October Research Blog - Real Estate, Business, and For Fun

Tuesdays with Mary: Customer Service and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 I’ve been thinking about customer service and artificial intelligence (AI). Listen, I get it. AI can do the rote activities of your business: driving out costs, finding new patterns for success, and boosting your efficiency. That is all true. In that sense, as in many others, AI is one of those game changers that comes along only once every decade or so. I embrace any tool that bolsters both sides of the profit equation. Anything that can help raise revenue and decrease expenses deserves serious analysis. The promise of AI to do that is legitimate. But [...]

October232023-10-10T08:59:40-04:00

Tuesdays with Mary: The Loper Bright Enterprises case

Tuesday, October 3, 2023 I’ve been thinking about the Loper Bright Enterprises case that SCOTUS will hear this fall, and how the basis of that case is inter-woven with the Payday Lending Rule case we discussed last week. If you believe the administrative state has grown too large and unwieldy – upsetting the balance between the three branches of the federal government – then this case is for you. Many in our industry have overlooked this case, because it appears to deal with fishing companies rather than the real estate sector. But let’s take a look at the facts [...]

October232023-10-10T08:47:08-04:00

Tuesdays with Mary: Supreme Court Cases

Tuesday, September 26, 2023 I’ve been thinking about the cases SCOTUS will hear this fall and what they might mean for our industry. If you’ve followed our coverage, you’re up to speed on CFPB v Community Financial Services Association of America so far, and we will keep you fully informed about the case and its outcomes, from oral arguments to when a decision is handed down, and the aftermath. This is the case where the CFPB’s funding structure has come under scrutiny. In a nutshell, at issue is whether a rule crafted by the CFPB (in this case its Payday [...]

October232023-10-10T08:48:04-04:00

October Research welcomes Mary Schuster as Chief Knowledge Officer

August 14, 2023, Cleveland, Ohio October Research announces that 25-year title and settlement services industry veteran Mary Schuster has joined the company as Chief Knowledge Officer. In her new role, Schuster will help drive content across multiple channels, support the editorial boards and develop new educational tools for keeping the industry educated and informed throughout the year. “We are thrilled to have someone of Mary’s caliber and stature within the settlement service industry join the team,” CEO and Publisher Erica Meyer said. “She has hit the ground running, and we are grateful and excited that she chose October Research for [...]

October232023-08-14T12:00:34-04:00

Veteran appraiser still going strong, and loving it

Dear Readers, After a recent conversation with 71-year-old appraiser Alexander “Sandy” Grice, it is safe to say that this individual, who has spent almost a half century in the profession, has seen it all with assignments that have taken some very interesting and unusual turns. Homes with history attached to them fills Grice’s resume. One particular job dealt with property, as history would prove, belonging to a witch. “Having appraised dozens of historic houses, I have gotten pretty good at dating the structures, by looking at how the timbers were cut/milled and the fasteners holding everything together,” Grice, a Virginia [...]

October232021-04-19T06:39:37-04:00

Indiana governor signs lien removal fee bill

Dear Readers, Legislatures are moving through their sessions, with numerous bills becoming law. Among them is a lien removal bill in Indiana. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed legislation establishing a fee for recording the release of a lien or liens on property held by a political subdivision. The bill, HB 1231, was authored by Rep. Thomas Saunders, R-Lewisville. The bill states that the county will charge “$25 per parcel for recording the release of a lien or liens of a political subdivision for a property sold or transferred under IC 6-1.1-24-6.1 or IC 36-1-11, regardless of the number of liens [...]

October232021-04-19T06:37:10-04:00

Closing the homeownership race gap

Dear Readers, As the housing market comes off a record-breaking year, it’s important to remember that not everyone has a seat at the table. Lenders deny mortgages for Black applicants at an 80 percent higher rate than for white applicants, according to a Zillow report, and the No. 1 reason that Black Americans are denied mortgages is the lack of a credit history. Around 15 percent of Black and Latinx Americans are considered “credit invisible,” meaning they have no credit score, according to the Zillow report. That hinders their ability to obtain financing. Considering that nearly three out of four [...]

October232021-04-12T06:33:15-04:00

What a long, strange decade…

Dear Readers, This month marks the tenth anniversary for the Dodd-Frank Update. While researching the Dodd-Frank Act for this month’s cover story, my mind was boggled by the breadth of the legislation, and all of the changes that have happened since it was enacted. It’s definitely been a game changer. As we have reported in recent months, more change is coming to the industry as the new Biden administration gains steam, and many predict a return to the perspective and goals that were held during the Obama administration for consumer protection and financial reform. “First and foremost, the message coming [...]

October232021-03-31T15:16:08-04:00

New York issues cybersecurity alert

Dear readers, Here is yet another reminder to constantly be vigilant when it comes to cybersecurity. The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) issued an industry letter to its regulated entities following a discovery of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server. The industry letter states, “In recent days, thousands of organizations were comprised via zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server. On March 2, 2021, Microsoft made patches available for these vulnerabilities but many organizations were compromised either before the patches were available or before the patches were applied.” The four vulnerabilities were discovered in the Microsoft Exchange servers [...]

October232021-03-19T15:58:14-04:00

Will COVID vaccine boost confidence, home ownerships?

Dear Readers, The COVID-19 coronavirus brought more uncertainty, confusion and fear to one’s personal and professional life than most people thought possible. As we have said from the start of this national pandemic, appraisers felt the full effects of this crisis, and then some. Not only from the standpoint of how they can do their jobs with restrictions in place, but the thought of “if” they could do their jobs again with income losses escalating to a point where homeowners may not be able to afford their current houses, or even new dwellings in the days to come. But with [...]

October232021-03-19T15:59:04-04:00

Blog – Tuesdays with Mary