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🕵️♂️Underworld Intel
📄 The Title Work Behind Truist Park
Amanda shares the behind-the-scenes story of how Callaway Title became involved in the Atlanta Braves’ move to Cobb County and the development of what became Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta. The project required far more than ordinary acquisition work, including confidential land purchases and the relocation of a major Colonial Pipeline easement. It’s a rare look at the kind of complicated, high-stakes title work happening underneath a project most people only ever see as a stadium and entertainment district. Watch the story on YouTube.
🏦 A Philadelphia Bank Failed. The Liens Didn’t.
Pennsylvania regulators closed Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank on August 21, with another institution assuming its deposits and substantially all assets. For title teams, the wrinkle is simple: loans, liens and payoff obligations survive the bank. When ownership or servicing changes mid-transaction, confirming who can issue a payoff or release becomes part of the file—and a legitimate transition can also make fraudulent “updated instructions” more believable. - Curtesy of Mark Nemetz, Residential Mortgage/Title Consultant
💾 When Being Offline Is a Feature: Romania Land Registry Attack Shows the Value of Local Record Security
A cyberattack disrupted Romania’s centralized land-record system, and the Land Title Association of Mississippi noticed the awkward upside of less-centralized local records: one attack cannot take down everything at once. The larger lesson is business continuity. If your recorder, search system or e-recording platform disappears for days instead of hours, does your operation have an alternate path—or just a refresh button?
🐐Wicked Trends & Forces🌳
The patterns worth paying attention to…
Three housing numbers look reassuring at first glance.
They are not telling the whole story.
This week, we’re looking at what’s hiding underneath them—and why title people should care before those shifts start showing up in the file.
👀 Things Wandering Toward Your Workflow
New tools, vendor launches, and tech experiments making their way toward the closing table.
👀 Get on the Workflow Watchlist
🤖 First American Gives 500 Sales Reps an AI Sidekick
First American has rolled out Salesforce Agentforce to an initial 500 sales reps, with five AI-assisted workflows built around the company’s own sales playbook and CRM data. The interesting part isn’t “AI does sales.” It’s what they chose to automate: pre-call research that previously meant checking four systems and could take 30+ minutes, account and relationship summaries, post-meeting notes, pipeline analysis, and proposed CRM updates that still require human approval. First American says it is targeting a 30–40% productivity gain. Salesforce’s case study offers a surprisingly specific look at what AI-assisted title sales actually looks like in production —and where First American is deliberately keeping a human in control.
🎧 A 1031 Podcast Your Commercial Team May Actually Want to Bookmark
First American Exchange Company launched The 1031 Brief, a monthly podcast aimed at investors and the professionals helping them navigate exchanges—including title and escrow teams. Early episodes cover 1031 basics, market conditions and exchange planning, with future episodes promising transaction scenarios and expert conversations. This is less “new workflow technology” than a useful client-conversation resource: something commercial teams can use to sharpen their own 1031 knowledge or share with investors who need to understand the process before everyone is staring down an identification deadline. Listen to The 1031 Brief here.
Did your email cut off this newsletter? Be sure to read to the end.
⚖️Legal
National
🧭 Federal Regulators Are Stepping Back. The Compliance Map Is Getting More Complicated.
The federal retreat from aggressive supervision does not mean mortgage compliance is getting simpler. Dodd Frank Update reports that state regulators are increasingly filling the space, leaving financial institutions to reconcile federal priorities with a growing patchwork of state expectations. Title agencies tied closely to lender compliance should expect more—not fewer—questions about state-specific procedures, documentation and vendor controls.
🧾 1099-S Filing Is Moving. January 1 Is Closer Than It Looks.
The IRS is retiring FIRE for 1099-S filing and moving submissions to IRIS beginning January 1, 2027. SoftPro’s transition notice says its Pro1099 users will stay in the existing workflow, with both CSV and electronic filing options planned. Even if your software vendor is handling the plumbing, this belongs on the year-end checklist now—January is a lousy time to discover that the process responsible for reporting every seller transaction has changed.
A few federal moves this week look routine until you ask what actually changed.
One alters the force of an existing fraud rule. Another changes how regulators decide what deserves escalation. A third removes federal backing from a lending tool without actually killing it. And one housing-policy fight just got stopped in court.
The details are where this gets interesting.
🔒Reserved for Members Upgrade here.
State
One state changed what can sit behind a brand-new legal description. Another is redrawing the boundaries around transaction coordinators. Florida created a new ownership structure that can show up in the chain, and Utah rewrote the contract everyone will be working from.
🔒 Unlock the state news before one of these changes shows up in your search, your contract, or your closing instructions.
Claim Stories/Court Stories
Two cases this week hinge on a deceptively simple question: when something looks wrong in the title history, how much does that defect actually change?
One problem mattered less than you might expect. Another survived a transaction many buyers assume wipes the slate clean.
💬 Join the Conversation
A reader raised a deceptively simple question under our recent story about property-data brokers producing the same errors from the same underlying records: if three vendors all repeat the same bad source data, have you independently verified anything—or just confirmed the same mistake three times?
It was a great question, but then I stumbled across a YouTube video that raised more questions that, as best as I can tell, no one is asking yet, but I think they should be.
Join me on Wednesday for a special edition that will probably raise more questions than it answers, but I hope you’ll join me in the comments and share your thoughts and experiences with us.
💼 Job Postings
National Residential Escrow Officer — First American
Remote — New York | $29.30–$39.07/hour
Handles national residential escrow files, including title clearance, settlement statements, closing packages, funds, recording, and final statements.Senior Title Examiner — Pippin Title
Remote — U.S. | $50,000–$80,000/year
Reviews nationwide title searches and works with examiners, underwriters, and abstractors to resolve complex title questions and ensure report quality.Title Examiner — Fidelity National Financial
Maitland, FL | Hybrid
Searches and examines Florida title records, validates documents and legal descriptions, and prepares title packages and clearance requirements.Title Coordinator — Old Republic Title
Chicago, IL | $26–$30/hour
Coordinates national commercial multi-site and multi-state transactions from order entry through title work, closing documentation, and policy issuance.Sales Representative I — Stewart Title
Indianapolis, IN
Develops title and real-estate-services business through sales, marketing, customer relationships, and local market development.Title Insurance | Commercial Escrow Talent — Godot Consulting Group
Detroit, MI | Hybrid | $85,000–$150,000/year
Manages national commercial escrow accounts and multi-state transactions while maintaining escrow records and relationships with customers and brokers.Title Examiner — AMT Title Services, Inc.
Remote — U.S. | $45,000–$65,000/year
Examines deeds, mortgages, liens, ownership histories, legal descriptions, and other public records to identify title issues affecting real estate transactions.Title Search Coordinator — Nobleserve LLC
Pittsburgh, PA
Conducts ownership and title research, coordinates search work, and helps identify liens, encumbrances, and other issues affecting property title.Title Search and Examiner — Legal Land Title, LLC
Ozark, MO
Searches and examines title, analyzes liens and encumbrances, reviews legal descriptions and surveys, and prepares title-search reports.Commercial Title Examiner — Chicago Title
Independence, MO
Examines complex commercial title records, interprets title evidence, and identifies issues affecting ownership, insurability, and closing requirements.
💼 Place Your Job Posting Ad Here
Stay Wicked,
Cheryl
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**DISCLAIMER**
Content is for informational purposes, operational awareness and workflow strategy. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, it is not meant to be a compliance directive or replace the specific legal/financial advice of your retained experts. As always evaluate new information & tools with your underwriter/attorney, accountant/financial advisor, IT/security team, and internal policies, as needed, before implementation.
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