Rising mortgage interest rates grab headlines, but that's not the only thing real estate professionals are adjusting to. Information security is also top of mind as regulators and lenders require title agents big & small to secure their data. Real estate brokers will also be impacted if they fail to comply with strict security measures. In this episode, FNF's Chuck Cain welcomes industry veteran James O'Donnell, President of Equity National Title which operates nationally.

Five years ago, Donald Strayer thought he'd bought a dream home for his extended family. It was on a pretty spot in Ohio's Appalachian mountain foothills, with room for him and his wife, his daughter's family, plus their horses and goats. And he could actually afford it.

FinCEN announced yesterday that, once again, it is extending the Geographic Targeting Order, or GTO, which requires U.S. title insurance companies to identify the natural persons behind so-called “shell companies” used in purchases of residential real estate not involving a mortgage. FinCEN also has expanded slightly the reach of the GTOs.

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Week Ending February 18, 2022

Chapter 712, Florida Statutes, the Marketable Record Title Act (“MRTA”), presents a mortal risk to Florida homeowners association, potentially rendering them unable to levy and collect assessments or otherwise enforce their governing documents.[1] Generally, MRTA extinguishes interests in a parcel of real property which are older than the “root of title” for the parcel – defined as the first deed or other instrument transferring ownership of the parcel which is at least thirty years old – unless an exception applies.

Over the past several years, many commentators, including members of this firm, have written extensively about the potential loss of recorded easement (or similar) rights due to the passage of time and lack of public notice. Recently, the alarm was raised because of specific provisions within the Wisconsin Statutes that were read to deem easements or recorded restrictions (created more than forty years ago) were possibly no longer enforceable.

The Washington Supreme Court recently remanded a declaratory action stemming from a racially restrictive covenant in a deed to comply with RCW 49.60.227, as amended by the Washington legislature during the 2021 legislative session, which permits a court to strike a racially restrictive, legally unenforceable covenant from the public records and eliminate the covenant from the title

A state judge has ruled that the intertidal zone belongs to beachfront property owners but the judge’s ruling didn’t specify what activities, if any, might be allowed there.

Threatened by development, five bodies of water are suing the State of Florida, making the unprecedented argument that nature has legal rights, too.

A local family will go to court Friday over its continuing fight over a piece of land in Aquinnah which the Kennedy family donated to Vineyard Conservation Society in 2013. Tanisha Gomes and her family say they are the rightful owners of that 5.7-acre property.

Officially declared as the “birthplace of aviation” and famously home to legendary aviators and astronauts, Ohio has long been recognized for its contributions to flight. With new and innovative developments in aviation technology, the state could soon be pioneers yet again in that exciting field

In a first of its kind trial, a defendant accused of negligently responding to a data breach was cleared of all liability by a jury last month. After two hours of deliberation, the jury rejected plaintiff’s claim that the defendant, a law firm, failed to meet its standard of care by not sufficiently analyzing its breached server, leaving the plaintiff, who was a client of the firm, responsible for approximately $1.3 million in data analysis and related legal bills.

A Romany gypsy has won a costly High Court battle to claim three fields earmarked for development by Milton Keynes Council.

Residents of the Zimbabwean town of Epworth are looking forward to receiving biometric land title deeds as the government in Harare hopes the move can help fight alarming fraud in the sector.

A new survey shows that many Americans are having a tough time getting along with a neighbor, whether it’s vibes, noise or rudeness. In fact, 23% of Americans have called the police because of their neighbors, according to the newest LendingTree survey.

Four decades ago, David Goddard founded Whatcom Land Title. When Colleen Baldwin began her career at the company four years later as a customer service representative, she could not have known that in less than 10 years, she and her husband would share company ownership with Goddard.

For agents interested in growing their business by expanding into multiple states, we’re here to make the process simple and profitable. We offer you one point of contact to streamline your options and solutions.

In central Bologna, there’s a street with no numbers called Via Mariano Tuccella. Hundreds of people live there, but you wouldn’t be able to find it on a map. Dozens of people, who may not even know each other, all live at the same address in Turin: 1 Via della Casa Comunale, while in Rome, more than 19,000 people live on Via Modesta Valenti.

Walter Orthmann of Brusque, Brazil doesn't have to work at the age of 100, but he wants to. It gives him a sense of purpose. And he's carried that sense for the last 84 years at RenauView, a textile manufacturer. He's done so since he was 15 years old, when he started on the factory floor. Now he's a sales manager.

A five-year odyssey for a cat named Dexter seems to have finally come to an end, after a long, covert stay at a prison was interrupted by his arrival onboard an offshore oil rig, which finally resulted in a call to animal services.

Financial crimes can be irresistible to the greedy and the desperate, and there have always been an awful lot of greedy or desperate people. Victor Lustig got away with so many schemes because he conned people who were willing to break the law themselves, so it would be a problem to report him or testify against him.

"Who wouldn't want to buy an island?" Marshall Mayer asks above the roar of the engine as the boat cuts through the still waters of the Caribbean Sea. Belize City is fast disappearing behind, as a group of mangrove-covered islands grows larger on the horizon. "And I don't know about you," says Mayer, "but I certainly can't afford to buy an island on my own!"

Read More [Contributed by Bill Collins, Frontier Abstract]