Blog


June 12, 2019

Home Buyers Face Ever-Increasing Attacks Through Social Engineering

One of our clients moved with her family from Dallas to a small town outside of Austin and started looking for a house immediately. As many of you know, it’s […]

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May 13, 2019

A Guide to Hosting Your Ultimate Summer Soirée

By Jennifer Wilhelm, Event Coordinator Summer is just around the corner, and that means fun, sun and get-togethers with friends. Now is the perfect time to start planning your ultimate […]

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May 7, 2019

Which Computer Is Safer From Cybercrime: Mac or PC?

Which computer is safer from cybercrime: Mac or PC? The answer may surprise you. Remember the commercials with the young savvy man (Mac) vs the older stuffy man (PC)? These […]

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April 18, 2019

How Tax Reforms Affect the Housing Market

By: Mark Sprague, State Director of Information Capital The last time the U.S. underwent major tax reform was in 1986, and unintended consequences caused the 1987 “Texas Depression.” Two of […]

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April 1, 2019

Spring Cleaning! Safeguarding Your Email

Mary was a hard-working broker at a medium-sized office, she answered her agents’ emails and provided all the tools of the trade. She wanted every agent in her brokerage to […]

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March 13, 2019

How to Protect Yourself Against a Ransomware Attack

Dan, a Realtor®, was sitting down to his computer for a day at the office. He had two transactions in the works and needed to check on the lender’s progress […]

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February 13, 2019

Love? Not Actually… Steps to Protect Yourself from Cybercrime

Welcome to the first article in a series from Independence Title on how to keep yourself, your devices, and your transactions safe from cybercrime. Check out the bottom of the […]

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November 14, 2018

It’s the End of the (Paper) World As We Know It…and We Feel Fine!

As paper disappears more and more from our daily lives, the real estate industry sometimes seems like one of the last vestiges of ink-and-paper transactions. These days you can buy […]

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October 30, 2018

“If Only I Had Known …”

This is the refrain repeated by so many home buyers who lost or almost lost their savings from a wire fraud attempt during the process of buying a home: “If […]

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October 23, 2018

The Sky Is Not Falling. Mark Sprague’s Texas Market Update

The unemployment rate has hit a new low — 3.7 percent — that was last seen in December of 1969. Of course, things were a little different in the late […]

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September 13, 2018

Is the Texas Market Still Booming? Mark Sprague’s Texas Market Update

The Texas metros housing markets have certainly been booming over the last several years.  But as I’ve said before, the concern is when is the slowdown?  Is it imminent, in a […]

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July 10, 2018

The Billion-Dollar Industry Threatening Real Estate Transactions – How to Protect Yourself

by Cassandra Majors Pop Quiz: What industry grew by almost a billion dollars from 2016 to 2017? Hints: You wouldn’t want to invest in it, there are no publicly traded […]

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June 18, 2018

Lumber Prices are Rising! Mark Sprague’s Texas Market Update

By Mark Sprague, Independence Title State Director of Information Capital The House / Apartment You Look at Today Will Be Gone Tomorrow! And it will certainly be more expensive. Not […]

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April 2, 2018

Carbon Monoxide Detectors: Now a City of Austin Requirement

By Cassandra Majors After I smoked my last cigarette five years ago, I quickly mutated into a twitchy, manic, raging lunatic for the next two weeks. I came up with […]

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February 15, 2018

Does Your Social Media Need A TREC Check Up?

Is it us or do the TREC requirements for posting the IABS and Consumer Protection Notice on social media seem a little confusing?  “So what exactly DOES TREC want from […]

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January 16, 2018

The MUD Mystery

There’s one sentence in one section of the contract that always ruffles everyone’s feathers whenever we teach our class Navigating the 1-to-4 Family Contract. The last sentence of section 6 […]

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January 4, 2018

It’s a Weird, Weird World of Real Estate Out There

Texas real estate can be pretty weird. In the rest of the country, for example, the idea of paying a seller a small fee in exchange for giving the potential […]

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November 8, 2017

You’re Killing Me, Sales!

By Cassandra Majors Whether or not you were the right age to see the cult classic coming-of-age movie The Sandlot, you’ve probably had this iconic line thrown at you whenever […]

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September 20, 2017

Mommy, Where Do Buyers Come From?

By Cassandra Majors, Independence Title Well, honey, you see…when two people love each other very, very much, sometimes the Home-Buying Stork brings them their very own bundle of joy…along with […]

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January 4, 2017

Closing Costs….Who’s Responsible?

Every agent knows the excitement of clients purchasing a new home or clients finally selling their house. Then your clients ask you “What am I responsible for paying for at […]

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