This week on Power House, Diego sits down with a familiar face to the HousingWire audience — Jason Bressler, the Chief Technology Officer at United Wholesale Mortgage. UWM recently announced its partnership with Sphere LOS, and today’s episode is a behind-the-scenes look at what that means for the UWM team and beyond.

Diego and Jason talk about the decision-making behind Sphere’s integration, as it’s both free and is not limited to UWM’s ecosystem. Their goal is to provide free technology to level the playing field in the mortgage space. Jason also talks about AI breakthroughs, his philosophy of failure for team members, and gives a sneak peek of upcoming UWM announcements in 2025. 

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio

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This week on Power House, Diego sits down with Jay Plum, a 35-year banking veteran and the EVP of Consumer Lending at Fifth Third Bank. As the 10th largest bank servicer in the country, Fifth Third Bank has over a thousand branches and $200 billion in assets. 

Today’s conversation is all about mortgage lending. Jay and Diego talk about Basel III and its impact on warehouse lending, and the important role that the affordability programs like downpayment assistance play in increasing homeownership. They also talk about Fifth Third’s focus on MSRs and home equity products, and what they’re doing to increase market share in a high-rate environment.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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This week on Power House, we are bringing you a special sponsored conversation between HousingWire’s Director of the Content Studio, Zebulon Lowe, and the CEO and co-founder of Fello, Ryan Young. Founded in 2022, Fello is a marketing automation and lead-generation CRM attachment that uses public and MLS data to enrich your database and improve engagement and listings.

Zeb and Ryan talk about exciting things happening in Fello in 2025, including their 30-Day Listing Challenge and their expansion into mortgage. They also talk about the current state of real estate technology at large and Fello’s vision for using their tools to empower small businesses across various sectors.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 focus on community banks, and how they maintain growth amid a high-rate environment.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 agency and clear cooperation policies. She also discusses some of the ongoing advocacy efforts they’re working on amid the presidential administration transition. 

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 product line. He also talks about focusing on investor and realtor relationships to unlock and capitalize on market share opportunities.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 roadmap for customer experience and retention in the tech and AI space, and their continued focus on third-party servicing and owned MSRs.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 developing an end-to-end proprietary tech platform. He also reflects on the success of their Thrive Mortgage acquisition and discusses the challenge of integrating teams while also supporting your producers.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 relationships with clients, not just one-time transactions. They also talk about recent hires to Rocket, their 2025 brand transformation plan, and whats next in-store for the company.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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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 talk about recruiting in a competitive market and what he predicts will happen to rates as we head into 2025.

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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 conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

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