Rocket Mortgage blasted into our world during 2016’s Super Bowl 50 between the Broncos and the Panthers. At its peak, the game attracted more than 115 million viewers, and right in the middle of it all, Quicken Loans debuted their spot for Rocket Mortgage, setting both real estate consumers and professionals buzzing.
The first completely online and on-demand mortgage process, Rocket Mortgage was created to take a complicated and confusing mortgage process and make it fast, simple and transparent, thereby encouraging many hesitant buyers to enter the market. Reinventing the traditional mortgage process, where the burden of proof was on the client to prove their creditworthiness, Rocket Mortgage automatically imports and verifies a homebuyer’s information and delivers customizable mortgage options, allowing many to get a fully approved, rate-locked mortgage literally within minutes. Rooted in Quicken Loans’ 50-state origination platform, Rocket Mortgage is available in all 3,143 counties across all 50 states.
The question is, given such high aspirations and widespread publicity, where does Rocket Mortgage stand one year later? Has it sent the mortgage process into the stratosphere as intended, or has it come back down to earth?
‘The iPhone moment of the mortgage industry’
The short answer? Rocket Mortgage has gone far beyond its original projections.
“Through the first three quarters of 2016, Rocket Mortgage has funded more than $5 billion in loan volume, making it a top 30 mortgage lender by Rocket Mortgage volume alone,” reports Quicken Loans Vice President of Business Development Derek Latka. “We had a lot of high hopes for how it would perform and it has exceeded our expectations.”
More importantly, Rocket Mortgage has followed through on one of its cornerstone goals: to get would-be buyers off the fence and into the market. According to Quicken Loans research, as many as 60 percent of potential buyers are currently choosing to sit on the sidelines and not participate in today’s housing market. The No. 1 reason they give for not purchasing a home? A cumbersome and intimidating process. Coming off the Super Bowl ad, however, awareness for Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage skyrocketed, paving the way for a healthy purchase season early in the second quarter.
“There’s a strong purchase market presence on Rocket Mortgage,” reports Latka. “Currently, two-thirds of all clients coming to Rocket Mortgage are coming to purchase a home, and 72 percent of those are first-time homebuyers.”
“We’re very happy to see tens of thousands of Americans becoming new homeowners because of Rocket Mortgage,” agrees Rocket Mortgage Product Lead Regis Hadiaris. “People are using it in all 50 states, 24/7, and 60 percent or more are using it on a mobile device. Every 34 seconds in America, someone is creating a Rocket Mortgage account. Every nine minutes in America, someone is completing a Rocket Mortgage application.”
Despite a big degree of optimism going into it, Latka was still surprised by the amount of overall willingness to engage with the tool. “It was really exciting to see that if you build it, they will come. All the research pointed to that, but …read more
From:: Real Estate News