UWM gives brokers 125 basis points to play with in 1Q

United Wholesale Mortgage, which rode its Game On pricing promotion to become the No. 1 lender during the third quarter, has brought another discount to the market.

The latest offering is called "Control Your Price." Mortgage brokers have access to a total of 125 basis points through the first quarter of 2023 to offer to borrowers on their own initiative. The promotion is effective immediately.

They can use up to 40 basis points to drop the interest rate on any one loan.

"Sometimes 10 to 20 basis points is all [a loan officer] needs to win over a real estate agent or get creative on a borrower's loan," the UWM press announcement said. "With Control Your Price, they now have the ability to modify pricing as they see fit."

This program is available for use on conventional, government and non-agency originations up to a $1 million balance and is in addition to its "already sharp pricing," the company said.

Control Your Price comes on the heels of other promotions UWM is running, including expanding its temporary rate buydown offerings to include jumbo loans. In the past, Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia said the company was willing to be aggressive on pricing in order to build long-term market share gains.

Independent mortgage brokers are also able to order credit reports for UWM loans for a flat fee of $37.35, a move that comes following the recent announcement by FICO to increase the price for generating credit scores by 400% for most originators.

UWM introduced Game On last June, giving mortgage brokers a 50 basis point to 100 basis point price discount across all product types that the company offered.

It pushed UWM to originations of $33.5 billion in the third quarter, topping Rocket Mortgage's $25.6 billion, as neither company has released their fourth quarter and full year 2022 data yet.

Meanwhile, the wholesale lending channel has seen an exodus of sorts by many lenders who have cited pricing wars as a primary reason for their withdrawal.