According to He, Rocket Mortgage is in step with what today’s consumers expect from technology and the mortgage industry. “What technology has done since the iPhone, regardless of demographic and age, is condition folks to feel like they should be able to do anything on their device,” says He. “I want to push a button and have a car pull up and take me somewhere—that’s happened with Uber. The mortgage world hasn’t been at that place yet, so there will be a natural transition for people catching up to the idea. Rocket Mortgage will most likely be more quickly adopted by tech-comfortable folks, but we tried to make this something accessible to all.”
While we live in a world of technology hype, He emphasizes that Rocket Mortgage is not your average automated process—Quicken Loans operates under a different philosophy. Therefore, while other players may claim to have an automated mortgage lending process, “it literally doesn’t compare,” she says.
“People like to say they innovate, but I’m not sure how many companies have the ability to allow their workforce to exclusively focus on one project for 15-18 months. Quicken Loans team members actually create what we set out to. Everybody shares the same goal to make it happen. When other companies try to copy what we’ve done, we’ve already moved onto the next evolution.”
The Big Winner? Homeownership
By streamlining and automating the process of getting a home loan, Rocket Mortgage stands to impact not only the lives of consumers, but the state of homeownership itself.
As Latka says, Rocket Mortgage puts the power of homeownership directly into the hands of consumers. “You no longer have to wait on the telephone or go back and forth exchanging messages and documents, and then wait to find out if you’re approved to buy the home of your dreams,” he says. “This easy-to-use, intuitive platform takes that long, laborious process down to eight minutes. For that individual to be able to get a mortgage approved from their sofa at 9 p.m. on a Sunday after they just toured the house of their dreams is an empowering feeling that will bring more folks into the home-buying market because of the elimination of that barrier of the application and approval process.”
“This is a win-win for everybody—for clients and real estate professionals,” agrees He. “From a real estate agent’s point of view, they want to help their client find the right home, and they want to get their client approved. Rocket Mortgage helps from both the buy side and sell side. Sometimes sellers don’t want to waste their time talking to buyers who aren’t qualified. With Rocket Mortgage, the buyer, seller and agent can come together. For a buyer, they can see a house and find out right away if they qualify. It gives everyone the confidence that the buyer has enough money and assets to buy the house.”
Rocket Mortgage is something clients can use anytime, anywhere, adds Hadiaris. “A first-time homebuyer walking through a home can pull out their phone and get fully approved, and then show that to the real estate agent. For real estate agents who are buying and selling, to be able to get those folks approved quickly on a mobile device, is huge. That’s a direction we want to go in.”
Quicken Loans is well aware of the larger implications of Rocket Mortgage and sees this as a crucial step in its journey to change the mortgage industry. “This is another pivotal moment in our organization’s history, and an evolution of the mortgage industry as a whole,” says Latka. “This is like that iPhone moment. Things are changing, things will not be the same—and we’re excited to be a part of it.”
While the CIO can’t divulge what’s next on deck for QL Labs, she explains that always looking several steps ahead is in the Quicken Loans DNA. “We are always looking to be several steps ahead of the industry,” He says. “We’re never stopping at any point. We have spent a lot of time on Rocket Mortgage, but we’re also focusing on what’s next. This is our mission—to move forward.”
“We’re really hopeful that this is a tool that helps agents help a lot more people get into homes a lot faster,” says Hadiaris. “If we can get more people into more homes faster, then we can look at the agent and lender partnership and say, we’ve won.”
For more information, visit www.RocketMortgage.com.
