{"id":136205,"date":"2026-06-12T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/?p=136205"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:21:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:21:48","slug":"firstclose-ceo-tedd-smith-named-to-2026-national-mortgage-professional-legends-of-lending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/firstclose-ceo-tedd-smith-named-to-2026-national-mortgage-professional-legends-of-lending\/","title":{"rendered":"FirstClose CEO Tedd Smith named to 2026 National Mortgage Professional Legends of Lending"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas, June 12, 2026 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — FirstClose™<\/a>, a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced today that Tedd Smith, chief executive officer, has been named to the 2026 National Mortgage Professional Legends of Lending<\/a>. The honor recognizes mortgage professionals who have made enduring contributions to the industry through innovation, leadership and long-term impact.<\/p>\n

\"FirstClose
Image caption: FirstClose CEO Tedd Smith.<\/em><\/p>\n

Smith is a co-founder of FirstClose and has led the company since its inception. Under his leadership, FirstClose has grown to serve more than 225 financial institutions and supports $129 billion in funded loans. The company\u2019s platform enables lenders to close home equity and second mortgage loans in seven days or less through workflow automation and deep LOS integrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis recognition reflects the work of an exceptional team and the lenders who have trusted us to reimagine what the closing process can look like,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe started FirstClose because we believed technology could fundamentally change the economics of home equity lending, and that belief drives every decision we make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s career in mortgage and housing finance spans more than 30 years. He previously co-founded Flood Zones, Inc., a nationwide automated flood zone certification firm acquired by TransUnion Corporation and now part of Cotality, and Home Equity Loan Corporation, which was sold in 1999.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Legends of Lending honorees are featured at nationalmortgageprofessional.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About FirstClose<\/strong><\/p>\n

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, FirstClose, Inc. provides fintech solutions to HELOC and mortgage lenders nationwide. The company\u2019s mission is to increase profitability and reduce costs for mortgage lenders. FirstClose makes this possible through offering systems and relationships that enable lenders to assist their borrowers more effectively, reduce closing costs, and ultimately shorten closing times. For more information, visit firstclose.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas, June 12, 2026 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — FirstClose™, a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced today that Tedd Smith, chief executive officer, has been named to the 2026 National Mortgage Professional Legends of Lending. The honor recognizes mortgage professionals who have made enduring contributions to the industry through innovation, leadership and long-term impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10077,"featured_media":136204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,334,1,38,55],"tags":[205,18371],"class_list":["post-136205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards-and-honors-news","category-austin-news","category-business-news","category-finance-news","category-texas-news","tag-depthpr","tag-legends-of-lending-award","has-post-title","has-post-date","no-post-category","no-post-tag","no-post-comment","has-post-author"],"acf":[],"views":215,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136209,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136205\/revisions\/136209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}