Inc. 5000: Here are the fastest growing companies in mortgage finance

[Update 9/7/16: Due to emerged discrepancies in Midwest Equity Mortgage, they have been removed from this list. They were previously listed at No. 1 on the list.]

The mortgage industry is more than a trillion-dollar industry, attracting plenty of businesses and entrepreneurs who would like to share in that wealth. 

As HousingWire Magazine’s recent piece on “Avoiding the pitfalls of Silicon Valley” stated, the mortgage industry has seen an influx of new players in the last several years, who often aim to upend the traditional (paper) mortgage process with streamlined systems that meet consumer demand for self service options on mobile, or leverage data to gain better outcomes in everything from lending to field services.

But it's a challenge to generate profit in this environment, which is where the Inc. 5000 list comes in to spotlight the winners.

The list, as explained by the magazine’s Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg, “is different where it really counts.”

In his words:

Corporate giants rise to the top of the Fortune 500 by bulking up over generations of CEOs. You can get on the Forbes rich list either by inheriting wealth or by creating it, as if the two were equally worthy of praise. By contrast, people don't inherit their way onto the Inc. 5000. We honor just one thing: real achievement by a founder or a team of founders. No one makes the Inc. 5000 without building something great — usually from scratch.

Peruse the full list here of the 5000 fastest-growing companies. The site allows users to filter through company revenue, times on list, number of employees, location and industry.

The list is full of businesses in the mortgage finance space, but here are the top-four mortgage companies to keep a close eye on.