Scaling from Freelancer to Business Owner

The top female loan originator in the mortgage industry logged $186.5 million in dollar volume over the course of 2024. View the full article

Hartford, Connecticut, Rochester, New York, and Worcester, Massachusetts, headed the list of the 100 largest metro areas in the country, according to Realtor.com. View the full article

Only 20% of the Top Producers in the National Mortgage News survey were under 40, while almost half were between 41 and 50, and 30% even older. View the full article

Residents in more than half of U.S. counties need greater than one-third of income to successfully manage major housing costs, according to new Attom research. View the full article

Homeownership increased the most in Connecticut between 2019 and 2024. View the full article

The activist investor is calling on Costar to exit its residential real estate businesses to concentrate on commercial. View the full article

As the risk of a recession rises, commercial real estate loans remain a major concern for banks and industry participants. One observer asked: "Is '25 the year where sellers start to capitulate, call a loser a loser, and move on?" View the full article

Titl hopes to standardize and connect property records through a centralized, digitized U.S. registry, which would lead to reduced closing times and costs. View the full article

Jonathan Yasko pleaded guilty to diverting monies in real estate transactions to cover unrelated closings, and to pay for his own cars and personal travel. View the full article

State regulators and attorneys general could be picking up the gauntlet on anti-kickback provision enforcement, especially in the mid-Atlantic states. View the full article

The law, set to go into effect later this year, was introduced to prevent potential money laundering in all-cash purchases made by companies or trusts. View the full article

The increase in refinance originations in the fourth quarter trickled down to the title insurers, which reported year-over-year gains in new orders. View the full article

The title industry sustained improvement first seen last year, with second-quarter premium totals up on both a quarterly and annual basis, ALTA said. View the full article

The title insurance industry, highly dependent on mortgage origination volume, recovered after watching volume fall 31% in 2023 and 16% in 2022. View the full article

April was a mixed bag for title companies, executives said on earnings calls, but some are expecting a stronger market the rest of the year. View the full article

Federal Reserve officials want to see how exactly new trade policies impact the U.S. economy before adjusting interest rates. Markets and monetarists have different ideas about what that might look like. View the full article

More homeowners are willing to take out a HELOC versus three years ago, but a knowledge gap remains around the use cases for the product, MeridianLink said. View the full article

While some international purchasers are reluctant to buy in the U.S. right now, interest in investment properties still abounds, the CEO of Waltz said. View the full article

Toll Brothers Inc. fell short of analysts' estimates for quarterly orders, signaling that fewer people are signing contracts to build homes as high prices and economic uncertainty hold some buyers back. View the full article

ETHZilla partnered with Zippy to bring manufactured home chattel loans on-chain as tokenized real-world assets. View the full article

The head of operations at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and two C-suite leaders at the government-sponsored enterprise are out, according to Semafor. View the full article

Banosian will work with Victor Ciardelli, who remains as the president and CEO of the Chicago-based parent, Rate Cos., overseeing 15 businesses. View the full article

The partnership between the customer contact software provider and the operator of the Empower loan origination system was announced nearly one year ago. View the full article

The Troy, Michigan-based lender and servicer faces at least seven lawsuits over a hack in June allegedly perpetrated by a known ransomware gang. View the full article

Originators of the clean energy loans will have to follow stricter lending laws, a move that program administrators say will hike costs and reduce funding. View the full article