Exclusive: Victor Ciardelli on merger of Rate, Compass JVs into top-10 retail lender

Rate and Compass International Holdings are merging their two mortgage joint ventures, creating a top-10 pure retail mortgage lender, Rate CEO Victor Ciardelli told HousingWire in an exclusive interview.

Guaranteed Rate Affinity (GRA) and OriginPoint will merge under the latter brand, putting together a team of 672 dedicated loan officers that’s expected to reach $13.2 billion in mortgage volume by the end 2026 — most of it from GRA, Ciardelli said.

The move was widely expected since Compass’s merger agreement with Anywhere Real Estate last year. Anywhere and Rate launched Guaranteed Rate Affinity in 2017.

In 2021, Rate also partnered directly with Compass to create OriginPoint. And a year earlier, it launched Proper Rate with @properties, which later became part of Compass through its acquisition of Christie’s International Real Estate.

Rate and Compass had been working on the integration of the JVs for the past six months. Dave Dickey, the current president and chief production officer of GRA, and James Elliott, president and CEO of OriginPoint, will be co-presidents of the new joint venture.

“It wasn’t the current rate environment that was a driver in it at all; we happen to own both JVs under all of Compass, and so it’s something that we worked with Robert Reffkin, their team with our team, with the intent that we would always put it together,” Ciardelli said. “We just wanted to take our time and build a state-of-the-art technology stack.”

The companies said OriginPoint customers will receive a streamlined real estate experience, allowing them to find, secure and close on a home in as few as 10 days.

All of this will be connected to Compass’s owned-brokerage network of more than 80,000 real estate professionals. The companies estimate that between Coldwell Banker Realty and Compass alone, there are over 200,000 buy-side purchase transactions representing more than $200 billion in purchase volume.

“Loan officers at Guaranteed Affinity who work with Coldwell Banker are now going to be able to work with Compass agents, so that’s going to open them up into other opportunities,” Ciardelli said. “Then, you’re also going to have at OriginPoint-Compass people, loan officers, that are working with Compass are now going to be opened up to working with all the other brands — Coldwell Banker, @properties, Sotheby’s, Corcoran.”

Rate will have a majority share on the JV and expects that, if it captures 10% to 20% of the buy-side purchase transactions from its partners, it would generate $4.5 billion to $10 billion in incremental volume, along with $17.7 billion to $30 billion in annual volume.

“OriginPoint is a trusted partner of our team. By bringing our two joint ventures with Rate together, we can now serve our clients better than ever before,” Reffkin, the chairman and CEO of Compass International Holdings (CIH), said a statement. “We can connect more great real estate professionals with more great loan officers to create a simpler, more seamless and connected experience for homebuyers.”

Compass last year also announced an alliance with Redfin, owned by Rocket Companies. The partnership includes the displaying of Compass Coming Soon listings, buyers working with an agent at a CIH brand gaining access to Rocket Preferred Pricing, and opportunities for its agents to receive buyer leads directly from Redfin and Rocket.

Ciardelli said this move had no impact on the JVs’ businesses. “All they are is a marketing agreement, and their loan officers are not allowed to go inside the real estate offices,” Ciardelli said. “What they do is they’re getting traffic just off of the website of Compass.com, so they haven’t been a problem for us at all. They’re not getting any market share.”

Ciardelli said Rate is focused on growing the JV and Rate, including from a recruiting standpoint, rather than looking “as far as the strategic plan, to keep adding more JVs.” (Rate also has a joint venture with KB Homes, inherited from the acquisition of Stearns.)

“With interest rates up, it’s a purchase market,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for good loan officers, and we’re looking for good loan officers to come into the platform and help us build and grow market share, because there’s so much opportunity to capture with the buy-side business, and there’s so many agents to build relationships.”

Rate has also been working on a strategy to keep clients closer to the company, including changing its strategy from selling to retaining mortgage servicing rights (MSRs). This strategy has led to a $50 billion book, he said.

“We really believe in retaining the MSRs, staying close to the customer,” he said.

Source: www.housingwire.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.