How Does United Wholesale Mortgage Work?

One oddity within the mortgage world lately is that the nation’s prime lender, United Wholesale Mortgage, is because the title implies, a wholesale lender.

This implies you may’t apply for a house mortgage with them immediately. Regardless of that, they nonetheless command an enormous lead on the prime of the mortgage lender rankings.

They fund many billions extra in loans than their nearest rival, Rocket Mortgage, which excels within the consumer-direct area.

So how on Earth did UWM get so huge and the way do you apply for a mortgage with them anyway?

Permit me to clarify.

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) Is the #1 Mortgage Lender in America

• UWM is the nation’s largest mortgage lender general (2024 and 2023)
• However they’re a wholesale lender that means you may’t work with them immediately
• The one approach to get a mortgage with UWM is by way of an middleman often called a mortgage dealer
• Regardless of this the Pontiac, MI-based firm funded roughly $138 billion in residence loans final 12 months
• That was almost $50B greater than #2 general Rocket Mortgage
• It’s unusual that the highest lender isn’t consumer-facing (previously brick-and-mortar banks had been the highest mortgage lenders)
• However the firm has considerably boosted the wholesale lending channel, which beforehand peaked in the course of the lead as much as the GFC within the early 2000s

This in all probability sounds tremendous bizarre, however you may’t apply for a house mortgage immediately with United Wholesale Mortgage.

Sure, you learn that proper. You can’t name UWM and communicate to a mortgage officer (they don’t have them).

Nor are you able to go to a UWM department and apply for a mortgage in individual (they don’t have them).

You may’t even go to their web site to use for a house mortgage (sure, they’ve an internet site, however not for customers).

However apparently none of that issues as a result of enterprise is booming on the Pontiac, Michigan-based firm, which acquired its begin all the best way again in 1986.

In reality, they had been the nation’s largest mortgage lender in 2024 (and in 2023), beating out the likes of Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage, Chase, U.S. Financial institution, and lots of others.

And by a really massive margin. Final 12 months, UWM funded about $138 billion in mortgages, whereas #2 Rocket solely mustered mortgage quantity of $92 billion.

So it’s not even shut.

You Might Have Heard of UWM. However There’s No ‘Apply Now’ Button

As a shopper, you might need heard their title and might be pondering, “Hey, I need to test them out.”

You may even go to their web site and search for the “apply now” button, solely to be left dissatisfied.

As a substitute, you’ll see a B2B web site that talks about partnering with the nation’s #1 mortgage lender.

Confused but? Nicely, you need to be. It’s fairly bizarre.

Let’s clear it up. Because the title suggests, UWM is a wholesale mortgage lender, which suggests they work with impartial mortgage brokers.

That makes them a B2B firm as a result of they don’t work immediately with most of the people.

As a substitute, they depend upon these mortgage dealer intermediaries to promote their product.

These brokers might function a small mom-and-pop store below their very own title, or run a bigger brokerage with their very own branding and a number of workers.

Both method, the one approach to get a mortgage from UWM is to work with one among their authorized companions, which might be one among these brokers.

So it’s sort of a two-step course of. You might want to attain out to a mortgage dealer first, and in the event that they select UWM amongst their many companions, they’ll ship your mortgage particulars on to UWM, which then extends financing.

However right here’s the sort of difficult half. Mortgage brokers can have a number of totally different lender companions.

In reality, that’s sort of the principle function of being a dealer. You don’t work with a single lender, however quite a number of corporations to hunt out the perfect financing in your purchasers.

For instance, a mortgage dealer may fit with UWM, Rocket Professional (which is Rocket Mortgage’s wholesale division), Pennymac, Newrez, Freedom Mortgage, and lots of others.

They’ve mainly acquired a bunch of lenders at their disposal that they will store on behalf of you, the borrower.

If it seems UWM is the most suitable choice based mostly on their purchasing, your mortgage ought to be positioned with the corporate.

You Can’t Really Select UWM for Your Mortgage Wants

What this implies is it’s fully out of your arms to “select UWM” except you by some means explicitly instructed your dealer, “Hey, I need you to make use of UWM.”

However that wouldn’t actually make sense as a result of customers don’t have entry to UWM’s mortgage charges, charges, mortgage packages, course of, and so forth.

It’s all inner, B2B stuff reserved for his or her mortgage dealer companions. They work to woo mortgage brokers, not customers.

Solely after the very fact may you discover out that your mortgage was positioned with UWM.

And after the mortgage funds, your mortgage might be serviced by UWM, that means they accumulate month-to-month funds and deal with escrow accounts.

Nonetheless, if and when it got here time to refinance or purchase one other property, you couldn’t go to UWM and ask them to offer you a mortgage.

You’d have to return to your mortgage dealer (or one other dealer) and undergo the identical course of.

That dealer would then want to find out a second time if UWM was the perfect match in your mortgage state of affairs.

Perhaps they aren’t this time. Maybe a unique wholesale lender has higher pricing on a price and time period refinance or subsequent residence buy mortgage.

So once more it could be left to probability the place your mortgage finally ends up. It might be UWM once more, or it might be Rocket Professional, Pennymac, and so forth.

Now it may not matter a lot anyway as a result of the dealer is the one offering you with service in the course of the mortgage course of.

And as soon as the mortgage funds, it’ll be the identical 30-year fastened (or no matter mortgage product) you possibly can get from any variety of totally different banks/lenders.

As well as, the mortgage servicer you wind up with after funding may not be all that totally different (or the mortgage may even be offered off to a third-party firm that isn’t affiliated along with your lender).

Solely a Dealer Can Select to Place Your Mortgage with UWM

Lengthy story quick, you may’t select UWM as your mortgage lender. However your dealer may ship your mortgage to them.

In fact, UWM is the nation’s prime lender (even larger than all retail lenders), so clearly loads brokers are willingly selecting to ship their loans there.

In different phrases, in case you work with a mortgage dealer, there’s a fairly good probability you’ll get a mortgage from UWM regardless.

In case you do occur to go to the UWM web site, there’s a part devoted to “Homebuyers” together with a blurb about connecting you with an area mortgage knowledgeable.

Assuming you click on that hyperlink, it should take you to Mortgage Matchup, which is UWM’s mortgage dealer listing.

When you join with a dealer on that website, they might or might not ship your mortgage to UWM. As a result of as famous, brokers work with a number of totally different wholesale lenders (aside from UWM).

However you’ll a minimum of be within the wholesale realm, the one enterprise channel by which UWM operates.