Summary
HomeSmart and loanDepot have signed a marketing services agreement connecting HomeSmart's network of more than 25,000 agents with loanDepot loan officers and mortgage products. Financial terms were not disclosed. The arrangement is another example of residential brokerages creating closer links to mortgage distribution while keeping the brokerage and lender as separate companies.
HomeSmart is adding another national mortgage connection for its agents, signing a marketing services agreement with loanDepot that links the brokerage’s network of more than 25,000 real estate agents with the lender’s loan officers and mortgage products.
The companies announced the agreement Monday. HomeSmart describes itself as the country’s largest 100% commission brokerage, while loanDepot is a national retail lender licensed in all 50 states.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Our goal is to equip agents with the resources they need to best serve their clients. loanDepot offers the reach, products and service capabilities we’re looking for in a lender.”
Carol Perry, HomeSmart chief business development officer
The agreement gives HomeSmart agents a direct channel to loanDepot’s lending products and loan officers through a co-marketing relationship. It does not turn HomeSmart into a mortgage lender, and the publicly announced arrangement should not be confused with an exclusive mortgage joint venture.
Another bridge between brokerage and mortgage
The deal reflects a broader push across residential real estate to connect brokerage relationships more closely with mortgage, title and other transaction services.
For brokerages, the appeal is straightforward: agents can offer buyers a financing connection without building a national lending operation from scratch. For lenders, a large brokerage network can provide access to purchase borrowers at the point where consumers are already working with an agent.
HomeSmart says its network includes more than 25,000 agents. loanDepot said it has funded $592 billion directly to consumers since its 2010 launch.
“By combining our lending expertise with HomeSmart’s real estate leadership, we’ll be able to deliver more financing options and a more seamless experience for buyers across the country.”
Tom Fiddler, loanDepot president of retail lending
The announcement does not disclose production commitments, referral volumes, compensation terms or financial projections. Those details should not be inferred from the companies’ description of the relationship.
loanDepot keeps widening distribution
The HomeSmart agreement also fits loanDepot’s effort to expand the ways it reaches borrowers.
In March, the lender launched a wholesale channel aimed at mortgage brokers under President of Partnership Lending Dan Peña. The company said that channel was built around its proprietary mortgage platform and a broader product mix. The HomeSmart relationship is different: it is a marketing services agreement tied to a national real estate brokerage network rather than a broker-wholesale launch.
That distinction matters because mortgage companies have increasingly pursued multiple distribution paths at once — retail, wholesale, partnerships and other affinity relationships — as purchase volume remains difficult and customer-acquisition costs stay under pressure.
HomeSmart, meanwhile, gains another financing resource at a moment when mortgage affordability is again constraining buyers. Rates have moved back toward 7%, and MBA data released Tuesday showed mortgage applications for newly built homes declined for a fifth consecutive month in August.
What to watch
The most important question is whether the agreement produces meaningful purchase volume rather than simply another lender option on an agent resource list.
Scale gives the arrangement potential. A network of more than 25,000 agents can generate a large number of buyer conversations. But agent adoption, borrower pricing, service levels and the ease of moving a consumer from agent to loan officer will determine how much of that potential becomes actual mortgage production.
For the wider industry, the agreement is another example of the boundary between real estate brokerage and mortgage distribution becoming more connected. The companies remain separate, but the customer journey increasingly does not.
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