NEXA Lending is removing some of the barriers around its 100% revenue model, allowing loan originators to access the economics without meeting production or recruiting requirements on loans through select lenders.
The brokerage announced NEXA Unlimited Tuesday, saying loan originators can access 100% of the revenue generated on qualifying loans without a flat fee, added per-file fee, correspondent funding fee, closing fee, or additional margin.
“We are providing loan officers access to 100% of the revenues from their NEXA loans,” NEXA Executive Partner Mike Kortas said. “If you are producing the business, building the relationships, serving the borrower, and creating the revenue, we believe you should have access to all of it.”
But 100% isn't new at NEXA.
NEXA100 launched in May 2024, offering qualifying originators access to as much as 100% of loan revenue through a compensation structure that redirects money NEXA would otherwise retain back to the originator.
What Unlimited changes are some of the conditions for getting it.
According to an Aug. 31 summary published by NEXA loan originator and team builder Renato Rodic on his Ask About NEXA website, citing a public Facebook announcement by Kortas, seven lenders currently carry the NEXA Unlimited designation: UWM, PennyMac, evoLend, Deephaven Mortgage, Finance of America Reverse, Longbridge Financial, and eLEND.
Loans through those lenders can qualify for NEXA's 100% revenue economics without either a minimum production requirement or a requirement to recruit another producing originator, according to Rodic. The changes took effect Sept. 1.
NEXA also eliminated its previous $2 million monthly production threshold for correspondent loans outside the Unlimited group, according to Rodic, although those originators must have a first-level recruit closing at least one loan per month to receive NEXA100 economics. The $2 million production requirement remains for brokered loans.
NEXA did not spell out those lender- and channel-specific distinctions in its announcement of Unlimited.
What Does 100% Mean?
There is an important distinction for originators comparing compensation plans: 100% of loan revenue does not necessarily mean 100% is paid to the LO as cash compensation.
NMP examined NEXA's compensation structure earlier this year, when NEXA Chief Operating Officer Jason duPont walked through the economics using a hypothetical $500,000 mortgage paying 275 basis points.
Under NEXA's standard compensation structure at the time, the loan generated $13,750 in revenue. NEXA deducted 25 basis points, or $1,250, for its funding operation and 12%, or $1,500, as its margin, leaving $11,000 in cash compensation for the originator.
Under NEXA100, however, duPont said the $2,750 that otherwise would have been deducted is reimbursed into the originator's Growth & Marketing Ledger, an internal account that can be used for eligible business expenses such as computers, customer relationship management systems, leads, and assistants.
“If I submitted payroll today, it would show that I’m getting paid $11,000, and then there’d be another transaction on my growth ledger for $2,750,” duPont told NMP.
The result is the full $13,750 being directed to the originator's benefit, but not entirely as wages.
Attorney Ron Gapp, founding partner of Brody Gapp LLP, explained the distinction to NMP in February.
“If I go to a trade show, and I spend my own dime on that, and I’m now being reimbursed for that expense, that’s not income,” Gapp said.
Current compensation materials published by Rodic similarly describe NEXA100 as generally paying 220 basis points in cash compensation, with as much as another 55 basis points credited to the LO's business-expense ledger.
NEXA's Unlimited announcement does not say that underlying cash-and-ledger structure has changed.
If NEXA Doesn't Take The Money, Who Does?
NEXA's pitch raises an obvious business question: If the company isn't collecting transaction-level revenue from Unlimited loans, how does it make money?
Kortas says the answer increasingly comes down to scale.
“NEXA makes money,” Kortas said. “We have simply built the company differently. We do not believe the answer has to be taking more and more from the loan officer on every transaction.”
“I don’t need to make money on individual loans anymore,” he added. “I make money on volume.”
Chief Financial Officer Von Maharaj said even he initially questioned whether the economics would work.
“When Mike first brought this model to me, I thought he was crazy. I genuinely did not believe the math could work,” Maharaj said. “Then we ran the numbers.”
According to Maharaj, NEXA's scale, recent acquisitions, increasing production volume, and lean operating structure changed the calculation.
“With the scale NEXA has already achieved, the additional volume coming into the organization, and the incredibly lean way we operate, the math absolutely works,” Maharaj said.
Kortas has been making versions of that argument since NEXA100's launch.
When NMP first reported on the program in 2024, Kortas pointed to NEXA's recruiting-based revenue-share structure as one way the company could support the model.
NEXA originators can earn revenue share from production generated by LOs they recruit. When someone occupying a position in that structure leaves NEXA, Kortas said, the downline does not compress upward. NEXA takes over the vacant position and receives the revenue that otherwise would have gone to that person.
“Because of that, we make enough off our downline that we don’t need to collect anything,” Kortas said at the time.
DuPont gave NMP a similar explanation earlier this year. He said NEXA's 12% standard margin is distributed across three levels of the recruiting structure, with 4% going to each level. When someone leaves, NEXA corporate can occupy the vacant position and collect the override that would have gone to that originator.
Over time, those openings create revenue for the company that duPont said helps fund programs including NEXA100.
The company now says its broader ecosystem of businesses and systems, along with its scale and operational efficiency, further reduces its reliance on revenue from individual transactions.
That doesn't mean an LO pays nothing to operate at NEXA.
NEXA's Unlimited announcement eliminates certain transaction-level charges, but it does not mean originators operate without costs. Independent compensation materials published by Rodic list recurring technology and loan-origination-system expenses, though Rodic cautions that current fees should be confirmed with NEXA.
Kortas has also publicly emphasized transparency around loan-level economics, saying NEXA shares purchase advices with its originators so they can see what the company receives and verify, in his view, that additional margin hasn't been added to their loans.
Scale Changes The Equation
The timing of Unlimited matters.
When NEXA100 launched in 2024, NEXA had more than 2,500 affiliated originators, and Kortas publicly set a goal of reaching 5,000.
The company has since moved considerably closer.
NEXA's recent acquisition of UMortgage brought together two of the broker channel's more recognizable organizations. Kortas and UMortgage founder Anthony Casa told NMP this week that the combined organization now has more than 4,100 LOs.
The deal also changed Kortas' role. He relinquished the NEXA CEO title to become an executive partner alongside Casa, creating what the pair described as a co-equal leadership structure.
The acquisition itself fits the same scale argument underlying Unlimited.
When the UMortgage deal was announced, the company said it would retain its brand and sales culture while moving onto NEXA's larger operating platform.
The arrangement gives its originators access to NEXA's technology, lender relationships, compliance infrastructure, and national platform without requiring the brokerage to maintain all of that infrastructure independently.
“Scale only matters if you use it for something,” Kortas said. “For us, everything comes back to the loan officer.”
This week, Casa described the combined company as a “platform of optionality,” with originators able to choose between wholesale broker and non-delegated correspondent channels and access hundreds of investors.
“Loan officers choose everything here,” Kortas said. “We simply give them the options of what to choose.”
Kortas also described NEXA as debt-free, operating leanly, and focused on profitability at the individual originator level.
“We have two rules at NEXA, but it’s on the individual LO level: Be legal and then be profitable,” he said.
A Challenge To Broker Owners
Unlimited turns that scale into a recruiting proposition.
NEXA isn't merely telling originators they can keep more of the economics generated by their loans. Kortas is openly challenging other mortgage companies to justify what they retain.
“The question I would ask every top-producing loan officer in America is simple: how does your current company compete with this?” Kortas said. “If you are giving away revenues on every transaction that you do not have to give away, why? What are you getting in return?”
The challenge extends to brokerage and independent mortgage bank owners, particularly those carrying the cost of their own compliance, technology, licensing, infrastructure, and administrative operations.
“If you are a broker owner, put the ego and the title aside for a minute and ask what is actually best for your loan officers, your business, and your family,” Kortas said.
NEXA specifically pointed to the addition of Casa and UMortgage as evidence of that strategy and said more additions are expected to be announced this week.
That makes Unlimited more than another adjustment to an LO compensation plan.
NEXA is betting that greater scale allows it to remove more of the conditions surrounding its 100% revenue model, shift more transaction economics toward its originators, and still make the larger company work.
If that math holds as NEXA grows, the question for competing brokerages may become the one Kortas is already asking their LOs: What, exactly, are they paying their company for?
