NEXA Lending has landed an established production team from Guild Mortgage that is on pace for approximately $100 million in volume this year — a move that comes amid a much larger recruiting swing toward NEXA over the past 12 months.
Todd Bookspan and Matt Baker, longtime leaders of the Bookspan Baker Team, have joined NEXA and are launching Keepsake Loans, an umbrella brand that will allow them to preserve their existing team and identity while operating on NEXA’s infrastructure.
But the more notable part of the move may be where they came from — and what changed their minds.
Bookspan, a 25-year mortgage veteran, acknowledged that he entered the process with assumptions about the broker channel that no longer matched what he found.
“When you’re in the bottle, you can’t read the label,” Bookspan said. “I had misconceptions about what the broker channel looked like in 2026. Once we became curious, asked more questions, and really understood the model, we realized there were opportunities from a product, technology, and income perspective that we simply weren’t aware of.”
For mortgage brokers competing with retail lenders for experienced producers, that admission may carry more weight than the addition of another team alone.
Bookspan and Baker have worked together for more than 15 years. Their team has served more than 5,000 families and originated more than $1 billion in mortgage volume, according to NEXA. It is currently on pace to originate approximately $100 million in 2026.
“We weren’t looking to start over. We were looking for the right platform to build on top of what already works,” Bookspan said. “The more we learned about NEXA, the more we realized we could keep our brand and our team while gaining access to technology, products, investor relationships, and entirely new opportunities for growth.”
The Recruiting Numbers Behind The Move
The Bookspan Baker Team isn't arriving in a vacuum.
Model Match data shows a widening difference in MLO movement at NEXA and Guild.
During the 12 months ended Sept. 24, NEXA added a net 513 MLOs, with Model Match estimating a net $690 million in production associated with those movements. Guild, meanwhile, posted a net loss of 70 MLOs and $302 million in associated production.
The gap has widened recently. Over the past 90 days, NEXA added a net 189 MLOs representing an estimated $379 million in production, while Guild lost a net 33 MLOs and $193 million in associated production.
Put another way, roughly 37% of NEXA’s net MLO gain over the past year — and 55% of its net production gain — came during the most recent 90 days.
The figures track MLO movements and the historical production associated with those originators, not companywide funded volume. They also don't show where Guild's departing originators went or establish a broader migration from retail to the broker channel.
Still, the numbers provide important context for the Bookspan Baker move: NEXA has been gaining originators and associated production at the same time it is trying to attract more established mortgage businesses to its platform.
Guild Navigates Its Post-Acquisition Era
The recruiting movement also comes during a significant period of change for Guild.
Bayview Asset Management completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Guild Holdings Company in December, taking the longtime retail lender private.
At the time, Guild said the company would continue operating as an independent entity of the Bayview-managed MSR fund, which also owns Lakeview Loan Servicing. Guild also said there were no planned changes to its operations, product suite, or relationships, and emphasized that its coast-to-coast distributed retail network would remain central to its growth strategy.
Guild CEO Terry Schmidt said the combination would strengthen the lender by pairing its distributed retail origination and retained-servicing operations with the broader Bayview platform.
But the Bookspan Baker departure puts another spotlight on the competition to retain established producers at a time when Guild is operating under new ownership.
Another Test Of NEXA’s Pitch
For NEXA, the move fits its strategy: convincing established mortgage professionals that they can gain scale without surrendering the businesses and brands they have already built.
Earlier this month, NEXA brought Mortgage Nerds onto its platform, allowing owners Mike Cox and Brian Hofmann to retain their brand while tapping NEXA’s infrastructure, servicing, and retention capabilities.
That followed NEXA’s acquisition of UMortgage and the rollout of NEXA Unlimited as the company expanded its pitch to both individual originators and established mortgage businesses.
Bookspan and Baker represent a somewhat different test of that proposition.
Unlike Mortgage Nerds, which was already operating in the broker channel, the Bookspan Baker Team comes from a major distributed retail lender. The move therefore gives NEXA an example of experienced retail producers choosing its model rather than simply bringing another independent brokerage onto its platform.
It also echoes something NEXA CEO Geri Farr has said about her own view of the two channels.
Farr, whose career includes leadership roles in both wholesale and distributed retail lending, has described herself as a former “retail IMB girl” whose assumptions about the support available to brokers changed after she examined NEXA’s model.
Bookspan is now describing a similar reassessment from the producer side.
One team's decision — or recruiting data from two companies — does not establish an industrywide migration from retail to wholesale. But the combination gives NEXA another concrete example to use as it courts experienced retail producers who may still associate independence with giving up infrastructure and support.
More Than $100 Million In Production
Another element of the Bookspan-Baker move could matter to NEXA beyond the team's own production.
Bookspan and Baker will have the opportunity to participate in NEXA’s revenue-sharing model as they help expand the platform.
That means NEXA isn't simply adding a team on pace for approximately $100 million in annual production. It is also bringing two established mortgage professionals into an economic model that gives them another avenue to participate in the platform's growth.
Bookspan in particular brings visibility beyond his own origination business through his mortgage coaching and other industry work.
“People talk about independence all the time, but independence without infrastructure can become another job,” NEXA Executive Partner Mike Kortas said. “Todd and Matt already know how to produce, lead, and build a great team. They don’t need us telling them how to run their business.”
Kortas said NEXA’s role is to provide infrastructure, technology, and opportunities for established operators without taking away what made their businesses successful.
Keepsake Loans Becomes The New Umbrella
The Bookspan Baker Team will continue operating under its established team identity within Keepsake Loans.
Baker, who has more than 30 years of mortgage industry experience, said the appeal extends beyond producing additional loans.
“We’ve built efficiencies over 15 years, we’ve built an incredible team, and we know how to originate loans,” Baker said. “Now we get to put that business on a platform that gives us more ways to grow.”
NEXA said its technology investments, expanded product access, and its expansion into servicing through evoLend also factored into the team's decision.
Bookspan and Baker plan to use the new structure to expand their team, embrace AI and other emerging technology, and pursue additional business-building opportunities available through NEXA.
For Farr, their arrival represents the kind of established operator NEXA wants to attract.
“Todd and Matt aren’t coming here looking for someone to build their business for them. They’ve already proven they can do that,” Farr said. “They are coming here because they see what becomes possible when an established business is given more tools, more technology, and more room to grow.”
For retail lenders, the significance of NEXA's pitch may extend beyond the roughly $100 million production team changing platforms.
The competition for originators has long revolved around compensation, pricing, products, and support. NEXA is betting it can convince more established producers that scale and independence no longer have to sit on opposite sides of that equation.
The Model Match numbers suggest that pitch has been gaining traction. Bookspan and Baker now give NEXA a particularly visible example of a retail team willing to put it to the test.
