No. The speed claim rests on the idea that direct lenders write their own rules, and they don't. The lending guidelines come from FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or, on jumbo loans, the specific investors buying the loan. A direct lender simply underwrites in-house instead of sending the file to an outside investor's underwriting team. That can be quick. We've closed a VA loan in about four days once it was submitted. The rulebook being followed is the same either way. The broker's real advantage is flexibility. Because a broker works across many lenders (we shop nearly 100 investors), a slow underwriting queue at one lender doesn't trap your file. When turn times blew out industry-wide during the refinance booms, a broker could move a loan to a lender that was still moving fast. A borrower who went straight to a single direct lender is stuck with that one company's pipeline and whatever its turn times happen to be that week. Speed is real on both sides. What actually protects your closing timeline is having somewhere else to send the file if one lender bogs down.