Two Rivals, One Platform: Inside NEXA's Acquisition of UMortgage

NEXA Lending has signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire UMortgage, ending one of the mortgage broker channel’s most public rivalries. Per HousingWire, the deal — financial terms undisclosed, with funds already transferred — adds UMortgage’s 246 loan officers and roughly $2.05 billion in trailing-12-month volume to NEXA, bringing the company to 4,047 loan officers and $14.15 billion in annual volume, according to RETR data.

UMortgage CEO Anthony Casa joins NEXA as an executive partner, alongside Jimmy Hobson, Nash Paradise, and NXT Mortgage founder Tyler Hodgson. NEXA CEO Mike Kortas told HousingWire: “If Anthony and I can come together, then we can all stop the stupid fighting.”

Kortas to hand the CEO role to Geri Farr

During the same interview, Kortas announced that NEXA chief growth officer Geri Farr will become CEO of NEXA, with Kortas moving into the executive partner role — the same title held by Casa and Jason DuPont. Kortas described the move as a step up rather than a step back, saying executive partners advise the company’s leadership team, sit in leadership meetings, and would guide succession decisions if needed. He stated the company would not be handed to his children, and said broker-owners who join NEXA can pursue the same executive partner track.

Transition details

The UMortgage legal entity winds down by the end of 2026 per HousingWire’s report, but the brand remains available to originators. Casa said loan officers may continue operating under the UMortgage name, under their own brands — as with Tyler Hodgson’s NXT Mortgage — or under the NEXA brand, describing optionality as central to how both companies operate.

UMortgage loan officers move from the company’s flat-fee model to NEXA’s NEXA100 compensation program. Roughly 8–12 UMortgage employees in overlapping roles are not expected to join, with Casa saying he has helped place about half with other companies.

Casa, Kortas, and Jason DuPont are still determining whether Tempo — UMortgage’s activity-tracking and gamification platform — folds into NEXA’s platform or remains independent, with the stated goal of making it available to all NEXA loan officers either way. Kortas praised its post-closing follow-up, reminder systems, and client-milestone triggers, and said UMortgage’s funded units per loan officer run substantially higher than NEXA’s.

What Kortas and Casa said after the deal

The reconciliation began in January, when Todd Bitter — UMortgage’s former chief sales officer, who joined NEXA as national sales director that month — proposed the idea to Kortas, who says his first reaction was disbelief. Bitter brokered an in-person meeting in Philadelphia planned for one day that stretched to three; both men say they spent the first stretch repairing the relationship, including a nine-mile walk through the city, before any business discussion began. “Once the relationship piece was out of the way, the business conversation was very easy,” Casa said.

The transaction is structured as a production-based earnout running four to five years rather than a fixed purchase price. Casa said every shareholder receives a proportionate share of the earnout — including shareholders who have already left UMortgage, directly contradicting rumors circulating online. Formal communications outlining the structure are going to shareholders within weeks; distributions are expected to begin in 2028 following a full production year in 2027, and to be paid quarterly thereafter. Casa holds 48% of UMortgage, with the remaining 52% distributed proportionally among other shareholders. Kortas, who had publicly criticized UMortgage’s original share model, said ensuring shareholders were made whole was the first item he and Casa discussed.

In a video interview published the following day, Kortas and Casa walked through how the deal came together and what it means for loan officers on both sides. They describe the earnout, the end of the public feud, and Casa’s roll-up focus in their own words.

Roll-ups are the next act

Casa said his focus at NEXA will be mergers, acquisitions, and broker roll-ups, arguing that any brokerage producing under $2 billion annually should at least be evaluating a similar move. A broker since 2003 who stayed in the channel through the financial crisis, he framed the roll-up work as the most exciting stage of his career. Both men compared the moment to the consolidation that reshaped residential real estate brokerage over the past decade, arguing that scale increasingly determines compensation, pricing, and technology efficiency.

For what NEXA100 means for incoming UMortgage loan officers, see our full breakdown of the program’s terms and fine print.

References

1. HousingWire — “NEXA Lending acquires UMortgage, adds Anthony Casa to exec team,” August 23, 2026, by Sarah Wolak: housingwire.com
2. LinkedIn Loaded — video interview with Mike Kortas and Anthony Casa, August 24, 2026: facebook.com/reel/1419690586691260