Mortgage technology firm FirstClose reports that it signed 65 new deals and hired 17 new employees in 2017.
As a result of its recent growth, the company will soon be moving to a new office space.
“Last year was extremely strong for us in terms of both internal and external growth,” says Tim Smith, co-founder and president of FirstClose, in a release. “We brought in a record number of new clients and employees, and are looking forward to continued success in 2018.”
Among the prominent financial institutions that partnered with FirstClose are Flagstar Bank, Eastern Bank, Pen Air Federal Credit Union, Sandy Spring Bank and MIT Federal Credit Union.
While many of these new clients implemented the FirstClose Report= – which delivers title, flood, valuation and other important data elements in one report – others began vetting the newly launched FirstLook Report.
Announced at the end of October, the FirstLook Report is an instant pre-qualification tool that allows lenders to efficiently prequalify borrowers by providing one instant multi-service report that includes credit, property valuation, flood zone indicator, title search, tax and MLS information.
FirstClose claims it is comprehensive enough to provide lenders with all the information they need to make an informed decision about proceeding to the next level in the loan origination process with a potential borrower, while saving them valuable time and money.
In addition, FirstClose began offering software licensing agreements and provided Mortgage Cadence, an Accenture Company, a copy of its proprietary software in April. This provides a lights-out integration between the two companies and enables Mortgage Cadence to complete faster integrations with large, national vendors.
Along with the surge in new business, FirstClose increased size internally with the additions of 17 skilled employees including Jorge Ponce and John Park as directors of business development, as well as the promotion of Chuck Bloodgood to chief information officer.