July 2025

Former mortgage loan officer faces fraud, forgery counts

An Indiana loan officer faces a dozen felony counts after being accused of altering borrower information while working as an originator for two different lenders.  State officials filed charges against Laura Mickler in Delaware County circuit court, located in the Central Indiana town of Muncie, in early July. She faces four felony counts each of […]

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Blend, after Title365 sale, expands partnership with Doma

A little more than a month after it agreed to sell all of Title365 to Covius Services, Blend Labs is entering into “an expanded partnership” with Doma to use its artificial intelligence-powered instant decisioning technology. “This partnership with Doma reinforces our core focus: delivering innovative, software-driven solutions that create real value for our customers,” said

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FHFA’s Vantagescore move changes math on mortgage insurance

Even if conforming mortgage lenders were ready to adopt VantageScore 4.0 tomorrow, several industry players warn that infrastructure and policy alignment are still lacking — and that the road to implementation could be longer and bumpier than it seems. For example, they need to be certain the private mortgage insurers are capable of providing coverage

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Wells Fargo sued for not disclosing fees during loan origination

A California borrower is accusing Wells Fargo of concealing for more than a decade that it improperly charged customers certain origination-related fees.  The issue surfaced in 2022 when the bank sent “cryptic notices” to borrowers stating it had incorrectly assessed float fees during the loan origination process, according to a federal lawsuit filed in California

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Judge dismisses Maryland appraisal discrimination case and defamation countersuit

A federal judge has dismissed the claims of both the plaintiffs and defendants in an appraisal discrimination lawsuit that garnered national attention when it was filed in 2022. Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott — Maryland homeowners who are Black — sued appraiser Shane Lanham, his company 20/20 Valuations and mortgage lender loanDepot for allegedly undervaluing

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Real Brokerage adds Coastline, a top San Diego team

Coastline Real Estate Group, a 13-agent real estate team based in San Diego County, California, has joined The Real Brokerage. The team is led by Raymond Fraser and Shaylie Gilliland, who previously worked together on one of California’s top-ranked real estate teams. Since founding Coastline in late 2020, the group has closed more than $200

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Realtors Relief Foundation sends $500K to Texas flood victims

The nonprofit Realtors Relief Foundation (RRF) has allocated $500,000 to assist residents in south central Texas following recent floods that took the lives of more than 130 people and displaced families across the region. The funding — distributed through Texas Realtors and eight local associations — will be used to help affected residents cover housing

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Phillip Cantrell’s book offers blueprint for real estate entrepreneurship

Veteran entrepreneur Phillip Cantrell distills four decades of hard-won business wisdom into his newly released book, “Failing My Way to Success: Lessons from 42 Years of Winning (and Losing) in Business,” which officially launched July 15. The founder and CEO of Benchmark Realty — who sold the company to United Real Estate in 2020 —

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Logan Finance promotes Dave Weatherford to TPO executive role

Nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) lender Logan Finance Corp. on Thursday announced the promotion of Dave Weatherford to Executive Vice President of TPO Production, effective immediately. The promotion follows Logan Finance’s launch of its new Open Road product series, announced in June. The series, which expands upon Logan’s preexisting non-QM offerings, involves seven specialized Non-QM mortgage solutions designed

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PAVE task force 2.0? Senate Democrat introduces appraisal bias legislation

The Trump administration has “effectively disbanded” the interagency Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) task force, but a Democratic senator wants to revive it. Raphael Warnock of Georgia introduced the Appraisal Modernization Act on Thursday. The legislation seeks to address systemic bias in the appraisal process, effectively writing into law many of the measures the

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