Enhancements to PA+ and Memory Maker launched
United Wholesale Mortgage has enhanced its PA+ program, essentially portioning up the loan process to enable loan originators to have someone else take care of the vagaries.
Mat Ishbia, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) CEO and chairman, announced significant enhancements to his company’s PA+ program that was originally launched in May of this year. The program now allows independent mortgage brokers and their processors to choose which part of the loan process they would prefer a UWM loan coordinator to handle.
Ishbia revealed the enhancements during the annual FUSE conference staged in Las Vegas by the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME). The gathering took place Oct. 4-7.
An array of support in lean times
For a reduced fee, brokers tied to UWM can now select a combination of support through the entire process – setup, underwriting or closing.
“The purpose of PA+ is to give independent mortgage brokers and their processors more flexibility, control and support,” Ishbia said at the annual AIME conference. “This is giving brokers the access they need to scale their business immediately, which will become more critical when rates come down and volume increases.”
Mortgage Professional America reached out to Melinda Wilner (pictured), chief operating officer at UWM, for more details. She told MPA that the company’s newest launch is in keeping with its quest to help facilitate the work of independent brokers – a heightened goal considering current market challenges.
“Some brokers have dedicated closers in some scenarios, so they might be interested more in the processing part,” Wilner told MPA during a telephone interview. “And a lot don’t have dedicated closers so they might be interested in the closing part. IT really helps them wherever their business model is.”
Already – less than a week after the AIME conference during which the PA+ enhancements were revealed – UWM is receiving orders for the piecemeal transactions’ capability, Wilner said.
“We’ve gotten great feedback on it and are already seeing orders in pieces, so we know it went well,” she said of the product launch.
Every minute counts
The aphorism “every minute counts” is applicable here. Amid a challenging market with less volume, the ability to parcel out part of the loan process saves time for the broker as Wilner pointed out
“That’s why we rolled out the original part for sure,” she said. “If you have an in-house processor or if you have a contract processor, use them,” Wilner said. “If you’re not spending time with a processor and spending time processing your loan, let us do that for you. Go work on your business, go visit a realtor, go visit a CPA, call your best borrowers. We really want the broker-owner and the loan officers to do what they do best – which is selling and keep moving.”
The time savings with the enhanced PA+ are real, she suggested. “Sometimes, we look at how fast it is from submitting a loan to closing a loan,” she said. “We can do that pretty quickly as a company. What we’re finding with processors with PA+ when they use it, it’s shaving off a day or two. Some people look at it in terms of touches – how many times do I have to touch this loan and do something to send it to the underwriter? Others look at it in terms of time on the file. How much time is an LO spending?”
There are other ways to measure the efficiency of the enhanced product, she added: “There’s also another way to measure it – how much time do I, as a broker, or loan officer, or loan processor, spend time on a file. That’s a little harder to know for us, but inside we know those numbers. Every minute counts, it really does.”
Concurrent to the launch, UWM also unveiled its Memory Maker product based on broker hospitality. The tool allows independent brokers to send their choice of ‘thank you’ items to borrowers and real estate agents, including ‘thank you’ emails, or handwritten notes, or gifts from homeowners – among them cutting boards or welcome mats.
The tool is accessible through UWM’s EASE platform, available on every loan.
To that end, all ‘thank you’ emails are free of charge, while handwritten notes and gifts can be purchased with a credit card or by redeeming LO Partners Points earned by UWM clients on a regular basis. Once brokers choose which ‘thank you’ items they would like to send, they simply select when they want it delivered and “UWM will handle the rest,” company officials noted in an earlier news release.
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