Rocket Mortgage
File:Quicken Loans.svg | |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Finance and Mortgage |
Founded | ![]() |
Founder | Dan Gilbert |
Headquarters | The Compuware Building, , |
Products | Mortgage |
Number of employees | 2,890 |
Website | www.quickenloans.com |
Quicken Loans Inc. consists of the QuickenLoans.com online lending site, the Rock Financial brand in southeast Michigan, One Reverse Mortgage,[1] based in San Diego, California, and Title Source, a mortgage settlement service provider. In 2007, Quicken Loans processed approximately $19 billion in residential mortgage loans. They are the fifth largest mortgage lender in the USA.
The company employs about 2,890 workers[2] and is currently headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.[3]
History
Quicken Loans, originally Rock Financial Corporation, was founded in 1985 by Dan Gilbert along with his younger brother, film producer Gary Gilbert, their childhood friend Lindsay Gross, and Ron Berman. Rock Financial soon became one of the largest independent mortgage companies in the country. In May 1998, Gilbert took Rock Financial public, launching a successful IPO underwritten by Bear Stearns and Prudential Securities.
In December 1999, Intuit Inc. (makers of QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Quicken) purchased Rock Financial for a sum of $532M. The company was renamed Quicken Loans. In June 2002, Gilbert led a small group of private investors in purchasing the Quicken Loans subsidiary back from Intuit for just $64M.[4]
Relocation
On November 12, 2007, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert announced a development agreement with the city to move the company headquarters to downtown Detroit, consolidating suburban offices.[5] The construction sites reserved for development by the agreement included the location of the former Statler on Grand Circus Park and the former Hudson's location.[6]
However, on July 13, 2009, Quicken announced that it would lease four floors of the Compuware building at Campus Martius Park in Detroit, and hopes to have a building of their own built by 2013 in Downtown Detroit.[7]
Locations
Reverse mortgage
In the Spring of 2008 Rock Holdings entered the Reverse Mortgage market with the acquisition of One Reverse Mortgage in Southern California.
Employment levels
While Quicken Loans has not had the massive layoffs of other companies in the industry, the company has seen a drop in employment levels. According to the The Detroit News, Quicken Loans did not hire new staff in September or October 2007 for their Michigan offices, but continue to hire for its Cleveland and Scottsdale, Ariz., offices.[8] Then on June 19, 2008, the company laid off 250 people "across the board" at locations in Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona. According to a company spokeswoman, the layoffs were caused by the slumping economy and improved efficiency.[9]
2007 credit crunch
In August 2007 the entire mortgage industry faced a crisis in obtaining new credit from banking institutions and hedge funds. In response to that Quicken Loans stopped doing all:[10]
- Second mortgages
- Home equity lines of credit (HELOC)
- Alt-A products
- Deferred interest loans
Gilbert is quoted as saying that Quicken is active in closing "plain vanilla loans".
Class action lawsuit
Quicken Loans Inc. is currently the defendant in a class action lawsuit. This was filed against the company on behalf of employees who worked as loan consultants for any Quicken office within the past three years. The suit alleges that Quicken is in violation of the Fair Labor Act for failing to pay the plaintiffs overtime for working beyond a 40-hour work week. The officers of Quicken Loans have denied these claims, and say they are not aware of any such violations of the Fair Labor Act.[11]
References
![]() | Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010) |
- ^ "Quicken Loans Enters Reverse Mortgage Business". Reverse Mortgage Daily. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
- ^ "100 Best Companies to Work for". Fortune Magazine. 2009-01-20. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
- ^ Real Estate Rama
- ^ "The 400 richest Americans". Forbes Magazine. 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
- ^ Howes, Daniel (November 12, 2007).Quicken moving to downtown Detroit.The Detroit News. Retrieved on November 12, 2007.
- ^ Loc. cit.
- ^ Aguilar, Louis (July 13, 2009).[1].The Detroit News. Retrieved on July 13, 2009.
- ^ "Gilbert: Housing slump hits Quicken". The Detroit News. 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ "Quicken lays off 250 in Mich., Ariz., Ohio". The Detroit News. 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2008-07-01.
- ^ "Gilbert: Mortgage squeeze could be blessing for Quicken". The Detroit Free Press. 2007-08-16. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
- ^ Dybis, Karen (February 10). "Former Quicken Loans workers file suit". The Detroit News.
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External links
- "The DIFF Blog -- Searching the World for the DIFFerence". WOMMA. 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-08-30.