Power House

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.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 delve into Silk Title's vision for the future of the title industry. 

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 this past Monday when he posted a picture of him and his partners on the floor of the NASDAQ. Be My Neighbor and real estate software firm reAlpha are joining forces in the hopes to bring the mortgage industry a step forward in an end-to-end homebuying process.

Nathan offers great insights into MLO Force’s goal for continuing education across the larger workforce. He also shares what makes intellectual curiosity so special, even for those who consider themselves subject matter experts.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 knowledge to readers via articles, podcasts, and events.

These topics and a group of amazing executive speakers will be front and center at the HousingWire IMB Summit on October 1st in Dallas, Texas. 

Register for the event today and take advantage of Labor Day Weekend prices promotions: 

Register here: https://events.housingwire.com/IMB-summit 

Code: LABORDAY (expires 8/30/24 on Labor Day) 

Act now, this will be the lowest available price for tickets to the 2024 event!

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 addressing the growing affordability problem by offering fractional ownership of high-end vacation homes.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 hamburgers. Randell shares how he’s navigating this transition to Lower and his plans for the future of mortgage lending at Lower. 

Lower boasts an executive team with diverse expertise and a strong commitment to supporting LOs. The recent recruitment of The Loan Officer Podcast host Dustin Owen as their SVP of Growth is a key part of that strategy. Randell also highlights how technology is redefining the mortgage experience and how Lower adapts to the current rate environment to maintain strong margins.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 episode reveals how Jason thinks about recruiting, M&A and developing new markets. 

What’s unique about Jason’s business? He’s building at the intersection of real estate and mortgage with a highly differentiated b2b referral and lead strategy which hinges around partnerships with top mortgage lenders. And while many mortgage lenders are trying to cozy up to real estate agents for referral business, JMG has flipped the model and gets his real estate leads directly from over mortgage partners who trust his team to deliver a high-quality client experience. 

Jason shares how he’s built a successful real estate brokerage and team using a unique B2B strategy, partnering directly with mortgage lenders and other lead sources to drive business into his brokerage. He also unpacks the importance of prioritizing the needs of the average client to build a strong book of business while also discussing the challenges of growth and the need for strong leadership in market opportunities.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 technological advancements as part of Constellation Software, referencing a previous conversation with Bonnie Wilhelm of the Andromeda Group and Perseus.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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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 career journey, his expertise in data management, and how he got into the marketing landscape. But, the real meat of this conversation is about one of Realtor.com’s biggest current initiatives: their buyer advocacy campaign. 

The campaign spans several advocacy initiatives, including the development of a self-serve tool kit for buyer’s agents. This kit features tools and assets that can be customized and shared with one’s network to highlight everything agents do for consumers before, during and after the home-buying process. They’re also working on highlighting and empowering underserved and underrepresented buyers to ensure equitable opportunities in the housing market. 

Clayton and Mickey dive deep into this campaign and its vital importance in today’s industry, Realtor.com’s efforts to bring together housing professionals, home buyers and policymakers to understand the power that housing and real estate hold in the larger American economy.

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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On today’s episode of Power House, we had the pleasure of speaking with Craig Montgomery, the Chief Strategy Officer at Lower. Craig joined Lower this past June with plans to drive the company towards the goal of becoming a top five national mortgage lender.

Today’s conversation is all about Craig’s vision for building Lower’s ambitious plans for growth, including a focus on an originator-first mindset and platform, as well as finding real value in strategic partnerships. Lower is also ramping up mergers and acquisitions to help achieve this goal with two different acquisitions within the past year. He shares their unique growth plan for today’s higher-rate, low volume environment. 

Enjoy this episode with Craig Montgomery, Chief Strategy Officer at Lower!

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The Power House podcast is a show about leadership, markets and entrepreneurship in the housing industry. Each Thursday, Clayton Collins speaks with CEOs and founders from the mortgage and real estate sector to reveal how housing executives think about business growth, operational strategy, and leadership. The Power House podcast reveals the full picture through the stories of the industry’s most impactful leaders. Clayton Collins is the CEO of HousingWire, and the Power House podcast is produced by HousingWire’s Content Studio. Initially launched in 2019 as the Housing News podcast, the show was relaunched as Power House in 2024.

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