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About a year ago, RE/MAX agent Ken Flaspohler took on what he said is the most exciting luxury listing he’s ever had. Hidden somewhere in rural Kansas and nestled 15 stories below the ground, the listing consists of condos constructed

Real estate agent safety has been a concern for years, as the job requires showing empty homes or homes occupied by others, and meeting new people, often alone. As September is Realtor Safety Month, the National Association of Realtors has

Mortgage platform SimpleNexus has tapped Cathleen Schreiner Gates to become its next company president. Schreiner Gates, a technology veteran with more than three decades of experience, joined SimpleNexus’ board of directors in April 2020. Between 2015 and 2019, she served

There are 3.7 million U.S. homeowners with mortgages in forbearance this week, down 22% from May’s peak of 4.7 million, Black Knight said in a report on Friday. The total weekly drop was 66,000 loans, a slower pace than the

Exactly one week after Ellie Mae was officially acquired by Intercontinental Exchange, Ellie Mae president and CEO Jonathan Corr announced his retirement on Friday, and announced that the company’s chief operating officer, Joe Tyrrell, would succeed him as president of

Opendoor, the largest instant home buying platform in the country, could debut on the public market at a $5 billion valuation, according to a new report. Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital is in talks to use one of his blank-check companies,

The second quarter was a tough one on iBuyers, as only 0.1% of the homes sold across 418 metros — only 880 homes total — were purchased by top iBuyers Redfin, Zillow, Opendoor and Offerpad, according to a report by

Even with refinancings driving a record $1.1 trillion in originations in the second quarter and testing the limits of lenders’ capacity, LOs, mortgage executives and economists say all the conditions are right for a string of even bigger quarters.  According

Zillow and Redfin are among the companies that are signing on to The Board Challenge, a pledge to add a Black member to their board of directors within one year. Rolled out this week, the Board Challenge is part of

Mortgage credit in August was the tightest in more than six years as a weak economy prompted lenders to tighten standards, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report on Thursday. The group’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index fell 4.7% to

As the mortgage industry continues to navigate record-low interest rates in the midst of a pandemic, many companies are seeing tech opportunities, and rising up to modernize outdated processes in order to keep up with demand. “For [mortgage servicers and

Former Vice President Joe Biden has proposed a $15,000 tax credit to help first-time homebuyers purchase a property. As is typical for campaign proposals from either party, the details remain to be fleshed out. And before any tax credit would

In honor of the 2020 HW Insiders list that was announced on Monday exclusively for HW+ members, HousingWire interviewed Dean Kirchen, senior vice president of WFG Default Services at WFG National Title Insurance Company, to get his insight on the

The Zillow listing for 3913 Pirates Beach Circle in Galveston, Texas highlights the “incredible water views of Marina Boulevard Lake,” and praises the home’s recently remodeled kitchen and original hardwood floors. For just $244,000, the waterfront home is “a must

It was almost midnight on Aug. 12, when Matt Rasetta received a text message from one of his loan officers: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced a 0.5% adverse-market fee. The owner of Superior Rate Mortgage of New

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Wednesday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would continue to buy qualified loans in forbearance until Sept. 30, extending the previous deadline of Aug. 31. The GSEs will also extend other loan flexibilities

As the nation grapples with the effects of an ongoing pandemic, Mother Nature has shown little mercy as wildfires have been burning in parts of Northern California since last week and residents of the Gulf Coast face evacuation orders with

Under normal circumstances, the disastrous economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic would lead us to expect a massive wave of foreclosures.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country entered a recession and the GDP is expected to fall by

MAXEX, which last month re-introduced its Jumbo Express loan program, announced today that it is has been approved as a direct seller to Fannie Mae and is expanding its conforming loan program. MAXEX’s Chairman and CEO Tom Pearce announced the

As fires and a hurricane threaten communities across the U.S. this week, residents of low-income housing are at an especially high risk of financial and other loss resulting from the natural disasters, the Urban Institute has shown. For one community

In January, our team at Knox Financial felt like we had the wind at our backs. Knox was approaching its first full year in business, and every month more homeowners and landlords were putting their properties onto our platform that

The last two times Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac instituted an adverse-market fee to compensate for a riskier lending environment, during the run-up to the financial crisis more than a dozen years ago, lenders got plenty of warning. The announcements

Despite mortgage rates that continue to hover around 3%, mortgage applications fell 6.5% last week, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Associations. As the industry continued its dialogue regarding the proposed refinance fee, the refinance index fell 10%

From retail to restaurants, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken out tens of thousands of businesses nationwide. But minority-owned companies have fared much worse than their white counterparts, largely due to limited access to capital. The number of active business owners