The Desk
Latest
Everything the desk has filed, newest first.
The Desk
New-home inventory runs at 9.3 months of supply against 4.6 months for existing homes
The Desk
Housing data releases run from six weeks ahead of closings to nine months behind
The Desk
June carries 10.4% of a year's purchase mortgages and January carries 5.8%
The Desk
Pending home sales fell 2.3% in July to the lowest level since January
The Desk
Redfin puts 14% of July's home-sale agreements as falling out of contract
Fraud & Closing Security
A title agency's 30-day notice deadline started at the IT review, not the lawsuit
Compliance
Oregon now disciplines a broker for not supervising unlicensed assistants
Arizona notaries must take a thumbprint on deeds from 12 September
Senate Bill 1479, signed on 9 April, puts the signer's right thumbprint in the notary journal for any deed, deed of trust or power of attorney and raises the penalty for recording a forged or groundless claim to a class 5 felony. Virginia's settlement agents have owed a seller identity check since 1 July. The FBI issued its parcel owner impersonation alert on 16 June, and its 2025 real estate complaint count is up by a third.
TC Bulletin Staff/9 min read
NAR puts first-time buyers at 29% of sales and FHFA's data puts them at 54.8% of purchase mortgages
Both figures are correct. FHFA counts only financed purchases, and cash buyers, who are 26% of transactions and almost never first-timers, never enter its denominator. Which number describes a coordinator's file mix depends on whether the desk takes cash deals.
New-home inventory runs at 9.3 months of supply against 4.6 months for existing homes
Census counts 485,000 new houses for sale at the end of June against a sales pace of 628,000 a year. Two thirds of that inventory sits in the South. For a coordinator, a builder with nine months of standing stock is a different client from a seller with a listing.
On the record
Figures the desk is tracking. Each links to the story that sources it.
Licensing scope, unlicensed-assistant rules and the state guidance that decides what a coordinator may sign, quote and explain.
Oregon now disciplines a broker for not supervising unlicensed assistants
House Bill 3137 adds a sixteenth ground for suspension or revocation: a managing principal broker who fails to exercise reasonable supervision and control. The written policy that duty requires now has to name how the office manages unlicensed assistants specifically, not just licensed staff.
Virginia lists 18 tasks an unlicensed assistant may do
Texas bars unlicensed coordinators from soliciting, even to book the agent's call
Wire fraud, business email compromise and the closing-table attacks that land on the coordinator's desk first.
A title agency's 30-day notice deadline started at the IT review, not the lawsuit
A federal court dismissed Heart of Gold Title's coverage claim over a $480,150 diverted wire, ruling its cyber policy's notice clock began when the agency's own IT vendor investigated in March 2024, seven months before it told its insurer. The agency's cover was gone before the lawsuit that prompted the claim was even filed.
Arizona notaries must take a thumbprint on deeds from 12 September
Fraud flags stayed above 40% of files for five straight quarters
Platform releases, integrations, pricing and ownership changes across transaction management software.
Real and RE/MAX shareholders approve the $880 million merger
The vote clears the way for RE/MAX's roughly 8,500 franchise offices to get access to reZEN, the transaction platform every one of Real's own agents already works in, on an opt-in basis. Closing is expected within weeks, pending one remaining court approval in British Columbia.
BoldTrail BackOffice now checks transaction files with AI
None of five AI contract tools publishes a citation or confidence standard
Contract forms, agreement changes and the association rulemaking that rewrites a coordinator's checklist.
Minnesota condo resales now require the association's maintenance plan and budget
A new line on the statutory Resale Disclosure Certificate, in force since 1 August, requires copies of the association's written preventative maintenance plan, schedule and budget or a statement of how to get them electronically. Minnesota Realtors revised four common interest community forms to match.
North Carolina buyers get one banking day to pay the Due Diligence Fee
Foreign buyers spent $45.3bn on US homes, 48% of it all cash
The profession itself: credentials, pay, associations, hiring and how coordinators actually run a book of files.
NAR puts first-time buyers at 29% of sales and FHFA's data puts them at 54.8% of purchase mortgages
Both figures are correct. FHFA counts only financed purchases, and cash buyers, who are 26% of transactions and almost never first-timers, never enter its denominator. Which number describes a coordinator's file mix depends on whether the desk takes cash deals.
New-home inventory runs at 9.3 months of supply against 4.6 months for existing homes
Housing data releases run from six weeks ahead of closings to nine months behind
Standing pages on the subjects that keep coming back, with dated facts and the primary sources attached.
Wire fraud
What the numbers say, who publishes them, and what a transaction coordinator is expected to do about it.
6 facts/4 answers
Unlicensed assistant rules
There is no national scope of practice for transaction coordination. Every answer is a state answer.
5 facts/4 answers
NAR settlement
The dates, in order, and what the practice changes did to a coordinator's checklist.
4 facts/3 answers
Credentials
One credential, one state association, and a great deal of private training that is not either of those things.
5 facts/3 answers
Transaction software
Who owns what, which names changed, and what to ask before trusting an extraction.
5 facts/3 answers
Every source this desk reads, published in full
No dedicated news aggregator existed for this profession, so the first thing we built was the list. Regulators, title trade press, fraud reporting and vendor changelogs, with the feed URL where one exists and a note on what we have confirmed at the source.
Open the source directory- Sources tracked
- 88
- Confirmed at source
- 53
- With a published feed
- 4
- Categories
- 7
One email a week, on the Monday
What changed in licensing guidance, forms, fraud reporting and transaction software, with the source and the date on every item. No coaching, no affiliate roundups.