When Ramon Walker, owner of Client Direct Mortgage, a brokerage firm, received a cease and desist order from United Wholesale Mortgage for his Rocket Pro TPO vs UWM Facebook group, he thought: “They’re wasting trees.”
Client Direct Mortgage is a Bay area brokerage that started with five loan officers in 2010 and has grown to around 100 over the past few years. According to Modex, the broker's yearly volume is about $50 million, and most of the brokered loans are funded through UWM. But, now Walker is rethinking that decision.
Walker, who did business with UWM between 2015 and December 2023, said in an interview with NMP that it’s time for brokers to compare and contrast who they are doing business with.
"The title and banner of the Facebook group pits UWM against Rocket TPO and its 'About' description encourages potentially adverse and defamatory topics regarding UWM, including 'who is strong,' 'who is more productive,' and 'UWM's Ultimatum (is it fair or unfair),'"UWM’s attorneys wrote in a letter to Walker.
The Dec. 14, 2023 letter goes on to say: "This threatens to interfere with the relationship between UWM and its brokers, which is impermissible." The attorneys also asked Walker to delete any comments or content that would be considered false or defamatory.
Walker said he’s set the group to “auto admin.” The comments are approved as long as commenters follow the rules about being courteous to each other. The group has over 2,000 members, and it was opened by Walker at the beginning of November 2023.
Walker's response to UWM's demands? “I don't work for you. I'm not going to be your filtration system. It's not my job. It's not my responsibility. I can't manage what thousands of people say. I have a family. I have a business,” Walker said.
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Walker claims he received a call from Allen Beydoun, executive vice president of UWM, the Saturday after it went live and only had 80 members. He said he wondered why the person he considers “number two” in the company and has only spoken with once before was calling him to inquire about a Facebook group
"He doesn't engage me very much, but from what I understand ... he tries to be intimidating," Walker said. "Or, you know, some people have described him as a bully."
UWM declined to comment for this story.
Walker has no problem being a voice for the broker community.
“I've never seen an organization as big as UWM work in this fashion. When you say, ‘Hey, I'm done with my AT&T contract,’ nobody says nope, nope, nope, you can't go to T-Mobile, not yet until I talk to you first,” Walker said.
As far as the letter's tone, “It feels like we're in some sort of relationship and it's somewhat toxic. A lot of people don't know they're in that relationship,” Walker said.
“They don't actively sign anything. They constantly change the agreement. The agreement's acceptance is if you submit a loan. They know people are not going to go back and read anything. I wonder if the contract is even enforceable to some degree by how we entered it,” he added.
In addition to asking him to take down the Facebook group, attorneys for UWM stated that he owes more than $124,000 in EPOs on 12 different transactions dating back to 2020. And Walker was given only seven days to make that payment.
Walker said he hasn’t done the math and doesn’t know if he even owes that money to UWM. He claims UWM never came after him before for that amount because he was doing $50 million worth of loans and making about $1.5 million a year off the business he sent to them.
“The audacity to send me that bill two years later, after you know all the money that I've made for them and then try and frame it in a way that you did something for me? Now, I know they're crazy. They've lost their minds,” Walker said.
Walker said he’s had people call him disappointed, and he’s had people call and tell him they’ve been thinking the same thing but have been too afraid to say it.
“I just want to show people we have nothing to be afraid of,” Walker said. “Let's just get back to competing. Everybody compete. I need a healthy broker channel. I can't just have Mat Ishbia running the whole channel."
