Rocket Cos. came oh-so-close to reclaiming the top spot among mortgage originators in the first quarter.
The company, which
But when asked on the earnings call about the competitive landscape in the mortgage industry, Rocket CEO Varun Krishna said it's not a big deal.
"We don't spend a ton of time focused on competition," he said. "I mean, we respect our competitors, we learn from them, but our maniacal focus is on the client; it's on executing; it's building a fully integrated platform across search, mortgage and servicing, and that's what you see with Rocket, Redfin and Mr. Cooper coming together."
Krishna went on to point out Rocket's closing time is less than half of the industry average of 45 days.
"For some of these competitors, the technology investments are just not translating into real operational performance," Krishna said. "It's more of a marketing architecture that I think gives you some headlines, it gives you some PR value."
The inputs which drive market share increases at Rocket, including servicing recapture, are growing. The share will follow.
"We are not going to sacrifice profitability to chase share," Krishna said. "We're focused on growing share the right way for the long term."
Rocket's first quarter financial results
Rocket reported GAAP net income of $297 million, compared with net income of $68 million in the fourth quarter and a net loss of $212 million
Included in the results was a negative net fair value adjustment to its mortgage servicing rights of $485 million, compared with $449 million one year ago.
As of March 31, it had a $2.1 trillion MSR portfolio.
Rocket's first quarter production compared with $47.3 billion for the period ended Dec. 31, 2025, and $21.6 billion one-year prior; the year ago volume is Rocket only.
Gain on sale of 274 basis points was down from 282 basis points and 289 basis points respectively.
Closed loan volume,
"Remember, when we're doing recapture loans, which is a big part of our business, you have a cost of acquisition that's pretty close to zero, and you're generating 50 to 70% incremental EBITDA margins after amortization when we fill up that capacity," Brown said during the Q&A.
Building an eco-system
Krishna said current mortgage industry forecasts expect volume to step up in the second quarter. "But I expect that the forecasts are going to catch up to that reality, and that's what we're seeing in our real time data," he continued. "So yes, the environment has shifted, but I would say the underlying demand is still resilient, and that's the most important thing."
Speaking about Rocket, the company has a "self-perpetuating ecosystem with servicing that's really built for this exact moment," Krishna declared.
Another area of growth on the origination side for Rocket is the correspondent channel, which prior to the Mr. Cooper acquisition "wasn't a big deal," Brown said.
Rocket has traditionally been a purchaser of bulk MSR packages, and it will continue to look at this method to grow its portfolio.
"But the correspondent channels are a really efficient way to fill that servicing funnel," Brown said. "We know our recapture rate, even on acquired MSRs, is higher than what the industry experiences, and it's still going up every single day."
This allows Rocket to be very thoughtful when it comes to the return on investment.
"Ultimately it just comes down to a best execution decision that we make almost every single day between acquiring clients out in the market, bulk acquisitions, correspondent and even the co-issue business," which Brown called a "very attractive way to acquire MSRs."
