Exclusive: Mike Fawaz launches broker platform with UWM as first lender partner

Former Rocket Pro executive Mike Fawaz, who left the company in February, is launching a new broker platform in May, and he’s partnering with a previous archrival: United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM).

The new platform, Dearborn, Michigan-based Origna8.com, will provide brokers with technology, marketing, recruiting, leads and lender partnerships under one roof. Former Rocket Pro general manager Dan Sogorka, who departed in January, will be the CEO. The nationwide platform, which will work with multiple mortgage products, had about 25 employees in mid-April.

During his tenure at Rocket, Fawaz frequently criticized UWM CEO Mat Ishbia’s “All-In” ultimatum, which penalized brokers for sending loans to Rocket. Fawaz previously called Ishbia a “playground bully” and helped launch Rocket’s “Bully Shield” initiative to pay legal fees for brokers sued by UWM.

But “after sitting with Mat and learning about what he’s done, spending a ton of time looking at the UWM vision, mission, leadership and what they’re trying to do for the broker community, there’s no other place I would rather be,” Fawaz told HousingWire.

Fawaz acknowledged his past statements but said his perspective shifted after viewing the industry from outside the walls of Rocket. “I got to really take a nonbiased look,” Fawaz said. “Whatever statements I made, I still stand by them because I was on the other side of the world. But today, I can tell you I see things a lot differently.” 

Ishbia, who welcomed the partnership, said Fawaz has a track record as a fierce competitor.

“Obviously, Mike’s been an adversary of ours at UWM and me – and obviously, he’s a winner and a leader,” Ishbia said. “The only thing he’s going to get from me is what every other broker gets from me, which is partnership, care, service, turn times, pricing, product, technology, dominance.”

While the new platform maintains an open-door policy, Fawaz does not expect Rocket to join the platform, citing a preference for pure wholesale lenders.

“I want to partner with lenders that are all in for the broker community,” Fawaz said. “If you’re a wholesale lender and you have a retail side, I don’t think we’re going to do anything with you.”

Ishbia echoed this sentiment, reinforcing his stance on multichannel lenders. “We’re a wholesale lender, and there’s no brokers in America that work with both UWM and Rocket because my stance has been that, and it’s going to continue as that stance, to be clear, and always has been,” Ishbia added. 

For UWM, the partnership follows the recent collapse of its Two Harbors Investment Corp. deal. Ishbia declined to comment on the failed acquisition but said the partnership with Fawaz demonstrates that UWM is “here to serve the brokers, and we want to make sure that we deliver excellence for them so they have every opportunity to grow and thrive.”

When asked about potential noncompete agreements with Rocket, Fawaz pointed to his family’s experience fleeing civil wars in the Middle East and Africa in search of freedom in the U.S., where he arrived in 1998 “with a pair of flip-flops.”

“This freedom tells me that I only know mortgages, so I have to do mortgages,” Fawaz said. “I believe in what I’m doing, and because of that, I decided to build Origna8. I decided to partner with UWM, and I decided to partner with several other lenders that believe in the broker community.”