Truss Financial Group is adding direct lending capabilities in California, giving the Non-QM specialist greater control over underwriting and funding while preserving the wholesale model on which it built its business.
The Ladera Ranch, California-based company said it can now underwrite, approve, and fund loans in-house. Truss plans to introduce direct lending in additional states over the coming quarters.
Outside its direct lending markets, Truss will continue placing loans through a network of more than 90 wholesale lenders. The company says its combined footprint extends across 44 states and Washington, D.C.
The move gives Truss a hybrid model: It can control the credit decision and funding process for selected California loans while continuing to shop files among wholesale partners elsewhere.
Truss specializes in more complicated files, including bank-statement mortgages for self-employed borrowers, debt-service coverage ratio loans for real estate investors, asset-depletion loans, and standalone second-lien home equity lines of credit.
“In today’s evolving housing market, homeowners holding low fixed primary rates want to tap accumulated equity without disturbing existing first-mortgage financing,” Truss founder and CEO Jeff Miller said. “Expanding into direct lending allows us to accelerate overall funding timelines, offer direct underwriting transparency, and provide enhanced speed for self-employed business owners and portfolio investors requiring reliable liquidity.”
The shift represents a meaningful change for a company that previously described itself primarily as a brokerage. In March, Miller told NMP that Truss had become a 99% Non-QM brokerage closing approximately 1,350 loans annually.
Direct lending could give Truss more control over files that do not fit neatly within another lender’s guidelines. Keeping its wholesale relationships, meanwhile, allows the company to retain access to a broader range of programs and pricing when its own credit box is not the best fit.
“Our flexible hybrid model provides borrowers with the ideal financing combination,” said Jason Nichols, a partner and chief marketing officer at Truss. “Clients secure faster turnaround times through our direct in-house funding channels while preserving access to an expansive suite of competitive loan programs nationwide.”
The company’s initial direct-lending push also reinforces its focus on home equity and alternative documentation.
In May, Truss introduced a digital HELOC for self-employed borrowers and investors, saying eligible borrowers could access as much as $750,000 and close in as little as five business days. The product allows some borrowers to qualify using 12 to 24 months of bank statements rather than relying exclusively on tax returns or W-2 income.
Truss subsequently launched a DSCR-based HELOC for rental-property investors, offering lines of up to $1 million and permitting qualification with a DSCR as low as 0.75.
Those products target borrowers who may have substantial assets, rental income, or business cash flow but do not qualify easily under conventional documentation standards. They also address homeowners and investors who want to access equity without refinancing an existing low-rate first mortgage.
For Truss, direct lending is therefore more than a geographic expansion. It is an attempt to control more of the manufacturing process on the types of Non-QM loans that already define its business, without giving up the product breadth and pricing flexibility of wholesale.
