By Jonnine Eras, Senior Vice President, Senior Tax Operations Manager Tax assessments lag home price appreciation (HPA), but eventually they result in tax hikes, unpleasant surprises for homeowners and more work for servicers. Given the dramatic gains in HPA over the last two years, larger tax bills for many borrowers and higher call volumes [...]

By Kelly Hebert, First Vice President, Sales Operations & Marketing How many times have you heard the phrase, “We have great customer service?” What does this mean exactly? Is there a proven formula that shows empathy + smiling through the phone + knowledge = happy customers? I’m sure a Silicon [...]

By Mike Whiting, Senior Vice President As baby boomers age – with an increasing number saying they want to age at home – and home appreciation continues to bolster home equity values, experts predict a growing interest in reverse mortgages. According to a new Freddie Mac survey, 66% of baby boomers, who hold the [...]

By Elly Leonida, FVP Operations Manager Over the last decade, mortgage lenders have seen dramatic changes in how loans are approved, processed and closed with technology and automation improving speed, accuracy and the customer experience. The improvements have permeated all aspects of the mortgage life cycle, including the flood certification required for every home [...]

Legislative Updates By Staci Hardy, VP Internal Audit & QC Manager LERETA's compliance team regularly monitors and tracks statewide property tax legislation that impacts tax service for our customers. This quarter we are including details on introduced legislation and the progression of seven new bills that we are following. None of these will have any [...]

Most servicers understand the benefits of a standard tax service as well as a fully outsourced solution. But many are less familiar with LERETA’s Total Tax Solutions® (TTS®), which can give servicers even greater insight and control over their tax process. To bridge this gap, we recently interviewed Susan Portnoy, LERETA’s Senior Vice President [...]

By Tiffany Keohane, & Jonnine Eras We often hear that our clients postpone bringing on new vendors because they’re uncomfortable with the implementation process. They would rather put up with inefficiencies, look the other way on broken systems, or accept a lower grade service than disrupt the process. The idea of an implementation – [...]

It’s nice to be recognized and it’s especially rewarding when that recognition comes from one of the industry’s leading news sources: HousingWire, which just named us a 2022 HW Tech100 Mortgage winner. In announcing the award, HW Media Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler said: “As the only program in the industry that highlights tech [...]

Legislative Updates By Staci Hardy, VP Internal Audit & QC Manager LERETA's compliance team regularly monitors and tracks statewide property tax legislation that impacts tax service for our customers. This quarter we are including details on introduced legislation and the progression of seven new bills that we are following. None of these will have any [...]

By Jim McGurer,  Senior Vice President, Operations For the past few years, real estate prices (and home appreciation) have been on a tear. In 2020, the average U.S. home price increased by 10.2%, and this year it’s up again at an average increase of 18.5% year over year. But sooner or later, depending on [...]

By Kim Doyel, Senior Client Executive During my 19 years in mortgage servicing, I’ve experienced everything you can imagine good (and not so good) when it comes to managing taxes on both in-house or on an outsourced basis. And I’ve been able to learn what it takes to make those relationships successful. Tax servicing [...]

Legislative Updates By Staci Hardy, VP Internal Audit & QC Manager LERETA's compliance team regularly monitors and tracks statewide property tax legislation that impacts tax service for our customers. This quarter we are including details on introduced legislation and the progression of seven new bills that we are following. None of these will have any [...]

By Michael Whiting, Senior Vice President, Dallas Tax Operations Every year, in-house tax groups and tax service companies grind well into the holiday season with late shifts and weekend hours to get all applicable taxes paid before the dreaded December 31 deadline. But last year, and again this year, that won’t be the case [...]

By Priscilla Anand, Vice President / GIS Technical Manager Mapping Tool Helps Protects Servicers and Homeowners Alike If you’ve read any of our previous blogs, you’ve probably picked up on a common theme: tax servicers need to be extremely diligent setting up tax lines. Miss a parcel or a taxing agency and down the line [...]

Legislative Updates By Staci Hardy, VP Internal Audit & QC Manager LERETA's compliance team regularly monitors and tracks statewide property tax legislation that impacts tax service for our customers. This quarter we are including details on introduced legislation and the progression of seven new bills that we are following. None of these will have any [...]

By Shelley Lucas Vice President Tax Operations LERETA Hard to Identify Lower Liens Can Cause Loss of First Lien Position and Collateral Risk Today, it’s hard enough for servicers and tax servicers to keep up with the 23,000 taxing authorities across the U.S., which is why the additional thousands of [...]

By Heather Amick, Senior Client Executive, LERETA Approximately 22 million Americans live in manufactured homes today, and that number is expected to grow as the price of a site-built home becomes less affordable and the population ages. But as the popularity of manufactured homes grows, so will tax servicing challenges for banks, mortgage [...]