Growing the company, growing the good

Founder and CEO Victor Ciardelli started Rate 20 years ago with a handful of core beliefs that would go on to define the business.

First and foremost, Victor was intent on building a team of experts who shared his vision to revolutionize a stagnant industry and bring a more human dimension to the business of providing loans. Aligned in spirit and inspired by change, Victor and Company have worked together to transform the customer experience and help people achieve their dreams—whether that’s a beautiful new home or a timely refinance that yields savings for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation.

Victor was also committed to ensuring transparency and fairness with every interaction, every locked loan. Gone were the days of hidden fees and the era of optimal rates going only to the most savvy, experienced borrowers. It was time to throw back the curtains on the process and come from a place of pure integrity. Transparency was the future of lending, and GR was proud to lead the way.

As the company grew, neither the baseline demand for excellence nor the drive to make a difference ever wavered. It’s no coincidence then that Rate’s signature value is: We Grow for Good. We intend to be the No. 1 retail mortgage lender in the country, with the commitment that the more we grow, the more good we will do.

Our intention to do good impacts every interaction; from the positive, transparent way VPs engage with partners to the holistic way GR serves its customers. In fact, the wider experience of growing for good encompasses everything from affordable home loans to ensuring GR employees are achieving a healthy work/life balance.

Whatever the situation, when the company grows for good, it’s planting seeds of harmony, positivity and achievement.

From fire to Foundation

In 2012, an electrical fire ripped through the Quincy, IL, home of Sarah Ginster, a close family relation of long-tenured Rate employee Dave Fisher. The fire ended up gutting the entire house. More critically, Sarah’s infant daughter Ella suffered third-degree burns and had to be airlifted to a regional hospital for immediate care.

When Victor learned about the severity of the loss, he was moved to take action. He wanted to provide Sarah, her husband and her two children the extra help necessary to regroup and get back on their feet.

With the CEO leading the way, employees from all ranks dug deep to help this struggling family out in a time of crisis. Within a period of days, $25,000 was raised to provide essentials—including money necessary for a down payment on a new home that Sarah and her family desperately needed.

“In the aftermath of the fire, with our daughter in the ICU and no home to return to, the world was the darkest it had ever been,” said Sarah Ginster. “We were sleeping at the hospital and worried around the clock.

“But through the kindness and generosity of Victor and everyone at Rate, we went from devastation to salvation in a few short weeks,” continued Ginster. “It wasn’t just the amazing donations, but also the deep level of caring that blew us away; that’s something we truly didn’t expect. It took the worry right off the table.”

Helping provide the raw materials for dreams was one thing; now Rate was providing the raw materials to repair lives turned upside down. And yet it was all part of the same awakened spirit, finding ways—some bigger, some smaller—to help people summon strength, move forward and achieve the impossible.