Billionaires Brawl As Everyone Else Just Tries To Get By: The Download

At Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1 2024, the noise and misinformation will be banished, all your big questions will be answered, and new business opportunities will be revealed. Join us.

Each week on The Download, Inman’s Christy Murdock takes a deeper look at the top-read stories of the week to give you what you’ll need to meet Monday head-on. This week: As mortgage heads from UWM and Rocket fight it out in the press, it seems like both agents and consumers are just wondering how they’re going to pay the bills.

According to a new report by Redfin, 38 percent of renters don’t believe they’ll own a home — ever. A combination of high interest rates, high home prices and low inventory have conspired to bump up consumer pessimism by 11 percentage points in less than a year.

READ: More and more renters believe they will never own a home

While folks on the ground struggle to make ends meet and try to find a way to put together a down payment, the big fish at the top of the fiscal food chain are battling it out from their dueling luxury boxes, hurling allegations of corruption, cheating and pay-for-play scandal-mongering.

Following the publication of shocking allegations surrounding United Wholesale Mortgage’s (UWM) business practices, CEO Mat Ishbia offered a simple explanation for the idea that his company has “corrupted” mortgage brokers in order to cheat “hundreds of thousands of borrowers out of billions of dollars” in fees and costs.

“That’s Rocket Mortgage and Dan Gilbert doing Rocket Mortgage and Dan Gilbert things,” Ishbia told reporters. “And that’s just what it’s been funded by.”

Ishbia claims the allegations, made by a company affiliated with a hedge fund that’s taken a short position in UWM, have been cooked up by UWM’s fiercest rival, Rocket Mortgage, and its founder, Dan Gilbert.

Ishbia’s assertions that Rocket and Gilbert are behind the allegations against UWM were posted to social media by Duane Rankin, a reporter who covers the Phoenix Suns — the NBA team that Ishbia and his family bought last year.

Gilbert — the co-founder and chairman of Rocket Mortgage’s parent company, Rocket Companies — is also the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While mortgage titans brawl, here on the ground, people are just worried about getting into a home in the first place, and agents are worried about how they’ll generate commissions as they experience an unprecedented compensation-based paradigm shift.

Our expert Inman contributors are offering up plenty of ideas to help you grow your business and get paid while also watching out for your clients. From tapping into their existing equity to connecting with new-home builders and advocating for fair housing, you’ll take care of buyers, sellers and yourself.

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