Rocket Mortgage - Redfin & Mr. Cooper

Hey, GonzoBankers. Rocket Mortgage is hanging with Mr. Cooper. Let’s talk about it.

So the mortgage business has been in a bit of an uproar here in the last year or so, but things are starting to stabilize a little bit. Interest rates have stayed pretty consistent, and Bank of America just announced their application rate in the first quarter was up about 80%.

So while rates aren’t necessarily going down, I think the market is starting to stabilize, and I think Rocket Mortgage is recognizing that opportunity.

They’ve had two acquisitions they’ve announced here in the last week or two. One is Redfin, which is the real estate platform, and then the other being Mr. Cooper, which is a servicing platform.

So Rocket’s already, I think, the fourth-largest originator in the country, did about $70 billion last year. So this is just their opportunity to create that integrated, end-to-end solution within the mortgage space.

I think they view Redfin as a pipeline for new customers. I think Mr. Cooper is a pipeline for refinances, as well as home equity loans and other things. You’ve got about 4 million customers there.

So really interesting to see them take that fully integrated approach to the mortgage business.

We’ve talked about this before. What does it mean for us as banks and credit unions?

We need to be more thoughtful about the products we offer, and we need to make sure we’re thinking about the end-to-end customer experience when we offer things.

We can’t just be mid at everything. We need to be good at something, and we need to be thinking about everything from the purchase all the way to the servicing.

So what do you think? What’s your take on this acquisition and how it’s going to impact mortgage?