How it works
I get asked this at almost every first meeting, so here is the honest version: what I do, how I get paid, where a broker wins, and where a bank might.
Chris Ailes, mortgage broker, Fort Myers · NMLS #2485778 · About 3 minutes to read
Most people have only ever gotten a mortgage one way: they walked into the bank where they keep their checking account, or they clicked on the first website that came up. That is a lender. A broker is a different animal, and the difference is worth ten minutes of your time before you commit to a thirty-year loan.
A bank or a direct lender has one set of products and one set of guidelines. If your loan fits, fine. If it does not, the answer is no, and it often arrives late, after you have spent weeks in their process. Their loan officer cannot send your file anywhere else, because there is nowhere else to send it.
A wholesale mortgage broker works with many lenders at once. I work through United Wholesale Mortgage and a range of other wholesale lenders, each with its own guidelines and pricing. When your file lands on my desk, I am matching it to the lender whose rules it fits best and whose pricing is strongest that week. When it fits everywhere, those lenders compete for it. When it fits only somewhere, I know where.
This is the question people are too polite to ask, so I will answer it. On a brokered loan, compensation is paid either by the lender or by the borrower, never both, and it is disclosed in dollars on the Loan Estimate you receive early in the process. There is no second, hidden fee. Federal rules also prevent a broker from being paid more for steering you into a more expensive loan, which is a protection you do not get from a salesperson who only has one product to sell.
What that means in practice is that my incentive is to close your loan at a lender where it works, not to push a particular product. If the best answer for you is FHA, I say FHA. If it is a conventional loan at a lender you have never heard of, that is the answer.
Options. If you are self-employed, buying an investment property, building a house, financing a condo with a complicated association, or carrying a wrinkle in your credit history, the odds that one bank’s box fits you are not great. The odds that one of a dozen wholesale lenders fits you are much better. That is the whole argument for a broker in one sentence.
Competition. On a clean, strong file, wholesale lenders want the loan and price accordingly. I can show you the same loan from more than one lender and explain the trade-offs. A bank shows you its rate sheet.
Speed on the initial answer. Because I run the file through automated underwriting early, you usually know where you stand quickly, subject to the full underwrite on a complete file. That is the only speed promise I will make, because it is the honest one.
Local knowledge. A Southwest Florida broker knows that the insurance quote, the flood zone and the condo reserves will decide your deal long before the interest rate does, and builds the file around that.
I would rather tell you this than have you find out later. If you have a large relationship with a bank, it may offer relationship pricing that a broker cannot match. Some banks keep niche products in house, like certain physician loans or construction programs, that are not available wholesale. And if you simply want everything under one roof and are willing to pay for the convenience, that is a legitimate choice.
The right move is to let me run your file and compare. If your bank wins, I will tell you so. It happens, and it does not bother me, because the next one will come back.
A fifteen-minute call to understand what you are trying to do. An application, usually online, followed by a document list that is short and specific. A pre-approval built for the market you are buying in. Then, once you are under contract, the file goes to the lender that fits, and you hear from me at every stage, not only at the start. If you are working with a real estate agent, they hear from me at the same time you do, because a surprised agent is a deal at risk.
I am a broker, not a bank. If your loan does not fit one lender’s box, I am not out of options. That is the entire point.
Not inherently. Broker compensation is disclosed on the Loan Estimate, and wholesale pricing often offsets it. The only honest answer is to compare the Loan Estimates side by side, which I encourage.
The lender the loan was placed with, or a servicer it sells the loan to, which is normal for banks too. I stay reachable after closing and will help you sort out anything that comes up.
Yes. FHA, VA, conventional, DSCR, renovation and construction loans are all available wholesale, and I broker all of them in Florida, Ohio and Texas.
No. I am licensed in Florida, Texas and Ohio, and the whole process can be handled remotely. Many out-of-state clients never sit across a desk from me.
Chris Ailes, NMLS #2485778. Florida and Texas loans originated through Anchor Mortgage Funding Inc., NMLS #236419; Ohio through Loan Factory. This article is general information, not a commitment to lend and not advice about your specific situation. All loans subject to credit approval and underwriting on a complete file. Guidelines change. Equal Housing Opportunity.
