GO Mortgage’s TPO playbook for winning price-first brokers

• Key Insight: Why brokers are prioritizing raw pricing over traditional relationship-based lending.
• What’s at Stake: Wholesale lenders using outdated, legacy platforms risk losing brokers who are demanding faster turn times.
• Expert Quote: “Lenders need to have a great product offering, but they’ve really got to look for things that others aren’t doing in order to make themselves appealing.” — Rob Saunders, EVP, GO Mortgage

GO Mortgage is betting it can win over brokers in a crowded wholesale market with, among other things, smart tech and a product few rivals offer. The pitch comes as brokers increasingly put price ahead of long-standing lender relationships.
The lender, which originated $560.7 million in mortgages in 2025, began the roll out of its third-party origination channel in May with the goal of fixing a “broken” model.

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Competition in the wholesale space is heating up. Rocket Mortgage’s wholesale channel, Rocket Pro, has been steadfast in its efforts, announcing new promotions every month and taking shots at competitor United Wholesale Mortgage. LoanDepot also relaunched its wholesale business in March after shutting it down three years prior.

Rob Saunders, executive vice president of third-party origination production at GO Mortgage, explained what lenders need to do to make it in wholesale, and how the launch of the platform has gone so far.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

What is the current state of the wholesale market?

Saunders: It’s extremely competitive. 

Borrowers today are much more savvy than they have been. They understand that brokers work with many lenders, and they often ask to see the best price. Back in the day, wholesale was really relationship based. Right now, with the increased rates, what the market is doing and the low inventory, price is paramount. Brokers will forego an experience to get their borrower the right price.

What’s the biggest problem in wholesale?

Saunders: For wholesale lenders, it’s their technology. A lot of them, including top-10 lenders, are using legacy platforms where their operations team, underwriting team and closing team spend a huge portion of their day clearing errors and clicking through their technology. If lenders replaced these systems, they’d be able to spend more time on customer service and probably have better turn times. 

It’s a cost thing, but lenders are going to have to drop those legacy systems and either create or work with cutting edge platforms. I recommend using artificial intelligence to do everything from indexing to input in order to make humans more efficient.

How do 7% rates affect brokers and wholesale lenders?

Saunders: When you have low inventory mixed with higher rates, borrower sentiment changes and you have a bunch of borrowers that were qualified at one rate and now have to qualify at a new rate. It’s going to lead sellers to reduce prices, and what it’s done immediately is slow everyone down to figure out how to requalify.

I recommend brokers put themselves out there to capture more business. You can’t be scared to post informational videos on social media. It could change a borrower’s motivation.

How can lenders capture brokers looking for new partners?

Saunders: Every lender has their niche, and during these times, they have to make themselves known for that. Lenders need to have a great product offering, but they’ve really got to look for things that others aren’t doing in order to make themselves appealing, especially when you’re starting up a channel.

What’s the opportunity for GO Mortgage in wholesale?

Saunders: The opportunity for us is in creating something new. We want to build technology using the power of AI that will lead to more communication directly. We do full service, all access, so brokers can speak to the underwriter and closer, which produces better turn times. It’s great when a broker has a partnership with a salesperson, but when they also get to develop a working relationship with an underwriter, a loan closer and an account manager, it webs that connection.

Additionally, UWM and some other major lenders are doing a disservice to new loan officers. A lot of loan officers that come to us for either pricing or a specific product, they don’t understand that processing and packaging the loan is part of their job because a lot of those lenders are doing it for them. It’s not a bad thing, but if you want to grow in the industry and be a master of your rolodex, you need to be the person that can navigate borrowers to what’s best. A lot of the old school brokers understand that and they’d rather work with a lender that doesn’t do the job for them.

The share percentage is much smaller, but the volume is there to take.

How has the launch of GO Mortgage’s TPO channel gone?

Saunders: It’s going good. We’ve approved some of the biggest brokers in the nation, hired some good account executives and we are constantly rolling out new products. Because of my experience working at places like Plaza Home Mortgage, Caliber Home Loans and Sierra Pacific Mortgage, I’ve really tried to mimic our current portal technology offerings around where the broker can come in and do everything in one fell swoop. That’s the key.

What happens after that is what a lot of lenders are suffering with. The loan goes through a setup phase. The broker thinks the turn time starts when they’ve submitted the loan, and a lot of lenders will say 24 to 48 hours, but that’s when the loan goes into the underwriting queue, and so it’s constantly chasing your tail. The lender that figures out how to really provide 24-hour turn times from when the broker submits will thrive.

Does GO Mortgage plan to have a product niche?

Saunders: Right now, our offerings match up with a lot of lenders. One niche we have is debt service coverage ratio for 5-9 units, which is not offered by a lot of wholesale lenders. Just having that product alone brings brokers to GO Mortgage and gives them the opportunity to see our technology, and usually that will lead to more loans. I am also pushing hard for GO Mortgage to break into one-time close construction loans from a wholesale perspective. 

But we’re working on all kinds of products. Having a vast product offering and being a one-stop shop for your brokers is really important.

What do you expect the wholesale market to look like throughout 2027?

Saunders: I’ve been doing this for 25 years, this is the highest I’ve seen rates, and it seems like there might be another hike. There’s a lot of borrowers with credit card debt, and so cash-out transactions are almost becoming a must to reorganize debt. I also think down payment assistance programs and temporary buydowns are going to be really important.