Guaranteed Rate Companies, doing business as Rate, is an American residential mortgage company headquartered in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. Founded in 2000 by Victor Ciardelli, the company had $55 billion in funded volume in 2022, down 25% since 2020. As of 2021, the company had more than 10,000 employees and more than 850 offices nationwide with locations in 50 states. By 2024, the company had shrunk to fewer than 5,500 employees.

History

Guaranteed Rate was founded in Chicago in 2000 by Victor F. Ciardelli III, a native of

Oak Brook, Illinois Oak Brook is a village (Illinois), village in DuPage County, Illinois, with a very small portion in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County. The population was 8,163 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A suburb of Chicago, it contains th ...

, who now resides in a $38 million

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

mansion purchased in May 2021, serves as chairman and CEO. Through 2020, the company is the third largest retail mortgage lender in the US. Guaranteed Rate Foundation was formed in 2012 to help those in need through difficult times. As of June 2021, the foundation has donated over $5 million in charitable grants. In 2013, Guaranteed Rate grew to more than $15.9 billion in residential home loans, an increase of $1.2 billion over 2012. This moved the company from the twelfth-largest retail mortgage lender in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

to the tenth-largest. In 2015, Guaranteed Rate became the eighth-largest retail mortgage lender with volume of more than $18 billion in home loans and was named Lender of the Year by Chicago Agent magazine. In March 2016, Guaranteed Rate and one of its loan officers were found guilty in California of diverting loans from Mount Olympus Mortgage, and ordered to pay $25 million in damages to the Irvine, California-based company. In May, Guaranteed Rate bought the

domain name In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services, and more. ...

Rate.com for $725,000. In 2017, Guaranteed Rate entered into a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with Realogy Holdings Corp to form Guaranteed Rate Affinity, in which Guaranteed Rate would provide marketing services to Realogy's subsidiaries, including NRT and Cartus, and would take over some assets of its former joint venture partner, PHH Corporation out of New Jersey. In December, Guaranteed Rate announced plans to sell a minority stake of the company to an affiliate of Boston-based

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm

Thomas H. Lee Partners Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. is an American private equity firm headquartered in Boston. The firm focuses on investing in middle market growth companies across various sectors, including financial technology, services, healthcare, technology, ...

. The partial sale was finalized in June 2018. Also in December, a former loan officer sued Guaranteed Rate claiming that he was owed $2 million and that executives at the company were manipulating and misreporting financial information for their own benefit. In January 2018, Guaranteed Rate announced that its employees' and customers' personal information was in hackers' hands as the result of an email

phishing Phishing is a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, adware, or ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticate ...

attack. As of October, Guaranteed Rate “ asbounc ngaround between the fifth and seventh largest mortgage lender in the .S” In January 2019, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' revealed Guaranteed Rate's efforts to boost their ''

Glassdoor Glassdoor is an American website where current and former employees anonymously review companies, operated by the company of the same name. In 2018, the company was acquired by the Japanese company Recruit Holdings (owner of Indeed) for US$1. ...

'' ratings. According to the article, the company "pressured employees to write positive reviews in order to raise poor ratings, according to interviews with current and former employees." Prior to these efforts, the company's rating on Glassdoor averaged 2.6 out of 5. In October, Guaranteed Rate partnered with online notary company Notarize to integrate notarization into the online closing process. The company also announced a partnership with

Marcus by Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters i ...

to help customers consolidate debt and fund home improvement projects. Also in 2019, Guaranteed Rate launched a market research platform for potential home buyers to research neighborhood property trends, home prices, demographics, income levels, and school districts. In April 2020, Guaranteed Rate was required to pay the federal government a $15 million fine to settle a lawsuit brought by a former employee

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

who alleged the company pushed its underwriters into endorsing ineligible loans for FHA and VA loan programs and making false statements to "induce the government" to extend insurance coverage. According to the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', as part of the settlement, Guaranteed Rate admitted that it failed to adhere to self-reporting requirements and certified loans for government insurance that were not eligible. It also admitted to giving FHA underwriters commissions and gifts in violation of the rules. In July, Guaranteed Rate and @Properties launched the joint venture Proper Rate, a Chicago-based independent retail mortgage lender expected to serve as an in-house lender for @Properties. Overall during 2020, Guaranteed Rate originated over 135,000 mortgages with a value of over $47,000,000,000. In October 2023, ''

'' published a report titled "The Mortgage Market Is So Bad Lenders Want Ex-Employees to Give Back Their Bonuses" that detailed Guaranteed Rate's practice of clawing back signing bonuses from loan officers hired in years prior. According to the article, Guaranteed Rate's business dropped by over 50% in 2022 from its high in 2021. In June 2024, the ''

'' reported in an article titled "Verbal abuse, ‘sex-driven’ culture alleged at Guaranteed Rate" that 80 ex-employees interviewed by the paper said they had experienced or witnessed persistent verbal abuse, a "sex-driven" culture, and a misogynistic atmosphere at the firm and from Victor Ciardelli. Ciardelli expressly denied these allegations, stating such allegations are “simply not true.” The company “has not, does not, and would not objectify women or put them in uncomfortable personal or professional situations." The ''Tribune'' reported that "Guaranteed Rate also retained an outside law firm that, even before receiving the reporters’ list of questions, threatened to sue the Tribune for defamation." The suit was never filed. The Tribune also reported that the company was changing its name to Rate, as Ciardelli said 'people have trouble spelling ‘guaranteed’.” In July 2024, the company officially announced that it would rebrand as simply Rate, with Ciardelli explaining that it reflected the company's "new era" of "making the mortgage process smoother, faster and smarter". The new brand will be phased in across its businesses and sponsorships, and "not affect current operations or mortgage loan officer licenses".

Acquisitions and layoffs

In 2012, Guaranteed Rate acquired Manhattan Mortgage, a residential mortgage brokerage in the

New York Metropolitan Area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

. Founded in 1985 by Melissa L. Cohn, the company employed more than 100 home loan professionals and originated loans in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. Cohn later sued Guaranteed Rate and CEO Victor Ciardelli for breach of contract and fraud among other complaints but was unsuccessful. Also in 2012, Guaranteed Rate acquired Massachusetts-based Superior Mortgage. In 2014, Guaranteed Rate acquired Sun State Home Loans, Nationwide Direct, and Arbor Mortgage in one deal. It also acquired lender FirsTrust Mortgage in Overland Park, Kansas. In November 2018, Guaranteed Rate announced that it would acquire some assets of Honolulu HomeLoans and its affiliate Hawaii Lending Alliance, in order to expand further into the state. In January 2021, Guaranteed Rate acquired Stearns Holdings, to help the company expand its joint ventures. In February 2021, the company acquired assets of Owning Corporation, a direct-to-consumer mortgage lender. In March 2021, after acquiring AI Foundry of

Kodak Alaris Kodak Alaris is a British-based company currently comprising two divisions: ''Alaris'', hardware and software for digital imaging and information management; and ''Kodak Moments,'' retail photo printing kiosks and sales and marketing of traditio ...

, the company launched the mortgage tech company Gateless, which utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. In January 2022, Guaranteed Rate closed Stearns Lending after owning it for one year, laying off 348 employees.

Sponsorships

In August 2016, the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

announced a 13-year agreement with Guaranteed Rate to rename their stadium to

Guaranteed Rate Field Rate Field (formerly named Comiskey Park, U.S. Cellular Field and Guaranteed Rate Field) is a baseball stadium located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox, one of the city ...

beginning November 1, 2016 (which was later rebranded to

Rate Field Rate Field (formerly named Comiskey Park, U.S. Cellular Field and Guaranteed Rate Field) is a baseball stadium located on the South Side, Chicago, South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago White ...

on December 17, 2024). At the time, the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' wrote, "There can't be a worse name than Guaranteed Rate Field. Can't be." In 2017, the White Sox and Guaranteed Rate teamed up to create the Guaranteed Impact program, which honors kids who make a positive difference in their community. In August 2020, the company signed a 12-race sponsorship deal with

Roush Fenway Racing Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, doing business as RFK Racing, is an American professional stock car organization that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. One of NASCAR's largest racing teams in the 2000s and early 2010s, Roush formerly ...

, to fund Ryan Newman's car through the remainder of the 2020

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

season. They also sponsored Spanish racing driver Álex Palou. In October 2020, the company became the title sponsor of a third-tier

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played at

Chase Field Chase Field, formerly Bank One Ballpark, is a retractable roof, retractable-roof stadium in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks. It opened in 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks season, 1998, the ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. The bowl has used several names since 2015, being branded as the Cactus Bowl and then the Cheez-It Bowl before being rebranded as the

Guaranteed Rate Bowl The Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989, under several different names. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 ...

. In concert with the company's rebranding, the game was rebranded as the Rate Bowl in 2024. Also in 2020, the company partnered with the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

, US Figure Skating, and

World TeamTennis World TeamTennis (WTT) was a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973. The league's season normally took place in the summer months. Players from the ATP and WTA would ...

as their official mortgage partner. They also sponsored US Figure Skating's National Get Up Day on February 1, 2021. On January 22, 2021, the company was announced as the title sponsor of the 2021

Professional Bowlers Association The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and currently owned by the Lucky Strike Entertainment Corpor ...

Tour. Guaranteed Rate ran a 60-second spot during the

Super Bowl LV Super Bowl LV was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2020 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the American Football Conferen ...

broadcast on February 7, 2021, featuring mixed martial artist

Dustin Poirier Dustin Glenn Poirier (born January 19, 1989) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former Interim UFC Lightweight Champion. ...

, NASCAR driver Ryan Newman, and Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind man to climb to the top of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

Awards and accolades

* Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private US companies, each year from 2008 to 2015, and again from 2018 to 2022 *Guaranteed Rate named a top private U.S. job creator by ''Inc. Magazine'' *Guaranteed Rate ranked as a top workplace by the ''

'' in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 *Guaranteed Rate was named Top Lender by ''Chicago Agent Magazine'' from 2016-2020 *Founder and CEO, Victor Ciardelli, III was named an

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner in 2012 *American Business Award for digital mortgage technology in 2016 * Top Lender for Online Service, ''U.S. News & World Report'', 2018 * Rated as the fourth best mortgage lender by Forbes

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.rate.com Mortgage lenders of the United States Companies based in Chicago Financial services companies established in 2000 2000 establishments in Illinois