In this exclusive interview, Rocket Mortgage® Vice President of Sales Michael Flis discusses how the company is supporting today’s real estate agents with their dedicated support team and technology.
Paige Tepping: Please describe your career path and how you ended up where you are today as vice president of sales at Rocket Mortgage.
Michael Flis: I started working at Rocket Mortgage as an intern in 2006. Since then, I have done almost everything possible within the company. I joined the company in a full-time position in 2007 as a loan officer and moved into a leadership role three years later. I have spent the last decade in various parts of the organization—primarily in mortgage banking. I transitioned to the business-to-business side recently and am now heading up the real estate agent channel.
PT: What is your primary role in your position as vice president of sales?
MF: My primary role is to grow foundational relationships with the real estate community on behalf of Rocket Mortgage. This has been such a unique time to take on this venture because we are in a unique home-buying market where limited inventory is forcing agents to be incredibly competitive, and they must lean on relationships with lenders to be successful.
PT: Can you talk a little bit about how you’re supporting real estate agents?
MF: While we’re supporting real estate agents in many ways, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Rocket ProSM Insight, the tech platform we launched in October 2020. It provides agents visibility into the loan process, giving them unprecedented levels of control when it comes to sending documents and adjusting approval letters for their clients. Drilling down even further, the tool allows agents to play a much more proactive role throughout the mortgage period. Rocket Pro Insight is incredibly popular. The number of real estate agents who’ve signed up for it has grown from 14,000 at the end of last year to more than 45,000 agents using it as of the end of Q1.
PT: In what ways does the company’s support team go above and beyond to ensure agents are getting the support they need?
MF: In addition to the Rocket Pro Insight app, as an organization, we have created a dedicated channel to work with real estate agents with a team of Agent Relationship Managers. At the end of the day, housing is still a relationship game, so the biggest thing our support team can do is continue to cultivate and grow those partnerships.
PT: What’s the secret to growing successful relationships in today’s market?
MF: As far as solidifying and growing relationships, we come into contact with a lot of people due to the fact that we conduct business in all 50 states. No matter who we are working with—whether they have done a few transactions with us in the past, or maybe we are just meeting them—there’s a remarkable opportunity for us to show the value we bring to the table. The most important thing agents and their clients need from us is the assurance that we will get the loan closed. Working backward from there, the next key piece of the puzzle is providing visibility into the process while maintaining a high level of commitment to our clients.
PT: How does technology fit into the mix when it comes to supporting agents?
MF: Just as technology is relevant today, it will be even more important one year from now, five years from now and so on. The fact that it is being woven into more and more of the process and is constantly evolving makes it one of the most important things we can bring to the table. It’s also one of the reasons agencies and partners enjoy aligning with us. When it comes to technology, we are at the forefront, and this is a responsibility that falls directly on our shoulders. We’re proud to be leading the charge when it comes to developing proprietary digital tools and resources that will take one of the most complicated transactions and make it as simple and easy as possible.
PT: As the real estate and mortgage industries continue to evolve, how do you envision the way in which the company supports agents changing?
MF: While our role at Rocket Mortgage will always be to successfully close loans, to be most effective, we need to serve the needs of real estate agents across the country and continually grow those relationships. To that end, the medium in which we do so is ever-changing, but we’ll never stop streamlining the process and enhancing the level of transparency between the client, agent and lender—as well as the third parties involved in the transaction. This is where we’ll be focusing our next steps, as this is where we anticipate finding more and more folks enjoying what we have put together.
PT: What’s on the horizon at Rocket Mortgage?
MF: There’s a lot on the horizon, but I’m most excited about the reorganization that’s taking place within the company and the fact that we’re dedicating a group to the real estate community. This speaks volumes to the direction in which we want to go. It’s important that we provide agents an experience that’s equally as great as the experience we provide our mortgage clients.
The above article is sponsored content. For more information, please visit RocketPro.com/RealEstate.
Paige Tepping is RISMedia’s managing editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to paige@rismedia.com.
