Mortgage Broker
A licensed professional who shops a borrower's loan application across multiple wholesale lenders rather than originating directly.
Mortgage brokers don't lend their own money. They submit your application to one of several wholesale lender partners and the lender that approves on the best terms funds the loan. Brokers earn compensation either from the lender or the borrower, disclosed up front.
The broker model can produce real savings when one wholesale lender has a meaningfully better product or price for your specific scenario, a niche jumbo, an unusual property type, or a tight credit profile. The trade-off is one layer of separation from the actual lender's underwriting team.
All loan originators, whether at a broker, a retail lender, or a credit union, must be NMLS-licensed. The structural difference is whether they're lending directly or matching you to a wholesale partner that lends.
Related terms
Other terms you'll see alongside Mortgage Broker
The licensed individual who takes a borrower's loan application and represents them through the mortgage process.
A lender that originates loans directly to borrowers through its own loan officers, branches, and call centers.
The channel through which lenders fund loans originated by independent mortgage brokers rather than their own retail loan officers.
The standardized three-page disclosure a lender must provide within three business days of a complete loan application.
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