Broker Brawl Hot Loans Edition Turns Up The Heat
The ballroom lights dimmed as trays of blistering hot wings were carried to the stage. Spotlights bounced across the crowd at Originator Connect in Las Vegas, where hundreds of mortgage professionals had gathered not just for spectacle, but for a cause.
Welcome to Broker Brawl: Hot Loans Edition — part roast, part competition, part charity drive — where CEOs and founders of some of the largest brokerages in the nation sat shoulder-to-shoulder, wings in hand, ready to take the heat.
With the crowd roaring and the hot sauces flowing, NEXA Mortgage Co-Founder and CEO Mike Kortas, Loan Factory Founder and CEO Thuan Nguyen, West Capital Lending Co-founder and CEO Daniel Iskander, and Equity Smart Home Loans Co-founder and CEO Pablo Martinez fielded the toughest questions in the business.
Guiding the spectacle were two ringmasters of spice and satire: Brandon Christensen, national instructor for Max Class, and Ladonna Lockard, CEO of Max Class and host of the NMP podcast Take It To The Max.
But beneath the banter was a bigger mission: raising more than $50,000 for Homes For Our Troops, a nonprofit that builds specially adapted homes for severely injured post-9/11 veterans. Since their inception in 2004, nearly 90 cents out of every dollar donated goes directly to program services supporting Veterans.
With the mission set, the hot sauces were uncapped, the spotlights were lit — and the questions began.
Martinez Cuts The Puppet Strings
Equity Smart Home Loans has doubled its ranks, growing from 250 to 500 loan officers since CEO Pablo Martinez last took the Originator Connect stage. Now, Martinez returns to the spotlight after making headlines with his high-profile switch from United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) to Rocket Pro to battle the heavyweight champions of the wholesale channel.
When the questions landed about his controversial move, Martinez didn’t shy away.
“And we don’t have to jump through hurdles and watch videos and do all this (…) to get points that can’t even get us better pricing. So, you know, we’re done with all that. We’re not anyone’s puppets.”
His comments about watching a lender’s videos to earn points may have struck a chord with originators in the audience who currently partner with UWM.
“We’re not drama,” Martinez said. “We’re down to earth, humble. Our platform is not about me. It’s about you guys. It’s about the loan officers.”
“You cannot have a clean breakup.”
Pablo Martinez, CEO Equity Smart Home Loans
“You cannot have a clean breakup,” said Pablo Martinez while recounting the challenges he encountered after terminating his partnership with UWM.
Martinez: With UWM
The crowd got the show. But the fireworks didn’t stop there. The following day, on a podcast stage wedged between rows of packed exhibitor booths, Martinez revealed that his breakup with UWM was less than amicable.
Before sending in his termination letter and running off into the sunset with Rocket Pro, Martinez knew he needed to close out all of Equity Smart’s loans with UWM — or risk a lawsuit under UWM’s All-In Addendum (ultimatum), a standard clause in UWM’s broker contracts.
UWM issued an ultimatum to its broker partners in 2021, forbidding them from doing business with Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. Not signing the ultimatum would mean severing ties with UWM. Brokers who sign and then violate the ultimatum face costly damages — $5,000 per loan closed with Rocket or Fairway or $50,000 in liquidated damages. Even worse, some alleged violators of the ultimatum have been sued.
Despite his efforts, Martinez alleges that UWM withheld $250,000 of commissions from more than fifteen of his loan officers.
“On the remaining loans that we had [that] we were closing out, they had rewritten the lender instructions to redirect their commissions back to them instead of us. So that put us out about $250,000 that they kept, which we still have not been invoiced,” he claimed. “We still have no idea why they kept the money.”
According to Martinez, the dispute didn’t end there. He claimed that a UWM attempted to poach his loan officers by leveraging their commissions.
Martinez claims that UWM attempted to poach his loan officers by telling them “[If] you want your commission then you’ve got to find a UWM shop to work with.” But later that night, he decided to resolve the issue by telling the two loan officers “We’re going to let [UWM] steal the money or take the money away. But we’re still going to pay you.”
Martinez went further, alleging that UWM shared Equity Smart’s loan officer list with competitors.
“As soon as we gave them notice…They distributed our LO list amongst other shops and then those shops started poaching our customers — C2 Financial being one of them,” he claimed.
For Martinez, the turbulence is already fading in the rearview. His focus, he insists, is on growth.
“When we made the decision, we had 420 loan officers. We now have 460. so doing all those things, it’s just silly because we’re not going anywhere,” Martinez said. “We’re here for the long haul.”
Nguyen: Lawsuits & Loyalty To Loan Officers
The moderators then turned the spotlight to Loan Factory CEO Thuan Nguyen, raising the issue that has dogged him in headlines and lawsuits: his loan officer directory. The question was framed hypothetically — what if another broker created a directory of originators but secretly funneled the leads back to himself?
Nguyen’s answer was deliberate, even defensive, as he worked to explain what he insists is a misunderstood innovation.
“Consumers [are] struggling to find a good loan officer, and loan officers are struggling to find consumers. So my goal [is] to bring them together and all the leads go straight to the loan officer. The sad thing is, some evil force [is] out there trying to screw me up and trying to sue me.”
The line about an “evil force” drew laughter in some corners and applause in others. But Nguyen pressed on, emphasizing his intentions. He described a broker community that has grown increasingly divided — some eager to embrace technology and scale, others skeptical of platforms that centralize consumer traffic.
“This is the first time I have [had] a chance to speak up. So many bad people out there. They try to cross [me],” he added, hinting at industry rivals who, in his view, have weaponized misinformation to undermine his work.
For Nguyen, the stakes go beyond the courtroom. His reputation as one of the top-producing loan officers in the country — who once closed over 11,000 loans in just two years — is on the line. At Originator Connect, he framed the issue as not about lawsuits, but about loyalty to both loan officers and consumers.
Loan Factory Follow Up: Clearing Up Misconceptions
Nguyen addressed the controversy over his loan officer directory with characteristic candor following Broker Brawl: Hot Loans Edition.
“If Pablo [Martinez] or anyone used my name on their website, I don’t think the consumer will see my name on there and apply with [Equity Smart Home Loans],” Nguyen said. “If the question is asking me for that permission, I love it. Please use my name.”
Nguyen acknowledged that part of his draw in the broker community is the perception of access. “Loan officers always look up to us and they want to understand more about us. Sometimes the way we talk to them is different [from] the way we talk to each other,” he admitted. “Our loan officers want to hear that too.”
That instinct for transparency partly drove Nguyen to publish a chart comparing loan officer compensation at the nation’s largest brokerages—a move that sparked backlash. “I think all other mega companies also offer similar [compensation], except NEXA,” Nguyen said. “NEXA is very complicated. They make it, sometimes they promote like crazy NEXA100, but most of [NEXA’s originators] don’t get that. And then if they don’t get it, they get charged a lot.”
Despite the backlash he received by NEXA leaders and some originators who responded to his Facebook post, Nguyen said he was never given an adequate explanation on how NEXA100 works: “They never elaborate because their compensation is too complicated. Nobody understands.”
The post did not go unnoticed. “One of the mega brokers got mad at me, said that’s not true, and demanded that I pull it down otherwise they’d sue me,” Nguyen said, declining to identify which company threatened legal action.
Still, he stood by the decision to make his research public. “I do my own research because in order to recruit, I need to talk to loan officers from each company. That’s how I learn,” he explained.
Having competitive LO compensation is highly important when it comes to recruiting loan officers, but according to the data from Modex, that doesn’t seem to be an issue for his company. Since the last Broker Brawl in August 2024, Loan Factory has grown rapidly from about 700 to 2,035 loan officers with plans to reach 3,000 loan officers by 2026. However, Nguyen’s goals concerning overall production volume aren’t as concrete.
“Why would we hire so many loan officers who are not producing? … They will see,” said Loan Factory CEO Thuan Nguyen. “If I can push, I can generate leads, I can give [our LOs] clients.
“Why would we hire so many loan officers who are not producing? … They will see. If I can push, I can generate leads, I can give [our LOs] clients. ”
Thuan Nguyen, CEO Loan Factory
Kortas Talks Old Business Partners, Family, And Sacrifice
No Broker Brawl would be complete without NEXA Mortgage Mike Kortas, drawing the heat. Two questions aimed squarely at him forced the crowd to see past his bravado and into the personal cost of leading the industry’s largest brokerage.
The first was about his former partner, Mat Grella, with whom he co-founded Nexa. Kortas didn’t hesitate:
“He worked his [butt] off as a loan officer and those benefits stop benefiting Nexa within a year because we focus on growth. Jason has done a (…) 15 times better job in that same role in just a few days.”
It was a pointed remark, underscoring how quickly NEXA moves on from even its co-founders when growth demands it.
The second question cut deeper: whether Kortas really put his “NEXA family” ahead of his own family. Kortas answered with controlled emphasis:“NEXA family never came first the way you said. You do this because you have reasons why you do this stuff, right? … If you want to be the best at what you do, you only get to pick one of them.
“I am the greatest mortgage broker of all time. The numbers are undisputed,” NEXA Mortgage CEO Mike Kortas asserted. “But I had to give up everything else to do it.
“I am the greatest mortgage broker of all time. The numbers are undisputed.”
Mike Kortas, CEO Nexa Mortgage
It was a strikingly raw admission in a night otherwise filled with tough bravado. Kortas’s success, he admitted, came with sacrifices in health, faith, and family. It was a rare glimpse into the cost of being the most visible — and sometimes the loudest — figure in the broker channel.
NEXA Follow Up: What It Really Takes To Be No. 1
NEXA CEO Mike Kortas struck a personal note at Broker Brawl: Hot Loans Edition, describing a ritual he’s adopted at conferences to honor the often-overlooked sacrifices of loan officers’ spouses.
“I find two married men [and tell them to] send [their wives] flowers. And there’s a cheat code to sending your wife flowers — DoorDash. You can just type in flowers and you can have flowers at the door in 45 minutes with a message,” he said. “And I wish I would have used it more often.”
Kortas tied the gesture to a broader truth about the mortgage business. “We all have a reason why we do what we do. That reason is, oftentimes, family. And that’s great. But that means we don’t get to focus on family,” he explained. “They’re sacrificing other things in order to play at a high level… that comes with the sacrifice of health, faith, friends.”
The idea caught on beyond NEXA. “Equity Prime’s Tag Event [sent] roughly 670 sets of flowers. So, and that’s to me, 60 to 70 spouses at home that got some appreciation,” Kortas said.
But the conversation didn’t stay sentimental for long. Kortas pivoted to competitive jabs at fellow industry leaders, including West Capital Lending’s Daniel Iskander and his consumer-direct strategy.
“He will do a better job in a lower interest rate environment with how his business works. Although I make the argument not anymore because AI is going to completely replace and Danny will completely replace his owners.”
Kortas argued that consumer-direct loan officers face an existential threat. “The problem is that in a consumer direct environment, you’re gonna wipe out 90% of them,” he claimed. “I’ve seen this work. It’s actually there, it’s just slightly cost prohibitive still. So it’s there and it’s available. It wipes out consumer direct loan officers.”
In fact, Kortas pushed back against the very framing of brokers versus lenders. “When I say brokers are better, that’s no longer a favorable term that should be used in my opinion. So I’m a lender. I fund more than 50% of my loans in my name. And so I look at myself as a lender with whole show rates.”
“We’re the number one in funded units. Look at the data. We’re 3x-ing your average funding per LO.”
Daniel Iskander, CEO West Capital Lending
West Capital Lending’s Iskander Strikes Back
But the night belonged to Daniel Iskander, CEO of West Capital Lending (West Cap). A year earlier, he had been overshadowed and brushed aside in the final round by his contender, Kortas.
This year, he took the stage with an enthusiastic mob of West Cap loan officers cheering him on from the audience. When asked what he would do differently if he had to rebuild from scratch, Iskander was blunt:
“We’re a big lead buyer and one of the things we started doing was as we got bigger and stronger as a company, we started co-investing. We pay for our lead budget is about $3.5 million a month, and West Cap subsidizes 50% of the marketing budget,” Iskander said. “So I wish we had the budget earlier on to be able to help out loan officers more by buying leads, investing them more the way that we are today.”
When asked why he lost in 2024, he didn’t hold back: “I don’t think I lost. I think Mike [Kortas] had the ability to be able to go out to 3,000 loan officers and send out the code and [the] voting system was rigged.”
The West Cap side of the ballroom erupted. Cheers rolled like a wave, punctuated with stomps and whistles, the kind of noise that drowns out the moderators.
But the knockout moment came in his closing pitch, after Kortas touted NEXA’s LO compensation model and self-generating loan officers, Iskander fired back with a voice that carried over the crowd:
“I like to try to stay humble, but I want to share and I want to brag a little bit about the baddest team of loan officers that we’ve assembled across the entire nation,” Iskander said. “There’s no better loan officer team in the entire nation — We funded over 20,000 loans.”
It was more than a defense of his company. It was a declaration that West Cap — with its data-driven, lead-heavy model — had arrived as a force to be reckoned with.
“Mike likes to brag about having 3,000 loan officers — We’re the number one in funded units,” Iskander asserted. “The amount of money that we have reinvested into [our LOs’] marketing to be able to actually get them to win. Look at the data. We’re 3x-ing your average funding per LO.”
The West Cap section of the ballroom exploded in cheers, drowning out even the moderators. West Cap loan officers shot to their feet, fists in the air, with some even chanting “USA! USA!”
But the final tally would decide not only the night’s champion, but also the total raised for Homes For Our Troops. When the clock hit zero and every vote and donation was counted, NEXA CEO Mike Kortas emerged as the official winner of Broker Brawl: Hot Loans Edition, with $23,809 raised by his supporters — enough to claim his second heavyweight belt.
Iskander, however, walked away with a different kind of victory: he captured the most votes in the room, 94 in total, making him the crowd favorite even as Kortas held onto the title through fundraising power.
The True Prize
The morning after, emotions still simmered. In separate interviews, both Nguyen and Martinez agreed that Iskander had been the rightful winner.
Nguyen said: “I feel that West Cap should be the winner. They invest in their company, in their loan officers, and they help their loan officers. That’s why their company goes faster.”
Martinez echoed him: “Danny won. I think he should have gotten the belt. I didn’t realize it was based on money, but he had his people there and he did a good job up there. I think that he should have gotten the prize.”
When the smoke cleared, however, the real winner wasn’t any one brokerage. It was U.S. Army Corporal Bryan Price and the mission of Homes For Our Troops.
Thanks to Homelight’s opening $10,000 check, hundreds of audience donations, and another last-minute $1,000 pledge from NEXA’s Mike Kortas, the industry surpassed its $50,000 fundraising goal. That money will go directly toward building Bryan Price a mortgage-free home — designed without stairs or barriers, with widened doorways, accessible bathrooms, and open spaces to restore his independence as a paralyzed veteran.
Brice Sullivan accepts the 10k donation from HomeLight Inc. on behalf of Bryan Price
For Price, it means more than a house. It means freedom: the ability to be the father he wants to be, to roll through his own front door without obstacles, and to live daily life with dignity and security.
For the mortgage brokers on stage, it proved that while they may never reach the vast wealth of some IMBs or banks, they managed to channel their competitive fire into something far greater: giving a wounded veteran the keys to a new life.
Beyond the theatrics, the Broker Brawl events offer a rare, unscripted look at mega broker CEOs and what it’s like to work inside their shops — where loyalty, resources, and leadership style matter just as much as pricing.