First American Title Insurance Company, a provider of title insurance and settlement services and the largest subsidiary of First American Financial Corporation, and  Taylor Morrison Home Corporation, a leading national homebuilder and developer, through Taylor Morrison Home Funding, today announced they have completed 500 hybrid eClosings using First American’s eClosing solution. The hybrid eClosings took place in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida and Texas.

In a hybrid eClosing, home buyers can review and eSign many real estate transaction closing documents from a computer at home or on a mobile device in advance of the closing appointment, while some documents must be wet signed in person at the appointment.

“After more than 500 completed hybrid eClosings, we’re consistently seeing closing appointments reduced to an average of 20 minutes and home buyers are grateful for the ability to preview documents in advance and to have a shorter, more convenient signing event,” said Joe Tavarez, president at First American Title’s Homebuilder Services Division. “Equally important, lenders appreciate the ability to offer home buyers the convenience of a hybrid eClosing with minimal process changes and no additional fees. We expect to aggressively ramp up hybrid eClosing transaction volume in the months ahead.”

[adbutler zone_id="325884" type="asyncjs1.1" ]

[adbutler zone_id="325888" type="asyncjs1.1" ]

First American offers hybrid eClosing through its eClosing solution for no additional settlement fee to homebuilders, their lender partners or home buyers. With First American’s eClosing solution, First American facilitates the digital settlement process and provides title insurance. The company also maintains the flexibility to support homebuilders and lenders that prefer to use their own third-party eClosing solution.

“We can offer our customers a new level of service, transparency and peace of mind by allowing them to preview their closing documents in advance of the close date. The speed and simplicity of e-signing exceeds customer expectations as they complete the final steps in their home buying journey,” said Tawn Kelley, President of Financial Services and Executive Vice President at Taylor Morrison.

First American’s eClosing solution includes a mobile-friendly interface, consumer document preview, digital scheduling for mobile notary meetings, consumer appointment confirmation, and eSignatures for hybrid eClosings. The solution will also manage “eVault-ready” loan documents, including fully executed eNotes, and is ready to support a lender’s MERS eRegistry and eVaulting workflows.

First American’s Guide to eClosing and eSigning Real Estate Transactions provides helpful information, infographics and background on the shift toward digital settlement, including the benefits and different types of eClosings, as well as a state-by-state guide to remote online eClosing.

https://youtu.be/Pf4ZLFp1O_0

DEAR BRIAN,
I am struggling trying to meet new agents and hoped you might have some suggestions on how I can meet them. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Jody B.
Arkansas

Dear Jody,
Thanks so much for your question. I get various versions of this question regularly since it is such a stumbling block for many originators.

Let me start by just saying that the way you meet an agent is critical to the success of the relationship. I realize many advocate just calling and begging. Some even provide slick scripts for you to use.

[caption id="attachment_11630" align="alignright" width="185"] Brian Sacks[/caption]

But the reality is that the agents need a good originator as much as we need them. PLEASE DON’T EVER FORGET THAT ONE IMPORTANT POINT!

So to be clear I am not a fan of dialing and begging. Trust me, that’s all I did during the first 10 years of my career but the industry is much different today. It’s actually almost impossible to walk into an office, and if you do the agents aren’t generally there anyway right?

Here are a few suggestions you can implement today.

1. Join your local Board of Realtors and get active.
   This will allow you to meet agents as a peer.
2. Teach classes at your Board of Realtors.
   This will allow them to see you as an expert and ask to meet with you .
3. Ask your current agents to introduce you to their co-workers.
4. Speak and build relationships with listing agents on your current deals.
   Call them and introduce yourself. Then update them weekly on the status of the file. Then call them on approval and the day of closing and ask to meet.
5. The best way however, is to generate your very own leads that you can get pre-approved and then hand over to them.Jody, I hope this helps and please let me know how this works out for you.

Brian will be coving this topic and others on May 15^th   in a special free webinar. You can grab a seat here https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2926945430822811651

Brian Sacks is a branch manger and originator with HomeBridge Financial in Owings Mills Maryland. He is also the author of 48 Proven Ways To Immediately Close More Loans and the founder of http://toporiginatorsecrets.com

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI) dipped 1.5 points in April to 88.3, offsetting some of the prior month's 5.5 point jump. A decrease in the "Good Time to Buy" component helped drive the index lower, despite another supportive mortgage rate outlook from consumers. The net share of respondents expecting mortgage rates to go down over the next 12 months has risen a total of 12 percentage points over March and April.

"Households remain upbeat about economic activity but have more mixed attitudes toward the housing market," said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae. "While home selling confidence remains strong and more consumers on net expect mortgage rates to decline over the next year, respondents walked back some of their buying optimism from March. Improving perceptions of income gains and a softening home price growth outlook should help support housing demand. However, increasing expectations among consumers that mortgage rates will continue to be favorable for some time will likely gain additional support following last week's Fed meeting – and may also be reducing their urgency to buy."

HOME PURCHASE SENTIMENT INDEX – COMPONENT HIGHLIGHTS

Fannie Mae's 2019 Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) decreased in April by 1.5 points to 88.3. The HPSI is down 3.4 points compared with the same time last year.

• The net share of Americans who say it is a good time to buy a home decreased 8 percentage points to 14%. This component is down 15 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of those who say it is a good time to sell a home remained unchanged at 43%. This component is down 2 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of those who say home prices will go up decreased 2 percentage points to 36%. This component is down 13 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of Americans who say mortgage rates will go down over the next 12 months increased 5 percentage points to -40%. This component is up 8 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of Americans who say they are not concerned about losing their job decreased 6 percentage points to 74%. This component is down 2 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of those who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago increased 2 percentage points to 22%. This component is up 4 percentage points from the same time last year.

[adbutler zone_id="325884" type="asyncjs1.1" ]

[adbutler zone_id="325888" type="asyncjs1.1" ]

ABOUT FANNIE MAE'S HOME PURCHASE SENTIMENT INDEX

The Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) distills information about consumers' home purchase sentiment from Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey® (NHS) into a single number. The HPSI reflects consumers' current views and forward-looking expectations of housing market conditions and complements existing data sources to inform housing-related analysis and decision making. The HPSI is constructed from answers to six NHS questions that solicit consumers' evaluations of housing market conditions and address topics that are related to their home purchase decisions. The questions ask consumers whether they think that it is a good or bad time to buy or to sell a house, what direction they expect home prices and mortgage interest rates to move, how concerned they are about losing their jobs, and whether their incomes are higher than they were a year earlier.

ABOUT FANNIE MAE'S NATIONAL HOUSING SURVEY

The most detailed consumer attitudinal survey of its kind, Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey (NHS) polled approximately 1,000 Americans via live telephone interview to assess their attitudes toward owning and renting a home, home and rental price changes, homeownership distress, the economy, household finances, and overall consumer confidence. Homeowners and renters are asked more than 100 questions used to track attitudinal shifts, six of which are used to construct the HPSI (findings are compared with the same survey conducted monthly beginning June 2010). As cell phones have become common and many households no longer have landline phones, the NHS contacts 70 percent of respondents via their cell phones (as of January 2018). For more information, please see the Technical Notes. Fannie Mae conducts this survey and shares monthly and quarterly results so that we may help industry partners and market participants target our collective efforts to stabilize the housing market in the near-term, and provide support in the future. The April 2019 National Housing Survey was conducted between April 1, 2019 and April 23, 2019. Most of the data collection occurred during the first two weeks of this period. Interviews were conducted by PSB, in coordination with Fannie Mae.