Rocket Fuel Newsletter – 04/01/2024

Who cares about your marathon time, how did you place at this year’s Course des Cafés, the Paris server Olympics?

In this edition: We explore the homeownership gender gap, take a look at record losses from the Fed, and listen to the latest episode of Build-A-Broker.

Fuel Up! 🚀

Listen To The Latest Episode Of Build-A-Broker™: The Journey

Saddled with student loans, Nick Grobnagger reached out to his cousin Reggie Green for help in finding ways to pay off his loan. Reggie, already successful and having fun selling subprime loans, invited him to leave the cold Michigan winters for the warm Phoenix sun to join him. However, after the Great Financial Crisis, Nick began working the phones, and Reggie built a referral-based business. Back in 2023, they joined forces, combining the skills they had learned on their unique career paths, and created Green Home Loans.

Tune in and hear more about Nick and Reggie’s journey to success!

Federal Reserve Posts Record Losses

The Federal Reserve released their financial statements for 2023 last week, showing a net loss of $114.3 billion. The loss comes as the Fed has been paying out more interest than it is bringing in, since gradually raising the federal funds target rate over the past 2 years.

Should AI Credit Its Sources?

In case you haven’t heard, AI is taking over the world. Generative AI applications such as ChatGPT create text, art, code and more, based on training data, such as spitting out a stream of consciousness about something happening in a field in Ireland after being trained on the complete works of James Joyce.

As generative AI becomes commonplace in our day-to-day lives, more and more people are beginning to take the position that AI applications need to cite their work. According to a recent study from Pew Research Center, 54% of Americans believe that genAI programs should credit their sources.

Read the Pew Research Center study here.

Hey Fawaz! 👋 Can you talk to me about Credit Upgrade?!

Women Home Buyers: Challenging The Homeownership Gender Gap

Gone are the days of almost always needing a partner to buy a home. Single women now increasingly have the ability and the desire to buy homes on their own. These changes have largely been driven by an increase of women in the workforce along with new career opportunities and financial independence for women.

Single women are buying up more property than single men but tend to get the shorter end of the stick with the return on their investment. So, what gives? Let’s explore the various facets of the homeownership gender gap, why it may be occurring and the steps we can take to close it.

Team members Charles Merritt, Dan Giguere and Todd Andrews headed the booth at the Carolinas Connect Mortgage Expo last week. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat!

Over 30% of our solvers finished in under 2 minutes last week – great times all around! Mike C led the group with his time of 28 seconds and was the only solver to crack the 30-second mark. Consider last week a tune-up leading to what we believe is our most challenging Pro Puzzle to date.

This week’s puzzle gets 5 Rockets out of 5.

Click here to solve!