COO Rob Pieklo describes AFR’s competitive edge in ten minutes
In a new episode of 10 Minute Talks, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sits down for an in-depth conversation with Rob Pieklo, president and chief operating officer of American Financial Resources (AFR).
During the 10-minute conversation, Pieklo explores his new focus on developing AFR’s wholesale lending strategy, the competitive landscape of the mortgage market, and the company’s unique approach to differentiating itself from other big names in the wholesale space.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To start the conversation, Pieklo explores his recent hiatus from AFR and his return to the company.
Pieklo: I actually started my career at AFR, ended up as one of the junior partners and sold AFR back in 2017. I took about a five-and-a-half-year hiatus from from AFR, and had an opportunity to work with a fund to come back and purchase it in February. They asked me to take over as chief operating officer and eventually as president.
Sanchez: Is there a big focus at the new AFR on the wholesale channel?
Pieklo: There is, yeah. Our wholesale channel has a lot of brokers, so they were known as a niche player. They didn’t really get into “vanilla loans.” We knew that it was an opportunity.
Since we had so many approved brokers already, it wasn’t a challenge to go get more customers. It was about getting wallet share within those customers who weren’t getting a ton of business from the approved clients. So, we saw this opportunity, and the migration of a lot of retail originators choosing to be more entrepreneurial and get into the broker channel.
Sanchez: You’ve got two real juggernauts in the wholesale channel you already mentioned — United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) and Rocket TPO. Do you compete with those two juggernauts in wholesale to grab market share for yourself?
Pieklo: We have to fight tooth and nail for every single loan. We’re battling some incredible companies, and these guys are amazing, including their technology stacks. We look for spots where we can provide a different level of service and expertise.
If you couple that with things we can do in capital markets, we’ve been able to make very small dents — which is like a rounding error for them. But for us, it’s a lot of business. A lot of people left the wholesale channel. That’s why we love the channel so much. Brokers need options and we want to be one of those options. It can’t just be two players.
To close the conversation, Pieklo explores AFR’s three competitive strategies for succeeding in the wholesale market.
Pieklo: We focus on bringing capital markets to the brokers’ hands. That’s something that a lot of lenders don’t do. We are incredibly transparent. We look to the secondary markets first. What is it that people are asking for? Is it certain loan balances? How do we get the pricing that those incentives pass through to the broker channel?
We’re taking that information — pricing, incentives and those pay-ups — passing that through to the broker channel, and they are loving it. We have our own portal and we’re creating experiences while continuing to update it daily.