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DOMINATION GOES NUCLEAR ON WHOLESALE MARKET
After surpassing Rocket in originations, United Wholesale Mortgage has its pedal to the metal
BY SARAH WOLAK, STAFF WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
If United Wholesale Mortgage was an animal, it would be a killer whale. Known as kings of the ocean, killer whales strictly stay and hunt with their pod and are at the top of their own food chain. In short, they dominate the sea. The same aggressive, winner-take-all mentality can be said about the wholesale mortgage company, which has made it well known that they, too, plan to stay at the top.
Over the past year, UWM’s mission has been to surpass its main competitor, Rocket Mortgage, in business. Last May, the company launched its “Compete & Beat” program, which enabled UWM to match and then beat the prices of 20 of the top wholesale lenders on conventional, governmental, and jumbo loans.
In June 2022, it unleashed “Game On” pricing for its mortgage brokers, which dropped rates across the board by 50-100 basis points to oust the competition. But that wasn’t the only drastic measure UWM took. In a “Mean Girls”-style forewarning, UWM offered its brokers an ultimatum last year: boycott Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent or you can’t do business with us.
top, the question ‘How did they do it?’ is at the forefront.
Melinda Wilner, UWM’s chief operating officer, said they surpassed Rocket due to a “superior product” offering. Wilner cited “Game On” and UWM’s other competitive programs as the main pushes that gave UWM a boost to the top.
“When we first unleashed ‘Game On’, we were able to attract LOs with lowered rates which even drew some away from retail entirely,” she said. “I think what Game On really did for us was convince brokers to give us a shot. Now, we’re the number one lender that’s wholesale only for the first time in history.”
Wilner also said that consumers are, inevitably, the driving force behind why UWM is successful. “They’re discovering that they can get a much better price when working with wholesale,” she explained. “We get loans out speedily, we have a great team, and we care about helping our
Elezaj and Wilner both said that keeping things fresh is also another contributing factor.