COO Rob Pieklo describes AFR’s competitive advantage 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 ten-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 kick off the conversation, Pieklo explores his recent hiatus from AFR and his return to the company.
Pieklo: I started my career at AFR, ended up as one of the junior partners and sold AFR in 2017. I took a break from AFR for about five and a half years and had the opportunity to work with a fund to come back and buy it in February. They asked me to take over as Chief Operating Officer and eventually as President.
Sanchez: Is there a major focus on the wholesale channel with the new AFR?
Pieklo: There is, yes. Our wholesale channel has many brokers, which is why they were known as a niche player. They didn’t really get into ‘vanilla lending’. We knew this was an opportunity.
Because we already had so many recognized real estate agents, it was not a challenge to acquire more customers. It was about gaining wallet share from those customers who were not getting much sales from the approved customers. So we saw this opportunity and the migration of many retail originators who chose to be more entrepreneurial and enter the brokerage channel.
Sanchez: You have two real juggernauts in the wholesale channel that you already mentioned – United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) and Missile TPO. Are you competing with these two wholesale juggernauts to grab market share for yourself?
Pieklo: We have to fight tooth and nail for every loan. We’re competing against some incredible companies, and these guys are amazing, including their technology stacks. We look for places where we can offer a different level of service and expertise.
When you couple that with the things we can do in the capital markets, we’ve been able to make very small dents – which for them is a rounding error. But for us it’s a lot of work. Many people left the wholesale channel. That’s why we love the channel so much. Real estate agents need options and we want to be one of those options. It can’t be just two players.
To conclude the conversation, Pieklo examines AFR’s three competitive strategies to be successful in the wholesale market.
Pieklo: We focus on putting the capital markets in the hands of brokers. That is something many lenders do not do. We are incredibly transparent. We first look at the secondary markets. What are people asking for? Are they certain loan balances? How do we get the prices that pass these incentives to the broker channel?
We take that information – pricing, incentives and those payouts – to the broker channel, and they love it. We have our own portal and we create experiences while continuing to update it daily.
