On today’s episode of Power House, Diego sits down with two big names in housing: Varun Krishna, the CEO of Rocket Companies, and Jay Bray, the CEO of Mr. Cooper. They discuss combining powerful brands and redefining what it means to own a home in the U.S.
Varun shares how the “Own the Dream” campaign has been a complete marketing revolution for Rocket. He also breaks down the strategy behind acquiring both Redfin and Mr. Cooper, and how they’re building a fully integrated experience across the entire homeownership journey.
Jay dives into the shared vision that drove the Mr. Cooper deal and discusses how Rocket’s AI-driven platforms will transform mortgage servicing and broker partnerships.
Varun and Jay will be joining us on stage this year at The Gathering, alongside Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. Dont miss out — register here!
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Own the Dream is a revolutionary marketing strategy for Rocket.
Mergers and acquisitions are key to achieving growth.
Homeownership is the core focus of Rocket's strategy.
AI will play a significant role in optimizing the mortgage process.
The future of servicing is about growth and integration.
Related to this episode:
Agenda | 2025 HousingWire: The Gathering
https://events.housingwire.com/the-gathering-by-housingwire/agenda/session/1627122
BREAKING: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna Returns to The Gathering for Keynote Fireside Chat | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/breaking-rocket-ceo-varun-krishna-returns-to-the-gathering-for-keynote-fireside-chat/
Rocket Companies to acquire Mr. Cooper in bombshell $9.4B deal | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/rocket-companies-to-acquire-mr-cooper-in-bombshell-9-4b-deal/
Rocket’s 'Apple of homeownership' flywheel is getting more complex | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/rocket-mortgage-mr-cooper-group-redfin-apple-of-homeownership-flywheel/
Varun Krishna shares Rocket’s plan to “become the Apple of homeownership” | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/podcast/varun-krishna-shares-rockets-plan-to-become-the-apple-of-homeownership/
Rocket Companies announces deal to acquire Redfin for $1.75 billion | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/rocket-companies-announces-deal-to-acquire-redfin-for-1-75-billion/
Rocket Companies
https://www.rocketcompanies.com/
Mr. Cooper
https://www.mrcooper.com/
Jay Bray | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-bray-mrcoopergroup
Varun Krishna| LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/varun-krishna-30019a22/
Enjoy the episode!
Varun shares how the “Own the Dream” campaign has been a complete marketing revolution for Rocket. He also breaks down the strategy behind acquiring both Redfin and Mr. Cooper, and how they’re building a fully integrated experience across the entire homeownership journey.
Jay dives into the shared vision that drove the Mr. Cooper deal and discusses how Rocket’s AI-driven platforms will transform mortgage servicing and broker partnerships.
Varun and Jay will be joining us on stage this year at The Gathering, alongside Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. Dont miss out — register here!
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Own the Dream is a revolutionary marketing strategy for Rocket.
Mergers and acquisitions are key to achieving growth.
Homeownership is the core focus of Rocket's strategy.
AI will play a significant role in optimizing the mortgage process.
The future of servicing is about growth and integration.
Related to this episode:
Agenda | 2025 HousingWire: The Gathering
https://events.housingwire.com/the-gathering-by-housingwire/agenda/session/1627122
BREAKING: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna Returns to The Gathering for Keynote Fireside Chat | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/breaking-rocket-ceo-varun-krishna-returns-to-the-gathering-for-keynote-fireside-chat/
Rocket Companies to acquire Mr. Cooper in bombshell $9.4B deal | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/rocket-companies-to-acquire-mr-cooper-in-bombshell-9-4b-deal/
Rocket’s 'Apple of homeownership' flywheel is getting more complex | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/rocket-mortgage-mr-cooper-group-redfin-apple-of-homeownership-flywheel/
Varun Krishna shares Rocket’s plan to “become the Apple of homeownership” | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/podcast/varun-krishna-shares-rockets-plan-to-become-the-apple-of-homeownership/
Rocket Companies announces deal to acquire Redfin for $1.75 billion | HousingWire
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/rocket-companies-announces-deal-to-acquire-redfin-for-1-75-billion/
Rocket Companies
https://www.rocketcompanies.com/
Mr. Cooper
https://www.mrcooper.com/
Jay Bray | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-bray-mrcoopergroup
Varun Krishna| LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/varun-krishna-30019a22/
Enjoy the episode!
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NewsTranscript
00:00This episode of Powerhouse is brought to you today by Polly.
00:05We don't want to be sort of a branded house.
00:07We want to be a house of brands.
00:08And I think that that will translate into an experience strategy that leverages the best of what we have.
00:20Welcome to Powerhouse, where we interview the biggest names in housing and ask them about their strategy for growth.
00:27I'm Diego Sanchez, president of HousingWire, and my guests today are special ones.
00:33Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket, and Jay Bray, CEO of Mr. Cooper.
00:39Varun and Jay, it's so great to have you back on the show.
00:43Thanks for having us, Diego. Good to be here.
00:46Yeah, very good.
00:47So, Varun, the last time we spoke, it was about five or six months ago,
00:53and it was right before you unveiled Own the Dream at the Super Bowl, which was an incredible integration.
01:02Do you see Own the Dream as an evolution or a revolution for Rocket Marketing?
01:11Well, thank you.
01:12First off, I got to ask, I heard that you and Clayton have a last longer bet on ticket sales for The Gathering.
01:18How are we doing on that?
01:21You can see that the beard's pretty full at this point.
01:25So, we just passed ticket number 700 on our way to shaving at 800.
01:31I love it.
01:32We're doing really well, and the beard's pretty itchy, so I'm excited to shave it.
01:37That's awesome.
01:39That's awesome.
01:41You know, to your question around Own the Dream, you know, I'd start by just saying,
01:45look, I think life is just too short for evolution, right?
01:47So, this is definitely about revolution.
01:50And I think that Own the Dream is really one part of a larger revolution of Rocket Marketing.
01:57And, you know, hats off to Jonathan Mildenhall, our CMO, because I think since he joined the company,
02:03I mean, he has really just seen the potential of what our brand and our go-to-market strategy can become.
02:09And I think that led to an overhaul of our entire brand.
02:11And you've probably seen, you know, we've got a new look and feel.
02:15We've got new logos, new colors.
02:17But we have also kind of a new visual design.
02:20And I would say we have a new emotion.
02:23We have more soul.
02:24We have more inclusivity.
02:26And the way that Rocket shows up is just different, right?
02:29It's more emotional.
02:30It's more anthemic.
02:31And we don't use, you know, shorter-term emotions like humor to convey who we are and what we mean.
02:36We want to be a serious brand that plays on a serious stage, and that's homeownership.
02:40And so the core creative idea, I think, is one part of a revolution.
02:46It's our – it's what we call own the dream.
02:49It's very similar to, you know, think different from Apple or just do it from Nike or open happiness from Coke or, you know, belong anywhere from Airbnb.
02:59And I think it's just – it's a precipice of what great marketing really is.
03:05And so definitely more, you know, on the revolution side of the spectrum and just sort of one part of the bigger picture.
03:10Yeah, it was really impressive.
03:14And you followed up on Own the Dream with really dramatic industry-defining acquisitions that we're going to talk a lot about today.
03:27First Redfin and then Mr. Cooper.
03:30Why have you gone all in on M&A so close to this revolution in marketing?
03:39I mean, they're just two parts of the same story at the end of the day.
03:42You know, you start by figuring out what your strategy is, and then you figure out the best way to execute on that strategy to have the maximum impact.
03:50And I think these are two connected parts of the same puzzle, which is really in service to our strategy, which is about growth.
03:58You know, way back in September, we declared our growth strategy to grow market share profitably.
04:03We want to double our purchase market share from 4% to 8% and increase our refinance market share from 12% to 20%.
04:09And I think that when you get to the size and scale of companies like Rocket, Mr. Cooper, Redfin, you know, it's very natural that you're going to think about inorganic levers to achieve a step function change in growth, just because you are already at a certain level of scale.
04:26But at the end of the day, you know, I think what's exciting to me is that inorganic becomes one of the best ways to achieve your growth ambitions.
04:35And it's something that we think is great for the industry and great for Rocket.
04:38You know, it allows us to build a more interconnected experience and connect three broken parts of a funnel into create a super funnel.
04:48It creates a better, more balanced company that can operate in different types of market and rate environments and be able to grow.
04:56It provides data and distribution to a home ownership platform, you know, whether that's, you know, millions of consumers at the top of the funnel, tens of thousands of mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and then all of the data that allows you to build an AI platform.
05:13And then all of this is simply just to say that it allows us to build a more killer experience for the client, right, where we can just remove friction, enable their success, enable more people to get into homes in a sustainable way.
05:27And so all of this is just in service to our strategy, which is in service to growth.
05:34Yeah, I mean, it felt to me like you were moving beyond just mortgage, you know, Rocket as a mortgage company and a servicing business, and really thinking about the full cycle of homeownership.
05:50And that's why it's so fascinating to me.
05:53I assume that was intentional, that you're really thinking about that full life cycle as opposed to being siloed in mortgage.
06:01Absolutely.
06:02You know, I think I get asked this question a lot, which is, you know, are you a mortgage company or a technology company?
06:07And what's interesting to me is these are like, you know, what's and how's, but the question is really about a why.
06:13And the why is homeownership.
06:16And homeownership starts with searching for a home, getting financed, being able to be in a home in a safe and sustainable way.
06:24And they're all interconnected, you know, and I think that these parts of the ecosystem have existed in sort of this disparate way.
06:31And we had been experimenting around it with different things on the Rocket side.
06:35And, you know, as I got to know the industry ramping up into the role, a part of my experience was meeting amazing leaders like Jay and learning about their business and realizing that we shared a vision on the future of homeownership.
06:48And then just realizing how connected and complementary our strategies and our execution could be, you know, to achieve a greater good.
06:55So, bringing in Jay, Jay, it's great to talk to you again.
07:03Why did you view Rocket as a good home for the Mr. Cooper business?
07:10Well, believe it or not, Diego, I just celebrated my 25th year anniversary at the company.
07:15And, as you know, we've acquired a number of companies over the years, a number of portfolios.
07:22And I really fundamentally think the key to any of those successful acquisitions and integrations is all about the culture.
07:30And when I first met Varun, you know, he and I, we immediately hit it off.
07:36And then when I spent more time with Dan and the other Rocket executives, it was just clear to me that the culture fit was perfect.
07:43They cared deeply about their team members.
07:47They cared deeply about their clients.
07:49And when you look at our values, they just overlap and intertwine.
07:53And so I felt like it was a perfect fit for the company.
07:56And also, as Varun said, very like-minded in where we want to take the company, the journey that we're on together.
08:03And I think, you know, that was the primary reasons.
08:07You know, I'm thinking back to my conversation with you, Varun.
08:11And I feel like I got a little bit of a hint.
08:14You mentioned that you and Jay had been texting recently.
08:18And I'm sure you texted for any number of reasons.
08:22But that was a pretty interesting hint there.
08:25So, Jay, the plan is if the deal is approved, you are going to lead Rocket Mortgage.
08:32And you built an incredible servicing business that we've talked all about on a previous Powerhouse episode.
08:37Why do you think it makes sense for you to lead a multi-channel lender and servicer?
08:45Well, if I think about my career, I've done just about everything in the mortgage business.
08:51So, you know, we've always been in the origination business.
08:53And, you know, it's been a significant amount of time in capital markets.
08:57You know, all the different facets of kind of the mortgage life cycle.
09:01But it's really not about me.
09:04It's ultimately about the team.
09:05When you really look at the Rocket team and the executives there, they're super impressive.
09:11And there's just a ton of talent.
09:13And when you take that talent and you combine it with the Cooper talent, I think it's an unstoppable force.
09:19I mean, the teams are fantastic.
09:21And so, for me, it's just an honor to be part of it.
09:24I'm really excited about leading it.
09:26So, back to Varun, you know, in deals of this size, there are always antitrust considerations.
09:37How are you thinking about those antitrust concerns as you attempt to combine two of the biggest servicers in the U.S.?
09:47Yeah, thank you.
09:49I think, you know, probably best if I just step back and just talk about regulatory in general.
09:53And obviously, when it comes to antitrust, you know, we are working with the industry's best attorneys.
09:59You know, we've done a ton of diligence around this.
10:02And we don't anticipate any issues when it comes to things like HSR, et cetera.
10:08But I think when you just step back and just look at regulatory in general, obviously, you know, I would say that we wouldn't pursue a deal like this unless we were confident in our ability to get it done and to complete it.
10:18And when you think about, you know, FHFA, Fannie, Freddie, Ginny, you know, both companies have very deep relationships and have been, you know, kind of the longtime gold standard in how you run your business.
10:31And so, you know, the good news is we have great relationships.
10:35You know, we have teams that are focused on this day over day.
10:39You know, and we feel very confident that we're addressing things like concentration risk or safety and soundness.
10:45Because the reality is it's a huge market, like 85% of the market even is just sort of still open and very fragmented.
10:52And so we're working closely with the regulators, you know, to make sure everyone feels good.
10:58We're leveraging a lot of the strengths that we have and the relationships that we have.
11:02We're following a very rigorous process.
11:05And again, as I said, we wouldn't be pursuing it if we didn't feel confident.
11:09So as you think about integration of both of these incredible companies, I'm interested in how you think about this revolution in rocket marketing and this really amazing brand equity that you've built in the rocket brand.
11:29But you're also acquiring businesses that have built brand equity of their own, Mr. Cooper and Redfin.
11:36And how do you think about these three different brands?
11:41Are they brands that continue to exist under the rocket umbrella?
11:45Does everything become rocket?
11:47Like, how are you thinking about that, Bruin?
11:49Yeah, I mean, look, I think that that's a work in progress and we're working through all of the details.
11:56But I think it's a good problem to have.
11:58It's just how do you create a better experience for consumers and allow brands to be in service to that?
12:04And so I think at the end of the day for us, we believe in building a more integrated experience, right?
12:09And that means meeting clients where they are.
12:11It means removing friction.
12:14You know, today that's very broken, right?
12:16If you think about search, you know, the real estate experience, financing, title, closing, you know, escrow, servicing.
12:24It's very expensive.
12:25It's very manual.
12:26It's very inefficient.
12:28And at the same time, you know, each of these companies have built significant presence with their clients.
12:35And so what we want to do is leverage the strengths of each of these areas and bring them together to create more strength.
12:41You know, I'll give you an example.
12:42You know, Redfin is an incredibly powerful search portal.
12:45We plan to leverage that to the fullest ability possible.
12:50You know, they have, I think, the best mobile app product in the world.
12:54You know, it's performant.
12:55It's well-designed.
12:56It's beautiful.
12:57It's high engagement.
12:58And that doesn't happen, you know, via accident, right?
13:01And so I think over time, you know, the brands may come closer together.
13:06But what we care about the most is just, like, meeting clients where they are and then removing friction.
13:10And so what that really looks like is, obviously, I think the Redfin brand would continue to maintain to some degree.
13:18It's the premier brand for search.
13:20It's an amazing consumer brand that is very loved.
13:24And there's also elements of the Rocket digital experience that are very loved as well.
13:28And so we think there's an opportunity to bring the Mr. Cooper brand closer to Rocket while continuing to strengthen the Redfin brand.
13:36But at the end of the day, you know, I think that, you know, this is an argument that will be solved with data and evidence.
13:43It's not about emotion.
13:45It's about doing the right thing for the consumer and creating the best possible experience.
13:49And the brand strategy will be, obviously, in service to that as well.
13:53So we've got some work to do there.
13:56But we think this is a great opportunity for us to just strengthen the combined value proposition of the integrated, you know, brand experience.
14:04And, you know, we don't want to be sort of a branded house.
14:09We want to be a house of brands.
14:11And I think that that will translate into an experience strategy that leverages the best of what we have.
14:17And then you have now three incredible technology teams, right?
14:24Like Rocket is well known for building incredible tech.
14:29Redfin was well known for building incredible tech.
14:32Same with Mr. Cooper.
14:34How are you thinking about integrating those three different amazing technology teams into one powerhouse technology team?
14:44Yeah, I mean, this is something that I'm super excited about, right?
14:48And I think there's a couple of things.
14:49I think, you know, we obviously know that there are places where each of the technology teams are in particular strong.
14:56You know, I'll use portal technology and search engine technology as being an example for Redfin and SEO.
15:01We know that Mr. Cooper has built an industrial grade servicing technology stack as well.
15:06We know Rocket has, you know, an incredible loan origination platform.
15:10There's also things that are kind of shared across each technology platform, like a holistic view of the consumer, you know, something that allows for a better management of data and documents, cybersecurity, compliance, regulatory, right?
15:25And so I think that this is an exercise in us really stitching together the best of each of these capabilities to build an integrated platform.
15:33But the nice thing about this is, you know, it used to be that these like major tech migrations were multi-year and required, you know, a lot of, you know, working with structured, unstructured data, legacy technology.
15:46The barrier to integration and the barrier to bringing things together is getting lower and lower.
15:53And that's because of the benefits that AI provides.
15:56It's because of the benefits that, you know, algorithmic intelligence provide, that experimentation provide.
16:01And so I expect that while it may seem daunting to sort of integrate three large technology companies and systems, they are technology companies and they're run by smart technology engineers and leaders that understand how to do this stuff and have had experience doing it.
16:17And so the principle is we're going to leverage the best of what we have and where we have different choices.
16:22We're going to pick sort of the area where we think we'd be the strongest and adapt that.
16:27But largely speaking, you know, we're going to leverage the unique capabilities that each company brings to the table.
16:33And that translates into a technology and I would say an AI strategy as well.
16:37There's a lot of value in certain things being shared that can be written once and run everywhere.
16:42There's also some value in certain stacks being promoted because they serve a very specific purpose that should then be scaled across the rest of the company.
16:51So, you know, I think we'll be thoughtful, we'll be deliberate and planful about it.
16:56A lot of those conversations are happening now.
16:59Let's talk more about artificial intelligence because both of your companies have really been on the forefront of building technology, including AI, to better originate from your servicing book.
17:16How are you both thinking about extending that technology into the discovery experience, you know, which you're getting better at through the Redfin acquisition and into the origination experience, which I assume has a lot of areas that could be improved with the use of AI?
17:38I think part of it just comes down to just being very deliberate about what your core goals and priorities are.
17:46And, you know, I'll give you an example.
17:48You know, we want to increase traffic and the top of the funnel and we want to drive mortgage attached conversion.
17:54We want the conversion funnel to optimize our leads, both in terms of quality and volume.
18:01And then we want to generate conversion in servicing.
18:04We want to generate long term value and net promoters and retention.
18:09And then we want to generate recapture.
18:12And so the starting point for me is really understanding what are the core metrics that drive your flywheel?
18:17And then underneath that, making sure that you have the right technology to generate insights, experiments, actions and engagement.
18:25And so we would take a framework like that.
18:27We would apply it to our organizational structure.
18:30We would make sure that our leaders are accountable for those goals.
18:33And we would make sure that the technology teams are essentially building roadmaps that provide increased traffic generation, increased lead quality, increased product specific conversion.
18:43And so to give you a specific example in Rocket Mortgage, you know, we have a technology called Navigator.
18:50And what Navigator does is it analyzes hundreds and thousands of calls at a semantic level to understand, you know, what drives conversion?
18:59What are the detractors?
19:00How do we pair up the right loan officers with the right consumers?
19:03How do things like time of day, location, geography, sentiment, client life events and situations pair up together?
19:11And so that technology is super cool because our non-technologist oriented mortgage bankers, marketing professionals can actually query this database and build apps without writing a single line of code that say, hey, identify when these three trends happen and are a three point increment detractor in conversion.
19:34And then also identify the three best interventions that I can leverage to coach my team member.
19:40And like this is incredible use of AI technology to apply to a metric like, for example, increasing conversion.
19:48And so you can take that basically, you know, turning everything into an AI driven system, using prompt engineering and agentic AI to then create a different way of attacking the problem.
20:00And then being able to do that across Redfin and the home search and portal experience across the entire financing journey, including title and close and across the servicing business, as well as recapture.
20:13That's what gets me super excited.
20:15Yeah, I would say like an example in the servicing business is our agent IQ solution.
20:23And they're similar to what Barun said.
20:24We've taken millions and millions of calls, analyze those calls.
20:28And so when, you know, a client or customer calls in now, our agents can assist them immediately.
20:34They know, you know, immediately where to go to find the answer.
20:37If it's an escrow topic, if it's a, you know, insurance topic, whatever it is, our customer service agents now have tools at their disposal that allow them to solve that problem immediately for that customer.
20:50And I just, you know, it's just a much better experience.
20:53And the call is handled and, you know, in a timeframe that works really well for the customer.
20:58It's super interesting.
21:01Some executives at HousingWire have started, I'd never heard this expression before, but they've started vibe coding with the use of AI.
21:10And Vroom, kind of like what you said, starting to build apps that get after some of the data that we've got internally or, you know, build little businesses around some data sets.
21:21Is that kind of what you're enabling some of your business leaders to do with your technology?
21:27Absolutely.
21:28I think that, you know, we will continue to stack example after example of where this is starting to happen.
21:35And what it does is it just creates scale, right?
21:37It just allows everyone that's kind of part of the journey of homeownership to also play a role in innovation, right, and modernization and advancement.
21:47And I do love the vibe coding vibe.
21:52And Jay and I were going to do a little vibe coding later today.
21:55We'll see how that goes.
21:57But you're exactly right, right?
21:59I mean, when you're working with complex systems, at the end of the day, homeownership is about a deterministic exchange of financial data and information and money for an outcome.
22:10And it's a very complicated emotional decision.
22:13And if we can figure out how to allow human beings to have an enhanced connection because of it and allow computers and technology to automate the mundane and to simplify the complex, I think we get to just a better state.
22:27And the reason that Jay, Glenn, myself wanted to join forces is because we just thought we could enable that better state faster.
22:34And we also felt like, you know, the ecosystem just feels so combative in housing.
22:40Everyone is competing with everyone else.
22:43Can we be champions for more of an ecosystem approach?
22:46Can we be champions for more partnership?
22:48Can we create more inclusivity?
22:51And then also, obviously, can we create more value, you know, for the client?
22:55Because they matter the most at the end of the day.
22:57Yeah, I mean, it's such an emotional process, like you said.
23:03And, wow, it's hard when you have all these emotions.
23:06And then also, the process kind of sucks.
23:09You know, like, it's really difficult.
23:11It's hard to work through.
23:12So it's sort of a double whammy, especially for a first-time homebuyer.
23:16So I'm glad to hear about this ecosystem approach and bringing all these different facets of homeownership together.
23:23Jay, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about servicing.
23:28Like I said before, you've built this incredible servicing business at Mr. Cooper.
23:32And now that you're combining with Rocket, I think the stat is you're going to be touching or servicing one out of every six mortgages in the U.S.,
23:43which is just an incredible statistic if you think about it.
23:46Are you still bullish on acquiring even more and maybe getting to one out of every four mortgages that you're servicing?
23:55How are you thinking about continued growth of this massive servicing book?
24:00Well, I think, you know, first, we're just focused on the integration, right?
24:04At the end of the day, we've got to combine the companies.
24:08And so, you know, I think that's going to be the first priority.
24:11But, yeah, look, I think we can grow the servicing platform.
24:14And the great thing about, you know, combining these companies is we're multifaceted, right?
24:20We're multi-channeled.
24:21We're, you know, in the broker channel and the correspondent channel.
24:24We're in the retail channels, NCA, et cetera.
24:28So it just gives us a lot of the ability to really grow organically as well as inorganically.
24:34And so, yeah, I think there's and it's such a fragmented market, right?
24:38Even at those numbers, it's still a fragmented market.
24:42And we feel like there's a lot of room for growth from here.
24:45So, yeah, we'll definitely be active participants.
24:48Are you guys going to let your M&A teams rest and integrate for a little bit?
24:53Or are you already thinking about that next deal?
24:56No, I think we're going to let them.
24:58Maroon can jump in, but we're going to let them rest.
25:00And we're really focused on, you know, integration.
25:03Yeah, we've got plenty of work to do, and it makes us a success.
25:08So it is our, like, dogmatic focus.
25:10Top priority across all companies is integration.
25:15This has been an amazing conversation.
25:16I want to end with Rocket Pro because there was a lot of chatter about when these deals came out about, you know,
25:24whether it's good for Rocket Pros, broker partners, bad for Rocket Pros, broker partners, indifferent.
25:31And I would just love to get the perspective from both of you on how you see the acquisitions of Redfin and Mr. Cooper benefiting Rocket Pros, broker partners.
25:46And, Jay, I'll start with you.
25:48Yeah, look, I think we spent some time.
25:51I think it's great for the brokers, right?
25:53They're such an important, you know, part of the ecosystem, and we want to find more ways to serve them.
25:59And I think, you know, with the servicing platform, we have the ability to retain servicing and then provide leads back to the brokers, you know, promote their, you know, their system as well.
26:11And so I think it's a wonderful opportunity for the brokers, and it's a really important channel, and we plan to grow it.
26:17And obviously the subservicing business is a big part of our business as well.
26:21And, you know, there we'll continue to maintain those clients and grow that business.
26:27And we're obviously going to honor the non-solicit provisions and all those, you know, agreements.
26:32But I think we're starting to brainstorm about ways to really, you know, ignite the broker channel even more than we are today.
26:42Verun, I'd love your perspective on this as well.
26:45I've had the opportunity and the pleasure of sitting down with Dan Segorka and other members of that Rocket Pro leadership team.
26:55It's a really interesting and very skilled group.
27:01And it seems like Rocket wants to really push in and compete in wholesale in 2025.
27:09How do you see these deals fitting into that picture?
27:12Yeah, I mean, I think they're directly in service to that strategy, plain and simple.
27:17I think at the end of the day, this is going to be great for brokers, as Jay said.
27:22And I'll just give you a couple of the key reasons, just doubling down.
27:27One is, you know, it's a much larger ecosystem and distribution, right?
27:31More clients equals more business.
27:33Whether that's the 62 million, you know, visitors that come to the combination of Rocket Mortgage and Redfin or the 10 million servicing clients.
27:43You know, more clients equals more business.
27:45And we want to meet our clients where they are.
27:47And when a client needs a broker, we want to be there to create that connection and to make that business happen.
27:54So brokers are vital to our strategy.
27:56And, you know, as you mentioned, we've made some significant changes in leadership and investment in service to that.
28:04The two other things that I'd also highlight is that, you know, we care about expanding the capability of our platform to our brokers.
28:11The RocketLogic platform, our data processing capabilities, our servicing capabilities, everything that we're building is as in service to brokers as it is to our loan officers.
28:22And we think of them as a connected part of our ecosystem for forever, you know, and I want to be very clear that that is a vital part of our growth strategy.
28:33And what's great about that, when you think about Mr. Cooper, in particular, is you think about capabilities like servicing.
28:39You think about a broker's name on the mortgage statement, right?
28:42You think about new capabilities that enhance what a broker needs to do in order to grow and thrive and be successful.
28:50And then I think the last thing is that, philosophically, we believe in the power of choice.
28:56We think choice is one of the biggest sort of assets and weapons that a broker has to be able to deliver top-tier service and a great experience for consumers.
29:07And so we stand for choice.
29:09We stand for technology evolution and capability expansion for brokers.
29:14We stand for creating a larger ecosystem and more distribution.
29:17I think it's difficult to argue that we're not delivering against that, you know, and I think if you include things like the Arrive platform that we have just recently announced through improvements that we're making in the dashboard to just how these deals are going to create business.
29:32We are very committed to this channel, and we want to hear how we can do even better.
29:37I'll give you one example, Diego.
29:39We have a subservicing client that's a distributed retail platform, but we've been able to, and we're subservicing those loans, been able to, to Varun's point, put the loan officer on the statement.
29:52So when that customer gets the statement, they know who their loan officer is, and we've been able to deploy some toolkits that we use for retention with those retail loan officers.
30:03And so we're really actually helping them retain their clients in a more powerful way than they have previously.
30:09So I think that can be applied to the broker channel as well and can really significantly improve retention for the broker group.
30:17Yeah, it's really interesting.
30:20And Varun, you mentioned the Arrive platform.
30:23You recently struck a deal with leadership at that company to get Rocket included on that platform, on that broker LOS platform, for the first time in years.
30:38So it seems like you're putting your money where your mouth is when it comes to choice.
30:44Absolutely.
30:44As I said, I mean, it is something that we think is a fundamental benefit and a power that brokers need to be empowered with.
30:53And so this is just simply in service to that.
30:57Well, gentlemen, this has been an incredible conversation, and we're going to get a chance to talk to you again in about a month,
31:05when the two of you will be joined by Glenn Clemman of Redfin on stage at The Gathering.
31:14Really looking forward to publishing this conversation and then also to seeing that kind of three-way panel at The Gathering.
31:24Thank you so much.
31:26Thanks, Diego.
31:26Thanks, Diego.
31:27Good to spend time together.
31:28Appreciate you.
31:29Bye.
31:30Bye.