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Mortgage giant Rocket Companies has an ambitious goal of growing its purchase loan business in 2025 by building closer relationships with real estate agents and mortgage brokers, with its newly acquired Rocket Companies. com domain and “rebranding” to increase consumer awareness. That includes Super Bowl ad buys, CEO Varun Krishna told Inman.
Krishna, who will be a featured speaker at Inman Connect New York in January, also highlighted Rocket’s investments in AI, which will help the company anticipate customer needs and respond to demand. He said the company will be able to quickly expand its business.
In addition to Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Companies’ stable of brands includes personal finance app Rocket Money. Rocket Homes is a real estate brokerage and search site. and Amrock, a title and settlement services provider.
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These services, combined with Rocket’s strong presence in mortgage repayments, make the company a “fintech” (financial technology) platform that offers a variety of tools to help people manage their finances.
Mr. Krishna is a veteran fintech executive who has held product management roles at companies such as Intuit, PayPal, Groupon, and Microsoft, and was named CEO of Rocket Companies and Rocket Mortgage in 2023, where he also serves on the parent company’s board of directors. .
Ahead of his Jan. 22 Connect appearance, Krishna took some time to talk with Inman about volatile mortgage rates, AI, how Rocket works with agents and mortgage brokers, and the company’s brand refresh plans. divided. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Inman: There have been dramatic ups and downs in mortgage rates this year. When the Fed finally started cutting rates in September, mortgage rates went up! Economists predict that interest rates will continue to fluctuate in 2025, but how will Rocket deal with this fluctuation in interest rates?
Varun Krishna: Yes, the market is dynamic, and our way of thinking is that we need to build ships that are designed to weather the storm. The way the Rocket platform works is that it focuses on scalability. So when the industry was facing tough times and thinking about the so-called yo-yo effect of more jobs and less jobs, we basically continued to make the same investments.
The reason for this is precisely due to technology. Although this “long-term higher” interest rate trend is a headwind for the industry, we believe that it is actually a tailwind for Rocket. Because even if rates go down or up, you can keep your fixed costs the same and scale up to serve more customers.
We are betting big on technology. I think we are on the precipice of the very early stages of the AI revolution, and how technology can make us more efficient, drive better experiences, and how we can scale. is starting to have a major impact. More flexible cost structure.
As a fintech platform, Rocket provides insight into customer needs, including whether they are ready to buy or refinance a home. In action, AI will also help Rocket accept and process mortgage applications more efficiently. But from a big-picture perspective, what is the role of AI across platforms?
First of all, this is why I came to Rocket. In the early stages of the AI transformation, we saw companies that were likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of the AI transformation. It was very clear to me that this technology had the potential to revolutionize mortgage lending and homeownership.
I think it starts with having a strong foundation of data. [tracks events] Homeowners have experienced it. For us, data means financial statements, 65 million customer call records, and 300,000 to 500,000 records generated every week. This is the underwriting, servicing, and reputation management processes, all of the different aspects of the business that generate data.
Our data foundation is extremely strong, and over the past five years we’ve spent nearly $500 million building the data AI infrastructure that enables our innovative efforts. Then we take that data foundation and ask, “What can we do to improve the experience?”
A lot of it is just basic, right? By automating routine tasks, you can significantly improve the efficiency of your team members. Leverage predictive analytics and more to understand your customers’ emotions, state of mind, and level of readiness to execute a trade.
Simplify process complexity by automating document creation, document request extraction, underwriting, credit analysis, evaluation, and more. You can also do so if you want to extend your services and improve your client’s experience with features such as chat. but also more automated and more self-service.
To name a few examples, we have an AI-powered chat experience that allows one team member to speak to multiple clients at the same time without compromising personalization. As a result, chat interactions doubled quarter over quarter, and conversion rates from first interaction to credit earned tripled at no cost increase. We also use chat for things like disaster response so our clients can get immediate help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
varun krishna
Another example is a tool called Synopsis. It’s essentially an AI platform that looks at millions of calls and understands the purpose of the call, the problem, and so on. Extract critical value from ultra-large datasets, giving you insights to drive higher conversion rates. This technology increases your productivity and allows you to serve more clients.
The third example that I’m really excited about is a platform called Navigator. It’s essentially a low-code, non-technical front end that we’ve developed for team members who aren’t particularly technical or data scientists or engineers. This platform works with datasets, but also connects to OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock. You can ask questions and we can take action for you.
This is truly the beginning of what we call the “Agent AI” revolution. You can say something like, “Analyze the call and, based on the client, give me three appropriate text messages to send to maintain client trust.” Or, “Based on 1,000 calls in this specific area, determine whether you are losing business by not addressing a specific objection.” All this power at your fingertips. I think that’s really amazing. This is a great example of how building AI and the humanity in homeowner conversations really come together.
How do real estate agents and mortgage brokers fit into how Rocket Homes uses AI?
The first thing to say is that Rocket is collectively an end-to-end home ownership platform. Mortgages are a core part of its platform, but so is finding a home. [mortgage] service. So are the stakeholders involved in these business relationships, so although they are not business relationships, they are in fact relationships.
For real estate agents and mortgage brokers, we think of them as partners, and we intentionally use the term “partner” to describe mortgage brokers. This year, we will double our investment and develop these channels.
We have very ambitious goals for the growth of our purchase mortgage business, estate agents and estate agents. [mortgage] Brokers are part of the foundation of that experience. They are very, very important to us. Real estate agents and mortgage brokers demand responsiveness, competitive pricing, and the highest level of service. What we do is take the capabilities and products of our core retail launch platform and extend them to our platform. [mortgage] This enables our brokerage partners and our real estate agents to grow their business and better expand in all types of markets.
Dan Sogolka
Recently hired [former Sagent CEO] Dan Sogolka [as general manager of Rocket’s wholesale lending division, Rocket Pro TPO]we’ve also strengthened the size of our team across the board, from marketing to technology to strategy. This is just an indicator that we are also betting heavily on our resources to make sure that we are strong in terms of our value proposition to both real estate agents and estate agents. [mortgage] broker.
We have an incredibly strong real estate agent network with Rocket Homes. recently acquired [the rocket.com domain] And rocket.com will be the centerpiece that brings together the home search and financing experiences offered by Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage into a fully integrated, holistic experience. The advantage of Rocket is that we are not just a ‘house of brands’, we are a ‘house of brands’.
We can create experiences across the entire homeownership journey, from the search experience to the protection and services of our real estate agent partners and us. [mortgage] Broker partners enable smooth, great digital experiences from valuation to settlement and ultimately provide great service. [mortgage] Service experience. Mortgage brokers and real estate agents are a very important part of that ecosystem. They play a key role in our client relationships, which are very important to us.
Adweek recently reported that Rocket Mortgage is gearing up for a brand refresh with creative agency Mirimar and global design studio Otherway. Thinking back to the days of Quicken Loans, Super Bowl ads, and viral ads, does Rocket have plans to do something like that in the new year?
Jonathan Mildenhall
One of my first employers was [chief marketing officer, Airbnb veteran] Jonathan Mildenhall — One of the best, if not the best CMO on the planet. The reason we wanted to bring Jonathan to the rocket is because we [already] But we are still far from being the brand we aspire to be.
We believe the homeownership experience is as important as what Apple is doing for the world of hardware. We’re working on something called restaging a brand, which Jonathan has done many times in the past. He led Coca-Cola’s brand transformation. Our partnerships with these agencies really enhance the way we think deeply about connecting with communities and consumers in the regions where they are located.
We’ve added a new visual identity system, a new brand narrative, and we’re definitely coming back to the Super Bowl. February 9th marks the Rockets’ return to the Super Bowl with a significantly enhanced value proposition and concept. Its value proposition and concept are exciting, resonant and we believe will have a lasting impact on the market. I’m really excited and I encourage everyone to tune in because this brand is coming in a way that has never been seen before.
And this is really important because homeownership needs to emerge now more than ever, right? That American dream has to come back to the market. We consider ourselves stewards of the American Dream, and we take that responsibility seriously.
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