Power House

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 rebui...

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...

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 leade...

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 Dieg...

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...

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 affil...

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...

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 P...

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 envi...

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 als...

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 cl...

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 uniqu...

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...

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...

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...

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 independe...

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 refi...

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 commi...

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 busines...

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...

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 20...

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 abou...

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...

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 a...

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...