In a massive expansion move, a California-based company has applied for mortgage licenses in 13 states and the District of Columbia and has already opened a Houston office.
Parsec Interact Inc. company currently operates only in California from its headquarters in Mountain View.
“Hiring already has begun,” said Rajeev Minocha, president. “We expect to add 300 people in the next three months and about 1,000 over the next two to three years.”
Current employment is about 50, he said.
Minocha said he expects all the licenses to be granted by January or February at the latest, with the possible exception of New York, which “takes the longest” of all the states where it has applied for mortgage banker or mortgage broker licenses.
Parsec is targeting the Indian-American market and is choosing states with large Indian populations, he said. These states are, on the East Coast, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and the District of Columbia, and, in the Midwest, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, plus Texas and Washington State.
The license applications are for either mortgage broker or mortgage banking operations, depending on a state’s regulations, according to Minocha. Similarly, whether Parsec operates from brick-and-mortar offices or on the Internet in a state will depend on whether a state’s regulations require a physical presence.
“We will have actual offices in Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio,” he explained. However, some exceptions will be made.
“I think the large Indian population justifies opening an office in, for example, Illinois,” Minocha pointed out.
Parsec started its mortgage operations in 2000 with the objective of providing marketing solutions through telemarketing to mortgage originators, he explained, pointing out that that client base for its lead generation, prospect connection and other programs now includes more than 300 originators. But then, “a couple years ago,” he said, Parsec decided to expand with either Web sites or actual offices in selected states.
Parsec’s expansion plans have been made possible with $3.3 million in funding that its Indian subsidiary, New Delhi-based Parsec Loans, obtained from Baring Private Equity Partners India, he explained.
Through its expansion plans and its targeting efforts, Parsec expects to obtain a significant share of the U.S. Indian market, according to Minocha. And with this experience, he added, Parsec also could begin to target other markets.
“Our model is fairly unique,” he commented.
