One oddity in the mortgage world these days is that the nation’s top lender, United Wholesale Mortgage, as the name implies, is a wholesale lender.
This means you can’t apply for a home loan with them directly. Despite that, they still command a huge lead at the top of the mortgage lender rankings.
They fund many billions more in loans than their nearest rival, Rocket Mortgage, which excels in the consumer-direct space.
So how on Earth did UWM get so big and how do you apply for a loan with them anyway?
Allow me to explain.
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) Is the #1 Mortgage Lender in America
- UWM is the nation’s largest mortgage lender overall (2024 and 2023)
- But they are a wholesale lender meaning you can’t work with them directly
- The only way to get a loan with UWM is via an intermediary known as a mortgage broker
- Despite this the Pontiac, MI-based company funded roughly $138 billion in home loans last year
- That was nearly $50B more than #2 overall Rocket Mortgage
- It’s strange that the top lender isn’t consumer-facing (in the past brick-and-mortar banks were the top mortgage lenders)
- But the company has significantly boosted the wholesale lending channel, which previously peaked during the lead up to the GFC in the early 2000s
This probably sounds super weird, but you can’t apply for a home loan directly with United Wholesale Mortgage.
Yes, you read that right. You cannot call UWM and speak to a loan officer (they don’t have them).
Nor can you visit a UWM branch and apply for a mortgage in person (they don’t have them).
You can’t even visit their website to apply for a home loan (yes, they have a website, but not for consumers).
But apparently none of that matters because business is booming at the Pontiac, Michigan-based company, which got its start all the way back in 1986.
In fact, they were the nation’s largest mortgage lender in 2024 (and in 2023), beating out the likes of Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage, Chase, U.S. Bank, and many others.
And by a very large margin. Last year, UWM funded about $138 billion in mortgages, whereas #2 Rocket only mustered loan volume of $92 billion.
So it’s not even close.
You May Have Heard of UWM. But There’s No ‘Apply Now’ Button
As a consumer, you might have heard their name and could be thinking, “Hey, I want to check them out.”
You might even visit their website and look for the “apply now” button, only to be left disappointed.
Instead, you’ll see a B2B website that talks about partnering with the nation’s #1 mortgage lender.
Confused yet? Well, you should be. It’s pretty weird.
Let’s clear it up. As the name suggests, UWM is a wholesale mortgage lender, which means they work with independent mortgage brokers.
That makes them a B2B company because they don’t work directly with the general public.
Instead, they rely upon these mortgage broker intermediaries to sell their product.
These brokers may operate a small mom-and-pop shop under their own name, or run a larger brokerage with their own branding and multiple employees.
Either way, the only way to get a loan from UWM is to work with one of their approved partners, which will be one of these brokers.
So it’s kind of a two-step process. You need to reach out to a mortgage broker first, and if they choose UWM among their many partners, they’ll send your loan details on to UWM, which then extends financing.
But here’s the kind of tricky part. Mortgage brokers can have lots of different lender partners.
In fact, that’s kind of the main purpose of being a broker. You don’t work with a single lender, but rather multiple companies to seek out the best financing for your clients.
For example, a mortgage broker may work with UWM, Rocket Pro (which is Rocket Mortgage’s wholesale division), Pennymac, Newrez, Freedom Mortgage, and many others.
They’ve basically got a bunch of lenders at their disposal that they can shop on behalf of you, the borrower.
If it turns out UWM is the best option based on their shopping, your loan should be placed with the company.
You Can’t Actually Choose UWM for Your Mortgage Needs
What this means is it’s completely out of your hands to “choose UWM” unless you somehow explicitly told your broker, “Hey, I want you to use UWM.”
But that wouldn’t really make sense because consumers don’t have access to UWM’s mortgage rates, fees, loan programs, process, etc.
It’s all internal, B2B stuff reserved for their mortgage broker partners. They work to woo mortgage brokers, not consumers.
Only after the fact might you find out that your loan was placed with UWM.
And after the loan funds, your mortgage could be serviced by UWM, meaning they collect monthly payments and handle escrow accounts.
However, if and when it came time to refinance or buy another property, you couldn’t go to UWM and ask them to give you a loan.
You’d have to go back to your mortgage broker (or another broker) and go through the same process.
That broker would then need to determine a second time if UWM was the best fit for your loan scenario.
Maybe they aren’t this time. Perhaps a different wholesale lender has better pricing on a rate and term refinance or subsequent home purchase loan.
So again it would be left to chance where your loan ends up. It could be UWM again, or it could be Rocket Pro, Pennymac, etc.
Now it might not matter much anyway because the broker is the one providing you with service during the loan process.
And once the loan funds, it’ll be the same 30-year fixed (or whatever loan product) you could get from any number of different banks/lenders.
In addition, the loan servicer you wind up with after funding might not be all that different (or the loan could even be sold off to a third-party company that isn’t affiliated with your lender).
Only a Broker Can Choose to Place Your Loan with UWM
Long story short, you can’t choose UWM as your mortgage lender. But your broker could send your loan to them.
Of course, UWM is the nation’s top lender (even bigger than all retail lenders), so clearly a lot brokers are willingly choosing to send their loans there.
In other words, if you work with a mortgage broker, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get a loan from UWM regardless.
If you do happen to visit the UWM website, there is a section dedicated to “Homebuyers” along with a blurb about connecting you with a local mortgage expert.
Assuming you click that link, it will take you to Mortgage Matchup, which is UWM’s mortgage broker directory.
Once you connect with a broker on that site, they may or may not send your loan to UWM. Because as noted, brokers work with lots of different wholesale lenders (other than UWM).
But you’ll at least be in the wholesale realm, the only business channel in which UWM operates.
Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.