For a plain-vanilla loan, the sign over the door matters less than most people expect. Every lender prices off the same bond market and most run the same pricing engines, so a credit union, a big bank, and a broker will land in a similar range for the same borrower. What moves your rate is how many investors compete for your loan and how well someone prices your specific scenario. The lender type matters at the edges: - Brokers shop multiple wholesale investors, which helps when your file is not cookie-cutter. - Portfolio lenders (many banks and credit unions, plus jumbo lenders) keep loans on their own books instead of selling to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, so they can price around situations the agencies penalize heavily, like second homes, jumbo loans, or unusual properties. - Big retail banks offer convenience but are not automatically the cheapest. So no single channel wins every time. The advantage goes to whoever shops the most investors for your exact profile. On our side we shop nearly 100 investors and handle the loan directly, never a referral out to someone else. To see where you actually land, the free Roadmap conversation (about 20 minutes) is where we run your numbers and show you the pricing for your scenario.