Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate, Inc. is a U.S. residential mortgage company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2000 by Victor Ciardelli, the company had $37 billion in funded volume in 2019.[3] As of 2020, the company has approximately 5,000 employees and more than 700 offices nationwide and has licenses in 50 states.[4]

Guaranteed Rate, Inc.
Private
IndustryMortgage
Founded2000
FounderVictor Ciardelli
(CEO & chairman)
Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
,
United States
Number of locations
700 (Jan. 2020) [1]
ProductsMortgage
Number of employees
5,000 (Jan. 2020) [2]
Websitewww.rate.com

History

Guaranteed Rate was founded in Chicago in 2000 by Victor F Ciardelli III, a native of Oak Brook, Illinois, who serves as chairman and CEO.[5][6] The company has funded over $120 billion in home loans since inception.

Guaranteed Rate has been named to the Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list every year from 2012 through 2018.[7][8][9][10] In 2013, Guaranteed Rate was listed by Crain's Chicago Business as one of the fastest growing companies in Chicago.[11] The company was listed by U.S. News & World Report in 2018 as Top Lender for Online Service.[12] Shant Banosian of Guaranteed Rate in Massachusetts ranked number 1 in the Scotsman Guide 2018 Top Originators rankings, with $536.4 million in 2018 origination volume.[13][14]

Guaranteed Rate Foundation was formed in 2012 to help community members through difficult times.[6][15] As of October 2018, the foundation has donated nearly $2.5 million in charitable grants.[6]

In 2013, Guaranteed Rate grew to more than $15.9 billion in residential home loans, an increase of $1.2 billion over 2012.[16][17] This moved the company from the 12th-largest retail mortgage lender in the U.S. to the 10th.[18]

In February 2014, Guaranteed Rate launched its first national ad campaign, featuring Ty Pennington.[18] The company budgeted up to $10 million for the campaign, growing to as much as $15 million in 2015.[18] A 2016 Guaranteed Rate Super Bowl commercial featuring Pennington aired in regional markets.[19]

In 2015, Guaranteed Rate became the 8th largest retail mortgage lender with volume of more than $18 billion in home loans and was named Lender of the Year by Chicago Agent magazine.[20]

In March 2016, Guaranteed Rate and one of its loan officers were found guilty in California of diverting loans from Mount Olympus Mortgage, and ordered to pay $25 million in damages to the Irvine, California-based company.[21]

In May 2016, Guaranteed Rate bought the URL Rate.com for $725,000.[22]

In August 2016, the Chicago White Sox announced a 13-year agreement with Guaranteed Rate to rename their stadium to Guaranteed Rate Field beginning November 1, 2016.[23] The Chicago Sun-Times wrote an article about this titled "There Can't Be a Worse Name Than Guaranteed Rate Field. Can't Be." [24] In 2017 the team and Guaranteed Rate teamed up to create the Guaranteed Impact program, which honors kids who make a positive difference in their community.[25]

In 2017, Guaranteed Rate entered into a joint venture with Realogy Holdings Corp to form Guaranteed Rate Affinity. Guaranteed Rate will provide marketing services to Realogy's subsidiaries, including NRT and Cartus, and will take over some assets of its former joint venture partner, PHH Mortgage out of New Jersey.[26]

In December 2017, Guaranteed Rate announced plans to sell a minority stake of the company to an affiliate of Boston-based private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners.[5] The partial sale was finalized in June 2018.[27]

In December 2017, a former loan officer sued Guaranteed Rate claiming that he was owed $2 million and that executives at the company were manipulating and misreporting financial information for their own benefit.[28]

In January 2018, Guaranteed Rate announced that its employees' and customers' personal information was in hackers' hands as the result of an email phishing attack.[29]

As of October 2018, Guaranteed Rate is one of the seven-largest retail mortgage provider in the US.[6]

In January 2019, The Wall Street Journal revealed Guaranteed Rate's and other firms' efforts to boost their Glassdoor ratings. According to the article, the company "pressured employees to write positive reviews in order to raise poor ratings, according to interviews with current and former employees." Prior to these efforts, the company's rating on Glassdoor averaged 2.6 out of 5.[30] As of June 30, 2020 the company is rated 3.7 out of 5 on Glassdoor.com,[31] falling from 4.0 in September 2019.

In April 2020, Guaranteed Rate was required to pay the federal government a $15 million fine to settle a lawsuit brought by a former employee whistleblower who alleged the company pushed its underwriters into endorsing ineligible loans for FHA and VA loan programs and making false statements to “induce the government” to extend insurance coverage. According to the Chicago Tribune, as part of the settlement, Guaranteed Rate admitted that it failed to adhere to self-reporting requirements and certified loans for government insurance that were not eligible. It also admitted to giving FHA underwriters commissions and gifts in violation of the rules.[32]

Acquisitions

In 2012, Guaranteed Rate acquired Manhattan Mortgage, a residential mortgage brokerage in the New York Metropolitan Area.[33] Founded in 1985 by Melissa L. Cohn, the company employed more than 100 home loan professionals and originated loans in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey.[34] Cohn later sued Guaranteed Rate and CEO Victor Ciardelli for breach of contract and fraud among other complaints but was unsuccessful.[35][36]

In 2012, Guaranteed Rate acquired Massachusetts-based Superior Mortgage.[14]

In 2014, Guaranteed Rate acquired Sun State Home Loans, Nationwide Direct, and Arbor Mortgage in one deal.[37] It also acquired lender FirsTrust Mortgage in Overland Park, Kansas.[38]

In November 2018, Guaranteed Rate announced that it would acquire some assets of Honolulu HomeLoans and its affiliate Hawaii Lending Alliance, in order to expand further into the state.[39][40]

Awards and accolades
  • Guaranteed Rate recognized as one of the most successful private companies in the U.S. for a fifth consecutive year by Inc. Magazine[41]
  • Guaranteed Rate named a top private U.S. job creator by Inc. Magazine[41]
  • Guaranteed Rate ranked as a top workplace by the Chicago Tribune in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018[8][9][7]
  • Guaranteed Rate was named Top Lender by Chicago Agent Magazine in 2016,[42] 2017,[43] 2018[43]
  • Founder and CEO, Victor Ciardelli, III was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner in 2012[44]
  • American Business Award for digital mortgage technology in 2016[43]
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gollark: The other^5 gollark is truthful iff it predicts that you will cooperate with CooperateBot.
gollark: The other⁴ gollark actually just tells you the first bit of the SHA256 hash of your question encoded in UTF-8.
gollark: Anyway, the other³ gollark is truthful iff it predicts (it is only wrong 0.4% of the time) that you will identify it as a falsehood-telling gollark.

References
  1. https://www.rate.com/news/guaranteed-rate-announces-2020-program
  2. https://www.rate.com/news/guaranteed-rate-announces-2020-program
  3. "2020 HW Tech100 Mortgage winner: Guaranteed Rate". HousingWire. 2020-03-02. Retrieved 2020-05-25.
  4. https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Guaranteed-Rate-EI_IE318640.11,26.htm
  5. Zumbach, Lauren. "Guaranteed Rate sells 'meaningful minority stake' to Boston-based private equity firm". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  6. Fielding, Lisa. "Newsmakers Making A Difference: Victor Ciardelli, Guaranteed Rate Foundation". Radio.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  7. "Top Workplaces 2018: Salesforce, American Litho, CASE take top rankings in Energage survey". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  8. "Chicago Tribune Top Workplaces". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
  9. "Chicago Tribune Top Workplaces". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  10. Husain, Nausheen. "Top Workplaces 2017: Search Chicago-area companies". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  11. "Fast Fifty". Crains Business. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  12. "The Best Mortgage Lenders of 2018". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  13. "2018 Top Originators". Scotsman Guide. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  14. "Residential Department: Featured Top Originator: Shant Banosian, Guaranteed Rate, No. 1 Top Dollar Volume (2018)". Scotsman Guide. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  15. Bertagnoli, Lisa. "This mortgage industry executive gives money directly to people in need. All they need to do is ask". Crain's. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  16. "Guaranteed Rate launches TV ads with Ty Pennington". Crain's Chicago Business. 2014-01-13. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  17. "Victor Ciardelli, president and CEO, Guaranteed Rate Inc". Smart Business. 2012-07-01. Retrieved 2013-02-14.
  18. "Yes, that's Ty Pennington in those Guaranteed Rate ads". Crain's Chicago Business. 2014-01-14. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  19. "Ty Pennington in Super Bowl to promote home mortgages instead of makeovers". Chicago Business Journal. 2016-02-01.
  20. "Lender of the Year: Guaranteed Rate". Chicago Agent Magazine. 2016-10-17.
  21. "Guaranteed Rate ordered to pay $25M in alleged loan diversion scheme". Chicago Tribune. 2016-03-26. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  22. "Kate Buckley just brokered the sale of Rate.com to GuaranteedRate.com for $725,000". Domainnamewire.com. 2016-06-06. Retrieved 2016-06-06.
  23. "White Sox changing ballpark name to Guaranteed Rate Field". ESPN. 2016-08-25.
  24. "There can't be a worse name than Guaranteed Rate Field. Can't be". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  25. "White Sox honor 8-year-old beach-cleaning, cookie-baking, volunteering phenom". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  26. "Realogy, Guaranteed Rate announce new mortgage venture as PHH backs out". HousingWire.com. 2017-02-15.
  27. Daniels, Steve. "Guaranteed Rate clinches scaled-back deal with first institutional investor". Crain's. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  28. Marotti, Ally. "After Guaranteed Rate sued him, alleging he poached employees, former executive countersues, claims he's owed more than $2 million". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  29. "Email phishing hack puts Guaranteed Rate clients, staffers at risk". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  30. "How Companies Secretly Boost Their Glassdoor Ratings". Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  31. "Guaranteed Rate Reviews". Glassdoor. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  32. Channick, Robert. "Guaranteed Rate to pay $15 million to settle allegations it made false claims to get federal mortgage loan backing". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  33. "Guaranteed Rate purchases Manhattan Mortgage". Housing Wire. 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2013-02-14.
  34. "Manhattan Mortgage Company Joins Guaranteed Rate". Guaranteed Rate. 2012-08-28. Retrieved 2013-02-14.
  35. "January's Notable Cases and Events in E-Discovery". Lexology. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  36. COHN v. GUARANTEED RATE INC., Leagle.com, 2015-09-15, retrieved 2013-09-15
  37. "Grand Rapids mortgage firm acquired by Guaranteed Rate of Chicago". MLive/Grand Rapids Press. March 3, 2014. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
  38. "Guaranteed Rate to Acquire FirsTrust Mortgage in Kansas". Origination News. Jul 8, 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  39. Gomes, Andrew. "Local mortgage company selling itself to Chicago firm". Star Advertiser. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  40. Lane, Ben. "Guaranteed Rate expanding in Hawaii, acquires assets from two lenders". Housing Wire. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  41. "Guaranteed Rate Company Profile by Inc. Magazine". Inc. Magazine. 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  42. "Lender of the Year Guaranteed Rate". Chicago Agent Magazine. 2011-11-07. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
  43. "2018 Agents' Choice Awards—Lender of the Year: Guaranteed Rate". Chicago Agent. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  44. "2012 Midwest Award Winners". Ernst & Young. 2012-06-21. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
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