Quicken Loans Inc. consists of the QuickenLoans.com online lending site, the Rock Financial brand in southeast Michigan, One Reverse Mortgage^[1], based in San Diego, California, and Title Source, a mortgage settlement service provider. Quicken Loans closed $18 billion in residential mortgage loans in 2006.

The company employs about 3,500 workers and is currently headquartered in Livonia, Michigan.^[2]

History

Quicken Loans, originally Rock Financial Corporation, was founded in 1985 by Dan Gilbert and Ron Berman and soon became one of the largest independent mortgage companies in the country. In May 1998, Gilbert took Rock Financial public, launching a successful IPO underwritten by Bear Stearns and Prudential Securities.

In December 1999, Intuit Inc. (makers of QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Quicken) purchased Rock Financial for a sum of $532M. The company was renamed Quicken Loans. In June 2002, Gilbert led a small group of private investors in purchasing the Quicken Loans subsidiary back from Intuit for just $64M.^[3]

Relocation

On November 12, 2007, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert announced a development agreement with the city to move the company headquarters to downtown Detroit, consolidating suburban offices.^[4] The construction sites reserved for development by the agreement include the location of the former Statler on Grand Circus Park and the former Hudson's location.^[5]

Locations

• Livonia, MI
• Southfield, MI
• Cleveland, OH
• Phoenix, AZ

Reverse mortgage

In the Spring of 2008 Rock Holdings entered the Reverse Mortgage market with the acquisition of One Reverse Mortgage in Southern California.

Employment levels

While Quicken Loans has not had the massive layoffs of other companies in the industry, the company has seen a drop in employment levels. According to the The Detroit News, Quicken Loans did not hire new staff in September or October 2007 for their Michigan offices, but continue to hire for its Cleveland and Scottsdale, Ariz., offices. ^[6] Then on June 19, the company laid off 250 people "across the board" at locations in Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona. According to a company spokeswoman, the layoffs were caused by the slumping econonmy and improved efficiency. ^[7]

2007 credit crunch

In August 2007 the entire mortgage industry faced a crisis in obtaining new credit from banking institutions and hedge funds. In response to that Quicken Loans stopped doing all:^[8]

• Second mortgages
• Home equity lines of credit (HELOC)
• Alt-A products
• Deferred interest loans

Gilbert is quoted as saying that Quicken is active in closing "plain vanilla loans".

Class action lawsuit

Quicken Loans Inc. is currently the defendant in a class action lawsuit. This was filed against the company on behalf of employees who worked as loan consultants for any Quicken office within the past three years. The suit alleges that Quicken is in violation of the Fair Labor Act for failing to pay the plaintiffs overtime for working beyond a 40-hour work week. The officers of Quicken Loans have denied these claims, and say they are not aware of any such violations of the Fair Labor Act.^[9]

External links

• Quicken Loans
• Quicken Loans Arena
• One Reverse Mortgage^[10]
• Quicken Loans blog^[11]

References