Smaller lenders will have to build relationships to compete against well-oiled machines
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) and Rocket have continued their exponential growth throughout 2025. Both striving to serve the mortgage broker sector, each company has taken turns announcing either new technology or business acquisitions to continue to grow its business.
For smaller lenders and others not working with the two mortgage giants, one senior analyst believes it’s going to take a lot of work to keep up.
Bruce Gehrke (pictured top), senior director of wealth and lending intelligence with JD Power, said those smaller companies are going to have their hands full.
“I think the point of it all is, what about everybody else?” Gehrke told Mortgage Professional America. “The takeaway at this point is that it's changing the business, and whatever success either of them has kind of shrinks the field for everybody else.”
Shrinking available leads
But UWM and Rocket aren’t the only two that have grown in 2025. Gehrke noted that Guild Mortgage and Zillow have also carved out significant portions of the market.
“You look at it like the tie-up with Guild, and you look at the success that Zillow is having in their mortgage unit now, which they've had for a long time,” Gehrke said. “Now, all of a sudden, that volume is growing dramatically. They're finding ways of monetizing those eyeballs they get, and they're still the leader.
“Consumers are telling us that they go to Zillow more often than any other website when they are doing research. So these are powerful positions that these guys are figuring out how to use, how to monetize, and it just shrinks the available leads.”
JD Power will release its originator survey results in mid-November, but one thing Gehrke has already noticed is how strong the platforms are for UWM and Rocket.
“What UWM and Rocket are doing is they're offering the game for everybody,” he said. “It's these platforms, and the efficiency of these platforms, and we've seen it throughout the year. We have talked about the growth and the upward swing and overall satisfaction across the industry that we're not seeing on the servicing side.”
Gehrke discussed in July in the servicer satisfaction study how there could be an opportunity for mortgage brokers in the recapture market because servicers were not viewed favorably. He said the current economy and the divergence between the haves and have-nots add to the servicers’ troubles.
“The servicers tend to deal with existing homeowners in the challenges that they're facing economically and financially,” Gehrke said. “It’s what we call a K-shaped economy, working for some and not working for others. You see that in our demographic data on the servicing side of it, but not on the origination side of it. Those folks who are qualified, who can buy a home or are in a position to refinance a loan, that experience is good.”
Trust and belief
One thing that independent mortgage brokers have in common with small and mid-sized retail banks is their relationship with their customers, which Gehrke said has become more important to customers than pricing.
“What we're seeing currently in the data is (relationships are) mattering more than they have in the past,” he said. “Pricing is always important, and it drives decisions. But we don't see evidence in the way customers are responding to it, the way they behave, their shopping experience. It doesn't look like it's that much of a differentiator anymore.”
When it comes down to choosing between one originator and another, it comes down to the trust the customer has in that particular broker or lender.
“As a differentiator between A and B, and what's driving that choice?” Gehrke said. “More often than not, we're seeing it driven by trust and belief. Consumers tend not to shop for price because they trust what they're getting. Depending on what that relationship looks like, it could be the first quote.”
Kimber White returned as president of NAMB with a clear mission. He aimed to tackle housing affordability by urging changes to loan-level price adjustments and calling for practical government solutions to help first-time buyers.https://t.co/kEmVyNDXbI
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) October 17, 2025
He also noted that their numbers show that younger borrowers are more educated and are often doing their own research before talking to a professional. In fact, Gehrke said that more customers are going to a lender or broker before they go to a real estate agent.
“Consider the availability of independent third-party sites where you can check interest rates,” he said. “Younger borrowers, who are a bigger percentage of the borrowing population, now do a lot more research. They're on the internet. They're on mobile apps. They're looking into these things. They're more informed, and they know what's what.
“You throw a number out there that isn't consistent, you don't get away with that. I've been talking a little bit about this. Almost half of borrowers now talk to lenders before they ever even get to a real estate agent.”
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