FNF Unplugged, ALTA ONE: Takeaways from San Diego Include RON, and We're Not Talking About Mr. Burgundy

The industry was forced to go remote, mobile & virtual during the pandemic. Now, a sudden and dramatic downturn in the market will likely cement Remote Online Notary or RON as lenders look to save money on every single transaction, at every title agency or attorney's office regardless of size. In this episode, FNF's Chuck Cain welcomes digital advocate Toni Carroll who explains why RON is here to stay, and why you should embrace it.

Listen here

Quick cash with a big catch--a 40 year agreement on your home: ABC11 Troubleshooter Investigation

With inflation hitting consumers hard, money is tight for many homeowners. One program is offering cash in exchange for a forty-year listing contract on your home. It's called a Homeowner Benefit Program, a program that offers between $300-$5000 cash without taking out a loan. It caught Maria Calder's attention. She says, "We thought we could get $800 now." $800 is what MV Realty offered her. In exchange for that cash, she would have to sign a forty-year agreement on the listing of her home if she wanted to sell it.

Read more

BankThink Those seeking to bring down the CFPB should be careful what they wish for

It's not every day that a federal regulatory agency is declared unconstitutional. Yet that's just what the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals did this month regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, holding that the bureau's funding mechanism is illegal. The bureau has long been a bugbear to parts of the financial services industry. But in their haste to tear down the CFPB, the agency's opponents have failed to consider the chaos victory might bring.



Read more

Defeasance of Debt in a Real Estate Transaction



A common assumption when real property that is collateralized by debt is sold is that the borrower will use the proceeds from the sale to pay off the existing principal balance of the debt prior to the maturity, which is usually the easiest option when a borrower wants to sell their property. However, prepayment with cash is not always the borrower’s most favorable option, especially when dealing with a fixed-rate loan, which often include large fees associated with prepayment. One alternative to cash prepayment is defeasance.

Read more

$250M Renter Wealth Creation Fund Closes First $47M Round, Taps Into Underused Asset Margins For New Model To “Turn Rent Into Wealth”

The path to generational wealth is through…rentership?

That’s the premise behind the newly-launched Renter Wealth Creation Fund by Enterprise Community Partners in collaboration with Stake, the startup which provides banking services and cash back rewards for on-time rent payments. Enterprise was an investor in Stake’s Series A announced in July.



Read more 

RON bill grinds to a halt in the U.S. Senate

Things were looking good for the Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization (SECURE) Act as of late July after it passed in the House of Representatives as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. However, the bill’s momentum came to a halt in October after the SECURE Act was removed from the final version of the legislation



Read more 

Foreclosure Warning: Property Possessed but Not Owned by a Debtor May Be Subject to the Automatic Stay

Creditors know that a bankruptcy petition automatically halts efforts to collect pre-petition debts from the debtor outside of bankruptcy. The "automatic stay" provides fundamental protection to debtors, mandating a full stop on collection activity.

Read more

Extinguishing an easement: How easy is it?

Whether an easement should be extinguished on the basis it has been abandoned or is obsolete, is a question which often arises in the context of property ownership and re-development, particularly where an easement is old.



Read more 

Real Estate – Easement Interpretation

Roff appeals from an order declaring as ambiguous an easement for ingress and egress over his property to permit Arvo Eilau and Joyce Dzik (collectively, “Eilau”) access to an island they own that is located offshore from Roff’s property.

Read more 

Procedural Considerations in Defending Title Insurers Against Extracontractual Claims in Washington State

Bad faith, Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA) and Consumer Protection Act (CPA) litigation continues to proliferate in Washington State, including litigation pertaining to title insurance claims. The stakes could not be higher for insurers, including title insurers, in light of the recent Court of Appeals Division Two holding in the partially published opinion in Beasley v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., No. 54997-2-II, 2022, 2022 WL 4353226 (Wash. Ct. App. Sept. 20, 2022). The court held that as a matter of first impression, noneconomic damages are available to plaintiffs under IFCA. In other words, insureds can seek emotional distress damages if they are wrongfully denied a defense or indemnification.

Read more

When Does Downzoning Result in a Regulatory Taking? 

As we have previously discussed, downzoning (changing the zoning designation for property from a more intensive use to a more restrictive use) can possibly rise to the level of a regulatory taking, depending on each individual situation. A recent case, FFV Coyote LLC v. City of San Jose, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195036, analyzed this issue at the motion to dismiss stage and concluded that the plaintiffs had sufficiently plead a Fifth Amendment regulatory takings claim to survive a motion to dismiss.

Read more

Mutation Entries Only Fiscal In Nature, Do Not Confer Any Title In Respect Of Property To Which They Relate: J&K&L High Court [India]

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has reiterated that mutation entries are only fiscal in nature and these do not confer any title in respect of the property to which they relate nor do these entries extinguish the right of a party in respect of the said property.

Read more

A $175,000 house sold via an NFT. People have questions.

Crown Heights family that twice defied eviction lays out deed-theft claims

Title Agents Take Business to the Next Level

Cannon Hall Farm: Barnsley flock flaunt pink hair-do in sheep feeder mishap

The Swiss Valais Blacknose have been rubbing themselves against the red feeder while eating, turning heads at Cannon Hall Farm in Barnsley.

Farmer Richard Nicholson from the farm said the ewes had unintentionally joined the "pink ladies".

Read more 

A brief history of the mortgage, from its roots in ancient Rome to the English ‘dead pledge’ and its rebirth in America

The average interest rate for a new U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped 7% in late October 2022 for the first time in more than two decades. It’s a sharp increase from one year earlier, when lenders were charging homebuyers only 3.09% for the same kind of loan.



Read more

Employees Report Boss’ Email as Scam After Being Forced to Watch 2-Hour Seminar on Phishing Scams

The only thing worse than getting your massive pile of work interrupted by one of those company-wide hours-long mandatory seminars is having to do the seminar twice. After completing one such seminar about how to spot an email phishing scam, one employee received an email from their “IT director” that included a link, which they foolishly clicked on—the email had been a phishing test. 



Read more 

THERE’S A MONUMENT TO AN ELEPHANT STAMPEDE IN NYC’S BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK

New York City is the perfect place for urban fabulists like sculptor Joe Reginella, the creator of the new Brooklyn Bridge Elephant Stampede monument. Now on view in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the intricate bronze sculpture stands as an homage to the elephants killed in an imaginary stampede that crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, wound its way downtown and passed through the Holland Tunnel. A little under six feet tall, it shows three elephants running amok, trampling people underfoot

Read more  [contributed by Bob Treuber, NYSLTA]

Eventually mankind created a bathroom so stylish it fractured space and time.

Terrible Real Estate Agent Photos

Read more