A direct lender funds your loan in its own name. Wholesale lending puts a broker between you and the lender who funds it, and the broker's advantage is choice. A direct lender closes your loan with its own money under its own name. Most of the time it then sells the loan, or at least the servicing rights, within a month or two after closing, which is normal and does not change your terms. In wholesale lending, the broker takes your application and documentation, packages and processes the file, and sends it to a wholesale lender who underwrites and funds the loan in that wholesale lender's name. Because the broker has many wholesale lenders to pick from, they can shop your file across a lot of investors. Our setup is a hybrid that aims for the best of both. We shop across nearly a hundred investors to find your terms, and for most conventional and VA loans we also close as a true direct lender in our own company's name. You get competitive terms with one team controlling the process end to end. The honest bottom line: a good deal can come out of either structure. What matters is whether the rate and costs are actually competitive for your file, so compare real Loan Estimates rather than choosing on the label.