TITLE INSURANCE AND SERVICES
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SEGMENT ACTIVITY
Last year's robust refinance market contributed to significant growth in First American's Lenders Advantage division,
the group dedicated to meeting the specific needs of lenders involved in refinance and home equity lending. The
division implemented new, high-efficiency procedures and further built its business with leading national and
regional lenders in 2002. By year's end, its operations realized a 58 percent increase in closed orders as compared
to its 2001 total.
First American Equity Loan Services, Inc., the nation's largest real estate information provider to the home equity
lending industry, benefited from increased market demand and market share in 2002. This company, which offers
title searches and insurance, flood certifications, property valuations, and other services from 14 branch offices
across the nation, completed approximately 1 million orders in 2002.
The National Default Title Services division, the largest group of its kind in the industry, showed a 79 percent rise
in its order count in 2002. The division also realized increases in revenues, profitability, and market share, even
though foreclosures were at historically low levels. The group works with lenders and homeowners at the time of
default to avert foreclosure and to help lessen expenses, should foreclosure occur.
The National Commercial Services division continued to attract new customers as it completed the realignment of
its operations to serve customers from 13 regions strategically located across the nation. This realignment strategy
is positioned to best serve leading national and international firms quickly and efficiently. The regional offices are
staffed with professionals skilled in handling the nation's largest single- and multi-site real estate transactions. These
include high-rise office buildings, retail shopping malls, industrial factories and warehouses, resorts, and other large
properties, as well as multistate transactions valued in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Our National Homebuilder Services division, which meets the title and closing needs of homebuilders and developers,
added and expanded relationships with some of the largest national firms in that industry during 2002. This division
now provides its services to every major homebuilder in the U.S., which is important as industry consolidation
continues to rapidly increase the market share of the nation's top builders. At the same time, this group has made
First American the only firm in our business to provide local, regional, and national builders with a Web-based land
transaction management system designed to meet builders' specific needs.
First American Residential Real Estate Group, Inc. was introduced in the first quarter of 2003. This new First
American company offers service, technology, outsourcing, and product solutions to firms serving the residential
real estate and relocation markets. The company's technology platform is designed to bring new, effective transaction
management solutions to real estate brokers and their agents across the United States.
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