In the event you’ve seen commercials for “Mortgage Matchup” these days, maybe throughout an NBA recreation, or on the courtroom itself, you is perhaps 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 instantly with the general public.
But they promote on to customers on a regular basis, which isn’t a quite common association.
In addition they occur to be owned by the biggest mortgage lender in america, an organization often called UWM.
Fortuitously, 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
- An internet mortgage dealer listing owned by wholesale lender UWM (nation’s #1 lender)
- Permits customers to discover a native unbiased dealer to work with to get a mortgage
- A dealer is required to use for mortgage with UWM (can’t apply instantly)
- The web site additionally promotes the mortgage dealer enterprise mannequin vs. going retail/direct
- Mortgage Matchup is the official mortgage associate of the NBA and WNBA
In a nutshell, Mortgage Matchup is a web-based listing powered by UWM that means that you can discover and associate 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 deal with to “discover your native house mortgage knowledgeable.”
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 symbolize one lender, however quite have a number of lender companions the place they’ll ship your mortgage.
A mortgage dealer acts an middleman between house patrons (or householders) and lenders.
Their job is much like a mortgage officer that works at a financial institution, however they aren’t captive to a single financial institution.
They’ve the power to buy your mortgage with all of their companions, then select the one they really feel is the most effective match.
This may very well be because of the greatest pricing, the bottom mortgage fee, a novel mortgage program, and/or the lender’s capacity to shut the mortgage on time (or in any respect!).
An excellent analogy is an unbiased insurance coverage agent, who represents a number of insurers, not only one firm.
These brokers can store your fee with 10 totally different insurers to search out the bottom fee and greatest protection.
In the meantime, a captive agent who works for say State Farm will solely be capable to promote you a coverage from State Farm. That’s it.
So brokers have extra selection and the power 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 title implies, they’re a wholesale mortgage lender (based mostly in Pontiac, Michigan), which suggests they aren’t consumer-facing.
So you’ll be able to’t go to UWM and apply for a house mortgage instantly. 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 truth of the wholesale lending channel.
In contrast to retail or direct-to-consumer lending, the wholesale channel is B2B, so it’s solely accessible by way of 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.
Nevertheless, not like Rocket, they don’t do any retail or DTC lending. It’s wholesale solely, which is definitely fairly exceptional 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 instantly.
In different phrases, a shopper 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 should 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 may’t be low-cost).
Nonetheless, UWM doubtless 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 advice from UWM.
UWM Is Selling Mortgage Brokers by way of the Mortgage Matchup Model
Merely put, UWM is selling mortgage brokers by way of this web site, and not directly their very own firm.
They’re advocating for the wholesale channel, and inspiring customers to get a house mortgage by way of a dealer as a substitute of going direct.
There are many benefits to utilizing a dealer, particularly their capacity to buy your mortgage with a number of lenders.
This might end in 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 differ, which is why I at all times say to evaluate mortgage brokers too, these unbiased mortgage originators even have entry to extra mortgage applications.
And so they additionally are usually extra educated than captive financial institution mortgage officers, who could have much less expertise as a consequence of restricted publicity to outside-the-box situations.
You’ll be able to learn extra about banks vs. mortgage brokers for an in-depth comparability.
Notice: In mid-January 2024, UWM rebranded the previous FindAMortgageBroker.com web site to Mortgage Matchup, maybe to make it extra interesting to customers who discovered the dealer factor complicated.
Why Doesn’t UWM Simply Enter the Retail Mortgage Enterprise?
This all begs the query, if UWM is the nation’s #1 mortgage lender, and so they’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 may apply instantly, whereas additionally sustaining their current enterprise?
In any case, they’ve a web site, Mortgage Matchup, and the attain to amass numerous enterprise instantly from customers.
And so they’re already paying for the promoting. So why not? Properly, that’s not totally clear since we don’t know what UWM is pondering.
But when I needed to guess, I’d say operating wholesale solely enable them to economize on operational prices, worker overhead, and so forth.
As a result of they’ve a bunch of unbiased companions they work with, they’ll get monetary savings, even when these companions don’t ship them each mortgage.
They don’t should pay them a wage or advantages, nor do they want further workplace area.
Nevertheless, in the event that they hold offering these companions with useful instruments to make their job simpler, whereas additionally providing aggressive pricing, they’ll probably get the most effective of each worlds.
And to date it seems to be working as a result of as I stated, they’re the prime 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 govt 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) house patrons higher navigate the house mortgage course of. Comply with me on X for warm takes.
