NewRez, Shelter Mortgage talk joint ventures

Today’s HousingWire Daily episode features a crossover episode of HousingWire’s Housing News podcast. In this episode, HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler interviews Michael Iorio, senior division manager for joint ventures at NewRez and Randy VandenHouten, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Shelter Mortgage.

During the episode, Iorio and VandenHouten discuss their strategy for making JVs work and what makes a good joint venture partner.

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Sarah Wheeler: Let’s talk about those partners and how you choose them. From your perspective, what makes a good partner?

Michael Iorio: I’d say, first and foremost, it’s partner engagement. Why is that partner interested in the joint venture? Today, there are many companies that are interested in the JV space because of the additional revenue that can bring into their organization, and that’s extremely important and we can’t forget about the revenue or the income stream that comes in, which allows a lot of our partners to pay for a lot of other things that are more core to selling homes or listing homes. But going back to the partner engagement, truly, why are they there? If they’re just there for the dollar, that falls apart over time. But if they truly have a vested interest in the hiring and the leadership, and an interest in building a culture of the joint venture by spreading the word within their agent community about why a referral to the mortgage partner is important and how it will better their business for customers or clients’ overall experience, that’s when you have a good partner. And that’s where our most successful joint ventures are. I mean, we have some partners that have been with us for 25 years plus, and those that are the most successful, and the longest-tenured are those that are at that level of engagement.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported across HW Media. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories from across our newsrooms that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.