Valon Lands a Whale
Andrew Wang’s Valon has landed mega-servicer NewRez.
NewRez, the largest servicer not on MSP or Sagent, is ditching its legacy mortgage servicing platform & hopping on Valon.
“I think it’s one of the biggest things that’s happened in mortgage in a while,” said NewRez CIO Brian Woodring. “It’s 4M loans. It’s going to be one of the largest servicing system conversions in history, & it’s probably the largest not by ICE or Sagent.”
NewRez has long been tethered to proprietary servicing system ServicingDirector, which is stitched together w/ its legacy LOS H20 & its proprietary POS. That gives NewRez ultimate control over its files, but maintaining an in-house servicing platform is both expensive & lonely 😥 .
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What’s On Tap – Feb. 2
Valon Lands a Whale (Cont.) 🐳
In moving over to Valon & taking a minority share, NewRez gets a large say in the roadmap of arguably the most promising servicing tech platform in mortgage.
The hard work will be in migrating the data, reports & integrations. Valon doesn’t yet support every investor, every product, every permutation. The project is going to take years. NewRez will maintain its own loss mit tech & portal experience.
Before signing w/ Valon, NewRez entertained talks w/ ICE’s MSP, whose core system is a bit long in the tooth 🦷 , & Sagent, whose platform Dara is still in development, sources said.
VC-backed Valon has a pretty unique approach. It built its own servicing arm from the ground up, which is how it sells its next-gen tech. There’s no sales staff. Instead of steak dinners & conference breakfasts, Valon execs literally fly across the country & show targets their own servicing book & do demos. Basically, “Look how efficient we are w/ our own loans. You gotta hire us.”
That could be a turn-off for some servicers. But w/ NewRez moving over 4M loans, they’re probably not going to be hungry for other big clients in the next few years anyway.
It also jives well for NewRez, which can move over tranches at its own pace. They’ve been sending a small batch of loans to Valon for some time now. “Because we have a proprietary system we own, we don’t have to worry about being a couple months late & having a vendor contract over our head,” Woodring said.
There are obvious parallels to Vesta nabbing Pennymac as both a huge client & an investor. More than a couple mortgage tech sources told The Scoop that Valon is well positioned to compete w/ ICE over the next decade.
The tech is “modern, AI-native” & “dog-fooding it yourself is a good strategy,” quipped one exec.
Maxwell M&A Chatter 😁
The lending world has been abuzz w/ rumors that mortgage tech firm Maxwell is being acquired. Chrisman first reported on the rumor that Goldman Sachs-backed Place is acquiring Maxwell. Additional sources told The Scoop on Monday that it is happening, though neither side returned a request for comment.
A potential sale of Maxwell didn’t surprise the mortgage/real estate tech community. “This is what they do at Place,” said one real estate tech exec. “That’s their thing—serial acquirers.”
Founded by Ben Kinney, Place is a real estate tech company that raised $100M for a $1B valuation back in ‘21. The owners appear to have a stake in or ABA w/ Envoy Mortgage.
One tech source said the Denver-based Maxwell never really gained traction in the POS space, but was able to notch a number of CU clients in BPO/fulfillment through its own acquisitions. The company leans heavily on MeridianLink on the fulfillment side.
The play is likely to build an end-to-end system between real estate & mortgage, AKA the Holy Grail of Housing. But most who attempt it end up w/ mediocre tech across the board & quickly learn that real estate brokerages simply aren’t interested in an integrated experience. Can they do a Rocket Jr.?
“I’ve heard this for 30 years,” said one mortgage tech exec. “The real estate mall concept, the consumer can come in and get title, mortgage, everything & we’ll bring a universal tech platform to get it to work.”
Finally, AI that handles the hard stuff. Friday Harbor helps lenders clear conditions before they exist. See how it works.
Rocket’s C-Suite TPO Shakeout 🧂
Dan Sogorka’s time at Rocket TPO is coming to an end. The mortgage & technology veteran announced his departure from Rocket on Friday. The move will see CRO Austin Niemiec return as leader of wholesale at Rocket, which made gains w/ brokers in ‘25.
Niemiec & Mike Fawaz ran the TPO division for a few years & are quite familiar w/ the furniture. Sogorka has not yet revealed what’s next for him professionally.
Release the Credit Reporting Files, Pulte! 📁
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac never wanted to approve VantageScore 4.0, apparently. The nonprofit Housing Policy Council submitted a FOIA request in July ‘23 related to the analysis of credit scoring models. HPC also requested info related to the adoption of a bi-merge credit reporting method. On Jan. 15, ‘26, the government finally responded (FYI: I have FOIA requests that are about to turn 7 years old).
Per a letter sent by HPC’s Ed DeMarco, documents showed neither GSE recommended approving VantageScore 4.0 but the FHFA directed them to approve it. The GSEs also reported to the FHFA that the “tri-merge & bi-merge credit reports performed similarly, whereas a single file report showed a decrease in reliability in predicting borrower performance.”
HPC says the documents do not explain the policy rationale for these determinations & the trade group wants more data…
A Mortgage Stock Bloodbath 🤕
Pennymac had an absolutely brutal Friday, & Monday hasn’t been much better. A third of its market value was wiped out on Friday after weak earnings “shocked investors & Wall Street analysts,” Bloomberg reported. Pennymac’s loan servicing business suffered due to a surge in prepayments & originations didn’t offset losses, though execs on Friday said biz was improving in Q1.
Rocket, UWM, Onity, loanDepot also took losses on Friday. It’s not a great time to own mortgage stocks…More on this in Wednesday’s edition.
Quickies ⏩️
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Xactus has acquired small mortgage tech firm Baleen Solutions, which does AI-powered income analysis for lenders.
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CrossCountry Mortgage has landed another big name: Movement’s Nicole Rueth (& before that, Fairway). The Colorado-based LO has joined the nation’s top retail lender. It’s no secret that CCM is content to write big checks to help attract the most productive LOs in America. Not all have the savvy to run the P&L & thrive. But Rueth shouldn’t have that problem, sources said. CCM has also snagged a bunch of UMortgage’s top producers…
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Fifth Third has completed its acquisition of Comerica, which reminds me: We got a great interview with Fifth Third’s James Sias about the bank’s renewed focus on mortgage.
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Sad you’re missing out on MBA’s IMB conference? It’s like 26 degrees on Amelia Island, so at least you’re not missing out on balmy weather.
ARMchair Critics 🎹
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🖐️ 84% of top producers will talk to the execs (but not recruiters)
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🌏️ The mortgage world is at war. LinkedIn is its battlefield
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