Mortgage leads cost: how our per-transfer pricing works

What you pay for

There is no per-lead pricing for unqualified calls. Screening calls that do not result in a transfer cost you nothing.

The 3-minute billable threshold

A transfer counts once the loan officer conversation reaches 3 minutes (180 seconds). Some programs use 90 seconds. A call that drops at 40 seconds is not billed.

The threshold moves the risk of a short call to us. On our Oct 27 to 31 2026 cash-out refinance campaign, 65% of routed transfers connected to a loan officer and 71% of connected calls met the 3-minute threshold, first-week figures from one campaign published in our October 2026 release. The rest were not billed.

Replacement and credit rules

If a transfer falls outside your agreed qualification criteria on the recording, it is replaced. The front-end qualifying recording is the evidence and your account manager reviews it against the agreed requirements. You raise the request in your dashboard at client.radianleads.com, where every transfer is recorded and scored against your criteria and credits purchased, used and returned are tracked.

Transfers are bought in blocks of credits. Each billable transfer draws down one credit. A replaced transfer returns its credit to the balance. Criteria can be adjusted with your account manager as your needs change.

The transfer price in our published campaign math

Transfers are priced between $110 and $140 per billable transfer, depending on loan program, states and criteria. The October 2026 release worked its cost-per-funded-loan calculation at $110, the bottom of that range. Your quote depends on the program, states and criteria you set.

Published third-party ranges

Third-party guides put mortgage live transfers at roughly $80 to $250 per qualified transfer depending on loan type and exclusivity. Those are published ranges, not our pricing. The spread exists because "live transfer" covers everything from an unscreened connection billed on pickup to a screened, recorded, exclusive transfer billed after 3 minutes. Price per transfer means little until you know the threshold and the replacement rule. Our buyer's checklist for mortgage leads lists the questions to ask.

Cost per funded loan: a worked table

The number that matters is cost per funded loan, not cost per lead. Here is the arithmetic from our October 2026 release, using only its published figures. Every row is a first-week figure from one campaign or a blended published figure, not a guarantee.

The cash-out campaign was one licensed lender running VA, FHA and conventional cash-out, HELOC and second-lien programs. On it, 83.3% of billable transfers progressed to identity or credit intake. 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 conversation.

To run the table for your program, put in your own application and funding rates. The transfer price is the only input we set.

Cheap mortgage leads: what the low price buys

Cheap mortgage leads exist. An aged record costs a small fraction of a transfer. The difference is where the cost goes: with a cheap form, your team pays in dialer time, unanswered calls and loan officers qualifying consumers who never fit. With a transfer billed per 3-minute conversation, the screening is done before you pay. Compare cost per funded loan including staff time. Our mortgage leads page does that comparison.

Why we do not do pay-at-closing

Lenders ask about mortgage leads pay at closing because it sounds like zero risk. We do not offer it, for three reasons.

1. A vendor paid only at closing has to recover the cost of every lead that does not close from the ones that do, so the closing fee ends up far above the per-transfer cost in the table above.
2. The vendor's incentive is volume of cheap leads, not quality of screening, because screening costs money that is only recovered when a loan funds.
3. Fees tied to a closed mortgage loan raise RESPA questions that the lender carries.

We are paid only for a transfer that reaches 3 minutes with your loan officer, and we return the credit if the recording shows the borrower was outside your criteria. We are never paid on your closing.

Pricing by program

Each program is quoted on its own criteria and states, most often refinance leads and HELOC leads. Every transfer is exclusive; our exclusive mortgage leads page defines the terms.