@Chadstroma - any thoughts on
this article?
Basically the CEO of UWMC issued an ultimatum to brokers to stop using Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent Mortgage Group.
Not sure what to make of all of this and how it will relate to the stock price going forward. Was about to throw some more dough into this but saw some articles on this today.
If this has been posted already I apologize but I didn't see anything.
It is a huge thing in the broker community. Earth shattering level of event because it is unprecedented. Quicken/Rocket is the largest lender period. Because of brokers growing rapidly again and gaining a significant market share (brokers were near extinct a few years after the 2008 crash), Quicken has made a strong push in their wholesale division as a result. I do believe they are second in volume in wholesale. UWM is by far the number one wholesaler lender by volume and it isn't close. Though Quicken does more loans than UWM with their retail and wholesale, UWM only does wholesale. They live or die, win or lose on brokers. They have invested a lot into helping brokers be successful. On the other hand, Rocket does a whole lot to undermine the entire broker channel. UWM has had enough and basically is saying if you want to do business with Rocket and Fairway, go ahead but you aren't going to do business with us.
A whole lot of reaction to it. There are a lot of brokers (like me) who do business with UWM but would never consider sending a loan to Rocket or Fairway anyways (I got 50 something lenders I can use so I have no need to). For brokers like me, there is a strong community and our chosen professional association strongly advocates for it, there are three camps: 1) Where do I sign? 2) I want to sign but I am concerned about some language in the addendum 3) I don't like this and it bothers me, not sure what I will do yet. #3 seems to be a very small minority.
Most lenders who do business with Rocket also do business with UWM. It is very unusual for anyone to do business with Rocket and/or Fairway and not UWM. Many of these brokers are very upset. Essentially, they are being told that they can not have their cake, eat it and then have cookies after anymore. Some will decide to sign with UWM and some not.
Rocket, as you might expect, is running a full court press to try to get as many brokers on their side.
UWM is betting on themselves here. They may lose some brokers but they also announced a number of things along with this that should see them be the clear lender that you want to work with.
This has sent a Cold War into WWIII between Rocket and UWM though for sure. My money is and will continue to be on UWM but Rocket will continue to fool people into over spending with them because of their ridiculous marketing machine. I think this may slow Rocket in wholesale with brokers but they have been pushing relationships with companies like State Farm for example to send loans to them which they will continue to push hard with.