By JARED WHITLEY Where’s the line between sound business strategy and ethical violations? What’s the difference between vertical integration and breaking the law? Those are the questions being raised about a United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) website called MortgageMatchup.com. The Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) is in the process of determining how the Real Estate Settlement…
By JARED WHITLEY Is this Mat Ishbia’s “Vlade Divac” moment? Ishbia’s connections to basketball are well known, from his time on the 2000 Michigan State national championship team to his current “chaotic” ownership of the Phoenix Suns. And Divac, the Los Angeles Lakers star center, was also well known for “flopping” – pretending to have been fouled…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Hunterbrook Media is taking a second swing at United Wholesale Mortgage, claiming that an executive there helped a shell company establish Philadelphia-based UMortgage. On April 2, Hunterbrook made waves when they published a report accusing UWM in Pontiac, Michigan, of widespread fraud. They estimated that homebuyers paid “between hundreds of millions and billions…
By JARED WHITLEY Leaders at a mortgage broker caught up in litigation over United Wholesale Mortgage’s “All In” ultimatum say they never agreed to be in an exclusive relationship with Mat Ishbia’s company. Lawyers for UWM filed suit against Atlantic Trust Mortgage Corporation in January, claiming they submitted at least 71 mortgages to rivals Rocket Mortgage or…
By JARED WHITLEY Did Mat Ishbia win another battle in the “Broker War?” That appears to be the underlying message from Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, where leaders announced last month they would be shutting down their wholesale platform. Although CEO and Founder Steve Jacobson described the move as a “business shift, nothing more, nothing less,”…
BY JARED WHITLEY To steal from Detroit rapper Eminem, “Will the real Suzanne Okun please stand up? Please stand up? Please stand up?” Because she’s strangely hard to find. According to a 2019 biography posted in the industry publication Scotsman Guide, Okun was “a successful executive with more than 25 years of success in the financial-marketing and mortgage…
By JARED WHITLEY Storm clouds continue to hang over some U.S. markets. Four real estate titans have recently lost their Fortune 500 status. There are dire predictions specifically for the commercial real estate sector. Forbes summed up the housing market this week with, “Despite being well into the spring homebuying season, the housing market is still experiencing…
By JARED WHITLEY Despite Mat Ishbia’s repeated claims that his company, United Wholesale Mortgage, has never laid anyone off; the facts – and common sense – belie his statement, as UWM’s employee count is down 30 percent over the past two years. “While my competitors are cutting investments and laying off thousands and thousands of…
By JARED WHITLEY The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) has announced a lending program for minority-owned businesses it calls “Economic Justice Loans,” with the stated goal of helping historically underserved populations build generational wealth. The political-progressive organization’s action raises the question of whether people of color are still being denied access to credit in 2022. “This…
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