This week on Power House, Diego chats with Windsor Mortgage CEO Chris Vinson. After his company, Journey Mortgage , was acquired by the South Dakota-based Plains Commerce Bank , Chris joined the Plains Commerce team to head their growing mortgage division. He and Diego talk about how Windsor is differentiating itself from other wholesale competition by personalized and localized coaching and tech services. They also talk about Windsor’s daily accountability strategy for account executives, their...
Feb 13, 2025•22 min
On this week’s episode of Power House, Diego talks to Sherry Chris, the special advisor to National Association of REALTORS CEO, Nykia Wright. Sherry retired from her role as Anywhere Expansion Brands president and CEO in 2023, but now she’s back to offer her unique perspective and advice on some of the current challenges that the industry is facing. Diego and Sherry talk about NAR’s work to rebuild relationships with stakeholders and consumers and she shares her thoughts on controversial dual a...
Feb 06, 2025•25 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego sits down with Tom Davis, the chief sales officer at Deephaven Mortgage. Deephaven has been a pioneer in the non-QM space since its founding in 2012, and Tom joins us today to talk about all things non-QM and 2025 market growth. Deephaven’s non-QM focus accounted for $70 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to over $80 billion in 2025. Tom talks about specializing in lending, market opportunities in a high-rate environment, and growing a second-lien...
Jan 30, 2025•27 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego sits down with Baron Silverstein, the president of Newrez. Baron joined the Newrez team in May of 2020 and has over 30 years of industry experience with senior roles at Bear Stearns , JP Morgan Chase , Merrill Lynch, and Bank of America Securities. With a total unpaid principal balance of $750 billion, Newrez has seen significant growth under Baron’s leadership. Baron talks about past, present, and future growth and acquisition strategies, the 2025 roa...
Jan 23, 2025•32 min
This week on Power House, Diego sits down with Dan Snyder, the CEO of Lower. This past year was a busy year for Lower amid their acquisition of both Neat Labs and Thrive Mortgage. Back in July of 2024, we welcomed Lower’s Chief Strategy officer, Craig Montgomery, to give us the low-down on Lower’s plan to become a top-five mortgage lender. Today, Dan continues that strategy conversation with Diego by discussing how the acquisition of Neat Labs is bringing Lower toward their 2025 goal of developi...
Jan 16, 2025•29 min
This week on Power House, Diego sits down with Varun Krishna, the CEO of Rocket Companies. Prior to joining Rocket in 2023, Varun came up on the personal finance and enterprise software side of the tech space, with roles at Intuit and Paypal. Rocket has a growth plan to make home ownership easier, enjoyable, and sustainable for homeowners. Diego and Varun talk about how Rocket aims to achieve that by using AI tools to optimize the origination-servicing flywheel and by building long–term relation...
Jan 09, 2025•31 min
This week on the Power House podcast, HousingWire president Diego Sanchez sits down with Justin Messer, the CEO of Prosperity Home Mortgage . Prosperity was recently ranked at the top mortgage originator for customer satisfaction by JD Power. Today — with that top ranking in mind — Justin and Diego talk about Prosperity’s strategic shift from refinance to purchase and their unique real estate affiliated model, which allows them to focus on better borrow communication and expectations. They also ...
Jan 02, 2025•30 min
Happy Holidays from Power House and the entire team at HousingWire! We have some exciting conversations planned for 2025, so we'll see you in the New Year! If you have any feedback or comments about the show, please reach out at diego@hwmedia.com. The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversation...
Dec 26, 2024•1 min
This week on the Power House podcast, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sits down with loanDepot president and CEO, Frank Martell. Frank, who was a 2016 and 2023 HousingWire Vanguard Awardee, brings to the table over 30 years of mortgage and executive leadership experience. Today’s conversation is all about loanDepot’s return to profitability in Q3 and a behind the scenes look at the launch of Project North Star and their Vision 2025 strategy. Here's what you'll learn: Loan Depot achieved Q3 p...
Dec 19, 2024•34 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego chats with industry veteran and Guild Mortgage CEO Terry Schmidt. Terry joined Guild in 1985 and she stepped into the CEO role in 2023. Terry and Diego talk about Guild’s proprietary AI system, Guild IQ, and how Guild’s recent acquisitions are a step toward growing their reverse presence. They also talk about how they’re managing through a high-rate environment while keeping up with their customer-for-life strategy, and high employee retention through ...
Dec 12, 2024•31 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego sits down with Jay Bray, the CEO of Mr. Cooper. Jay joined Nationstar in 2000 and brings over 25 years of mortgage serving and origination experience. They discuss Mr. Cooper’s growth and acquisition strategy, specifically the Flagstar acquisition, which brought Mr. Cooper's servicing book up to $1.5 trillion from $1.2 trillion at the end of Q3. They also talk about finding a sustainable balance between their servicing and origination business, how ban...
Dec 05, 2024•24 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego sits down with James Dwiggins, the CEO and co-founder of national real estate franchise, NextHome. Guided by a “humans over homes” philosophy, the brand focuses on quality over quantity, with 600 offices and 6,000 agents across the country. James has a lot of experience in the real estate world, and with that comes a lot of strong opinions — namely on clear cooperation policies, legal issues with dual agency, and MLS practices. He also shares why, desp...
Nov 26, 2024•38 min
Today on the Power House podcast, we are bringing you a special sponsored conversation between Zeb Lowe, the director of HousingWire’s Content Studio, and Andrew Bough, the COO at Class Valuation. Andrew is joining us today to share how Class Valuation is setting new quality standards for appraisals through approaches such as their appraiser scorecard system and creating specialty panels for unique property types. He also talks about tackling industry challenges like an aging workforce and regul...
Nov 21, 2024•29 min
This week on Power House, Diego chats with industry veteran Chad Smith, the president and COO of Better, who stepped into the role earlier this year from Mission Loans. Chad and Diego talk about Chad’s decision to join the Better executive team and what they’re working on to help grow Better in 2025, which includes a focus on customer engagement and hiring more experienced LOs and industry experts. They also talk about Tinman, their proprietary platform, and a brand new AI loan assistant tool. H...
Nov 20, 2024•29 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego sits down with Daren Blomquist, VP of Market Economics at Auction.com. Daren is a friendly face to many of you, and was last on the show in early 2023 to discuss his 2023 forecast. He’s joining us again to talk about what he expects to see in the market post-election and into 2025. He and Diego talk about a potential market uptick as rates stabilize, how the mortgage rate lock-in effect is still impacting low inventory across the nation, and Auction.co...
Nov 14, 2024•32 min
This week on the Power House podcast, HousingWire president Diego Sanchez sits down with the co-authors of the recently published real estate and mortgage guidebook, “Leadership Matters.” Fobby is also the SVP of Homecomings Mortgage & Equity, and Ginger is the founder of Edumarketing. In today’s episode, they talk about why top performers don’t always make the best leaders, — especially in tough times — and discuss the critical role of training and communication in scaling leadership succes...
Nov 07, 2024•30 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Diego sits down with Michele Harrington, CEO of FirstTeam Real Estate out of Orange County, California. Michele initially started her career in the Marine Corps, but after being stationed in Orange County, she not only fell in love with the beauty of Southern California, she also got bit by the entrepreneurial bug. Now, she leads California’s largest independent brokerage. Michele and Diego talk about what sets FirstTeam apart from other brokerages and the r...
Oct 31, 2024•25 min
This week on the Power House Podcast, HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins sat down with loan originator turned software executive: Jeff Bell, President at Uplist. Jeff joins us to talk about four really pertinent topics in today’s market: leadership, learning, loan monitoring, and recapture. Uplist just launched what it says is a killer new tool that will help loan officers automatically generate refinance options for their clients. The technology, called “Recapture,” is integrated with the leading ...
Oct 24, 2024•41 min
This week on the Power House Podcast, HousingWire president Diego Sanchez sits down with Steve Jacobson, CEO of Fairway Independent Mortgage to talk about what it takes to build a company culture centered around humility and loyalty. Diego and Steve also talk about Fairway’s retail growth after their decision to exit wholesale, their plan to sell the business back to its employees, and their commitment to helping communities in need. Here's what you'll learn: Increasing the speed of service give...
Oct 17, 2024•30 min
This week on the Power House Podcast, Clayton sat down with Tomo CEO and co-founder Greg Schwartz to talk about what’s transpired in his business over the last two years — both the good and the bad. They dive into recovery indicators and the investments they’re making in technology and AI. They also talk about how embracing accountable leadership and having a genuine love for the mortgage business is more important now than ever. Here's what you'll learn: Tomo’s approach and belief in building a...
Oct 10, 2024•50 min
In this episode of Power House, we welcome back Rick Roque, Corporate VP of New Growth at NFM Lending. Clayton Collins and Roque sit down during the HousingWire IMB Summit on October 1, 2024 at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, TX to discuss key themes from the stage and evaluation of top sessions. Coverage of the event is available on HousingWire, and select session videos will be released for on-demand viewing in the coming days. The HousingWire IMB Summit is part of HousingWi...
Oct 03, 2024•30 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Clayton sat down with Robert Pieklo, COO of American Financial Resources (AFR) and Adam Carmel, Founder & CEO of Polly to talk about current mortgage market dynamics and growth strategies amid changing rates. They also discuss prioritizing the customer experience, effectively scaling your operations, and how to develop an adaptable product mix as we go into 2025 and beyond. Here's what you'll learn: Cost to completion is a key metric for lenders. Forward...
Sep 26, 2024•25 min
In this episode, HousingWire president Diego Sanchez interviews Marc Trachtenberg, CEO of Silk Title Co. They explore the dominance of the "Big Four" in the title market and how Silk Title's model complements rather than competes with them. Marc also shares insights from the recent RealEdge conference and discusses adapting to new technologies, fostering collaboration, and educating consumers about the title process. Don't miss Marc at the upcoming IMB Summit on October 1 in Dallas, where he'll ...
Sep 19, 2024•27 min
Today we are bringing to your feed a great conversation with an even greater guest: Nathan Knottingham. Nathan wears many hats within the mortgage space, including being the co-founder and CEO of the newly launched mortgage education company, MLO Force , the COO of Vetted VA , and the COO of Be My Neighbor Mortgage . Clayton and Nathan originally scheduled this podcast to talk about MLO Force and the exciting things they’re doing in mortgage education and C.E. but Nathan had a surprise in store ...
Sep 12, 2024•40 min
If you are a mortgage banking executive or leader, you will want to listen to this episode to hear what Sarah Wheeler has to share. In this episode of Power House, HousingWire Editor-in-Chief Sarah Wheeler joins HW Media CEO Clayton Collins to discuss critical themes and knowledge for mortgage banking leaders. Sarah discusses major stories related to LO compensation, servicing, and refi dynamics and her recent interview with Barry Habib. She also shares how HousingWire communicates this type of ...
Aug 29, 2024•13 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Clayton Collins sits down with Austin Allison, the CEO and co-founder of Pacaso, a co-ownership marketplace for luxury vacation homes with over a billion dollars in transactions across 40 destination markets. In this episode, Austin shares the lessons from building and scaling successful real estate businesses. Clayton and Austin also discuss the hard-to-sell mortgage model behind co-ownership and how, even in a complicated macro environment, Pacaso is addre...
Aug 22, 2024•56 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Clayton Collins speaks with Randell Gillespie, the chief production officer at Lower. With over 30 years of mortgage lending and leadership experience, Randell was named chief production officer in March of this year upon the completion of Lower’s acquisition of Thrive Mortgage. Praised for his leadership style, Randell received the 2023 HousingWire Vanguard Award. In this episode, they discuss culture, leadership, technology, margins, recruiting, and even h...
Aug 15, 2024•47 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Clayton Collins sits down with Jason Mitchell, founder of the Jason Mitchell Group. With over $4 billion in annual transaction volume, 8,500 sides, and 800 agents, Jason Mitchell leads one of the largest real estate teams in the country according to RealTrends Verified . But it isn’t all about scale. Jason shares that he doesn’t need 5,000 agents across the country to win. He only needs about 1,600, and he’s halfway there. He’s in 150 MSAs today, and the epi...
Aug 08, 2024•41 min
This week on the Power House podcast, Clayton Collins sits down with Joe Tyrrell, the CEO of Optimal Blue. With over 25 years in mortgage, finance, and technology, Joe shares his wealth of experience about value-driven leadership, innovation, and the mortgage tech space. In their discussion, Joe talks about the significance of capital markets for mortgage lenders and how secondary market executions can drive profitability in 2024 and beyond. He also delves into Optimal Blue’s autonomy and techno...
Aug 01, 2024•47 min
This week on the Power House Podcast, we are bringing you a sponsored interview between Clayton and Mickey Neuberger, the Chief Marketing Officer at Realtor.com. Before joining Realtor.com, Mickey was VP of Global Marketing at eBay for 9 years, where he built the company’s CRM platform from the ground up. He also has extensive experience in marketing, CRM, product and technology from previous roles at Travelocity, Loyalty Lab, and 24 Hour Fitness. Clayton and Mickey start by discussing Mickey's ...
Jul 25, 2024•42 min
