Powering Billion-Dollar Loan Processing Through Custom CRM Engineering
This case study explores how Closeloop built a secure scalable and compliance-first custom CRM platform for Home Run Financing from the ground up by digitizing the entire loan lifecycle automating vendor onboarding underwriting contracts and regulatory workflows and integrating multiple financial and verification systems resulting in billions of dollars in loans processed faster approvals zero downtime and a future-ready digital lending backbone.
Home Run Financing
Founded in 2014 as PACE Funding, Home Run Financing set out to make home improvement financing more accessible and equitable. Today, the company operates across hundreds of jurisdictions in California and Florida, enabling homeowners to upgrade their properties with zero-down financing for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and resiliency projects.
Home Run Financing is a leader in PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing, a model that allows homeowners to fund improvements such as solar panels, roofing, HVAC systems, and storm protection upgrades through their property tax bills. Unlike traditional loans, PACE financing does not rely solely on credit scores, instead evaluating home equity and tax payment history — making financing accessible to more homeowners.
By working through a trusted network of more than 5,000 approved contractors, Home Run has created a financing model that is both homeowner-friendly and contractor-ready. This dual focus has allowed the company to scale rapidly while maintaining compliance and customer trust.
Loan Workflows Limited by Manual Operations
Home Run Financing lacked a dedicated digital platform to manage complex, compliance-driven lending workflows, leading to operational inefficiencies and limiting its ability to scale securely and reliably.
Key Challenges
- No digital or CRM foundation: Starting operations without a purpose-built CRM platform.
- Complex, interconnected workflows: Each loan followed a complex CRM workflow where a single error could disrupt the entire process.
- Dual lending models: Expansion into unsecured lending introduced new underwriting and regulatory demands, requiring a more flexible system design.
- Compliance pressure: Because HRF is tied to government programs and tax assessments, strict compliance, auditability, and data security were essential.
- Scale from day one: The business model required processing high volumes immediately, with no tolerance for downtime or inefficiency.
- Speed to market: HRF needed a CRM-centric solution delivered quickly, but quality, security, and scalability could not be compromised.
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A Strategy-First Approach to Scalable Lending
We began by understanding the business and regulatory requirements, then designed a scalable, compliance-first platform built to evolve with growth and changing lending models.
Project Vision & Strategy
The executive team sets the overall business vision, while cross-functional leaders translate it into a clear strategy with defined metrics, policies, and operational processes.
Solutions Strategy
The solution architect works with business stakeholders to understand key processes, then creates a tactical plan and timeline for executing the overall strategy.
Define Roadmap & Initiatives
The solution architect captures business requirements and maps the current state against the desired future-state roadmap.
Solution Design
The solution architect converts gaps into technical requirements, prioritizes enhancements, and defines workflows, field mappings, reports, and required integrations.
Development
The solution engineer also sets up middleware and integrations, with peer code reviews performed to ensure quality.
Testing & Quality Assurance
The platform underwent rigorous testing across functionality, security, and role-based access to ensure reliability, compliance, and performance under real-world conditions.
Training & Deployment
Role-based training sessions and support documentation were created, followed by a planned deployment and structured cutover to ensure a smooth and successful go-live.
Monitoring & Continuous Improvement
KPIs and user adoption were continuously monitored, with issues and enhancement requests prioritized into phased improvements for ongoing optimization.
CRM Platform Engineered for Scale and Growth
A custom CRM platform was built to support PACE lending, automating the full loan lifecycle with compliance-first workflows while enabling scalable, high-volume processing and future-ready flexibility.
Loan Lifecycle Automation
The platform unified the entire loan lifecycle into a single automated workflow, providing clear status tracking and real-time mortgage calculations to improve transparency, trust, and faster decision-making.
API Integrations
A robust network of API integrations automated eligibility checks, identity verification, credit validation, communications, and financial operations, while digital contract execution enabled secure e-signatures, faster approvals, and seamless compliance handling across the lending lifecycle.
Notifications and Communication
Automated notifications replaced reliance on phone calls and ad-hoc emails. Homeowners and contractors receive timely updates on project milestones, required documents, and loan status. This consistent communication increased transparency and reduced confusion.
Contract Management
Contract execution was streamlined through secure digital signatures, enabling faster approvals, reduced paperwork, and a smoother, fully online borrower experience.
Secure Authentication
Sensitive financial data was protected through multi-factor authentication and role-based access, ensuring secure, controlled visibility for all users.
Intuitive Dashboards
Role-based dashboards delivered real-time visibility across the loan lifecycle, enabling faster decisions, clearer insights, and reduced operational back-and-forth.
Streamlined Underwriting
A dedicated credit portal combined automated data checks with human review, streamlining underwriting while improving accuracy, compliance, and turnaround times.
Complaint Management
A complaint management module logged, categorized, and tracked issues to resolution, strengthening regulatory compliance, accountability, and service quality.
Technology and Infrastructure
The platform was built on a secure, scalable cloud architecture using PHP, MySQL, and AWS services to ensure reliability, monitoring, and future-ready growth.
Testing and Quality Assurance
Rigorous testing validated database integrity, access controls, and security, ensuring the platform’s reliability and robustness under real-world conditions.
Portfolio
These screenshots highlight the core features of the web app, demonstrating how thoughtful design and seamless functionality come together to support real user needs.
Tech Stack
Cake PHP
MySQL
Bootstrap
AWS Cloud
APIs
APIs Integration
Architecture Diagram
Measurable Impact
Closeloop’s platform enabled Home Run Financing to process billions in loans with zero downtime at scale Automation and compliance-first design reduced approval times, strengthened audit readiness, and supported sustained growth.
Value Delivered & Operational Excellence
Home Run Financing’s transformation delivered measurable and lasting business outcomes across operations, compliance, lending, and customer experience.
Streamlined Operations
Fragmented processes were unified into an intelligent system—reducing errors, improving accuracy, and accelerating workflows across teams.
Mortgage Calculator
Interactive loan tools enabled real-time cost estimates, improving customer engagement and supporting smarter sales conversations.
Expanded Contractor Network
Scaled to 5,000+ active users generating $900M+ in energy-efficient and solar projects.
Faster Lending Decisions
Automated APIs reduced underwriting turnaround time and supported 160,000+ financed projects.
Digital Contract Execution
DocuSign integration accelerated deal closure and improved compliance tracking.
Cloud-Native Scalability
AWS infrastructure ensured reliability, advanced monitoring, and secure growth at scale.
Compliance-First System
Automated validation and audit trails reduced risk and improved regulatory confidence.
Structured Customer Support
Structured support digitized complaint tracking, reduced resolution time, and improved accountability.
Transparent Ecosystem
Dashboards and notifications increased visibility, minimized delays, and strengthened stakeholder trust.
Client Value & Feedback
Client feedback reflects not just satisfaction with technical execution, but appreciation for the strategic partnership and business outcomes achieved.
"Closeloop favors action over discussion and documentation. Their work automated all of our business processes. We’re now generating more business than before, allowing us to effectively double our sales."
Robert Bob Giles
CEO, Home Run Financing"Since we went live, we’ve had zero downtime, which is amazing for a project of this magnitude. Also, we’ve successfully engaged over 2,500 different business organizations that have worked with our portal."
