Sat.Aug 29, 2020 - Fri.Sep 04, 2020

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High home prices erase home-buyers’ increased purchasing power

Housing Wire

Home-buyer purchasing power increased 6.9% this July, meaning a homebuyer with a $2,500 monthly housing budget can afford a home priced $33,250 higher than a year ago, Redfin found , which it credited to historically low mortgage rates. But with home prices up 8.2% year over year in July, this home-buyer purchasing power is essentially canceled out, data from Redfin shows.

Buyers 545
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Cleaning, clutter and style: Do they affect appraised value?

Midtown Appraisal Group

The answer is…it depends. As an appraiser, I’m often asked some version of this question: “My house is a mess and I just found out they want to send the appraiser tomorrow. Do you think it’ll make a huge difference to the appraised value?” The standard, professional answer is, of course: “No, it won’t affect […].

Appraisal 157
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5 Tips to Get You Out of a Slump

McKissock

Whether you’re a seasoned real estate agent or a newly-licensed agent trying to get your business off the ground, you may find yourself in a slump from time to time. What do you do to overcome it? We sat down with national real estate coach Sherri Johnson to get her advice on how to get out of a slump. Click the video below to watch this insightful interview.

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4 Tips on How To Create a Gallery Wall

REX Real Estate

Whether you are a skilled photographer or art lover, building a gallery wall is…

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Leverage Trellis Court Data To Identify More Investment Opportunities

Finance teams find Trellis to be particularly effective in conducting comprehensive due diligence on both individuals and businesses. With our court data solution, financial experts can access critical litigation insights, making it an invaluable resource for informed decision-making in the financial sector.

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Why is the housing market thriving in a pandemic?

Housing Wire

The deadliest pandemic in more than a century has failed to derail the housing market because of the lowest mortgage rates ever recorded coupled with a shift in how people use their homes. “The buyers are coming in because of the low interest rates – that’s the No. 1 reason,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors said in an interview with HousingWire.

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How to Handle the Weird Stuff: Appraisal Methods from an Experienced Florida Appraiser

McKissock

In the past two blog posts in this series, I discussed the pros and cons of complex appraisal assignments and why today’s residential appraiser may want to consider specializing in “odd” or “atypical” assignments. In this post, I’ll give a few more examples of complex properties, and then I’ll talk about how to tackle them using nonstandard appraisal methods and techniques.

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The Top 5 Things Home Buyers Should Check Out Before Buying A Home

REX Real Estate

Homes sales have largely recovered since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and wide-spread…

Buyers 36
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As eviction moratoriums end, what will happen in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida and California?

Housing Wire

According to Census data, approximately 21% of renter households are behind on rent payment, and it’s estimated that up to 40 million renters could face eviction over the next few months after federal eviction moratoriums expired in late July. Now, states and localities are deciding if and when to end or extend eviction moratoriums. Today, eviction moratoriums are expiring in Atlanta and Pennsylvania.

Mortgage 545
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10 VA Loan Benefits You Need to Know in 2020

PennyMac

VA home loans have many well-known benefits, including low rates and the exciting combination of no down payment and no mortgage insurance. Lenders are able to offer veterans these excellent terms because VA home loans are backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition to major down payment flexibility, VA loans offer many more useful features that you may not know about.

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The Constructor's Digital Transformation Playbook: Reducing Risk With Technology

Speaker: Dylan Secrest

Construction projects are high-stakes operations where even minor inefficiencies can lead to costly delays, safety concerns, and budget overruns. Managing risk in construction has always been a challenge, but as projects grow in complexity, traditional methods no longer cut it. Enter Digital Transformation - a game changer approach that replaces inefficiency with AI-powered analytics, real-time monitoring, and automated workflows to proactively manage risk.

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FREE Webinar: Fannie Mae Q3 2020 Appraisal Update

McKissock

On Wednesday, September 23, 2020, McKissock Learning is hosting a FREE one-hour, non-credit Pro-Series webinar titled “Fannie Mae Q3 2020 Appraisal Update.” In this special interactive webinar, knowledgeable presenters from Fannie Mae’s Collateral Policy Team will share the latest policy updates impacting appraisers, share insights about appraisal quality and how it is measured by Collateral Underwriter ® (CU), and dispel some common myths pertaining to Fannie Mae’s appraisal policies.

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From Gatsby and the Roaring ‘20s – How Art Deco Became a Design Movement

REX Real Estate

When the clock struck midnight on Jan.

Design 36
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Housing’s V-shaped recovery is complete: What had to happen to get America back by Sept. 1

Housing Wire

Back in April when darkness was looking us straight in our eyes, I wrote this: “These are dark times. But even in dark times, we are preternaturally prepared to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We learned in human physiology class that the photoreceptors of the human eye can detect a single photon of light. While it may not be until nine or more photons hit the retina that we perceived dawn, we see before we can perceive.

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CFPB continues to bring actions against mortgage companies targeting veterans with deceptive ads

Housing Wire

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a consent order against two companies on Tuesday following recent investigations of mortgage companies that use deceptive mailers to advertise loans guaranteed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Those investigations have resulted in actions against six companies this summer. The most recent cases were those against Service 1st Mortgage, Inc. , and Hypotec Inc., which found the companies had sent consumers numerous mailers for VA-g

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Need Curated Pre-foreclosure Lists to Generate New Real Estate Leads? Trellis Has the Data!

Trellis is a state trial court research and analytics platform that provides Real Estate Professionals (Buyers, Foreclosure, Loan Modification, etc.) with LEADS on Pre-Foreclosures, Lis Pendes, Distressed Assets and more — to help uncover **new** opportunities and grow their business. The process is quick and easy — and all in real time. Trellis will supply you with a link to the relevant dockets, a Leads sheet and access to its UI where applicable.

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Black Knight acquires DocVerify to boost RON capabilities

Housing Wire

Black Knight has acquired DocVerify to boost its e-notarization capabilities. Black Knight announced the purchase of the privately held company on Thursday, without disclosing the terms of the transaction. “The acquisition helps accelerate Black Knight’s goal of digitizing the entirety of the real estate and mortgage continuum as DocVerify’s trusted and proven digital document verification capabilities are already seamlessly integrated with Expedite Close, Black Knight’s digital closing platform

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Blackstone gets back into the single-family rental game

Housing Wire

Blackstone Group , which blazed a trail for Wall Street in 2012 when it formed Invitation Homes and became the largest owner of single-family rental homes in America, has returned to a familiar watering hole. The financial firm is leading a syndicate of investors in a $300 million minority investment in Tricon Residential , which owns and manages more than 30,000 single family and multifamily rental homes in the U.S. and Canada.

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CFPB settles with seventh company for misleading ads targeting veterans

Housing Wire

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a consent order against mortgage broker and lender Accelerate Mortgage on Wednesday following recent investigations of mortgage companies that use deceptive mailers to advertise loans guaranteed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Accelerate’s investigation marks the seventh company this summer to settle with the CFPB for similar actions.

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People movers: realtor.com, Opendoor, Finance of America and FormFree

Housing Wire

realtor.com named Bob Evans vice president of industry relations, where he will lead the company’s long-standing efforts to engage and support its industry partners. This includes Realtor associations, MLSs, agents, brokers, lenders and title companies. Bringing 35 years of industry experience to his new positions, Evans said that he is “thrilled to move into this role at such a pivotal time in our industry and for the company.”.

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WESTprotect’s cybersecurity service now available on-demand

Housing Wire

WEST , a Williston Financial Group company, announced this week that its cybersecurity service WESTprotect.com , created to aid title and real estate agents as well as lenders from potential online risks and email fraud, is now available on an on-demand and self-serve basis. The site offers free sign-up for fraud alert warnings, risk reports, and the company’s cybersecurity help desk, WESTprotect 411 – an email-analysis subscription service that analyzes suspicious emails and reports back within

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Mortgage applications fall for the third week in a row

Housing Wire

Mortgage applications fell 2% last week, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, marking the third week of declines. The refinance index also fell 3% last week, however remained 40% higher than the same week one year ago. Despite 30-year fixed and 15-year fixed mortgage rates declining to near historical lows, both conventional and government refinancing activity fell last week, said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting.

Mortgage 468
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This is the single greatest factor standing in the way of RON

Housing Wire

“What is the single greatest factor standing in the way of remote online notarizations?” Even as I asked it, I knew the answer. “I can answer that in one word, and then I’ll explain.” Regulations. He’s going to say state regulations. I knew what the answer was, I just wanted to hear him say it. I was wrong. The rest of this content is for HW+ members.

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California Association of Realtors makes Zillow’s dotloop accessible to agents

Housing Wire

The California Association of Realtors on Monday made its standard forms directly integrated and available on the dotloop platform. Through this integration, CAR agents who use dotloop will no longer need to download and upload forms manually. The Zillow Group -owned online transaction and productivity optimization platform reduces complexity by replacing form creation, e-signatures and transaction management systems into a single end-to-end solution.

Realtors 458
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RE/MAX Holdings, Motto Mortgage acquire fintech startup wemlo

Housing Wire

RE/MAX Holdings and its mortgage franchise Motto Mortgage announced Tuesday the acquisition of wemlo , a mortgage processing startup, for an undisclosed amount. Dustin Morton, vice president of product and strategy at Motto Mortgage, recognized wemlo’s potential right away. “Our network has grown so fast, and we’re always kind of hungry for more solutions when it comes to processing,” Morton told HousingWire.

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RealPage acquires smart apartment startup Stratis IoT

Housing Wire

Proptech company RealPage has entered the smart building space. The company paid an undisclosed amount to acquire STratis IoT , a property management tech firm based in Philadelphia. Stratis IoT connects smart apartment systems and devices into one app, integrating over 100 of the largest providers of smart apartment devices and systems. “Stratis IoT positions RealPage to enter a burgeoning market for smart access control, smart home devices and revolutionary new bulk Wi-Fi networks,” Steve Winn

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The week the jobless numbers broke

Housing Wire

The federal government’s jobless data that tracks new claims for unemployment benefits tumbled 13% last week to the lowest reading since mid-March – before schools, offices and stores closed amid the worst pandemic in more than a century. It’s good news for a number tracked in the mortgage and housing industries as a gauge of America’s home-buyer power , but it comes with a catch: The Department of Labor changed the way it computes the seasonally adjusted number and it didn’t apply it retroactiv

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How LOs are dealing with an explosion of activity in NYC’s suburbs

Housing Wire

The banks need bodies. Documents need to be collected, credit scores need to be checked, appraisers need to be arranged. There’s a lot of mortgages to be processed. Across its mortgage footprint, “ Citizens Bank has hired close to 100 underwriters, processors and loan officers this year to keep up with the demand and further their commitment in the mortgage retail space,” said Ace Watanasuparp, who heads residential lending for Citizens in New York City.

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Borrowers want consistency through the lending process – Here’s how to give them that

Housing Wire

This year’s low rates have led to high loan volumes, and lenders overwhelmed with applications are looking for the best way to handle the increased workload. Scaling up staffing can help, but it can be difficult to find enough people to take care of the manual processes to keep up with the demand. And hiring in a wave of high volumes can mean layoffs when the market is less robust.

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[PULSE] Are potential new agents holding off on entering the market?

Housing Wire

An analysis of recent real estate licensing trends released by Agent Advice this week reveals that licensing rates are beginning to recover from a precipitous drop caused by COVID-19 in March and April. Guest Author, Jasen Edwards. Data pulled from California, Texas, and Florida (which together capture 36% of real estate licensees in the United States) indicates that prospective real estate agents, and the real estate industry as a whole, experienced a collective slow-down in March and April as

Agents 435
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Digital lender Beeline goes on a hiring spree

Housing Wire

Digital lender Beeline plans to hire over 300 new employees total by September 2021 – with over 100 new positions opening in Charlotte, North Carolina and Providence, Rhode Island, the company said Monday. After its initial launch by industry veterans Nick Liuzza, Peter Gonzalez, Jess Kennedy, Greg Ellis and Jay Stockwell in May with $7.6 million in funding, the once 30-person company said it is looking to expand beyond its Northeastern home base.

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IMBs nearly triple their net gain per loan in second quarter

Housing Wire

Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of $4,548 on each loan they originated in the second quarter of 2020 – nearly tripling the average first-quarter gain of $1,600 per loan, according to a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Average production volume rose from $728 million per company in the first quarter to an average of $1.02 billion per company in the second quarter.

Mortgage 418
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Cannae and Senator deliver written consent to vote on replacement of CoreLogic directors

Housing Wire

[ Update: The story has been updated to include a comment from a CoreLogic spokesperson. The subhead has also been updated to reflect the views of both firms as it had originally stated that CoreLogic was bound to hold a special meeting as a result of the written consent. ]. Cannae Holdings and Senator Investment Group announced on Monday that written consent to call a Special Meeting of Shareholders was delivered to CoreLogic for consideration of director nominations previously introduced by th

Investors 418
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Hurricane Laura wallops areas with high mortgage delinquency rates

Housing Wire

Insurers will have to fork over billions of dollars to pay for damage that property owners incurred from Hurricane Laura last week. Data and analytics provider CoreLogic estimated that residential and commercial property damage in Louisiana and Texas could come in anywhere between $8 billion and $12 billion, with the vast majority of the damage coming in Louisiana.

Mortgage 418