Click n’ Close Names Blake Priest Director Of Whole Loan Trading
Click n’ Close, a multi-state mortgage lender, announced that mortgage industry veteran Blake Priest has joined the company as director of whole loan trading. In this role, Priest will lead the company’s scratch and dent purchasing, giving correspondent partners another outlet for loans that fall outside traditional investor guidelines. In addition, he will oversee lead sourcing and pricing assessments, monitor hedging performance and participate in secondary distribution to support continued growth across the correspondent division.
“Blake’s experience leading a mandatory hedging model through a high-volume, multi-branch operation is exactly the discipline our correspondent partners expect from a counterparty,” said Jeff Bode, founder and CEO of Click n’ Close. “His ability to build strong partnerships while driving accountability and process improvement will further enhance the reliability and performance our lending partners depend on.”
The appointment strengthens the hedging and pricing function behind Click n’ Close’s correspondent division. For correspondent sellers, it signals continuity in the disciplined, mandatory hedging approach Click n’ Close uses to manage risk and honor pricing commitments.
“I’ve spent my career managing the hedging and pricing discipline that keeps a correspondent desk reliable for its partners, and that’s the kind of desk I want to build here,” Priest said. “My focus is giving our correspondent partners consistent execution and pricing they can count on.”
Priest joins Click n’ Close after two years as a residential mortgage lender at Pinnacle Bank in Fort Worth, Texas. His background also served as president of retail lending at Open Mortgage LLC, where he managed multi-state loan production and a staff of 75. Before that, Priest spent two decades at NTFN Inc. in Plano, Texas, including nearly 10 years as company president. In that role, he oversaw operations, sales, investor relations and the company’s mandatory hedging model, managing 250 employees across more than 40 branches with production of $1 billion to $2 billion in most years.
Earlier at NTFN, Priest served as regional director of North American Lending, leading the company’s transition from a best-efforts pricing model to a mandatory hedging model while working directly with its hedge advisory firm. During a 22-year mortgage career, he also served as a branch manager, overseeing pricing and the secondary desk, and as an account executive serving mortgage brokers in the Dallas and Houston markets.
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