Guaranteed Rate's exit of the wholesale channel is an outlier, with few, if any, companies likely to follow along, said president of broker advocacy for the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts.
The mortgage brokers that worked with Stearns Wholesale "saw the writing on the wall" after Guaranteed Rate's
"Guaranteed Rate is a retail focused company and the expectation was that they weren't doing the deal to get into wholesale," McKay said. "I don't expect more lenders to leave wholesale; if anything, I expect more lenders to enter the wholesale channel as the broker percentage of the market continues to grow."
With
As a result, the lenders that are likely to exit wholesale now are those like Guaranteed Rate that don't have much of a presence in the channel, McKay continued.
Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate confirmed the news, but no other details were made available.
Back in 2005, Guaranteed Rate worked with
Stearns was once one of the largest wholesalers in the mortgage business. But in recent years, Stearns' management put an emphasis on
That's what attracted Guaranteed Rate to Stearns, whose prior owner, Blackstone, purchased the latter company
Brokers that were doing business with Guaranteed Rate shouldn't have any problems finding another outlet for their production, AIME's McKay said.
But he did warn them to keep a vigilant eye on the customers that had closed loans with Guaranteed Rate, fully expecting the lender to solicit those borrowers for when they needed their next mortgage.