Buy mortgage leads: what to ask any vendor, then how it works with us
Radian Leads sells exclusive mortgage live transfers to licensed lenders, brokers and loan officers. Opted-in homeowners are called back by our qualification specialist, screened against your criteria on a recorded call, and introduced live to your loan officer. You pay per billable transfer, which is a call that reaches 3 minutes of loan officer conversation. Shorter calls are not billed. A transfer that falls outside your agreed criteria on the recording is replaced.
Before you buy mortgage leads from anyone, including us, there are seven questions worth asking. Most vendor sites do not answer them, which is why buyers end up on forums asking other loan officers. The checklist gives you each question and the answer to expect. The second half of the page walks through a purchase with us, step by step.
The buyer's checklist: seven questions for any mortgage lead vendor
1. Can you prove the consumer consented, and to whom?
Ask for the consent record: where the form was submitted, what it said, when, and which company names were on it. Then ask how the callback is made. A callback from a rotating number under a company name the consumer never saw is a problem you inherit.
What to expect from us: consumers are opted in, consent is confirmed on the recording, and our specialist calls back inside the consent window, from the same number and under the same company name every time. Do Not Call requests are honored immediately.
2. Is the qualification call recorded, and can I hear it?
If a vendor cannot play you the screening call, you cannot know what the borrower was asked or what they said. Recording also settles every dispute about whether a transfer was good.
What to expect from us: every call is recorded dual-channel on our own telecom. Each transfer's recording sits in your dashboard at client.radianleads.com, scored against your criteria.
3. Is the lead exclusive, and what does exclusive mean in writing?
"Exclusive" on a sales page can mean exclusive for an hour, exclusive within a loan type, or exclusive until the vendor's next data refresh. Ask how many lenders receive the consumer, whether the record is ever resold, and what the duplicate window is.
What to expect from us: one borrower, one lender, never resold, and not sent to you again inside 30 days. Full detail on our exclusive mortgage leads page.
4. What is the replacement rule, and who decides?
Every vendor says bad leads are credited. Ask what counts as bad, what evidence is used, who reviews it, and how long you have to file.
What to expect from us: if a transfer falls outside your agreed qualification criteria on the recording, it is replaced. The front-end qualifying recording is the evidence. Your account manager reviews it against the agreed campaign requirements, and you can raise the request from your dashboard, where credits purchased, used and returned are tracked.
5. What is the billable threshold?
For live transfers, ask at what point you are charged. Some vendors bill on connection. Ask whether a 40-second call where the borrower hangs up costs the same as a 20-minute application call.
What to expect from us: a transfer is billable at 3 minutes (180 seconds) or more of loan officer conversation. Some programs use 90 seconds. Calls under the threshold are not billed.
6. Which states and which programs?
Confirm the vendor can restrict delivery to your licensed states, exclude states you do not want, and screen for the loan programs you sell.
What to expect from us: delivery is limited to your licensed states, with exclusions. Our screening library covers refinance, cash-out, HELOC and home equity, purchase, reverse (HECM), VA, FHA, DSCR and non-QM. Our mortgage leads page lists every program.
7. What are the published results, and are they attributed?
Any vendor can quote a conversion rate. Ask what campaign it came from, over what period, and whether it was published anywhere a journalist could check.
What to expect from us: our Q4 2026 KPI release, covered by AP News, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga and Business Insider, reported a 17.6% transfer-to-application rate on live mortgage transfers and about 16 minutes (15:57) average borrower-to-loan-officer conversation. These are published figures, not guarantees.
Checklist summary
| Question | Answer to look for | Our answer |
|---|---|---|
| Consent proof | Documented opt-in, callback inside the consent window | Yes, confirmed on the recording |
| Recording | Full screening call available to you | Yes, dual-channel, in your dashboard |
| Exclusivity | One lender, no resale, stated duplicate window | One lender, never resold, 30-day window |
| Replacement rule | Written criteria, recording as evidence | Replaced if outside criteria on the recording |
| Billable threshold | A stated minimum conversation length | 3 minutes (90 seconds on some programs) |
| States and programs | Restricted to your licenses | Your licensed states, with exclusions |
| Results | Attributed, published | Q4 2026 KPI release, press-covered |
How to buy mortgage leads from us, step by step
Step 1. Request a quote
Fill in the Request a Quote form with your licensed states, the loan programs you want and your target volume. During business hours a representative reaches out within 5 minutes. Sales hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific; outside those hours you hear back the next business day.
Step 2. Agree your criteria
Your account manager works through the criteria our specialist will ask on every call: who the borrower is (veteran status on VA campaigns, occupancy), where the property is, what it is (property type, on title, not under construction), value and equity floors and caps, credit score floor and lookbacks, loan purpose and timeline. You set the values. As an example of the shape, a current program uses a $150,000 value floor, an 80% combined LTV cap and a 620 score floor.
Step 3. Set quantity, timeframe and credits
Agree the number of transfers, a planned delivery timeframe and the per-transfer price for your program. Transfers are bought in blocks of credits. Each billable transfer draws down one credit. Replaced transfers return the credit to your balance. Our mortgage leads cost page explains the model.
Step 4. Receive transfers
Our specialist calls opted-in homeowners back, screens them against your criteria with every answer on tape, and transfers qualified borrowers live to your loan officer with a 15-second handoff in the borrower's own words. The typical loan officer conversation runs about 15 minutes. Nothing sensitive is collected on our call: no SSN, date of birth, email, bank details or age. The full call is described on our post about what live transfer leads are.
Step 5. Review in your dashboard
Every transfer appears in client.radianleads.com with its recording and its score against your criteria. Raise a replacement request on any transfer that falls outside the criteria. Criteria can be adjusted with your account manager as your needs change.
Buying by program
- Buy VA mortgage leads: VA cash-out, IRRRL and purchase, with a service probe on every call.
- Buy reverse mortgage leads: HECM campaigns.
- Buy refinance leads: rate-and-term and cash-out across VA, FHA and conventional.
- Buy HELOC leads: HELOC, fixed-rate HELOAN and second liens.
Frequently asked questions
The best place is the vendor that answers the seven questions above in writing. If you want forms to dial, a data vendor is cheaper. If you want screened borrowers on the phone with your loan officer, buy live transfers. Our comparison of mortgage lead companies looks at the main vendors by those seven questions.
You can request a quote online. We do not sell transfers through a self-serve cart, because criteria, states and volume have to be agreed before the first call is routed.
Yes. Campaigns are built per program and per state set. Many clients run one program, such as VA cash-out or HELOC, and add others later.
Priced per billable transfer, quoted per program. Transfers are priced between $110 and $140 per billable transfer, depending on loan program, states and criteria. Our transfers are priced between $110 and $140 per billable transfer by program; our published campaign math used $110, the bottom of that range. Third-party guides put mortgage live transfers at roughly $80 to $250 per qualified transfer; those are published ranges, not our pricing.
Purchase is on our campaign list alongside refinance, cash-out, HELOC, home equity and reverse. Ask about purchase programs on the quote form.
Tell us what a qualified transfer looks like for your business
Give us your criteria, states and target volume. A representative reaches out within 5 minutes during business hours.