CPF Mortgage vs. DHI Mortgage: Do You Have to Use D.R. Horton's Lender in Florida?
No. D.R. Horton cannot make the sale of the home conditional on financing through DHI Mortgage. What a builder may legally do is condition an incentive on using its affiliated lender. So the real question for a Florida buyer is arithmetic: is that incentive worth more than what you give up? CPF Mortgage runs those numbers for free.
This post explains the rule, the incentive maths, and the one Florida-specific line item that catches new-construction buyers harder here than almost anywhere else in the country: the difference between a first-year property tax bill assessed on bare land and a second-year bill assessed on a finished house.
Who DHI Mortgage is, factually
DHI Mortgage Company, Ltd. (NMLS #14622) is the captive mortgage arm of D.R. Horton, the largest homebuilder in the United States. Its purpose is to finance D.R. Horton's own homes; it does not meaningfully compete for resale purchases, and it is not a lender you would find by shopping.
It is also formidable. On 2024 HMDA data DHI Mortgage originated roughly $4.4 billion in Florida: the #2 purchase lender in the state, ahead of Rocket Mortgage, per state-level HMDA reporting. Across the Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Orlando and Southwest Florida new-construction corridors it is functionally the default lender.
That position is won at the point of sale, not by rate shopping. You are standing in a model home, the sales consultant has a spreadsheet, and the incentive on the table (a 2-1 or permanent rate buydown, a closing-cost credit, sometimes five figures of "flex cash") is conditioned on financing in-house. Florida builders have leaned on buydowns harder than almost any market in the country; John Burns Research & Consulting has tracked the trend, and Tampa Bay quick-move-in homes have been advertised at rates near 2.875%. Those offers are real, and sometimes they genuinely win.
Where the captive-lender model creates friction
The problem is not that a captive lender's staff are worse people. It is that the incentives inside the transaction are not aligned with yours, and you have no leverage once the incentive addendum is signed.
- You are not the customer the model is optimised for. The builder needs closings on its own schedule to recognise revenue. Your file is one input into that, and when the two priorities diverge the pipeline usually wins.
- Borrower reviews are weak. As of September 2026, published summaries of DHI Mortgage's ratings put it at roughly 2.2 out of 5 on WalletHub across 74 reviews, about 66% one-star. Small sample, and it should be read as one. The recurring themes are slow turn times, poor communication and repeated document requests.
- There is a live proposed class action about understated payments. Plaintiffs allege that D.R. Horton and DHI Mortgage generated two property-tax figures per transaction (a "Suppressed Estimate" based on the unimproved land assessment and a higher "True Estimate" for the finished home) and used the low figure in the Estimated Total Monthly Payment, escrowing on as little as 20% of reasonably anticipated taxes. The claims invoke FHA requirements, RESPA and TILA. For one named plaintiff, the payment allegedly rose from $2,164.68 to $3,136.33 in under a year. These are allegations in an unresolved proposed class action, not findings of fact or wrongdoing.
- One rate sheet, again. A captive lender has its own pricing and its own overlays. If your file does not fit, the answer is the same as at any direct lender.
The rule nobody at the sales table volunteers
A builder cannot condition the sale of the home on your use of its affiliated lender. RESPA does not permit it, and where a builder refers you to an affiliate it must give you an Affiliated Business Arrangement (AfBA) disclosure identifying the relationship and telling you, in writing, that you are free to shop. Law firms summarising the rule are consistent on this; see, for example, Silberman Law Firm on whether a builder can require a certain lender and this Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck client alert on RESPA limits for homebuilder incentives.
What a builder can legally do is condition the incentive. That is lawful and extremely common. So the question is never "am I allowed to leave?" You are. The question is: is the incentive worth more than what it costs you?
What CPF Mortgage does instead
CPF Mortgage is an independent broker in Trinity, Florida, family-run from the same Pasco County office since 2007, licensed in all 67 Florida counties under NMLS 222883 and Florida licence MLD929. On a D.R. Horton file our job is narrow and useful: be the free second Loan Estimate that lets you answer the arithmetic honestly.
We price the loan the builder's lender cannot reach
The largest mortgage lender in Florida is neither a builder nor a bank. On 2024 HMDA data it is UWM, at roughly $17 billion and about 12% of the state, nearly four times DHI Mortgage's Florida volume, and UWM sells through one channel only: independent brokers. There is no way to be quoted UWM pricing at a model-home sales desk. There is no way to be quoted it anywhere except through a broker.
CPF holds five 2025 UWM awards, including the Top 1% Award for CEO Justin Kelly, the ASR Shining Star Award for Diamond status across all twelve months of 2025, and both the Fastest Purchase Closer and Fastest Closer (Overall Loans) awards. The details are in our UWM partner award announcement. That combination (Florida's biggest lender's pricing, run by a local team) is what a captive builder lender structurally cannot offer.
We re-run the builder's escrow on the finished home
This is the single most valuable thing we do on a new-construction file, and we do it whether or not you end up using us. We take the builder's Estimated Total Monthly Payment and rebuild the escrow line using the completed-home assessment rather than the land assessment, at the actual county millage rate for the parcel. If the two figures match, excellent: you have confirmation. If they do not, you have found out in week one rather than in month fourteen when the escrow analysis lands.
We compare the incentive over the years you will actually own the home
A 2-1 buydown lowers your payment for 24 months. A permanent buydown lowers it for as long as you keep the loan. A closing-cost credit is a one-off. Each has a different value depending on how long you stay and whether you refinance. We model the builder's package against a CPF Loan Estimate over your actual horizon, and we tell you which wins. Sometimes it is the builder, and if so, take the incentive with our blessing and our escrow correction in hand. Our mortgage calculator is a reasonable starting point, but this comparison needs the real numbers.
We close fast enough to protect a builder deadline
Builder contracts carry hard closing dates and, frequently, per-diem penalties. ICE Mortgage Technology's May 2026 Mortgage Monitor put the average US purchase loan at 36.8 days in March 2026. CPF markets Close in 20 Days or Less and holds UWM's speed awards to back it. "You'll never close in time with an outside lender" is a sales objection, not a fact, and it is the objection we were built to defeat. Our process page shows how.
CPF Mortgage vs. DHI Mortgage: side by side
| Structure | CPF Mortgage | DHI Mortgage |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Independent mortgage broker (wholesale) | Captive lender affiliated with D.R. Horton |
| Who prices your loan | Multiple wholesale investors compete, including UWM | DHI Mortgage's own rate sheet, plus builder incentive |
| Where underwriting sits | Wholesale investor underwriting, coordinated from Trinity, FL | Builder-affiliated operations centre |
| Typical purchase closing time | Markets 20 days or less; UWM Fastest Purchase Closer 2025 | Varies; reviews cite slow turn times (WalletHub, Sept 2026) |
| New-construction escrow | Rebuilt on the completed-home assessment before you sign | Subject of an unresolved proposed class action over land-based estimates |
| Florida-specific handling | Doc stamps, intangible tax, wind and flood deductibles, 4-point and wind-mitigation priced in at quote | Standardised builder process across states |
| Who you call at 4pm on a Friday | The named person handling your file, in Pasco County | The loan officer assigned by the sales office |
| Can you use another lender? | N/A | Yes. The sale cannot be conditioned on it; only the incentive can |
| Licensing | NMLS 222883 / FL MLD929, all 67 FL counties | NMLS #14622, multi-state |
A comparison of business models as of September 2026. Volume figures are 2024 HMDA. No rate or APR comparison is made or implied.
The Florida escrow trap in new construction
This is the centrepiece, and it is genuinely worse in Florida than in most states.
Florida county property appraisers assess as of 1 January. If your D.R. Horton home was a vacant lot on that date, your first tax bill reflects unimproved land. The following January the appraiser values the completed house, and the bill jumps to reflect a home rather than dirt. Meanwhile homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment cap have not yet had a year to apply, so nothing is smoothing the increase. Your escrow account, which was funded on the land number, is now short, and the servicer collects the shortage and the higher ongoing amount at the same time. That is how a payment moves by hundreds of dollars a month in year two without a single thing changing about your interest rate.
The rest of the Florida checklist still applies to new construction, and we build all of it into the first quote on our Florida mortgage lender desk:
- Documentary stamp tax and intangible tax on the note and mortgage: one-time closing costs that belong on your first Loan Estimate.
- Wind, flood and hurricane deductibles. New homes usually price well on wind thanks to current code, but flood zone still governs and new subdivisions can sit inside special flood hazard areas.
- 4-point and wind-mitigation inspections. Rarely needed on a new build, but essential if you are also weighing an older resale, because insurance moves the payment as much as price does.
- Condo and townhome project eligibility. Florida's milestone-inspection and reserve-study rules can disqualify a building from conventional financing; attached new construction still goes through project review.
- Homestead and Save Our Homes portability. Selling another Florida home can move a meaningful slice of assessment benefit with you, which changes escrow and therefore the payment you are comparing.
- Florida Hometown Heroes assistance for eligible full-time Florida workers, occasionally worth more than the builder credit. See the Hometown Heroes guide, or our FHA loan page, since builder captives write heavily in FHA.
When DHI Mortgage is the better choice
Often enough that we always run the numbers before answering. If D.R. Horton is offering a large permanent rate buydown, or a closing-cost credit in the five figures, that money is a discount on the builder's own margin and no outside lender can conjure it. On a quick-move-in home with a tight closing window and a generous incentive, using DHI Mortgage can be straightforwardly the better financial outcome, and we will tell you so in writing. Two conditions, though: get the AfBA disclosure and read it, and insist the Estimated Total Monthly Payment be built on the completed-home tax assessment rather than the land assessment. If the incentive still wins after that correction, take it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use DHI Mortgage to buy a D.R. Horton home?
No. RESPA does not permit a builder to make the sale conditional on financing through its affiliated lender, and a builder referring you to an affiliate must provide an Affiliated Business Arrangement disclosure confirming you are free to shop. It may, however, condition an incentive on using DHI Mortgage, which is legal.
Can I use my own lender with D.R. Horton and keep the incentive?
Usually not in full, because the incentive is what is tied to the affiliate. Ask the sales office to put in writing exactly what is forfeited by financing elsewhere, treat that as the price of shopping, and compare it against an independent Loan Estimate over the years you intend to own the home.
Why did my D.R. Horton property tax escrow go up in year two in Florida?
Because Florida assesses as of 1 January. If the home was a vacant lot on that date, the first bill reflects unimproved land and the second reflects the finished house, with homestead and Save Our Homes not yet smoothing the increase. An escrow funded on the land figure runs short, and the servicer collects both the shortage and the higher ongoing amount.
What are DHI Mortgage's reviews like?
Weak in public samples. As of September 2026, published summaries put DHI Mortgage at roughly 2.2 out of 5 on WalletHub across 74 reviews, about 66% one-star, with slow turn times and repeated document requests the recurring themes. It is a small sample and not a regulatory finding, one data point alongside the incentive maths.
Is the D.R. Horton class action decided?
No. It is an unresolved proposed class action. Plaintiffs allege that a tax estimate based on the unimproved land assessment was used in the Estimated Total Monthly Payment, invoking FHA, RESPA and TILA requirements. These allegations have not been proven, and nothing here is a finding against either company.
How does this compare with Lennar, or with a national lender?
The builder mechanics are near-identical; see CPF Mortgage vs. Lennar Mortgage. On the retail side we have written the same comparison for Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage and loanDepot. The channel argument beneath all five is in Mortgage Lender vs. Broker.
Get the arithmetic before you sign the incentive addendum
Bring us the builder's worksheet. We will produce a competing Loan Estimate, rebuild the escrow on the completed-home assessment, and tell you plainly which option is cheaper over the years you plan to stay, including when the answer is "keep the builder's deal." Request a free quote or call (727) 226-1040.
CPF Mortgage (Christopher Paul Financial, LLC), NMLS 222883, Florida licence MLD929. Equal Housing Lender. D.R. Horton and DHI Mortgage are trademarks of their respective owners and are referenced here solely for factual comparison; no affiliation, endorsement or partnership is implied. Litigation references describe unresolved allegations. Market data is 2024 HMDA; company facts are as of September 2026. This is not legal advice.
