Mortgage lead prices vary more than almost any other vertical. A refinance inquiry, a first-time purchase and a jumbo HELOC are not the same asset, and pricing them on one cost-per-lead figure hides most of what matters.

Start from the funded loan

Work backwards. Take your average loan size, your average compensation per funded loan and your current application-to-fund rate. That tells you what you can afford to spend to fund one loan, and therefore what a lead is really worth to your team.

One purchase specialist brokerage we work with funded 11 loans averaging $418K from 38 applications in 90 days. At that loan size, the cost of the leads that produced those applications was a rounding error against the commission.

A cheap lead that never funds is the most expensive line on the sheet.

Why shared lists cost more than they appear to

Shared mortgage lists send the same borrower to five or six loan officers. By the time your team calls, the borrower has often locked elsewhere. Exclusive borrower inquiries, pre-qualified on loan size, timeline and credit, change that arithmetic.

Match spend to loan officer capacity

Mortgage leads go stale fast. Set spend so every inquiry is worked the same day, route by product and licence, and let automated nurture carry borrowers who are months from ready. A brokerage that does this measures cost per funded loan in weeks, not quarters.