Bidhive.com is now introducing REO brokers to its new online auction and marketing platform—an initiative that gives companies and brokers with properties to offload the option of moving and marketing their real estate online free of charge.

New York-based Fitch Ratings has placed The First American Corp. and all of its title insurance companies on negative ratings watch after seeing the company’s pre-announced fourth quarter earnings for 2007, which anticipate an after-tax loss exceeding $50 million.

A down real estate market usually means condos are faring as badly as single-family homes. With that in mind, Condo.com online condo marketplace—has announced a strategic partnership with online foreclosure marketer RealtyTrac to allow Web users access to condos that are in default, foreclosure or on the REO auction block.

MISMO, a non-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), announced recently that its 2007 Chair of the Governance Committee Ron Duff of Fiserv Lending Solutions has been re-elected for the organization’s 2008-2009 term; meanwhile, Vice Chair Nancee Gorenstein of Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.

LandAmerica Financial Corp. Group Inc. told DSNews.com on Friday that the company has agreed to settle with the California Department of Insurance by paying $3.5 million in penalties and refunds to customers.

President George W. Bush said Friday that his administration’s most pressing economic priority is helping Congress pass a growth package that will relieve taxpayers and encourage American businesses to invest in expansion and job creation.

Homeownership counselors now have a set of official guidelines to follow with the introduction of the National Industry Foreclosure Counseling Standards on Friday. The standards, which were developed under the guidance of lending institutions, community development organizations, as well as real estate and mortgage insurance companies, are designed to eliminate damaging practices by ensuring customers are aided by lending professionals trained in the highest of industry standards and ethics.

After making significant cuts to the federal funds rate in late 2007, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee on Thursday that the Federal Reserve is prepared to take additional actions to insure financial and economic stability.

Distressed borrowers who are falling behind on their mortgage payments flooded the Homeownership Preservation Foundation’s) national Homeowner’s HOPE Hotline in the last quarter of 2007. According to the foundation’s data, the HOPE hotline doubled its caller volume between the third and fourth quarter of 2007—leading to a record number of 143,000 calls in the fourth quarter alone.

Imagine having the ability to view every crack and crevice that appears on a foreclosure property’s exterior without leaving the comfort of your own home. Foreclosure.com announced Wednesday that it now has the technology to do this—courtesy of Pictometry International Corp.