from National Mortgage Professional Magazine 

Analysis of data collected for the Realtors Confidence Index shows the market share of all-cash purchases is on the rise, despite declines in distressed sales and investor activity, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

"Distressed home sales, most popular with investors who pay cash, have declined notably in the past two years, yet the share of all-cash purchases has risen," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "At the same time, investors have declined as a market share, indicating other changes have been underway in the marketplace."

Distressed home sales declined from 26 percent of the national market in 2012 to 17 percent in 2013 and 15 percent in the first quarter of this year; NAR projects distressed homes to drop to a single-digit market share by the fourth quarter. All-cash purchases rose from 29 percent in 2012 to 31 percent in 2013 and 33 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

Continue reading .... 

Investors Title Company announced its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The Company reported net income of $986,438, or $0.48 per diluted share, compared with $3,376,730, or $1.62 per diluted share, for the prior year period.

The Company achieved record first quarter revenues totaling $28,454,074, an increase of 6.0% versus the prior year period, resulting primarily from increases in premium volumes and realized gains on investments. As the overall economy has continued to improve, higher levels of real estate purchase activity and higher home prices across many of our markets helped drive an increase in premiums during the period. Rising interest rates however, led to a significant drop in refinance activity, which partially offset the increased purchase-related business.

Operating expenses increased 22.6% versus the prior year period, mainly due to increases in variable expenses such as the provision for claims and commissions. Overall, the trend in new claim filings continued to improve. During the first quarter however, the occurrence of a few large claims related to older policy years contributed to the increase in the claims provision. Positive legal developments in several claim matters and a significant recovery in the prior year period also contributed to an unfavorable comparison. Commissions increased at a higher rate than premiums because there was a greater proportion of agent business than in the prior year period. Other operating expenses, as a whole, were largely in line with the prior year quarter.

Chairman J. Allen Fine added, "We are pleased to see increases in the level of home prices as well as continued strength in home purchase activity. As expected, however, the drop in refinance activity had a significant impact on premium volumes for the quarter. Although a few unusual claims matters led to an unfavorable comparison to the prior year, we remain encouraged by the general long-term trend of claims activity."

For additional information, please visit the ITIC Investors Relation page here.

Mortgage applications rose recently, with applications for home purchases driving most of the spike, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported in early May.

Applications for home purchases, viewed as a leading gauge of future home buying, rose 8.9 percent for the week ending May 2.

"A sizeable increase in purchase applications last week likely reflected the impact of somewhat lower mortgage rates as well as continued growth in the job market," says Mike Fratantoni, the MBA's chief economist. Still, purchase applications remain 16 percent lower than year ago levels.

Refinance applications rose 2.4 percent.

Overall, mortgage application activity, which includes both applications for refinancing and home purchases, rose 5.3 percent, a rebound after the previous week's when mortgage applications had dropped to the lowest level since December 2000.

Meanwhile, the MBA reported that the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.43 percent, the lowest average since November.

Source: "As Interest Rates Fall, Mortgage Applications Rise," Reuters (May 7, 2014) and "U.S. Mortgage Application Volume Up 5.3% Last Week, MBA Says," The Wall Street Journal (May 7, 2014)

Addressing Consumer Complaints

ALTA Best Practice #7 requires that all real estate professionals involved in the real estate process have a complaint policy - not to solve all consumer complaints, but rather to address all consumer complaints.

Every real estate professional is first and foremost in the "customer service" business, and dealing with

Learn more about what is required.... 

The Next Banking Crisis is Already in the Making

 

The worst lending in the last crisis is always the best in the next one, and the same goes for different parts of bank balance sheets. Where bank balance sheets take a blow to the bow, they reinforce them during the next recovery. For example, I've never seen such a focus on bank capital as I have over the past five years. Too bad that won't be where the next banking crisis rears its ugly head.

The next banking crisis - whenever it comes - will arise from the parts that fared the best in the last crisis. On the lending front, the problems ahead will be in commercial credit, automobile lending, student lending and private banking lending. Those are where credit standards have been stretched the most during this recovery.

Still, and probably most importantly, with regards to all of these lending sectors, the greatest risk-taking has taken place not in the banks but outside of the banks. When credit turns down, the lenders most impacted - asset managers, hedge funds, et al. - will be in the shadows, not the banks. Of late, these lenders have been the biggest providers of credit to corporations - and with unprecedented weak terms, too. The same can obviously be said for the federal government when it comes to student lending. Uncle Sam is the market.

My focus of this column, though, isn't credit. That's actually the least of my concerns about the banking industry right now. When the cycle turns, the banks will be the tail to much bigger and angrier lending dogs.

Where I'm most concerned about the banks today is in their funding. Continue reading...  

Benefits to invest outweigh the negatives

Natural gas drilling wells are becoming a more frequent sight throughout the country. The "shale boom" is big business for gas companies and landowners alike. Advances in drilling and fracturing technology, also known as fracking, have made it easier to mine the natural gas reserves from previously inaccessible sources. In many cases, a shale filled with natural gas is mined underneath a populated neighborhood.

In some cases, the homeowner retains the rights to the subsurface estate on his or her property. The subsurface estate is the oil or gas that resides underneath the property. The gas companies pay handsomely to access the gas they couldn't get to before.

But the proliferation of the wells and the increase in natural gas drilling in residential areas presents a unique set of problems for homeowners and mortgage bankers alike.

In a webinar titled, "Oil and Gas Exploration for Mortgage Bankers," attorneys from Ballard Spahr discussed the shale boom and what impact it will have on the mortgage market going forward. Here are the highlights:

1. The shale boom is not close to being over

"This is not a short-term boom," said Harry Weiss, of Ballard Spahr's Environment and Natural Resources Group. "This is a many, many, many year process. Someday, somewhere, somehow you're going to see it everywhere."

2. Shale production is going to keep climbing

As additional states begin to allow drilling, shale production will continue to climb exponentially.  The Marcellus shale, which stretches from Tennessee to upstate New York has seen production "skyrocket," according to Weiss. "Marcellus production has enormous potential for growth," he said. "New York state has not allowed drilling yet, but when it does, production will be off the charts."

Continue reading... 

1. The ALTA Homeowner's Policy of Title Insurance contains 28 covered risks as compared to the 10 covered risks contained in traditional owner's policies. (For a complete list of these risks, contact Gail Duffy)   
2. The ALTA Homeowner's  policy amount automatically increases by 10% per year for the first 5 years, so coverage is increased to a maximum of 150% of the original Policy Amount. This provision provides owners with increased coverage to account for inflation and appreciation in the value of the insured property due to improvements.    
3. The ALTA Homeowner's policy is an additional 20% of the original ALTA Owner's Policy Rate which is $3.90 per thousand up to $250,000.00 (other rates apply) with a minimum of $200.00.    
4.  The Company standards to use the ALTA Homeowner's Policy are as follows:

• May be issued for purchases and/or refinances on residential properties only,
• Issue only on a transaction insuring property that is an improved lot in a platted residential subdivision, a completed residential condominium unit or improved, residential property with a metes/bounds legal description that does not exceed 25 acres of land; Do not issue this policy for vacant lots; 
• Issue only to "natural persons" (no corporations, LLCs or other entities); 
• Do not issue for "ongoing" or pending construction transactions.

For additional details or questions, please contact Gail Duffy at 1.800.468.5811 or by e-mail. 

by Les Christie @CNNMoney, May 8, 2014 

The average interest charged to borrowers for a 30-year, fixed rate loan fell to 4.21% from 4.29% last week, according to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate report.

Rates have not been this low since the week of November 7, when they were at 4.16%.

The 15-year, fixed rate mortgage, a popular loan for homeowners refinancing existing mortgages, hit 3.32%, down from 3.38% last week.

Related: Buy vs. rent: What you'll pay in the 10 biggest cities 

Global unrest and a weak U.S. economic recovery have kept rates low on U.S. Treasury bonds, which is used as the benchmark to set most consumer interest rates.

"Mortgage rates continued moving down following the decline in 10-year Treasury yields after a dismal report on real GDP growth in the first quarter," according to Freddie's chief economist Frank Nothaft.

Related: 10 most affordable small cities 

World events was a key factor.  Read on... 

  UPDATES:

Rule Would Benefit Companies That Limit Consumer Data-Sharing

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule to promote more effective privacy disclosures from financial institutions to their customers. The rule would allow companies that limit their consumer data-sharing and meet other requirements to post their annual privacy notices online rather than delivering them individually.

"Consumers need clear information about how their personal information is being used by financial institutions," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "This proposal would make it easier for consumers to find and access privacy policies, while also making it cheaper for industry to provide disclosures."

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) generally requires that financial institutions send annual privacy notices to customers. Read on.... 

CFPB Report Highlights Pain Points for Consumer Mortgage Closing Process

Bureau Releases Guidelines for New eClosing Mortgage Pilot Project

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report which finds that many consumers are frustrated by the short amount of time they have to review a large stack of complex closing documents when finalizing a mortgage. The Bureau also released guidelines for an upcoming eClosing pilot project to assess how electronic closings can benefit consumers as they navigate the mortgage closing process.

"Mortgage closings are often fraught with anxiety," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "We have taken action to address some of the problems consumers face, but more needs to be done. Our eClosing pilot project will provide valuable insight into how to improve the closing experience for consumers. "

Today's report and guidelines are the latest components of the CFPB's "Know Before You Owe" mortgage initiative, which is designed to improve the home-buying experience for consumers. Read on... 

Click HERE to access additional articles from the CFPB Newsroom. 

Is this common tendency in business dialogue undermining your message? Here are three reasons it might be.

by Hunter Thurman 

You're at an industry conference making small talk. The discussion invariably turns from "who you know" to "what you do."

Your brow furrows, you cock your head slightly, and you launch into the elevator pitch:

"So, we're building a multi-channel platform that leverages..."

"So, I'm the global brand director for our portfolio of..."

"So, I recently exited my startup when we sold to..."

The part of this lead-in that seems the least important but actually dramatically frames your message is that first little word: "so."

Everyone--from CMOs to flip-flop-clad "brogrammers"--does it. It's like the technorati's way of starting a sentence with "like." However, it's much more than that.

It's actually a damaging tendency. Beginning your sentence with "so" orients your message and subconsciously alerts your audience that what you're about to say is different than what you've been talking about up until this point.

We business-types need to drop the "so" for three main reasons:

1.  "So" insults your audience

 That little head cock, slight furrowing of the brow, and set-up with "so" says to your audience, "I'm trying to dumb this down so someone like you may have at least a chance of comprehending the importance of what I do."

The person with whom you're talking won't call you on it, because he won't even consciously recognize it. But the convention we've all created around "so" will register subconsciously, and the damage will be done.

2. "So" undermines your credibility

Click HERE to continue reading

--Hunter Thurman is the founder of the innovation consultancy, Thriveplan, and author of the new book, Brand Be Nimble. He's a frequent speaker in the consumer packaged goods category, coaching companies on how to create disruptive innovation, and then tell the simple story to make it a success.

"I wanted to tell you I attended my first two closings yesterday at your office. Nicole [Hamilton] did a fantastic job and I'm really excited to be working with you guys again!!!"

Katie Curry, Mortgage Consultant

First Bank & Trust Company

Staunton, Virginia

Check out the Virginia Title Center website for more client testimonials.

by Kim Garst, Social Media Blogger

I get asked a lot of questions about using Twitter for business, so I thought it would be helpful to compile a list of the most common ones in this blog post. Where possible, I have also tried to include a link to a relevant blog post for further reading.

1.  Is Twitter even important to my business?

With so many social networks to choose from, many business owners struggle with whether or not Twitter is really important to have in their social marketing mix. While it's certainly possible to have a successful business without being active on Twitter, there are tons of wonderful opportunities you could be missing out on, including increased referral traffic, the opportunity to build your brand, professional networking and the ability to reach a global audience.

For more reasons your business should be on Twitter, see my post 12 Simple Reasons to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business.

2.   Is my ideal customer even on Twitter?

The short answer is this: You won't know unless you actively look for them there! While you can look at Twitter's demographics to get an idea how likely it is your target market is active there, it's only through actually using the network for a while that you can get an accurate measure.

Some ways you can find your ideal customer on Twitter include:

• Using a tool like Twellow to search through public tweets organized by category. This enables you to search relevant categories for new people to follow.
• Search for relevant keywords using Twitter Search to find conversations happening about your brand, products or niche.
• If your business or content is largely news related, or if real-time information sharing is important to your business, your ideal customer is probably on Twitter; in terms of sharing news, there is no better social network than Twitter.

Yes and no. If you're looking to directly sell your products or services using your Twitter feed, you're likely going to end up being disappointed. Continue reading....

Are you following Virginia Title Center on Twitter?  We consistently post relevant and timely industry information: Follow us @virginiatitle

Kim Garst is the CEO and co-founder of Boom! Social Media Marketing, and authors one of the top 10 social media blogs in the world. Kim is also in the top 20 women and top 50 Forbes social media power influencers. Bringing people and businesses together online since 1995!