Talk:Guaranteed Rate

Changes requested by paid contributor
I'm Kevin Lambert, and I'm being paid for my editing efforts by Guaranteed Rate. In order to update the article accurate and recent, please make the following changes:

Contents
remove the unnecessary comma:
 * "Guaranteed Rate Inc., is a U.S. residential mortgage company (comma not needed here) headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

add "over 73,000 closed loans" to the second sentence:
 * "Founded in 2000 by Victor Ciardelli, the company was the fifth largest mortgage lender in 2016 with over 73,000 closed loans and $22.9 billion in funded volume."

add the company's corporate strategy:
 * "The company’s macro strategy emphasizes four on-going initiatives: 1- recruiting top industry professionals, 2- integrating mortgage operations into the loan origination platform, 3- developing lasting relationships with real-estate and builder partners, and 4- refining the digital mortgage process."


 * I have removed the comma. I am avoiding the number of closed loans change as it renders the sentence false; GR was fifith in the dollar volume, but came in lower in the rankings in number of closed loans. (That isn't to say that the 73,000 number cannot be worked into the article in some other way, but I don't have a lot of time at the moment to work out anything appropriate.) As for the corporate strategy, that's more of a hard "no" from me - "hire the best people" and "work well with our partners" and "improve our website" are the sort of generic business claims that just about any company will announce as their strategy. --Nat Gertler (talk) 18:09, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

History
remove the repeated 2016 funded volume stat and replace with the company's customer satisfaction score, and use reference that speaks to both:
 * "Guaranteed Rate was founded in Chicago in 2000 by Victor F Ciardelli III. The company is now a top 5 retail mortgage lender with approximately 3,400 employees in 215 offices across all 50 states. Guaranteed Rate has funded over $100 billion in home loans since inception and carries a 95% customer satisfaction score."

add Guaranteed Rate Foundation info:
 * "In early 2012, the company started the Guaranteed Rate Foundation, established to help less fortunate members of the community in times of hardship.

replace outdated 'Top Workplaces' copy and link to include 2016 recognition:
 * Guaranteed Rate has been named to the Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces every year since 2012.

add information about the 2016 Super Bowl commercial featuring Ty Pennington:
 * "The campaign expanded to include a 2016 Super Bowl commercial that was aired in a number of regional markets."

add information about the World's First Digital Mortgage:
 * "Guaranteed Rate released the World’s First Digital Mortgage in July 2015, giving homebuyers the opportunity to apply for home financing online."

add information about the Intuitive Loan Finder:
 * "In May 2016, the company released the Intuitive Loan Finder, an online tool that helps homebuyers quickly find a mortgage."

add that the loan officer associated with the Olympus mortgage co. has left the company:
 * "In March 2016, Guaranteed Rate and one of its loan officers was found guilty in California of diverting loans from Mount Olympus Mortgage, and ordered to pay $25 million in damages to the Irvine-based company. Guaranteed Rate denied any involvement and is pursuing appeal,

and the loan officer in question has since left the company."

remove "When this was announced, social media reacted in an overwhelmingly negative way" since this assertion is not supported by the referenced article, and replace with:
 * "The resulting social media reaction was swift, witty and widespread."

(also, the link as it stands is incomplete; please make sure to add an 'l' to 'htm').

add recent news that the company is expanding its workforce by 280 people:
 * "In March 2017, Guaranteed Rate announced the future addition of 280 more employees to bolster its online sales division.


 * Tackling a few of these:
 * The consumer satisfaction score should actually be removed from the article altogether. The NerdWallet source says that this info comes from data provided by the company, and that's not a sufficiently reliable source for us to make that claim.
 * Baring some third-party source indicating its import, the Guaranteed Rate Foundation shouldn't be covered at all.
 * We should not say "every year since 2012", as that becomes inherently dated.
 * Where you advertise is not that encyclopedic a piece of information.
 * A press release is not a reliable source that you're offering the world's first anything, much less that it's significant.
 * We'd be just as well off deleting any discussion of the social media reaction to the stadium renaming, which seems a fleeting thing tertiary to the subject at hand. In any case, we should not put "witty" in Wikipedia's voice; we do not make the judgment.
 * More later. --Nat Gertler (talk) 05:24, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

Mergers and Acquisitions
add that Ms. Cohn's lawsuit was unsuccessful:
 * "Cohn later sued Guaranteed Rate and CEO Victor Ciardelli for breach of contract and fraud among other complaints but was unsuccessful."

add the recent information regarding the merger with Realogy holdings:
 * "In 2017, Guaranteed Rate entered into a joint venture with Realogy Holdings Corp to form Guaranteed Rate Affinity. Under the agreement, Guaranteed Rate will own a controlling 50.1% stake of the new entity and Realogy will own 49.9%. Guaranteed Rate will originate and offer marketing services to Reology’s various subsidiaries, including NRT and Cartus, and will take over certain assets of its former joint venture partner, PHH Mortgage out of New Jersey."

Awards and Accolades
add the totality of awards received by the company, CEO Victor Ciardelli and CIO Martin Logan. These are all significant awards and recognitions from respected national and Chicago-based businesses and organizations:

Guaranteed Rate
 * Inc. Magazine—8-time “Inc. 5000” Fastest Growing Companies
 * Inc. Magazine—2012 Top private U.S. job creator
 * Chicago Tribune—Top workplace, 2012 – 2016
 * Chicago Agent Magazine—2015 Lender of the Year
 * Built in Chicago—2013 Moxie Award for Best Corporate Digital Innovation (Online Mortgage App)
 * Chicago Inno—2015 Reader’s Choice, Coolest Company
 * Stevie Awards—2016 Silver Medal, New Consumer Product (Digital Mortgage)

CEO Victor Ciardelli, III
 * Smart Business Magazine—2012 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
 * Mortgage Executive Magazine—2013 CEO of the Year
 * ITA—2014 CEO of the Year

CIO Martin Logan
 * ITA—2016 Technologist of the Year
 * Stevie Award—Silver Medal, 2016 IT Executive of the Year
 * Crain’s Chicago Business—2017 Tech 50

In the NASCAR Cup Series
The company has now sponsored Tyler Reddick, who is the driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing in 2022, which he had used Ryan Newman's sponsor, whom the company sponsored in 2020 and 2021.

Employee relations
Given today's Chicago Tribune story (which was at the top of their website, although not front page on the print paper... it may be from tomorrow's issue) and the previous coverage of the Glassdoor matters, it may be that we should create a separate header for employee relations. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 02:35, 16 June 2024 (UTC)


 * And yes, it was indeed a Sunday paper story... and the top headline on page 1. So the Tribune, at least, is treating this as a major matter. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 15:33, 16 June 2024 (UTC)