What is a mortgage match? And why did uwm create it?

If you have seen ads for a mortgage match lately, maybe during the NBA or the court itself, you may be wondering what they are thinking about.

This is actually an interesting question and answer because they are a company that does not work directly with the public.

Still, they advertise directly to users all the time, which is not a very common agreement.

They are also the property of the largest mortgage lender in the United States, a company known as UWM.

Fortunately, I can fully explain how their business works so you can make sense of all this.

A mortgage match is an online mortgage broker directory owned by UWM

• Online Directory for mortgage brokers owned by the wholesaler UWM (national lender # 1)
• Allows users to find a local independent broker to work with to get a mortgage
• Is obliged to apply for a loan with UWM (cannot apply directly)
• The Website also promotes a mortgage broker’s business model against Going Retail/Direct
• A mortgage match is the official mortgage partner of NBA and WNBA

In a nutshell, Mortgage Matchup is an online UWM -powered directory that allows you to find and partner with a local mortgage broker to apply for a home loan.

Once you arrive at this website, there is a field to enter your address to “find a local housing loan expert”.

But the strange thing is that some of these experts may not even work with UWM, which pays and supports the website. I’ll talk more about it in a moment.

First, let’s talk about mortgage brokers and wholesale creditors.

The big difference between a direct creditor and the UWM is that the latter relies on mortgage brokers who are third -party borrowed initiators.

Brokers do not represent one creditor, but rather have many creditor partners where they can send your loan.

A mortgage broker acts an intermediary between home buyers (or homeowners) and creditors.

Their work is similar to a loan employee who works at a bank, but they are not captured by a bank.

They have the opportunity to shop their loans with all their partners, and then choose the one they think is the most appropriate.

This may be due to the best prices, the lowest mortgage rate, a unique loan program and/or the ability of the creditor to close the loan on time (or at all!).

A good analogy is an independent insurance agent that represents many insurers, not just one company.

These agents can shop your tariff with 10 different insurers to find the lowest rate and the best coverage.

Meanwhile, an agent in captivity working for Say State Farm will only be able to sell you a State Farm policy. That’s all.

Thus, brokers have a bigger choice and the ability to shop on your behalf without having to lift your finger.

Who is UWM? And why did they create a mortgage match?

Now return to the owner of Mortgage Matchup. As noted, it is owned by UWM, which is short for the UNITED WHOLESALE mortgage.

As the name implies, they are a mortgage lender (based in Pontiac, Michigan), which means that they are not targeted at users.

So you can’t go to UWM and apply directly for a home loan. If you have tried, they will tell you to find a mortgage broker that is approved to work with UWM.

Although this may sound strange, it is only the reality of the wholesale channel.

Unlike retail or directly to consumers, the wholesale channel is B2B, so it is only available through an intermediary, namely a mortgage broker.

UWM is also simply the largest mortgage lender in the country in volume of loan, defeating its closest competitive rocket mortgage.

However, unlike the rocket, they do not make any retail or DTC trade loans. This is only wholesale, which is actually quite remarkable, given that they are # 1 in the country.

But to accumulate more business, they started a mortgage match to extend their scope without directly entering the retail channel.

In other words, the user can go to the mortgage website, find a broker to work with, and then apply for a UWM loan.

But only if the broker recommends sending a UWM loan. Brokers may have a dozen lenders or more and can choose a different wholesale lender.

So there is no guarantee that UWM will be the beneficiary, even though they are the ones who pay for the website and advertising (which cannot be cheap).

However, UWM probably hopes to get a decent piece of this mortgage broker business in this.

Just keep in mind that a list of the broker on the mortgage website does not represent UWM approval or recommendation.

UWM promotes mortgage brokers through a mortgage brand

The most, UWM, promotes mortgage brokers through this website and indirectly own company.

They advocate for the wholesale channel and encourage consumers to receive a home loan through a broker instead of going directly.

There are many advantages to the use of a broker, namely their ability to shop their loans with many creditors.

This can lead to savings, with a mortgage website citing a study that found that working with a broker could save you an average of $ 10,662.

Although your mileage may vary, which is why I always say to compare mortgage brokers, these independent loan initiators also have access to more loan programs.

And they also tend to be more knowledgeable than bank loan employees, which may have less experience due to limited exhibition of scenarios outside the box.

You can read more about BANKS against mortgage brokers for a thorough comparison.

Note: In mid-January 2024, UWM transformed the old Findamortgagebroker.com website to be a mortgage match, perhaps to make it more attractive to users who found the broker confusing.

Why doesn’t UWM just go into the mortgage business?

All this raises the question if UWM is a country’s mortgage creditor and they are already advertising to the public why it just doesn’t go into the retail business?

Can’t they make many more loans if customers can apply directly while maintaining their existing business?

After all, they have a website, a mortgage match and the range to get a lot of business directly from users.

And they already pay for the ad. So why not? Well, this is not completely clear, since we don’t know what UWM thinks.

But if I had to guess, I would say that running wholesale allows them to save money on operating costs, overhead costs, etc.

Because they have a bunch of independent partners they work with, they can save money, even if these partners do not send them every loan.

They do not need to pay them a salary or benefits, nor do they need additional office space.

However, if they continue to provide these partners with useful tools to facilitate their work while offering competitive prices, they can potentially get the best of both worlds.

And for now, it seems that it works, because as I said, they are the best mortgage lender in the country and does not seem to convey that position soon.

(Photo: Bernd Ecenfels)