UMortgage Just Went Flat-Fee. The Mortgage Industry is Finally Catching Up.
UMortgage Just Went Flat-Fee. The Mortgage Industry is Finally Catching Up.
February 2026 | Industry News
UMortgage, a national mortgage broker network, just announced they're moving to a flat-fee compensation model for their loan officers. Instead of taking a percentage-based corporate margin on every loan, they're charging a flat $995 per transaction.
If that sounds familiar, it should. It's exactly what flat-fee real estate brokerages have been doing for years. And it's exactly what we do at RaiderX.
Let's break down the numbers, because that's where this gets interesting.
How UMortgage's New Model Works
Under the old model, UMortgage took a 50 basis point corporate margin on every loan. That's 0.50% of the loan amount going to the company on top of whatever the loan officer earned.
On a $400,000 loan where the LO earns 275 bps ($11,000), that 50 bps meant $2,000 going to UMortgage. On every single loan.
The new model flips that. Here's what loan officers pay now:
- $995 flat fee per transaction
- $300 quality control fee per transaction
- 10% of their commission toward admin and payroll taxes
After 50 loans in a year, the $995 fee disappears entirely. Every dollar of revenue stays with the LO (minus the $300 QC fee and the 10% admin).
UMortgage also capped their total annual corporate revenue at $49,750. That's not per LO — that's the company's margin cap on each originator per year.
Let's Do the Math
Take that same $400,000 loan at 275 bps. The LO's gross commission is $11,000.
Under the old model: - LO earns $11,000 - UMortgage takes 50 bps = $2,000 - LO nets $9,000
Under the new model: - LO earns $11,000 - Flat fee: $995 - QC fee: $300 - Admin/payroll (10%): $1,100 - LO nets $8,605
Wait — that's actually slightly less on a single transaction? Yes, for one loan in isolation, the math is close. But here's where scale changes everything.
An LO doing 30 loans a year at $400,000 average:
Old model: 30 x $2,000 = $60,000 to UMortgage New model: 30 x $995 + 30 x $300 + 30 x $1,100 = $29,850 + $9,000 + $33,000 = $71,850
Hmm, that doesn't look great either. But consider the cap — UMortgage maxes out at $49,750 per LO per year. So at higher volumes, the LO's cost is literally capped while their revenue keeps climbing.
And at 50+ loans? The $995 fee goes away completely. Now it's just $300 + 10% per deal. On that $11,000 commission, the LO pays $1,400 total. That's a 12.7% effective rate instead of the old 18.2%.
The more you produce, the more you keep. That's the whole point.
Why This Matters Beyond Mortgages
UMortgage CEO Anthony Casa said the quiet part out loud: this model mirrors what's already happening in residential real estate brokerage.
He's right.
The percentage-based split model — whether it's a brokerage taking 30% of a real estate agent's commission or a mortgage company skimming 50 bps off every loan — has the same fundamental problem. It punishes production.
The agent or LO who closes 50 deals pays exponentially more than the one who closes 10. But they don't use exponentially more resources. They don't call their broker 5x as often. They don't need 5x more compliance reviews.
Flat-fee models fix this. You pay for the service. The service has a price. You keep the rest.
UMortgage is betting that this model will help them grow from 213 loan officers to 1,000 by December. They originated roughly $2.5 billion in 2025 and they're clearly going after scale. Their Tempo technology platform handles the back-office work, which is how they can afford to slash their corporate revenue by roughly 65%.
That's the other part of this equation — technology makes flat-fee models viable. When your operations run on software instead of bodies, you don't need to extract a percentage of every transaction to cover overhead.
We've Been Saying This for a While
At RaiderX, our model is simple: a flat monthly fee starting at $99/month. No splits. No desk fees. No franchise fees. No per-transaction charges. You keep 100% of every commission.
An agent on our Basic plan pays $1,188 per year total to RaiderX. That's it.
At a traditional 70/30 brokerage, an agent earning $200,000 in gross commissions gives up $60,000 to the brokerage. At RaiderX, they give up $1,188.
The difference is $58,812 per year.
UMortgage moving to flat fees validates what we already know: the percentage-based model is a relic. It worked when brokerages provided the leads, the office, the phone, the fax machine, and the MLS access. That was 2005.
It's 2026. Agents generate their own leads, work from home or their car, use their own tech stack, and build their own brands. The brokerage's job is compliance, licensing, and support — and that job has a fixed cost, not a variable one.
What This Signals for the Industry
When a mortgage broker network with $2.5 billion in origination volume voluntarily cuts its own revenue by 65%, that tells you something about where the market is heading.
The companies that survive the next five years will be the ones that figured out how to deliver real value at a fair, transparent price. Not the ones clinging to percentage splits because "that's how it's always been done."
This is happening in real estate brokerage. It's happening in mortgage. It'll happen in title, insurance, and every other part of the transaction eventually.
The flat-fee model isn't a gimmick. It's the inevitable endpoint when technology reduces the marginal cost of servicing each transaction to near zero.
What Should You Do About It?
If you're a Texas real estate agent still paying 20-30% of your commission to a brokerage, ask yourself what you're getting for that money. Seriously — make a list. Then put a dollar value on each item.
If the total doesn't add up to what you're paying, it's time to look at alternatives.
The mortgage industry is figuring this out right now. The real estate industry figured it out a few years ago. The only question is whether you'll make the switch while it's still a competitive advantage, or wait until everyone else already has.
RaiderX offers flat-fee broker sponsorship for Texas agents. Starting at $99/month. Keep 100% commission. No splits. Apply here