Power House

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.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: How Optimal Blue focuses on delivering value to lenders and maximizing profitability. Trust and operationalizing technology as keys to driving efficiency and overcoming resistance to change. AI’s crucial role in providing real-time data and insights to help lenders make informed decisions and improve profitability. Optimal Blue’s plans to deliver value to customers without additional costs, accelerate innovation, and foster partnerships within the mortgage ecosystem. Related to this episode: Joe Tyrrell | LinkedIn Optimal Blue Mortgage veteran Joe Tyrrell named CEO of Optimal Blue | HousingWire Optimal Blue's new CEO Joe Tyrrell on moving technology's finish line | HousingWire Optimal Blue releases new data license product for mortgage pricing | HousingWire Constellation’s Bonnie Wilhelm on their “buy and hold forever” strategy | HousingWire HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: How Mickey's career path from computer science to marketing has helped his experience in driving results at scale, The importance of brand presence and the use of strategic data and analytics in marketing. The why behind their buyer agency advocacy campaign, the Buyer's Agent Tool Kit and the efforts to educate consumers and policymakers. Where the future of Realtor.com is headed and their marketing objectives for the second half of 2024. Related to this episode: Mickey Neuberger | LinkedIn Realtor.com | LinkedIn Realtor.com Buyer's Agent Toolkit America's Housing Problem: The Dream of Homeownership Is Further Fading for Underserved Buyers—but Here's How To Navigate the Market | Realtor.com Realtor.com announces update to buyer’s agency ad campaign HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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!Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: Providing originators with the tools, resources, and support they need is crucial for their success. Listen to originators to truly understand their needs and shortcomings. Transparency and communication are key in successful M&A integrations. A coaching program can be a game changer in elevating originator performance. Becoming a top-five lender requires aggressive recruiting and a focus on providing a platform for originator success. Related to this episode: Lower hires Craig Montgomery as chief strategy officer | HousingWire  Craig Montgomery | Linkedin Lower | Linkedin HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthony Lamacchia shares his journey from working in his father’s landscaping business to building Lamacchia Realty. He discusses the importance of marketing, branding, and consistent content creation in attracting clients and media attention. Lamacchia emphasizes delegating responsibilities and hiring experienced professionals for growth. He delves into his M&A strategy, market expansion, and his approach to marketing and recruiting agents using billboards and other methods. He addresses industry challenges, like the commission lawsuit and changing market conditions, and shares how he prepares his agents for success, concluding with his optimistic outlook for the future of real estate.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:•The importance of marketing, branding, and consistent content creation for attracting clients and media attention.•Strategies for delegating responsibilities, hiring experienced professionals, and executing a successful M&A strategy for business growth and market expansion.•Effective marketing and recruiting techniques, such as the use of billboards and other advertising methods.•Insights into industry challenges like the commission lawsuit, changing market conditions, and how to prepare agents for success, along with Anthony’s optimistic outlook for the future of real estate.Related to this episode: 2024 RealTrends GameChangers saw tremendous growth over last five years RealTrends Verified: Lamacchia Realty Anywhere senior executive makes the move to Lamacchia Realty Commission lawsuits: The actions to take right now from brokers who are doing it HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Power House podcast, we sat down with Jason Pinson, the founder and CEO of Rocktop Technologies, a suite of fintech applications driven by AI and machine learning designed to manage risk on behalf of its clients and partners.Rocktop — and Jason himself — are on a mission to tackle two significant issues in housing: the influx of poor and poorly managed data, and the error-prone processes that undermine asset quality and value. Today we are delving into Jason's career journey and thesis, starting from his days at Bear Stearns to his multi-decade crusade to enhance efficiency and returns for investors in the mortgage industry.Clayton and Jason talk about Rocktop’s efforts aimed at preventing the errors and inefficiencies that reduce mortgage investors’ yields, a problem that ultimately makes housing less efficient and more expensive. They also talk about data standardization, the role of organizations like MISMO, and the expertise and talents behind successful AI and machine learning implementation.Rocktop Technologies will be joining us on stage in Dallas on July 23rd for HousingWire’s AI Summit to explore even more of their focus on machine learning and how they plan to revolutionize the industry.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: The mortgage market is hindered by poor data management and manual error-prone operations. Data standardization is crucial for improving efficiency in the mortgage market. A strong data strategy is essential for implementing AI and machine learning. Combining domain expertise with technical talent is key to success in the mortgage industry. Leading from the front and investing in employee upskilling are important for growth in a volatile market. Related to this episode: Jason Pinson | LinkedIn Rocktop Technologies HousingWire's AI Summit HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sierra Interactive CEO, Peter Maglathlin, discusses entrepreneurship in real estate tech and the impact of the NAR settlement. They delve into customer segmentation, the cyclical nature of the real estate market, and the importance of generating seller leads. The conversation also covers the acquisition by Alpine Software Group, the transition to CEO role, and the evolution of real estate technology sales strategy.

Bonnie Wilhelm, CEO of Andromeda Group at Constellation Software, discusses their 'buy and hold forever' strategy. They focus on acquiring businesses in vertical markets, emphasizing autonomy and long-term investments. Constellation's interest in the mortgage industry includes leveraging AI for efficiency and the importance of customer-centric innovations.

Today, we welcome two wonderful guests to the Power House podcast: Rick Roque and Andrew Maas. Rick is the EVP of Retail Growth and Strategy at Sierra Pacific Mortgage with 20+ years in retail mortgage banking, acquiring, managing and growing production volume & market share in companies across the US. Andrew is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pointable, focusing on large-scale deep learning for spoken and written language tasks and has previously worked on data-centric deep learning approaches at Apple.Both Rick and Andrew are going to be joining us as speakers in July for HousingWire’s AI Summit.Clayton’s conversation with Rick and Andrew focuses on the adoption and use cases of artificial intelligence in the mortgage space. According to Rick, current mortgage boardroom sentiment toward AI is “complete confusion” and full of worry about how it will affect the bottom line. They want to demystify that. Strategic AI adoption will split lenders into two groups: those who leverage efficiency tools and those who don’t.They also discuss practical use cases for AI in lending spaces, including streamlining lending workflows, time spent coaching and training, and even how consumers can benefit in discovering and understanding their loan options and application processes.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: AI's impact on the mortgage industry is significant, offering opportunities for efficiency and profitability. The confusion of implementing AI in mortgage is rooted in confusion and a lack of focus on future demands. AI has the potential to revolutionize the mortgage industry by addressing systematic inefficiencies and streamlining processes. There is a need for a shift in executive mentality and budgeting to incorporate AI into critical business needs. Related to this episode: Rick Roque | LinkedIn Andrew Maas | LinkedIn Sierra Pacific Mortgage Pointable HousingWire's AI Summit HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are chatting with Phil DeFronzo, the founder, president and CEO of mortgage wholesaler TPO Go. Phil, who has been in the mortgage business since 1989, was the former CEO of Norcom Mortgage before he sold the retail business to CMG Financial and pursued the wholesale business.Phil and Clayton talk about his career journey over the past three decades, how he got to where he was today, and the interesting people he met and learned from along the way — including the mentorship of the late Dave Stevens. They also talk about TPO Go’s strategy to differentiate itself and where he sees growth for the industry in the coming years in spaces like renovation loans and automation processes.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: Opportunities for growth often arise in challenging times. Focusing on profitability is key to weathering market changes. Renovation loans offer significant market potential, especially in aging housing stock. Brokers with strong product knowledge have a competitive advantage. Automation can improve turn times and enhance the customer experience. Related to this episode: CMG acquires Norcom Mortgage’s retail assets - HousingWire Phil DeFronzo | LinkedIn TPO Go | Linkedin TPO GO HousingWire | YouTube HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down with an extraordinary guest you might already know. Since 2014, he has consistently been ranked as the number one real estate educator by the Swanepoel Power 200. Tom is not only a prolific author, but also the Founder and CEO of Ferry International. With a massive following on YouTube and social media, and over 30,000 hours of one-on-one coaching with agents and industry experts under his belt, we are thrilled to welcome Tom Ferry to the Power House podcast.Tom and Clayton’s chat is all about entrepreneurship, personal branding and marketing, and building a strategic approach to business growth in a changing market. He has had a lot of successes — and just as many failures. Now, Tom has a strong focus on building a client-first approach to sales and also has some really interesting thoughts to share about AI, the rise of artisan agents, and scaling a new business through personalized team-building.Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: A client-first sales and marketing approach is crucial. Coaching involves understanding the psychology of clients and helping them overcome barriers and mindset shifts. AI can play a significant role in the real estate industry, from coach-client selection to improving customer success and providing valuable insights. There is a rise of artisan agents who focus on providing a high-quality experience for clients, even if they don't do a high volume of transactions. Continuous learning and staying relevant are crucial in the industry, and technology adoption done right can be a game-changer. Related to this episode: Tom Ferry | Linkedin Ferry International | Linkedin Tom Ferry | Instagram Tom Ferry HousingWire | YouTube HousingWire | YouTube Enjoy the episode!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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices