NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--William Lyon Homes (the “Company”) (NYSE: WLH), a leading homebuilder in the Western U.S., announced the formation of ClosingMark Financial Group, LLC (“ClosingMark”), a wholly-owned subsidiary under which the Company intends to operate a full suite of financial services offerings, including title agency, settlement and mortgage services, for the Company’s homebuyers and other retail customers under the ClosingMark™ brand. ClosingMark has recently commenced its title agency services in the Central Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada markets, and expects to expand its title and settlement services operations into virtually all of the Company’s homebuilding markets over the course of the next two quarters.
In addition, ClosingMark has acquired, through one of its subsidiaries, South Pacific Financial Corporation, recently rebranded as ClosingMark Homes Loans, Inc. (“CMHL”), an independent retail mortgage banking company based in Irvine, California, which will serve as the platform for building out ClosingMark’s mortgage-related services. CMHL is currently licensed in all of the Company’s existing homebuilding markets and has all of the GSE seller and servicer approvals, as well as Ginnie Mae authorization, to efficiently enable the Company, through ClosingMark, to expand into providing these services to its homebuyers with minimal net cash outlay. The Company expects to integrate its existing mortgage joint venture operations and loan pipeline into this platform under the ClosingMark brand over the course of the coming months.
“We are excited to take the next steps in the strategic evolution of our ancillary financial services business, following up on our hiring of Brian Hale, a 35-year veteran of the mortgage business, last year to optimize and build out our financial services group, and putting us in position to have a full suite of in-house financial services available to our homebuyers by the end of the year,” said Matthew R. Zaist, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Under Brian’s leadership, ClosingMark will be committed to providing competitive financial services and outstanding customer service to support the needs of our homebuyers and complement our homebuilding operations, while providing an additional source of earnings for the Company. Brian and I are thrilled to welcome the CMHL team members as an integral part of the foundation upon which to build out the ClosingMark operations for years to come. We would also like to thank our existing lender partners for their partnership over the past several years and collaboration in this integration process.”
About William Lyon Homes
William Lyon Homes is one of the largest Western U.S. regional homebuilders. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, the Company is primarily engaged in the design, construction, marketing and sale of single-family detached and attached homes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Texas. Its core markets include Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, the South and East Bay Areas of San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Fort Collins, Portland, Seattle, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The Company has a distinguished legacy of more than 60 years of homebuilding operations, over which time it has sold in excess of 108,000 homes. The Company markets and sells its homes under the William Lyon Homes brand in all of its markets except for Washington and Oregon, where the Company operates under the Polygon Northwest brand.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this release that are not historical information may constitute “forward-looking statements” as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, forward-looking statements related to: financial services and ancillary business initiatives and strategies and anticipated results related thereto; anticipated timing of launch and full operational roll-out of the financial services business and integration of existing venture operations and loan pipeline. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those projected or implied. The Company makes no commitment, and disclaims any duty, to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or changes in these expectations. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions of future events which may not prove to be accurate. For information regarding factors that may impact such forward-looking statements, refer to the sections captioned “Risk Factors” included in our annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. New risk factors may emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors or to assess the impact of such risk factors on our business.
