This month, Real Estate magazine had the chance to sit down with Jes Fields, Rocket Mortgage’s Real Estate Channel executive vice president, to discuss how the company’s tools and technology help agents and their clients find success in today’s competitive market.
Paige Brown: Tell us about your professional history with Rocket Mortgage and how it led to your current role within the company, and what exactly that role is.
Jes Fields: I joined Rocket Homes four years ago. During that time, I experienced the real estate business inside and out. I built meaningful relationships with agents and learned what they need to succeed. This year I was given the opportunity to lead the real estate channel for Rocket Mortgage. I’m absolutely thrilled to build on the work I did at Rocket Homes, continue growing agent relationships and help streamline the partnership between agent and lender.
PB: What are your primary roles and responsibilities?
JF: I’m setting the vision for Rocket Mortgage and how we engage, serve and support agents. I lead both our banking and agent relationship manager teams, which are focused on helping agents and their clients succeed. I also provide the vision for Rocket Pro Insight—the portal for agents to access anything they need. Another key part of my role is asking for feedback from agents and continually measuring how satisfied they are with our service. We love feedback at Rocket Mortgage; we welcome it and encourage it.
PB: How do you and your team support agents to position them ahead of the competition?
JF: At Rocket Mortgage, we want to give agents white-glove service. We’ve built support teams that specialize in each of the real estate brands, whether you’re an independent or one of the larger brands, and we also have a dedicated team to serve them 24/7 in order to provide a customized, catered experience. Our strategy is to support the agent, investing in their success—and, based on the feedback we have received, agents feel really good about that.
PB: Tell me about the Verified Approval from Rocket Mortgage and how it provides buyers with a competitive edge.
JF: The Verified Approval is an approval in which our underwriting team reviews credit, income and assets before there is a purchase agreement, or even an offer on a property. It’s a really strong approval, which we guarantee with $1,000 that if our human underwriters verify, that approval will not prevent them from closing. In fact, we have seen that buyers with a Verified Approval are nearly twice as likely to close on their mortgage. An agent’s time is really valuable, so we want to make sure they feel confident that their buyers, with a Rocket Verified Approval, have strong buying power, have been vetted and can make a really strong offer. It’s a competitive and fast-moving market, so with our Verified Approval and our overnight underwrite, real estate professionals can be competitive and move at lightning speed.
PB: What’s the difference between a standard Approval Letter and a Verified Approval?
JF: The standout is that a Verified Approval is fully underwritten by a human, with a complete review of all docs that confirm credit, income and assets. As an agent, you want to have confidence in your buyer’s financing before you submit an offer—and that’s exactly what a Verified Approval delivers.
PB: Can you talk about some of the benefits of Rocket Pro Insight?
JF: Rocket Pro Insight is a newer technology that we launched within the last year. When you sign up, you’re able to see details about your client in a secure environment. If you’re ready to make an offer, the client, through www.rocketmortgage.com, or the agent, through Rocket Pro Insight, can make an adjustment to the approval letter and submit the offer on the fly. Or, if the buyer isn’t approved yet, the agent can use Rocket Pro Insight to refer them to one of our dedicated mortgage bankers. Rocket Pro Insight is incredibly popular—as of June 30, 2021, there were 50,000 agents leveraging the tool. Plus, we’ll be releasing some exciting new features and functions in Q4 that will even further enhance the agent’s experience.
PB: What other tools does Rocket Mortgage offer to agents, and how can they best utilize them for their real estate business?
JF: We are incredibly proud of our “overnight underwrite” program. Rocket Mortgage has a team of underwriters working around the clock to ensure agents can get Verified Approvals for their clients—even while they’re asleep. There aren’t many lenders who can say that!
The above article is sponsored content. For more information, please visit www.RocketPro.com/RealEstate.
Paige Brown is RISMedia’s content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to pbrown@rismedia.com.
