Housing Wire

JULY 25, 2023

In late June, Susan Gregory received an estimate for a new homeowner’s insurance policy on her 120-year-old St. Augustine, Florida property, after her previous insurer, United Property and Casualty, went insolvent earlier in the year. This is one of the easiest parts of Florida to insure and costs have gone up over 40%.”

Insurance 370

Insurance Housing Market Marketing Agents 370

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 13, 2022

Prior to the advent and widespread use of title insurance, before taking title to a property, the buyer required that the title be free of any rights, interests, liens or encumbrances of others for which the buyer would be responsible for.

Insurance 396

Insurance Legal Legal Fees HOA 396

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Even with demand buoyed by a sparse housing inventory, growing financial challenges for buyers are forcing home sellers to cut prices to close deals, a new Redfin research report found. And because mortgage rates have been above 7% for about two months consecutively, the cost of financing is extreme. According to the brokerage, 6.5%

Sellers 508

Sellers Buyers Inventory Real Estate Agent 508

Housing Wire

JULY 29, 2022

vertical manager of strategic partnerships at Liberty Mutual, to discuss how partnering with a nationally recognized insurance company improve borrower engagement for lenders. HW: How can partnering with a nationally recognized insurance company improve borrower engagement for lenders?

Insurance 397

Insurance Business Mortgage Lending 397

Housing Wire

APRIL 3, 2024

The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) this week submitted a letter to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that urges the agency to “provide comparable down payment treatment for FHA borrowers, regardless of whether or not the seller is willing to pay the home buyer broker commission,” according to an announcement by the organization.

Sellers 431

Sellers Buyers Agents Real Estate Agent 431

Housing Wire

MARCH 28, 2024

Thanks to the efficiencies baked into the construction processes of manufactured homes, these factory-built houses are both faster and less expensive to build than site-built homes, saving buyers between $50,000 to $100,000 per unit. Demand for home-only financing is strong; in 2019, there were more than 200,000 home-only loan applications.

Business 450

Business Finance Buyers Lending 450

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

New York-based digital lender Better Home & Finance Holding Company has partnered with information technology consulting company Infosys on a mortgage-as-a-service platform. The company’s latest efforts to become a digital homeownership company includes the launch of Better Insurance. The digital lender reported a net loss of $45.5

Mortgage 410

Mortgage Insurance Finance Technology 410

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

VA loans offer a 100% financing option for qualifying military service members and veterans, and don’t require mortgage insurance. Mortgage professionals voiced their concerns of the potential ripple effects that might have on those cash-strapped buyers, depending on the results of the commission lawsuits. “It

Agents 458

Agents Sellers Buyers Finance 458

Housing Wire

JUNE 23, 2023

CCM offers a range of over 120 mortgage, refinance, and home equity solutions, including conventional and jumbo mortgages, as well as government-insured programs for veterans and rural homebuyers. The company’s growth and culture have been acknowledged nine times on the Inc.

Buyers 370

Buyers Retail Loan Officers Insurance 370

Lamacchia Realty

MARCH 11, 2024

Buyers hoping to purchase condos have been under more stringent lending regulations over the past three years, initially under temporary guidelines that were later made permanent. Buyers and buyer agents alike needed to be keenly aware of how the new regulations would impact the purchase of a condo in any building over 5 units.

Buyers 66

Buyers Lending Insurance Mortgage 66

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Originators who primarily served move-up buyers with high credit scores and strong down payments are struggling to find clients. Mandatory mortgage insurance premiums were reduced to 55 basis points (bps) for most borrowers in February and FHA loans tend to come with lower interest rates than conventional loans.

Loan Officers 441

Loan Officers Mortgage Finance Buyers 441

Housing Wire

JANUARY 5, 2024

Few things affect the real estate market more than the rise and fall of interest rates , which has a ripple effect that directly influences everything from buyer behavior to market trends. How interest rates impact your clients Let’s look at how interest rates can impact buyers, sellers or homeowners looking to refinance.

Real Estate 441

Real Estate Agents Marketing Sellers 441

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 1, 2023

The self-employed homebuyer found an $800,000 home in Texas, but with the conforming loan limit for 2023 being $726,200, the buyer needed a jumbo loan or a bank statement loan. Those loan types would require a larger down payment of at least 10% of the home’s value, or $80,000, which would stretch his budget too thin.

Finance 458

Finance Buyers Mortgage Inventory 458

Housing Wire

AUGUST 10, 2023

The share of distressed property auction buyers who say they are owner-occupants nearly doubled over the last year, boosted by a game-changing government policy that took effect last August. That was nearly double the 8% of buyers who described themselves as owner-occupants in a February 2022 Auction.com buyer survey.

Renovations 370

Renovations Buyers Development Insurance 370

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

In recent years, the value proposition of title insurance has come under attack following Fannie Mae’s announcement that it would accept attorney opinion letters in lieu of title insurance, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s title waiver programs , which were eventually scrapped. “If

Insurance 421

Insurance Real Estate Agents Real Estate Agent 421

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

And yet, it would also undermine the institutions that will need to fill the vacuum, independent mortgage banks, by making it more expensive for banks to provide them financing or a market for their primary asset, mortgage-servicing rights. There is a lot here to unpack, so we’ll take it piece by piece.

Mortgage 450

Mortgage Marketing Finance Lending 450

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 21, 2023

Benefits can include: No down payment Competitive interest rates No private mortgage insurance (PMI) Limited or no closing costs Funding fee waived for service-connected disabled veterans More favorable credit criteria Loan types There are a number of VA loan options to meet the needs of today’s veteran buyers, including purchase and refinance.

Mortgage 441

Mortgage Renovations Appraisal Process Finance 441

Will Springer Realtor

MARCH 5, 2024

Let’s start with Mortgage Insurance Premiums. borrowers who carry a loan with a guarantee or mortgage insurance pay MIP, according to Forbes. That’s followed by a monthly insurance premium, currently between 0.15% and 0.75% of the loan balance and recalculated annually. Adjustable-rate-loan insurance can be pricier.

Finance 53

Finance HOA Insurance Real Estate 53

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 27, 2023

The nation’s second largest title insurer , First American , as well as some of its subsidiaries, remain offline as of Wednesday morning in the wake of the title firm’s Dec. One buyer commented: “We wired in full payment for a home that was supposed to close last week. 20 cybersecurity incident.

Sellers 496

Sellers Insurance Valuation Clients 496

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Assembly Bill A1967 “requires disclosure of information concerning flood insurance on property condition disclosure statements [and] relates to liability with respect to property disclosures,” according to the bill’s official description on the New York State Assembly website.

Law 410

Law Insurance Real Property Tools 410

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

home buyers and sellers it survey were targeted with suspicious or potentially fraudulent activities, while 10% were targeted for real estate fraud and 5% suffered losses during their real estate transaction due to fraudster. Even as the housing market slowed in 2022 and 2023, the fraudulent activity of bad actors did not let up.

Real Estate Agent 432

Real Estate Agent Real Estate Sellers Buyers 432

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Meanwhile, buyers offer bigger down payments to lessen the cost of monthly payments In September, buyers were typically putting down 16.1% In those cities, the typical buyer put down 25% of the purchase price. In September, government-insured FHA loans represented a little over 15% of U.S. respectively. in April 2023.

Mortgage 441

Mortgage Buyers Insurance Government 441

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

A housing market marked by relatively high interest rates and tight inventory — and punctuated by the practice of home inspection waivers to sweeten offers — are taking a bite out of business for home inspectors, who play a key role in the sales process by ensuring that buyers are not being sold a lemon of a house.

Inspection 410

Inspection Real Estate Agent Real Estate Insurance 410

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Mortgage rates have been rising above 7% since August, which has diminished the pool of home buyers,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said. Some would-be home buyers are taking a pause and readjusting their expectations about the location and type of home to better fit their budgets.”

Housing Market 479

Housing Market Contracts Government Buyers 479

Housing Wire

MAY 25, 2023

Longbridge Financial, LLC, (NMLS #957935) believes that the answer to this dilemma is the HECM/Reverse for Purchase financing option. Most real estate agents, builders and potential customers have no idea that this financing option exists to purchase homes,” he said.

Loan Officers 397

Loan Officers Real Estate Agent Real Estate Finance 397

Housing Wire

APRIL 11, 2023

Buyers, sellers and lenders all have a stake in the sale, and title and escrow ensure that everyone’s interests are protected. They manage and oversee the entire process from the time a seller accepts an offer to the time the buyer takes possession of the property. So why are title and escrow so important?

Real Estate 384

Real Estate Legal Sellers Buyers 384

Housing Wire

JANUARY 9, 2024

The suit takes aim at the National Association of Realtor’s Participation Rule which requires listing brokers to make a blanket offer of compensation to the buyer’s broker in order to list a property on a NAR affiliated MLS. As with all of the other commission lawsuits, Tuccori’s suit is seeking class action status.

Property Management 421

Property Management Real Estate Agents Brokerage 421

Lamacchia Realty

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the reduction of the FHA Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) today. The down payment hasn’t changed but the cost of the monthly mortgage insurance has decreased putting more money back in the homeowners’ pockets, making homeownership more affordable. to $176.92.

Insurance 60

Insurance Development Buyers Realty 60

Housing Wire

APRIL 12, 2023

Indexes that contributed to the annual increase were food (+8.5%), motor vehicle insurance (+15.0%), household furnishings and operations (+5.6%), recreation (+4.8%), and new vehicles (+6.1%). High inflation led the Fed to raise interest rates, leading to higher borrowing costs, including making it more expensive to finance a home purchase.

Transportation 384

Transportation Insurance Buyers Government 384

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 16, 2023

It’s true that first-time buyers make up a larger piece of a smaller pie, as housing inventory shrinks. However, this rise in first-time buyers helps explain what’s driving demand and keeping upward pressure on prices in a market with mortgage rates currently surpassing 7%. It never will be. I’ll explain later.)

Agents 410

Agents Buyers Sellers Inventory 410

Housing Wire

JUNE 9, 2022

Renovation financing startup RenoFi now offers a fixed-rate home renovation loan, which allows homeowners to borrow as much as 90% of their home’s after-renovation value — a move to target homeowners who don’t qualify for a home equity line of credit (HELOCs). Presented by: Auction.com.

Renovations 370

Renovations Finance Inspection Buyers 370

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 29, 2023

More than a week after it shut down systems to combat a cybersecurity incident , title insurance giant First American Financial says it has restored some key systems and “contained the threat.” “As of the date of this filing, the Company believes it has contained the incident.

Insurance 473

Insurance Valuation Technology Buyers 473

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 24, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — National Association of Realtors CEO Bob Goldberg was back on the stand Tuesday morning at the start of the seventh day of the Sitzer/Burnett class-action buyer broker commission antitrust lawsuit. Next, Ketchmark turned to a comment Goldberg had made on Monday, where he claimed that NAR does not discuss commissions.

Realtors 421

Realtors Agents Clients Buyers 421

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

This week, American Financing Corporation reduced employee headcount by almost two thirds and power buyer Homeward slashed 25% of its workforce as the companies faced headwinds. Aurora, Colorado-based American Financing Corporation has started to layoff 63.6% American Financing Corporation originated $4.13

Loan Officers 421

Loan Officers Modernization Finance Housing Market 421

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

The new program and tool launches come as potential Hispanic home buyers face a tight housing market with historic low level of supply for affordable homes. Mortgage Insurers points out that Hispanics are the youngest of any ethnic or racial demographic in the United States to purchase a home. Presented by: Mortgage Coach.

Marketing 370

Marketing Tools Loan Officers Finance 370

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 24, 2020

Porch, a home services marketplace with partners in insurance, utilities, home inspection and moving, plans to use the cash to pursue acquisitions to seize the opportunity in real estate. acquisitions, divestitures and financings) of the Company.” They’ll also focus on the home insurance industry.

Inspection 433

Inspection Insurance Finance Valuation 433

Housing Wire

JUNE 1, 2023

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) officially implemented an updated pricing framework for Loan-Level Price Adjustments (LLPAs) in May to improve homeownership prospects for first-time homebuyers with lower income and weaker credit scores. It’s a simple goal, but as is often the case in U.S.

Loan Officers 370

Loan Officers Insurance Mortgage Real Estate Agent 370