Rocket Pro TPO tapped Dan Sogorka as its general manager as the wholesale arm of Rocket Mortgage looks to equip broker partners with better technology.
Sogorka will spend much of his time with broker partners to help them understand the technology needed on the Rocket Pro TPO platform, and how buyers and sellers interact with Rocket’s tools.
“We want to provide choice for brokers, choice for their consumers and the best tech for everybody involved in the process,” Sogorka told HousingWire in an interview on Tuesday.
“I’m really looking forward to using my 25 years’ experience doing mortgage technology in a new way as we kind of jump into the gen AI era, focusing on how we really change the game entirely in terms of everybody’s experience as they buy and refinance homes.”
In his newly created position, Sogorka will play a mediation role between broker partners and the Rocket Pro TPO leadership team to bring AI technology to the platform.
“I’m looking forward to partnering closely with [Rocket Pro TPO’s executive vice president Mike] Fawaz and his team and the broker partners on what we need to do immediately to make life better for you, for your consumers, and for the home buying and refinancing journey,” Sogorka said.
Through the onboarding of Sogorka, Rocket aims to reaffirm its vision of becoming a fintech firm. Under the helm of Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna, a veteran in the financial technology world, the firm piloted an AI virtual assistant, automated income verification, and rolled out servicing calls and chats that are fully self-served.
Sogorka previously served as CEO and president of Sagent, a software development company with a servicing management platform for banks, nonbanks and other customers.
In his four-year stint at Sagent, Sogorka and his team modernized Sagent’s technology by bringing its platforms to the cloud while building a single data and user experience across the servicing life cycle.
Sogorka also served for more than 14 years as a business unit president at Black Knight, where his team handled nearly 70% of all mortgages processed in the U.S. while managing global data and teams. Black Knight was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in September 2023 for $11.9 billion.
“Dan comes to Rocket with a proven track record of success with both large tech companies and scrappy start-ups, paired with an appetite to revolutionize the broker space by leveraging Rocket’s quickly expanding data, technology and AI capabilities,” Heather Lovier, chief operating officer of Rocket Companies, said in a statement.
Among Rocket’s $24.6 billion originations in Q2 2024, $11.3 billion came from its third-party originator channel.
In August, Rocket rolled out a lender-paid, temporary buydown program for lower-income households through its direct-to-consumer and TPO channels.
The program, “Welcome Home RateBreak,” is available to buyers in all 50 states who are purchasing a single-family home and earning 80% or less of their area median income (AMI). With a loan limit of $350,000, Rocket will fund an escrow account that will cover the difference between the reduced payment and what the payments would be at the full note rate.
