We've seen quite a few mortgage companies go public over the past year, and to be sure, several of them are excellent and disruptive companies. However, in this Fool Live video clip, recorded on Sept. 13, Fool.com contributor Matt Frankel explains to Industry Focus host Jason Moser why one in particular is starting to stand out.
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Jason Moser: A couple of stocks we're digging into and learning more about, what stock are you watching this week?
Matt Frankel: I'm watching United Wholesale Mortgage (UWMC 2.56%), ticker symbol UWMC. A lot of people might remember on the show when we were talking about Better Mortgage going public through a SPAC when Rocket Mortgage (RKT 5.51%) went public, but I was taking all these mortgage companies with a big grain of salt. Mortgage companies look great in the current environment when everybody refinanced their house last year. Some people I know at the Fool refinanced twice in 2020 because rates dropped so much.
United Wholesale Mortgage really is doing it different. Their CEO has made some really impressive moves, let's say, since going public. They're a wholesale mortgage, which means they worked through brokers. He makes his brokers choose, do they want to work with them exclusively or do they want to work with Rocket or things like that? He'd want the once exclusivity which is interesting. One of the most recent things they've done that really could really be a game changer, is they're bringing the appraisal process in-house.
The appraisal process is really one of the remaining big pain points of the mortgage process. Especially right now with the labor shortage, the hot housing market. They can take weeks from the time you schedule an appraisal till it actually happens. That's a condition of your mortgage being done. By cutting out the middleman and the appraisal process, the appraiser now has a reason to work directly with UWM because they're getting 100% of the appraisal fee, not just their cut of it. So they'll have their own appraisers on standby ready to take their appraisal orders at a moment's notice. They're cutting it out and it cuts down on the time, it cuts down on the appraisal costs for the consumer, it lets some close loans quicker than their competitors who still use these third party appraisal services, and it could be a really big move for this company.
Again UWM, United Wholesale Mortgage, they went public last year along with several other mortgage companies. I didn't think too much of them at first, but they are making some really big moves that could pay off.
