Mike Kortas called me on Super Bowl Sunday from his private jet. He didn’t really want to talk, but the rumors were “getting out of control” & he had to clear them up. 

Kortas and I had been texting since I heard that he was acquiring an LLC shell from an affiliate of Movement Mortgage, with plans to pursue agency seller-servicer approvals. That apparently sparked other rumors: That he was starting up a “true IMB.” That he was going to go retail. That he had cooked up a co-issue servicing play w/ CrossCountry Mortgage. And that he was even selling NEXA. 

All that other chatter is BS, he said. He’s a true-blue wholesale guy & plans “to create JVs” beside his existing entities, NEXA & AXEN. Kortas said he is buying other LLC shells as well, but he’s NOT going retail. 

In today’s edition of The Scoop, we’ve got details about Kortas’s plans, including an intriguing servicing angle. That story is only for paid subscribers. Our Wednesday edition will be open for all. For the Kortas story, scroll to the bottom plz👇.

(🙏 If you like what you’re reading, tell a fellow mortgage junkie to sign up here.)

The defection of Lower’s Midwest group to Atlantic Coast Mortgage is a tough loss. That was a roughly $400M team led by Andy Stewart, Dave Hendrickson & John Cornish, sources said.

Sources say that Lower is also losing Nick Gallagher & Dan Stich to ACM. Gallagher is an executive who has been “basically the right hand to Dan and Mike for the past 7-8 years,” said one source. Stich, meanwhile, is a Mr. Fix-It who’s done a number of key ops jobs at the company. “If you were a branch manager or LO who had to get shit done, those were the people you’d turn to,” said the source.

Lower CEO Dan Snyder confirmed the departures. Calls/emails to ACM were not immediately returned. ACM has done in the neighborhood of $3B over the last 14 months, per RETR.

Rocket continues to tug at the heartstrings in its Super Bowl ads. Last year’s ad was an emotional reminder that everyone deserves their shot at the American Dream. People loved it. The ‘26 spot reminded people about community. It featured Lady Gaga singing Mister Rogers’ “Won’t you be my neighbor?” on piano. 

I really liked it. It’s easy to be cynical about others & forget that caring for strangers is critical for our society. But will consumers connect this pitch-less ad to getting a mortgage? I don’t know. The NYT listed Rocket’s ad #14 on its ranking of the 59 best Super Bowl ads. 

“There’s an awful lot going on in the mortgage company’s pitch-free ad: disgruntled young girls, a divorce, moves to new houses, a possibly racist cold shoulder, a storm, a missing dog. It may be hard to follow over nachos, but its heart is in the right place, and Lady Gaga’s cover of the Mister Rogers theme song is sweet.”

This is my favorite song about community.

Also, did you happen to see PennyMac’s ad on the Olympics? Here’s a link to it. The ad notes that PennyMac is the official mortgage provider of U.S. Olympic athletes. I’d bet that they’re mostly non-QM applicants w/ a lot of variable income from different sources. If you’ve done a loan for an Olympian, lemme know!

The rumors about the shell LLC acquisition began circulating last week from the MBA’s IMB conference on Amelia Island, where NEXA’s Chief Strategy Officer Tammy Richards held court at the Ritz Carlton bar & shared details. 

Kortas wouldn’t confirm or deny that Movement was the seller, but said he is indeed looking to acquire multiple shells & some of them are w/ big, well-known brands. (Movement itself acquired this particular shell during the pandemic & had once considered a JV or consumer direct entity.)