“Preferred lender” sometimes turns out to be a mortgage broker working with a line of credit from a lender; that’s how Lennar operated with most of Bressi Ranch and La Costa Oaks. Trust me, they wouldn’t be steering a buyer toward a specific lender if there wasn’t some monetary benefit for doing so. Obviously, if there’s a monetary benefit the borrower is the one who’s doing the paying, although what they’re paying may not exceed typical financing costs if the lender is giving a discount in exchange for the volume.
