"political junkie"

The New York head of nationwide title insurance company First American Financial Corp. has left under a cloud of suspicion over his conduct as an executive.

Steven Napolitano, the president, chairman and CEO of First American Title Insurance Company of New York, the wholly owned New York City office, left his postFeb. 15 after speaking with companyhonchos who flew in from Santa Ana, Calif., headquarters.

Additionally, a female executive is currently on "administrative leave," sources said. She declined comment to a Post reporter.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/cloud_of_suspicion_FRYyERal9p6OhytRrHxm3I#ixzz1EzEdQecv

the conversation sure has changed

Every once in awhile I notice that the conversation has changed and I am so thankful.  For the last two decades every trade publication for the title insurance industry was all about joint ventures.  Every course offered was another way to beat RESPA and form some sort of affiliation.

I must say I don't miss looking at all that stuff.

At least if it's happening, it's happening in the dark where it should be because from a consumer's perspective, at least in my opinion it's mostly part of the dark side of this business.

"During this period we request that members do not commence foreclosures in MERS' name. If a member determines that it will commence a foreclosure in MERS’ name during this 90-day period, two weeks advance notice must be given to MERS to permit verification of the appointment and current status of the certifying officer proposed to participate in the foreclosure. No foreclosure may be processed in MERS’ name without first obtaining this verification."

Read more on Housing Wire.

just deactivated my free Closing.com listing

I thought Closing.com was a nice platform for folks to find title agents until they put together a program to auto-fill Good Faith Estimates for mortgage lenders.

As I expressed to Dan, the nice fellow who called today from Closing.com, they are giving lenders a false sense of security and basically creating a platform which is about as reliable as ROBO-signing foreclosure plants.

Why is it that my beloved mortgage industry has given up on using human brain power?  Why must everything be automated and robo-processed?

It's okay if you never expect the consumer to use the company whose fees you robotically quote, but what if they do and the fees are wrong?  The lender eats the fee and Closing.com goes after the title agent who hasn't really had a chance to give a quote because Closing.com has robotically quoted figures on their behalf.

I guess I'll never really get that.

one of the soldiers of disaster apologizes

I was 22 years old when I decided to go into mortgage sales. I was finishing an undergraduate degree in criminal justice and had decided that I didn't want to go to law school as I had originally intended. I didn't have rich parents, and had never made any significant money, so I set out to find the highest-paying job someone with my limited qualifications could find.

At the time, my girlfriend's best friend was dating a guy who worked in mortgages. He drove a BMW, had nice clothes and carried himself well. Over drinks one night, I kept quizzing him on his success, and he told me all I needed to do was read a book or two and have some sort of people skills and I could be making six figures. Hearing those words was like a dog whistle to a middle-class immigrant who had only worked restaurant and construction jobs until that point. As it turned out, the bar for entry into the mortgage world was even lower than reading a book or two.

Read more on Salon.

Tell that to my husband and all the other honest mortgage persons whose careers you destroyed.  Punk.