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Now that 2017 is essentially in the books, mortgage brokers throughout the country have already begun shifting their focus to getting a solid start on their 2018 business. In addition to implementing new technologies and processes, brokers should make a concerted effort to protect their business by choosing the right lenders to work with and make sure they are partnering with wholesale lenders that truly have their backs.
Brokers should find lenders that not only provide the fast turn times, pricing and technology that they’re looking for, but also have their back and treat them as true partners.
Like always, our team at United Wholesale Mortgage will continue to put every bit of our effort into strengthening the broker channel through marketing initiatives, innovative technology, new product offerings and great client service.
Growing the business through new clients is only a piece of the puzzle. Brokers also need a plan in place to stay in touch with past clients to drive repeat and referral business in the future. Even though it should be the responsibility of every good wholesale lender to behave as true partners in these initiatives, it is ultimately up to brokers to take accountability and do everything they can to keep the clients they worked so hard to win over in the first place.
The BRAWL (Brokers Rallying against Whole-tail Lending) movement that has been making waves throughout the wholesale industry as it shines a light on the importance of partnerships. It has shown that several wholesale lenders are solely in business to benefit themselves, not to act in the best interests of the broker. They are retail lenders that use wholesale channels as little more than a creative lead-generation tactic.
There have been rumblings of customer-stealing for years, so it was exciting to see a movement like this come about. It’s encouraging that brokers now have enough of a collective voice to stand together and make themselves heard. But it’s easy to get excited about something in the short term, only to get complacent over time. The recent launch of BRAWL has brokers motivated to hop off the bandwagons of various “whole-tail” lenders now, but they also need to take action to protect their business over the long term.
From our perspective at UWM, our business has been built on supporting growth initiatives of brokers and that will continue to be our top priority. We buy loans, not customers. One thing that separates us from our competitors is the effort we put in to delivering the best partnership tools in the industry, so that our brokers can keep their clients:
- UConnect: After a borrower closes their loan, UWM monitors their future mortgage credit pulls for mortgage brokers. If the borrower is in the market for a purchase or refinance, UWM connects the borrower back to the original mortgage broker who closed the loan. There is no time limit on the leads we provide, and we never call on these leads.
- Unite: UWM sends quarterly personalized home mortgage value emails to borrowers, on the mortgage broker’s behalf, that are loaded with valuable information about their home, their loan and what’s happening in the market. This information is white labeled for the broker, with no reference to UWM.
- Client Loyalty Manager: A customizable dashboard featuring all of the mortgage brokers' past clients where they will get notified and prompted to send personalized emails to their borrowers for their birthday, loan anniversary and, most importantly, when rates change in their favor. It also notifies brokers when a client is getting close to 20%.
- One-Stop-Shop Website: The brand new UWM.com serves as an all-inclusive hub of information and resources that is relevant to everyone in the mortgage industry. The site provides easy access to essential tools designed to make their jobs more efficient, all at no cost, such as market trends, interest rate comparisons, industry news, and a new interactive home value estimator.
Those are just a few examples of exclusives that we offer to brokers. There are a lot of good resources and lenders throughout the country for brokers to partner with. Brokers just need to make sure they’re consistently utilizing the right partnerships to protect the business they’ve worked so hard to earn.
