Attom Data Solutions acquired Estated, a property data licensing company. Estated, whose database of information on millions of properties nationwide is used by several companies in mortgage and real estate, is the latest data company acquisition for Attom, which bought Home Junction in 2020 and GeoData Plus in 2021.
Boston National Title Agency (BN), an Incenter company, announced a new second mortgage and home equity line of credit (HELOC) solution. The BN platform, which incorporates a series of valuation products from sister company Incenter Appraisal Management (IAM) as well as insurance products such as flood insurance from Incenter Insurance Solutions, allows lenders to mix and match title, appraisal and insurance products for each loan type. As described by Boston National, “a jumbo may get a full title report and a full 1004 appraisal and a traditional wet-signing while a $24,000 HELOC may get an L&V (legal and vesting) report, a drive-by appraisal using IAM’s RemoteVal remote valuation platform and an IPEN signing.”
Private equity firm Knox Capital acquired Lenders Title Group (LTG), the title services business of First Horizon Corp. This acquisition combines LTG with two previous Knox investments, including Precision Title, to create a residential and commercial title company that combines LTG’s footprints in Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee with Knox’s existing market positions in Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
Freddie Mac announced enhancements to its manufactured-home and CHOICEHome mortgage solutions. Updates to the products offer expanded flexibility by allowing the sale of mortgages secured by manufactured homes on leasehold estates, provided certain requirements are met. Freddie also has provided clarified specificity around eligibility requirements for manufactured homes with its Affordable Seconds mortgage offering, and it has eliminated the requirement to obtain prior written approval to sell CHOICEHome mortgages.
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) launched temporary rate buydowns, a new offering which will allow independent mortgage brokers to give clients a lower interest rate and monthly payment at the beginning of their loan. Specifically, the program will lower a borrower’s interest rates by up to 2% for the first two years of their mortgage. UWM’s buydowns are available with 2-1 and 1-0 options for conventional primary and second-home purchases, as well as for primary home purchases using Federal Housing Administration and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs loans.
Better and data analytics company Palantir announced a new partnership, culminating in the launch of Tinman Marketplace, described as “the next evolution of Better’s proprietary loan platform.” According to a statement from Better, Tinman (which will be powered by Palantir’s Foundry operating system) will “help lead to better data-driven decisionmaking in the allocation of home lending” by coupling Better’s proprietary automated loan platform with Palantir’s big-data reach. The combination of the two fintechs’ specialties, Better said, will lead to leveraging more data beyond the typical underwriting criteria, expanding borrower evaluations to assessments of rental history, freelance income, student debt payments and other factors.
First American Data & Analytics, a division of First American Financial Corp., introduced Procision, a new automated valuation model (AVM) suite that uses a blended ensemble modeling approach to deliver more accurate real estate data. The suite includes three AVM solutions, each designed to meet the demands of different clients. Procision Premier is a lender-grade AVM, the Procision Power AVM can be embedded on client websites, and the Procision Direct AVM offers portfolio analysis and can be used to create targeted marketing campaigns. First American Data & Analytics runs Procision AVM valuations on every residential property in the U.S. each day, and the company also provides daily updates to the underlying data that fuels the Procision AVM suite.
