In March, Rocket, America’s largest mortgage lender, announced plans to buy Redfin, a national brokerage that’s spent its 20-year history trying to “redefine” residential real estate. There are big numbers involved: Redfin’s website attracts nearly 50 million views every month; Rocket says it handles more than 100,000 calls every day. The deal is worth nearly $1.75 billion.
But Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman and Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket Companies, say the consumer is at the heart of the deal. “Homeownership is fundamentally a human business,” Krishna said during a May investor call.
Still, the tie-up comes at an auspicious time. As USA TODAY has reported, there are deep fissures in the industry about how much control any one company should have over how real estate listings are shared publicly and who should represent buyers and sellers. At the same time, higher-for-longer mortgage rates and elevated home prices are fraying the American Dream, and making profits and margins challenging, as Kelman memorably noted in a 2024 call with analysts.
USA TODAY sat down with Krishna and Kelman for one of their first joint appearances since the announcement.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
