In addition to gaining know-how in this acquisition, they’re also gaining servicing rights on existing loans in the RoundPoint portfolio. This is critical in a post-trigger-leads world. After trigger leads are banned, two of the entities that will still be able to use trigger leads are the originator and the servicer.
“What they want access to is the data and that ongoing relationship with the person,” he said. “Then they can parse it back out to the originating brokers, assuming they’re still active clients of United Wholesale. When trigger leads go away, I think big users of trigger leads are brokers. But now, UWM is in a position to manage those trigger leads. They can direct them back. So once the broker loses access to that, UWM has access to it.”
By continuing to build the company and adding servicing to its platform, UWM is creating something that looks more like a retail loan provider, but using independent mortgage brokers rather than retail loan originators.
“Another enhancement, and this seems to be a big part of their strategy that frankly I think is pretty smart, is they’re creating this company,” Gehrke said. “They’re treating the brokers very much like their own retail origination team, except they’re independent performers. But they’re giving those brokers every advantage that a big platform lender would give their internal loan officers. What they’re trying to do is level that field and include the mortgage broker in there.”
Controlling the local community
Of course, not every broker works with UWM or Rocket Pro. Some have small brokerages that work with other wholesale lenders. As those two companies continue to grow, Gehrke said smaller brokers must leverage their local connections to keep building their businesses.
