In the event you’ve seen commercials for “Mortgage Matchup” these days, maybe throughout an NBA recreation, or on the courtroom itself, you may be questioning what they’re all about.
That is truly an fascinating query and reply as a result of they’re an organization that doesn’t work straight with the general public.
But they promote on to shoppers on a regular basis, which isn’t a quite common association.
In addition they occur to be owned by the biggest mortgage lender in the US, an organization generally known as UWM.
Luckily, I can absolutely clarify how their enterprise works so you may make sense of all of it.
Mortgage Matchup Is an On-line Mortgage Dealer Listing Owned by UWM
- A web-based mortgage dealer listing owned by wholesale lender UWM (nation’s #1 lender)
- Permits you to discover a native impartial dealer to work with to get a mortgage
- Utilizing a dealer is the one option to apply for mortgage with UWM (can’t apply straight)
- The web site additionally promotes the mortgage dealer enterprise mannequin vs. going retail/direct
In a nutshell, Mortgage Matchup is a web-based listing powered by UWM that permits you to discover and companion with a neighborhood mortgage dealer to be able to apply for a house mortgage.
When you arrive on this web site, there’s a discipline to enter your tackle to “discover your native residence mortgage skilled.”
However what’s unusual is a few of these specialists could not even work with UWM, which pays for and maintains the web site. I’ll converse extra to that in a second.
First, let’s speak about mortgage brokers and wholesale lenders.
The massive distinction between a direct lender and UWM is that the latter depends upon mortgage brokers, that are third-party mortgage originators.
Brokers don’t characterize one lender, however somewhat have a number of lender companions the place they’ll ship your mortgage.
A mortgage dealer acts an middleman between residence consumers (or householders) and lenders.
Their job is just like a mortgage officer that works at a financial institution, however they aren’t captive to a single financial institution.
They’ve the flexibility to buy your mortgage with all of their companions, then select the one they really feel is the perfect match.
This may very well be as a result of finest pricing, the bottom mortgage charge, a novel mortgage program, and/or the lender’s means to shut the mortgage on time (or in any respect!).
A great analogy is an impartial insurance coverage agent, who represents a number of insurers, not only one firm.
These brokers can store your charge with 10 completely different insurers to seek out the bottom charge and finest protection.
In the meantime, a captive agent who works for say State Farm will solely be capable of promote you a coverage from State Farm. That’s it.
So brokers have extra selection and the flexibility to buy in your behalf, with out you having to carry a finger.
Who Is UWM? And Why Did They Create Mortgage Matchup?
Now again to the proprietor of Mortgage Matchup. As famous, it’s owned by UWM, which is brief for United Wholesale Mortgage.
Because the identify implies, they’re a wholesale mortgage lender (based mostly in Pontiac, Michigan), which suggests they aren’t consumer-facing.
So you may’t go to UWM and apply for a house mortgage straight. In the event you tried, they’d inform you to discover a mortgage dealer who’s authorized to work with UWM.
Whereas that may sound unusual, that is simply the fact of the wholesale lending channel.
In contrast to retail or direct-to-consumer lending, the wholesale channel is B2B, so it’s solely accessible through an middleman, particularly a mortgage dealer.
UWM additionally simply so occurs to be the biggest mortgage lender within the nation by mortgage quantity, beating out its closest rival Rocket Mortgage.
Nonetheless, in contrast to Rocket, they don’t do any retail or DTC lending. It’s wholesale solely, which is definitely fairly outstanding given they’re #1 within the nation.
However to be able to drum up extra enterprise, they launched Mortgage Matchup to type of prolong their attain with out getting into the retail channel straight.
In different phrases, a client can go to the Mortgage Matchup web site, discover a dealer to work with, then apply for a mortgage at UWM.
However provided that the dealer recommends that they ship the mortgage to UWM. Brokers could have a dozen lender companions or extra, and will select a special wholesale lender.
So there’s no assure UWM would be the beneficiary, despite the fact that they’re those paying for the web site and the promoting (which might’t be low-cost).
Nonetheless, UWM possible hopes to get an honest chunk of this mortgage dealer enterprise in doing so.
Simply be aware {that a} dealer itemizing on the Mortgage Matchup web site doesn’t represent an endorsement or suggestion from UWM.
UWM Is Selling Mortgage Brokers through the Mortgage Matchup Model
Merely put, UWM is selling mortgage brokers through this web site, and not directly their very own firm.
They’re advocating for the wholesale channel, and inspiring shoppers to get a house mortgage through a dealer as a substitute of going direct.
There are many benefits to utilizing a dealer, particularly their means to buy your mortgage with a number of lenders.
This might lead to financial savings, with the Mortgage Matchup web site citing a examine that discovered working with a dealer can prevent $10,662 on common.
Whereas your mileage could range, which is why I all the time say to examine mortgage brokers too, these impartial mortgage originators even have entry to extra mortgage applications.
They usually additionally are typically extra educated than captive financial institution mortgage officers, who could have much less expertise attributable to restricted publicity to outside-the-box eventualities.
You possibly can learn extra about banks vs. mortgage brokers for an in-depth comparability.
Why Doesn’t UWM Simply Enter the Retail Mortgage Enterprise?
This all begs the query, if UWM is the nation’s #1 mortgage lender, they usually’re already promoting to the general public, why doesn’t it simply enter the retail lending enterprise?
Couldn’t they make much more loans if prospects might apply straight, whereas additionally sustaining their current enterprise?
In spite of everything, they’ve an internet site, Mortgage Matchup, and the attain to accumulate plenty of enterprise straight from shoppers.
They usually’re already paying for the promoting. So why not? Properly, that’s not solely clear since we don’t know what UWM is considering.
But when I needed to guess, I’d say working wholesale solely enable them to economize on operational prices, worker overhead, and so forth.
As a result of they’ve a bunch of impartial companions they work with, they’ll lower your expenses, even when these companions don’t ship them each mortgage.
They don’t must pay them a wage or advantages, nor do they want extra workplace house.
Nonetheless, in the event that they hold offering these companions with useful instruments to make their job simpler, whereas additionally providing aggressive pricing, they’ll doubtlessly get the perfect of each worlds.
And up to now it seems to be working as a result of as I stated, they’re the high mortgage lender within the nation and don’t look like surrendering that place anytime quickly.
(photograph: Bernd Eckenfels)
Earlier than creating this web site, I labored as an account government for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on expertise within the early 2000s impressed me to start writing about mortgages 19 years in the past to assist potential (and current) residence consumers higher navigate the house mortgage course of. Comply with me on Twitter for warm takes.
