by koredesign | Apr 24, 2018 | LLT
Tennessee State legislature approves online notarization bill
Notaries are starting to put down their stamps and pick up a webcam. Every year, hundreds of millions of documents are notarized in the United States. Since the Roman Empire, notarizations have been done pretty much the same way: in person. Now, new technology and new laws are making it possible to skip the sometimes-problematic search for the notary stamp in favor of a video chat.
Notaries in the state of Tennessee will soon be allowed to perform online notarizations for signers nationwide after Tennessee State Legislature passed the remote notarization bill, empowering every Tennessee notary public to conduct notarizations online. With the overwhelming passage of HB 1794/SB 1758, the bill is now headed to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s desk to be signed into law. Tennessee can join the movement and soon bring an antiqued process of finding a notary into the digital era.
Once the bill is signed, Tennessee notaries will join their counterparts in Indiana, Virginia, Texas, and Nevada in being able to perform online notarizations nationwide. The process is clear-cut. First upload a document to an app or website and get connected with a notary by video, on a split screen; verify your identity by showing a government-issued photo ID, and the notary witnesses you signing your name on screen using your finger or mouse. Then, the notary adds their electronic signature and a digital version of a stamp or seal. The whole transaction is recorded and secured on the cloud in compliance with retention rules. Both the signer and the notary can get copies.
Some concerns about digitization have divided the notary industry and America’s 4 million notaries are split on the idea. “It’s the notary issue of the year,” says Bill Anderson, vice president of government affairs at the National Notary Association. “Allowing that appearance to take place via audio/video communication technology is certainly new and to some extent, untested. … We’re being cautious. But we are trying to accommodate those that think this is a good idea and to add some security to it.”
“Of course, there will always be those who prefer to get their documents notarized in person, if only to hear the old-school stamp of approval.”
Sources: Ben Lane, HousingWire.com, Tennessee notaries will soon be able to perform online notarizations nationwide
Lauren Silverman, All Tech Considered, Notaries are starting to put down the stamp and pick up the webcam
by koredesign | Feb 23, 2018 | LLT
There’s been a lot of buzz about online notaries and digital closings over the past year. While many states will start to consider online notary legislation, the fact remains there are four main ways closings can occur. Here’s a summary of the options:
Traditional Wet Signing: These closings are handled in-person and all of the documents are in paper format. The closing is handled with an in-office or mobile notary public signing with the buyers and sellers. They can also be conducted by what is called a mail-away, where the documents are mailed to the buyers and sellers, who must locate a public notary in their area and sign in their presence.
Hybrid E-closing: These closings are similar to the traditional closing in that they are handled in-person. Some of the documents are wet signed, while some are signed digitally with an e-signature. These are typically handed in-office or the mobile notary drives to meet the buyers and sellers.
In-person Digital E-closing: Terms for this type of closing have not been standardized yet in the industry. In this closing, the notary public is sitting face-to-face with the buyers and sellers, but 100 percent of the documents are signed with e-signatures. This can happen in the title agent’s office or the notary public can meet the buyers and sellers at a different location.
Online Notary E-closing: This type of closing is the newest version. It has many different names, but often referred to as online notary. You might also hear the terms webcam or remote used to describe this type of closing. What’s new here is that the notary public is not face-to-face with the signers. Instead the notary public appears before the buyers and sellers via some webcam or audio visual-technology. Because of that, all of the documents are digital and e-signed. Currently, only two states have legislation on the books that governs online notaries. Virginia and Montana allow for this type of closing in certain circumstances. Texas and Nevada passed online notary bills that go into effect in 2018. Several other states will consider online notary legislation in 2018 as well.
by koredesign | Jan 24, 2018 | LLT, News
Lawyers Land & Title Services, LLC announced the recent opening of its new office in Nashville, Tenn. Located on the third floor of the state-of-the-art Gulch Crossing building, Lawyers Land & Title Services is hopeful this expansion will better accommodate the real estate market in Davidson and surrounding counties.
The Gulch office will be an extension of the company’s headquarters in Murfreesboro, Tenn., meeting the increasing demand of real estate closing services in the metro area. This is the second office location for Lawyers Land & Title Services since its founding in 2010.
“We have investigated the possibility of opening a second location over the past year. After much thought, we have determined that a location in Nashville would best serve the needs of our customers,” said J.D. Kious, Lawyers Land & Title Services attorney and president. “This company was founded during the downturn in 2010, so our growth is reflective of growth in the market.”
The Gulch is a dynamic mixed-use LEED certified community in the heart of Nashville. The neighborhood was the first LEED ND neighborhood in the South with a strong focus on connectivity, walkability and public transportation. Conveniently located on the southwest border of Nashville’s Central Business District just two blocks from Music City Center, the vibrant urban development and redevelopment is home to the very best in urban living, office, retail, restaurant, entertainment venues and hospitality.
The addition of the Gulch office is part of a larger effort to streamline services provided by Lawyers Land & Title Services. It comes on the heels of the newly allocated residential and commercial divisions of the company within the last 18 months.
Lawyers Land & Title Services, LLC is a full service title company offering a wide range of real estate closing services throughout the state of Tennessee for clients of all types, including builders and developers, commercial property investors, lenders, individual residential property owners and first time home buyers.
by koredesign | Jan 22, 2018 | LLT, News
Loan approvals and mortgages could be delayed, but experts think the housing market would bounce back.
With a dispute in the Senate over the immigration program DACA still unresolved, the government shutdown continues for a third day on Monday morning after Congress’s failed attempts to pass a spending deal that would fund the government through mid-February.
A Senate vote on an agreement that would end the shutdown and fund the government for another three weeks is scheduled for noon ET Monday. Whether the plan will gain enough support from Democrats is unclear, according to CNN, but until business as usual resumes, homebuyers and sellers could be in store for headaches — but not any long-term setbacks.
During a shutdown, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) furlough large swaths of workers, significantly delaying mortgage approval until work resumes.
Banks and private lenders will operate as usual, housing experts told Inman News. But the mortgage applications they approve or deny include tax records and financials requiring certification. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite being government-sponsored enterprises, are not government agencies — and therefore are not affected.
At HUD, which oversees the Fair Housing Act, nearly all of the agency’s approximately 8,500 employees are prohibited from working during a shutdown, which puts a halt to all “meetings, visits and appearances” by HUD employees. Borrowers who apply for loans through the Federal Housing Administration (part of HUD) or the Department of Veterans Affairs will face delays.
National Association of Realtors President Elizabeth Mendenhall emphasized that a long-term shutdown could pose larger problems for the housing market and called on senators to vote in favor of a budget extension Friday.
On Thursday, House Republicans voted to extend a budget deadline past Friday, but without concessions on immigration, including permanent protection for so-called Dreamers in the federal DACA program, 45 Senate Democrats and five Senate Republicans voted against the measure, triggering the shutdown.
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by koredesign | Nov 14, 2017 | LLT, News
New feature also “rolling out gradually” for home sales
Zillow. Trulia. Realtor.com. Redfin. All household names in the real estate listings world, right?
Well, those companies now have some serious competition from a company that boasts an audience that dwarfs all of those sites put together – Facebook.
That’s right. Facebook is coming to real estate listings.
Now, anyone who’s “friends” with a real estate agent on Facebook is likely used to seeing real estate listings show up in their news feed, but it appears that Facebook has much bigger plans for real estate listings through its own platform.
Facebook announced last week that it is significantly expanding the real estate listings section on its Marketplace, which is Facebook’s attempt to take on Craigslist, eBay, and other e-commerce platforms.
And if Facebook’s previous history is any indication of its future successes, Marketplace will eventually blot out the e-commerce sun, just as Facebook already did with social media – as evidenced by Facebook’s monthly active user count of 2.07 billion.
According to information provided by Facebook, since the beginning of this year, search volume in the Marketplace tab has grown 300% globally.
And now, Facebook is bringing that audience to real estate listings.
Facebook currently allows individual homeowners to list their homes for sale on Marketplace. According to Facebook, the feature is “rolling out gradually” and is currently only available via the mobile app in the U.S.
And while the feature is “rolling out gradually” for home sales, Facebook is going full force into rental listings, via partnerships with Apartment List and Zumper.
Through the agreements, Marketplace users can now search through hundreds of thousands of rental units provided by Apartment List and Zumper, all while they’re on Facebook.
Facebook isn’t just dramatically increasing the number of rental listings on Marketplace, the social media monolith is also improving the capabilities of its platform.
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