Rocket’s wholesale channel, Rocket Pro TPO, announced Monday that its 2024 mission is to “earn every partnership,” by providing their broker partners with all the assistance they need to succeed.
Rocket TPO Executive Vice President Mike Fawaz told brokers at its Ignite Live event that part of the assistance will come from VAL Update Hotline.
This is a 24/7 hotline for brokers to call when they need to update a verified approval letter (VAL) on the go. It also has a touch of CEO Krishna Varun flare, since at the other end of this hotline is not a human, but an AI generative assistant.
“Just make a phone call to a phone number that will be provided to the broker partners," Fawaz said. "All you have to do is list the loan number and the client's name. Then, a generative voice assistant will answer. They'll ask you a couple of questions, you'll provide a couple of details. You'll mention what you're looking to do. And once we have that information, we'll apply back saying we just updated it.”
Following the update, the verified approval letter will be posted to the portal or sent as an email to the client.
The VAL Update Hotline does not have an official date for going live, but Fawaz says, “We're gonna be bringing it live very, very soon.”
Rocket Pro TPO rolled out its verified approval letter last year, where an underwriter looks at the borrower’s income, credit score, DTI ratio, and more, to provide brokers and Realtors more certainty on what a borrower can afford compared to a prequalification.
'Earn Every Partnership'
Last year was deemed “Year Of The Broker” with extraordinary growth in the wholesale channel, as detailed in a report from Inside Mortgage Finance, stating that broker-originated loans accounted for 17.2% of all originations, up from 15.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Fawaz said when he’s asked how he’s going to grow the broker channel, he says, “We are going to earn the partnership. One partner at a time, one broker at a time, one loan officer at a time, one processor at a time, one Realtor at a time, one client at a time.”
In 2023, United Wholesale Mortgage attracted many new or newer originators in the industry, as well as 54% of the entire broker market as of its 2022 fourth quarter earnings report. That’s likely due to its Game On initiative, which gave up to 125 basis points to brokers to use on any loans they lock with the lender. Additionally, multiple UWM broker partners have complimented the lender’s software technology and its ease of use. During that time, UWM Chief Strategy Officer Alex Elezaj said UWM had 500 brokers partnering with their business per week, and thousands by month.
However, Rocket Pro TPO is now gunning to capture a greater share of the broker market, and with a tech-minded CEO at the helm, they plan to deliver tools that guarantee ease and efficiency for their partners. The feedback Fawaz has received from broker partners that were introduced to VAL Update Hotline has been positive, he said.
"We continue to see the vision of what are the possibilities with artificial intelligence," Fawaz said. "And this is just the first step... I told the broker partners yesterday, we are going to be delivering multiple things this year that will help them become more efficient."
In addition to the VAL Update Hotline, Rocket broker partners have access to free credit reports, verified approval letters, Product Compare, Pathfinder, which Fawaz calls “the Google of mortgages.” Also Crews, a dedicated operations team for every partner to help navigate the loan process.
“This is a boutique model lending, it's just at scale. It's never been done before,” Fawaz said.
