Rouse graduated in 1937 and in 1939 left the FHA and became partner with Hunter Moss at a mortgage banking firm called the Moss-Rouse Company funded by a $20,000 loan from Moss's sister, which would eventually become the Rouse Company. The company would specialize in FHA backed loans, and hired Churchill G. Carey from Connecticut General, with his former company providing loan capital to Moss-Rouse. Both Moss and Rouse served during WWII, with Moss joining the Marines and Rouse the Navy. Rouse was able to defer duty while his wife was pregnant, shipping out to Hawaii to work on John Henry Towers staff on 4 July 1942. Rouse returned from the war to put his gambling assets to work with Moss. In 1952, Moss would leave the firm after Rouse brought in his brother Bill as vice president. Rouse would make new connections that year crossing party lines as a board member of "Democrats for Eisenhower".