What are a mortgage banker, lender and broker?
A. A mortgage banker is a lender that is large enough to originate loans and create pools of loans, which they sell directly to others like Fannie Mae or jumbo loan investors. Mortgage lenders wholesale loans to mortgage brokers at a lower cost than their retail branches offer them to the general public. Mortgage brokers establish relationships with several lending institutions to be able to originate the best possible mortgage loans from a large pool of choices.