latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi), illustrating the progressing rebound of the national housing market....
After years of close-to-zero levels, the Federal Reserve has raised the Federal Funds rate by a quarter of a percentage rate to 0.50%, ...
In 2011, the online real estate database Zillow partnered with Yahoo! Real Estate to create the largest online real-estate advertising site in existence....
National Mortgage News recently spoke with some of the most successful loan officers in the nation to figure out their secrets to success....
We live in the information age. Every day we see computers, software, and algorithms automating tasks that were once reserved......
The FHA drafted and published a letter earlier this month outlining all changes and updates regarding reverse mortgages and Title II mortgages....
Homes that are in foreclosure, but have not yet been taken back by a lender are called ?zombie? homes....
The most valuable thing about your business isn?t made of metal though having a golden one certainly doesn?t hurt....
Typically, banks are thought of as the most reliable source for a home loan, but as consumers are in a tight market, ...
A mortgage is a loan to finance the purchase of a home, and typically it?s the largest financial investment people make in their lives....
According to some mortgage lenders, a shortage of qualified home appraisers may destabilize the industry....
The number of prospective homebuyers coming back onto the market is increasing. With high Loan-to-Value loans becoming popular again,...
Purchasing a home can become complicated. This especially rings true of foreclosures and short sales. If you decide to invest in a distressed property,...
What is the GFE tolerance cure? It is a term that is often met with confusion from those who lack familiarity with the real estate industry as a whole. ...
When a lender is preparing a good faith estimate, the financial institution will create a list of additional costs,...
When a lender is preparing a good faith estimate, the financial institution will create a list of additional costs,...
When a lender is preparing a good faith estimate, the financial institution will create a list of additional costs,...
Freddie Mac is willing to go as low as 3% down for a mortgage loan. A recently launched mortgage loan,...
Be on top of your profession in 2015 by attending a title insurance training course or conference....
The U.S. title insurance industry is looking stable for 2015 according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings....
As the year comes to an end, and everyone travels home for the holidays, we think about what we are grateful for....
All kinds of questions pour in when it comes to Title Insurance. The home buying process is complicated enough and little is known about the nuances of Title Insurance. ...
A recent report by Black Knight, a data analysis and financial services firm, headquartered in Jacksonville,...
While interest rates remain low, qualifying for a mortgage may be more challenging, especially for first-time buyers....
The year is coming to an end, and real estate and title industry professionals are revamping their business plans for 2015....
Federal regulators have taken steps to enhance mortgage financing for consumers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) led the release of the Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) rule,...
On August 19, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) replaced the 2013-01 compliance bulletin and policy guidance with new updates....
There is heaps of misinformation regarding U.S. citizen?s qualifications for homeownership but nothing holds truer than with undocumented immigrants. ...
At the recent American Mortgage Conference held this past September, a new, yet classic, type of mortgage was introduced. Referred to as the wealth building home loan (WBHL),...
Maintaining best practices for title insurance and settlement services ensures business manners remain in good standing with the state....
Back in June 2013, the American Land Title Association (ALTA) came out with best practices that appeared to be a win-win for lenders and the real estate industry....
Anyone that?s ever gone through the process of selling their home knows it requires quite a bit of work....
There are times when problems occur with a property title that are unclear or inadvertently overlooked in public records and the title search process....
The real estate market has gained some air after the housing bubble burst, but the effects leave many states oxygen deprived....
Trulia announced a new real estate app for Android wear due out in a couple of weeks. The mobile app was highlighted at the annual Google I/O 2014 developer conference where Google?s elite showcase their technology advances....
The housing market is inevitable with changes. Rotating figures and inconsistencies are hard to stay abreast....
Title insurance is your defense against mortgage lenders and their haphazard approach to the foreclosure process. Even though title insurance is required by mortgage lenders, various title insurance companies are reevaluating their practices to cover foreclosed homes....
No matter how large or small your home remodeling project, you?re likely to hit a few bumps and challenges along the way. From product delays and equipment breakdowns to insufficient paperwork and insurance,...
Out of all of a homeowner?s monthly expenses, the mortgage payment is often the largest. Many buyers (naturally) accept this fact, but because of this acceptance,...
Purchasing a home can be an exciting time, and that excitement often continues once you?ve moved in. Whether you choose to install a custom vanity in the bathroom or to add an in-ground pool to your backyard,...
Many homeowners are delighted to find an affordable home on a bank foreclosure list. They make a reasonable offer but are dismayed when the bank sends them back a counteroffer. ...
Many people?you may be one of them?have a dream of buying a home, but they simply don?t know how they?ll be able to get a payment scraped together or how they can ensure their credit rating will be high enough to qualify for a loan....
Is your home ready to attract the serious buyers?you know, those who are already represented by an experienced real estate agent and who have taken the step...
Do you think you may be paying too much for your homeowners insurance? In truth, you probably are, but not for the reasons you?d first think....
Buying your first house is most likely the largest and most nerve-wracking transaction of your life....
A recent Fannie Mae survey has reported that a majority of home buyers believe it is easier now to obtain a mortgage than previous years....
Making good use of social media is a must-do for anyone who wants to be noticed in today?s marketplace. However, it?s understandable that some people and businesses may shy from taking advantage of social media?s boons because this new world can be quite overwhelming....
It?s easy for a homeowner to get their heart set on a particular design for a new kitchen or a particular style of bathroom for the master bedroom when remodeling the home....
When it comes to real estate, every home seller has heard the old advice that location is everything. Well, in reality, that?s just not true most of the time....
If you want to take out a mortgage, you probably can. However, many mortgage options may not be in your best interest, and many home loans are sold by people who claim to be professionals but who are, in fact, not....
As a real estate agent, you probably find that maintaining constant engagement with leads is tremendously valuable for your business....
Many people trying to sell their home don?t realize just how important the kitchen is in this process....
Mortgage rates are on the rise, and borrowers really can?t afford to wait long to take out a mortgage?...
Negotiating mortgages can certainly be a daunting task for first-time buyers. Many potential borrowers don?t fully understand a mortgage?s risks and costs,...
Many first-time home buyers may be unaware of some of the hidden costs associated with getting a mortgage, especially those that arise at closing....
Clearly the Internet, public demand for transparency and the push for information sharing has impacted all business sectors, but perhaps none more than the real estate industry....
Join us as we welcome in 2014. We are looking forward to seeing what?s in store for the New Year....
With the New Year right around the corner, experts have begun to make their forecasts about mortgage rates for the upcoming year....
These last few years have seen a good deal of growth in the area of home construction....
There?s been grimness at the thought of the real estate market these past several years, but all that is changing now....
Finally, several years after the first real rumbles of the financial crisis, the national real estate market seems to be on the road to normal....
There are only so many hours in a day and days in a week. To maximize your impact and efficiency as a real estate professional in the digital age,...
Customer service is our top priority.? How many times have we heard that, and how often is it actually true? Great customer service doesn?t just happen?a company must work hard to achieve it....
Too many people who run title insurance agencies are still processing their transactions using a paper-based system. Unfortunately, by clinging to an outmoded method they are ultimately cheating themselves out of their full revenue stream....