Good afternoon —
More states are getting on board with RON, the ability to close home sales digitally. Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon have now passed laws to permit remote online notarization, bringing the total number of such states to 37.
The holdouts are: California, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts. Bills have been introduced in Georgia and in South Carolina, but no action has taken place since. There's also been no movement on the federal bill, reintroduced in May, that would allow RON nationwide.
We'll keep you posted!
In other news, digital title provider Doma went public last week, despite payouts to investors in the SPAC company they merged with, which cut $295 million from what they expected to receive.
"For us, this transaction is about accelerating our ability to penetrate and revolutionize, first, the antiquated $23 billion title, escrow and closing market, and eventually the broader $318 billion home ownership services market," said Max Simkoff, Doma CEO. "Our vision is to ultimately make many of the most important home buying experiences instant and digital."
DOMA's family of brands include NATIC, States Title and North American Title Company. Although the company currently has less than 1% of the title market in the U.S., it vows to have a 5% market share by 2023. Backed by Lennar and now with access to more capital, it will be interesting to see if Doma can actually take a bite into a market it's deemed "antiquated."
Until next week —
Sarah Wheeler
HousingWire Editor in Chief
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