Two Colorado-based title companies purchased by Fidelity National Financial in 2008 will be merged into its Fidelity National Title subsidiary, the company said in a statement Monday.

If the allegations made by Allen County Indiana prosecutors are true, former Indiana University basketballer Todd Leary has a lot of explaining to do regarding his role in the disappearance of over $2.7 million in funds that was supposed to be used to pay off the mortgages of 15 Fort Wayne Indiana homebuyers and refinancers.

With the very high number of foreclosures, there are a lot of good deal to be had by investors looking to make a quick profit from flipping a home.  However, if the buyer is using FHA financing, the investor had to hold the property for at least 90 days before he could flip it.  That has changed with a new announcement from HUD.

Amid important legal cases involving Notaries, and with liability and compliance issues becoming a major concern for businesses and governments, the National Notary Association has published a much-anticipated revision of its Model Notary Act — the landmark model that, for 40 years, has grown in importance as a guide for lawmakers to improve standards of care for Notaries.

One striking indicator of the mortgage industry’s change of focus may be that the accurate valuation of distressed properties will be a critical path to success for many in 2010 and beyond.

Todd C. Leary, a former Indiana University basketball player who played on a team that advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1992, was arrested and booked into a Fort Wayne, Indiana jail Thursday night on charges that he was involved in a scheme to misappropriate over a million dollars of funds that were supposed to be held in escrow.

First American Valuation and Property Solutions, a subsidiary of the First American Corporation, today announced its new valuation service, the Appraiser-Validated Price Opinion.

A recent article on Source of Title, Abstractors Should Be Watching New Legislation Regulating the Appraisal Industry, examined the appraisers accomplishments in seeking protections from the practices of appraisal management companies (AMC) at the federal level.  But some aren't waiting for federal legislation.  The Colorado senate has introduced a bill that would protect appraisers' rights to prompt payment and full disclosure of the fees charged by middlemen, among other protections.

A report released yesterday shows that delinquency rates on U.S. mortgages surpassed 10% at the end of 2009-- the highest level of delinquency so far in the housing recession.

Fidelity National Financial, the largest title insurer in the United States, posted its fourth quarter and annual results yesterday, showing quarterly and annual profits that reversed losses of a year ago.

Just a friendly suggestion to any crooked title agents who might be tempted to divert escrow funds into personal accounts:  avoid making your local county prosecutor one of your victims.

Fourth quarter 2009 commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations were 12 percent higher than during the same period last year and 15 percent higher than during the third quarter of 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations.

Federal officials have charged mortgage broker David Wehrs, Sr., age 54, of Annapolis, Maryland, with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud investors and financial institutions of approximately $2.3 million.

Robert Reeder  has been named vice president, national business development at Stewart National Title Services in Atlanta, Georgia; and Linda St. Clair has been named vice president, strategic account manager for Stewart Lender Services.

A catastrophic decline in housing prices in Florida has turned the attention of state legislators towards all aspects of the real estate industry-- including title insurance.  At issue are statutory title insurance pricing rules which have frozen rates since 1992, and a regulatory framework which has split oversight of the title industry between two agencies.