“What UWM and Rocket are doing is they’re offering the game for everybody,” he said. “It’s these platforms, and the efficiency of these platforms, and we’ve seen it throughout the year. We have talked about the growth and the upward swing and overall satisfaction across the industry that we’re not seeing on the servicing side.”
Gehrke discussed in July in the servicer satisfaction study how there could be an opportunity for mortgage brokers in the recapture market because servicers were not viewed favorably. He said the current economy and the divergence between the haves and have-nots add to the servicers’ troubles.
“The servicers tend to deal with existing homeowners in the challenges that they’re facing economically and financially,” Gehrke said. “It’s what we call a K-shaped economy, working for some and not working for others. You see that in our demographic data on the servicing side of it, but not on the origination side of it. Those folks who are qualified, who can buy a home or are in a position to refinance a loan, that experience is good.”
Trust and belief
One thing that independent mortgage brokers have in common with small and mid-sized retail banks is their relationship with their customers, which Gehrke said has become more important to customers than pricing.
“What we’re seeing currently in the data is (relationships are) mattering more than they have in the past,” he said. “Pricing is always important, and it drives decisions. But we don’t see evidence in the way customers are responding to it, the way they behave, their shopping experience. It doesn’t look like it’s that much of a differentiator anymore.”
