Quicken Loans

Quicken Loans LLC. is a mortgage lending company headquartered in the One Campus Martius building in the heart of the financial district of downtown Detroit, Michigan. In January 2018, the company became the largest overall retail lender in the U.S. (it is also the largest online retail mortgage lender).[5] Unlike other large mortgage lenders that depend on deposits, Quicken Loans relies on wholesale funding to make its loans and uses online applications rather than a branch system.[6] Amrock and One Reverse Mortgage are also part of the Quicken Loans Family of Companies.[7] The company closed more than $400 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states from 2013 through 2017.[8]

Quicken Loans Inc.
FormerlyRock Financial (1985–1999)
TypePublic
NYSE: RKT
IndustryFinancial technology,[1] mortgage lending[2]
Founded1985 (1985) (as Rock Financial)
Founder
HeadquartersOne Campus Martius,
Detroit, Michigan
,
U.S.
Key people
Jay Farner (CEO)[3]
Products
BrandsRocket Mortgage[4][2]
Number of employees
17,000[4]
ParentRocket Companies Inc.
Websitewww.quickenloans.com

History

Quicken Loans, originally Rock Financial, was founded in 1985 by Dan Gilbert, Lindsay Gross, Gary Gilbert.[9] In July 1987 the name was changed to Rock Financial Corp.

As RFC grew so did the head count, hitting 50 employees in August 1991. In May 1998, Gilbert took Rock Financial public, launching an IPO underwritten by Bear Stearns.[10]

In December 1999, Intuit Inc. (makers of QuickBooks, TurboTax, Quicken, and an online lending platform QuickenMortgage) purchased Rock Financial Corp. for $532M. The company was renamed Quicken Loans. In June 2002, Dan Gilbert led a small group of private investors in purchasing the Quicken Loans subsidiary back from Intuit for $64M.[11]

The company started to change course in the late 1990s, shifting from a traditional mortgage provider to an online-focused lender. Traditionally, the home mortgage business in America has been fragmented due to varying regulations in each state and locality. Gilbert challenged this orthodoxy, however, by offering loan applications online that were reviewed by experts versed in the regulations of each region but who were located in a central headquarters.[6]

On November 12, 2007, Gilbert announced a development agreement with the city of Detroit to move the company headquarters downtown, consolidating suburban offices.[12] The construction sites reserved for development by the agreement included the location of the former Statler Hotel on Grand Circus Park and the former Hudson's location.[12] Quicken Loans moved into its downtown headquarters in August 2010. The initial move brought 1,700 employees to the city.[13]

Since 2009, Quicken has leased office space in the Compuware building facing Campus Martius Park in Detroit. The company also houses its employees in Downtown Detroit's First National Building, The Qube, Chrysler House, One Woodward Avenue, and 1001 Woodward, all owned by Quicken Loans' parent company, Rock Ventures.[14]

In the spring of 2008, Rock Holdings entered the reverse mortgage market with the acquisition of One Reverse Mortgage.

The company saw a small drop in employment levels following the 2008 financial crisis.[15][16]

In August 2007, the entire mortgage industry faced a crisis in obtaining new credit from banking institutions and hedge funds. In response, Quicken Loans discontinued:[17]

  • Second mortgages
  • Home equity lines of credit (HELOC)
  • Alt-A products
  • Deferred interest loans

In 2004, Quicken Loans became a defendant in a class action lawsuit. This was filed against the company on behalf of employees who had worked as loan consultants for any Quicken office within the past three years. The claimants alleged that Quicken violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by failing to pay the plaintiffs overtime for working beyond a 40-hour work week. Quicken Loans denied these claims, and said it is not aware of any such violations of the FLSA. On March 17, 2011, a federal jury found in favor of Quicken Loans, ending the seven-year-old lawsuit. The decision means that Quicken Loans is not obligated to pay overtime payments to the plaintiffs.[18]

In 2014, Quicken Loans grew to be the 2nd largest mortgage lender in the United States, and remains the nation's largest online mortgage lender.[19] The company employs 24,000 people nationwide, with approximately 17,000 now working in the city of Detroit, making it Detroit's largest employer, minority employer, and taxpayer.[20] [21]

In January 2018, Quicken Loans became the nation's largest mortgage lender.[22]

In August 2018, Quicken Loans parent Rock Holding acquired Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com from IAC.[23]

On October 15, Quicken Loans announced that it was expanding into Canada by opening a tech center across the river in downtown Windsor, Ontario.[24][25][26]

Quicken Loans has consistently been awarded the highest customer satisfaction rating among primary mortgage originators the U.S. for 10 straight years,[27] as well as being one of top 20 companies to work for[28] and a top pick for overall best mortgage lenders,[29] according to Consumers Advocate.

On July 7, 2020, it was announced that Quicken Loans had filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to start the process of taking the company public under the name Rocket Companies.[30]

On August 6, 2020, Rocket Companies, Inc. went public under the symbol RKT,[31] raising $1.8 billion on its first trading day.[32][33]

Rocket Mortgage

In 2015, Quicken Loans created Rocket Mortgage, the first lender to perform electronic closings (eClosings) in all 50 states.[34][35] Upon launch, TechCrunch claimed it was the mortgage industry’s “iPhone moment” and compared the application process to TurboTax.[36] Rocket owns three patents around verifying client data, filtering it and sourcing it, and extracting it from external parties.[37] In 2019, it filed another patent for data set selection using multi-source constraints.[38] The most recent patent was filed in October 2020 regarding extracting data sets from external data stores.[39]

In its first full year, Rocket funded $7 billion in closed loans.[40] J.D. Power named Rocket Mortgage #1 in the nation for client satisfaction in primary mortgage origination in 2020, the 11th consecutive year either Rocket Mortgage or Quicken Loans earned the recognition.[41]

Rocket sponsors the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is an arena located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It is the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. The arena, formerly known as the Quicken Loans Arena, changed its name to the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse after the completion of the arena’s renovation and expansion in 2019.[42]

Rocket Mortgage has launched several initiatives that support its home communities of Detroit, Cleveland, Charlotte, and Phoenix, including veteran homelessness[43] and digital literacy.[44][45]

See also

References
  1. "Bank supervision in America is unfit for the digital age". The Economist. May 30, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  2. Richardson, Brenda (January 17, 2019). "Say goodbye to all that paperwork: Digital mortgages have arrived". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  3. "Jay Farner - Quicken Loans Pressroom".
  4. Walsh, Dustin (March 10, 2019). "How big can Quicken Loans get?". Crain's Detroit Business. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  5. Pender, Kathleen (2018-02-01). "Quicken Loans tops Wells Fargo to become No. 1 in retail home loans". San Francisco Chronicle.
  6. "A new foundation". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  7. "Financial Services | Rock Ventures". www.rockventures.com. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  8. "Quicken Loans, the Nation's Largest Mortgage Lender, Among FORTUNE's Top-15 Best Places to Work in America | Quicken Loans Pressroom". Quicken Loans Pressroom. 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  9. Segal, David (April 13, 2013). "A Missionary's Quest to Remake Motor City". New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  10. Rock Financial Corporation (1998), Form S-1, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, p. 81, retrieved 2020-12-10
  11. "The 400 richest Americans". Forbes Magazine. August 24, 2007. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
  12. Howes, Daniel (November 12, 2007).Quicken moving to downtown Detroit.The Detroit News. Retrieved on November 12, 2007.
  13. Randolph, Ned (November 2, 2011). "Detroit native Dan Gilbert bets big on the city's rebound". Reuters. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  14. Wayland, Michael (October 11, 2011). "Gilbert's glory: 1,500 Quicken Loans employees move to Detroit, help 'transform downtown'". mLive. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  15. "Gilbert: Housing slump hits Quicken". The Detroit News. October 15, 2007. Retrieved October 15, 2007.
  16. "Quicken lays off 250 in Mich., Ariz., Ohio". The Detroit News. June 20, 2008. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
  17. "Gilbert: Mortgage squeeze could be blessing for Quicken". The Detroit Free Press. August 16, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
  18. Duggan, Daniel (March 17, 2011). "Dan Gilbert: Quicken's triumph in overtime trial "a victory for right over wrong"". Crains Detroit Business.
  19. Morris, Bill (October 18, 2012). "Finally, a Downtown's Upswing". New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  20. "Rock Ventures on the Forbes America's Largest Private Companies List". Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  21. King, R.J. (September 5, 2017). "Quicken Loans Family of Companies Surpasses 17K Employees in Detroit, More to Come". D Business. D Business. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  22. "Quicken Loans becomes largest U.S. mortgage lender". Detroit News. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  23. Reindl, J. C. "Dan Gilbert just dipped into the online dictionary, thesaurus business". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  24. "New Quicken Loans tech centre a Windsor beachhead, says Rock Ventures principal". Windsor Star. October 31, 2018.
  25. "Detroit businessman Gilbert, Quicken Loans moving into Windsor". Windsor Star. October 15, 2018.
  26. "Local tech companies welcome Quicken Loans as potential game changer". Windsor Star. October 16, 2018.
  27. https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2019-us-primary-mortgage-origination-satisfaction-study
  28. https://fortune.com/best-companies/2019/quicken-loans/
  29. https://www.consumersadvocate.org/mortgage-rates#toc-quicken-loans
  30. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/07/07/quicken-loans-files-paperwork-initial-public-offering-ipo-rocket-companies/5393840002/
  31. Noble, Breana (2020-08-05). "Rocket Companies IPO offers 100 million shares at $18 each – far below target". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  32. Tompor, Susan (August 6, 2020). "Dan Gilbert's Rocket IPO soars more than 20% in trading". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  33. Grzelewski, Jordyn (July 7, 2020). "Quicken Loans files paperwork for IPO under name Rocket Companies". RIS Media. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  34. Byford, Amanda (July 20, 2020). "First Remote Online Mortgage Closing by pioneers – Quicken Loans and Amrock". Compare Closing. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  35. Swanson, Brena (November 24, 2015). "Game changer? Quicken Loans takes mortgage lending fully digital". Housing Wire. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  36. "This Could Be The Mortgage Industry's iPhone Moment". Tech Crunch. November 24, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  37. United States 10,158,650, "Token verification from incremental inputs", published December 18, 2018
  38. United States 10,198,400, "Data set selection using multi-source constraints", published February 5, 2019
  39. United States 10,795,966, "Extracting data sets from external data stores", published October 6, 2020
  40. Lane, Ben (March 7, 2017). "Here's how much Rocket Mortgage helped Quicken Loans in 2016". Housing Wire. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  41. "Rocket Mortgage Ranked #1 in the U.S. for Client Satisfaction in Mortgage Origination by J.D. Power for the 11th Straight Year". PR Newswire. November 9, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  42. Fedor, Chris (April 9, 2019). "Quicken Loans Arena officially renamed Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse: 'Next chapter in evolution of incredible facility". Cleveland Plain Dealer. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  43. "Rocket Mortgage Launches National Campaign To Address Urgent National Crisis Of Veteran Homelessness". joinbuiltforzero.org. November 28, 2019. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  44. Johncox, Cassidy (May 20, 2020). "New initiative to provide 'digital access' to all Detroiters within next 5 year". WDIV TV. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  45. "Changing the Course". PGA Tour. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
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