FinLocker Creates Financial Fitness Apps for Family First Funding and MLB Residential Lending to Provide Consumers with a Path to Homeownership via Lenders One Walmart Branches

ST. LOUIS, MO, Dec. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FinLocker has partnered with two community-focused mortgage lenders, Family First Funding and MLB Residential Lending, to create financial fitness apps that guide prospective homebuyers to achieve mortgage eligibility and sustain homeownership. This partnership comes two months after Lenders One® Cooperative, a national alliance of 240+ independent mortgage bankers, announced the opening of its first three Walmart in-store branches in Newton and Boonton, New Jersey, and Orlando, Florida, with the mortgage lenders. 

“As a preferred partner in the Lenders One cooperative, FinLocker is proud to have the opportunity to private-label the FinLocker mobile applications for Family First Funding and MLB Residential Lending to provide the residents of their communities with financial education and a path to homeownership,” said Brian Vieaux, President and Chief Operating Officer, FinLocker. “It’s challenging to purchase a home in the current market condition. Even consumers who financially qualify for a mortgage may be apprehensive about pulling the trigger on a home purchase. The FinLocker powered apps will help consumers achieve mortgage readiness and educate them on their loan options and the mortgage process while keeping them connected to their mortgage lender to answer any personal questions.” 

“We are excited that this opportunity connects two of our mortgage banking members with one of our preferred vendor partners to offer Walmart customers and other community residents a path to achieve and sustain homeownership,” said Justin Demola, CMB, President, Lenders One. “The FinLocker powered private-labeled apps for Family First Funding and MLB Residential Lending will provide prospective homebuyers with the financial education and resources to help them build and monitor their credit and make informed financial decisions while keeping them connected to their lender until they are ready to buy a home.”

The “Home Hero” app for Family First Funding and the “Secure Home” app for MLB Residential Lending, powered by FinLocker, will support each company’s consumers to achieve a financially stable future with homeownership as the anchor to building wealth by using FinLocker:

• Tools to improve their credit score and monitor their credit report, manage their finances, create savings goals and budget to pay down debt and save for a down payment, 
• Personalized journeys to guide them toward mortgage eligibility and sustain homeownership, and
• Educational resources to manage credit and credit cards, prepare for the mortgage process, sustain homeownership, and plan for college and retirement. 

“We are in the business of helping people,” said Gabriel Gillen, President, Family First Funding. “Our team is excited about providing our “Home Hero” app through our new offices as it will help us provide financial education and guide more people towards homeownership.”

“We are a community-focused lender with a strong culture of community giving,” said Phil Mazza, Secondary Director and Interim COO, MLB Residential Lending. “Providing renters, homebuyers, and homeowners in our community with financial tools and education via the “Secure Home” app is another way for us to improve the financial lives of the residents in our community.”

Prospective homebuyers can obtain a “Home Hero” app from Family First Funding through the Lenders One Walmart-based in-store branches at 26 Hampton House Road, Newton, NJ 07860, and 2500 S Kirkman Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The “Secure Home” app from MLB Residential Lending can be obtained at the Walmart at 300 Wootton Street, Boonton, NJ 07005. Each company’s mortgage originators will also distribute the financial apps to prospective homebuyers through their regular business channels.

# # #

About Lenders One

Established in 2000, Lenders One Cooperative is a national alliance of 250+ mortgage bankers and a network of innovative proprietary solutions, technology, and 90+ solutions providers and capital markets providers, committed to propelling profitability, efficiency and connections for its members. Lenders One is dedicated to helping independent mortgage bankers, banks and credit unions compete in the market, improve their profitability and reduce loan manufacturing costs. Participants on the Lenders One platform originated greater than $700 billion of mortgages during 2021, collectively ranking as the largest retail mortgage entity in the U.S. Lenders One is managed by a subsidiary of Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. For more information, visit LendersOne.com.

About Family First Funding

Founded in 2011 and based in Toms River, New Jersey, Family First Funding is a retail mortgage lender licensed to do business in 35 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Family First Funding offers high-quality mortgage banking services to residential and business customers to provide clients with fair and reasonable rates and costs while keeping their clients informed and educated throughout the process. For more information, visit Fam1Fund.com.

About MLB Residential Lending, LLC

Based in Springfield, NJ, MLB Residential Lending serves the lending needs of homebuyers, homeowners, real estate professionals and builders. Its staff is passionate about assisting others in fulfilling the American Dream of homeownership, making the process as simple as possible. For more information, visit MLBmortgage.com.

About FinLocker

Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, FinLocker provides a secure financial fitness app that aggregates and analyzes a consumer’s financial data to offer personalized journeys to build and monitor their credit, manage their financial accounts, receive their net worth and cash flow analysis, create goals, budget and save to achieve mortgage eligibility and other financial goals.

Within the FinLocker app, consumers can take a readiness assessment before applying for a mortgage, begin their property search, and securely store personal and financial documents, which can be shared with a lender directly from the app to start their loan application. Mortgage lenders and financial service providers use their private-labeled FinLocker to generate and convert leads, gain market share, reduce loan processing costs, and create customers for life.

For more information, visit FinLocker.com.

• FinLocker financial fitness app