Where to Buy Mortgage Leads in 2026

The mortgage lead market is changing fast.

The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act just banned trigger leads — one of the most common (and most hated) lead sources in the industry. Effective March 2026, credit bureaus can no longer sell those pre-approval alerts that get your phone ringing the moment you pull a borrower's credit.

That means fewer leads available, higher prices for what's left, and more lenders competing for the same pool.

If you're shopping for mortgage leads in 2026, you need to understand what you're actually buying, what it costs, and whether it still makes sense.

This isn't a sponsored directory. This is what loan officers are actually experiencing with each major lead provider, backed by real pricing data and real conversion numbers.

The Major Mortgage Lead Providers Reviewed

Bankrate

What it is: Rate comparison tables. Consumers enter loan details, see rates from multiple lenders, and submit their contact information. You pay per lead (CPL model — cost per lead), with additional CPC (cost per click) and pay-per-call options available.

Pricing: $100-$250+ per lead, depending on lead type, quality tier, and geographic market. Rate table leads specifically can run $150-$250. Purchase leads cost more than refinance. Higher credit scores and better-qualified borrowers cost more.

Exclusivity: Not exclusive. Leads are shared, but typically with fewer buyers than LendingTree.

What loan officers say: Bankrate consistently ranks as the highest quality among aggregator leads. From r/loanoriginators (June 2024): "Purchase runs like $90 to $140 on Bankrate... it's worth it if you have the ability to call/text and convert with thin margins."

The reality: Bankrate leads are expensive because they work better than cheaper alternatives. But "better" is relative. You're still competing with other lenders who got the same lead. Speed to call matters. If you're not calling within 5 minutes, someone else already is.

Best for: Lenders with competitive rates, fast response systems, and the margins to absorb $100-$250 cost per lead.

Traffic/reach: Bankrate gets 4+ million monthly mortgage page views according to their own data. They've been in the space long enough that consumers recognize the brand.

LendingTree

What it is: Aggregator model. Consumers fill out one form. LendingTree sells that lead to multiple lenders simultaneously.

Pricing: Generally cheaper than Bankrate (historically). Exact pricing varies by market and lead criteria.

Exclusivity: Not exclusive. Leads are shared with 5+ lenders at once.

What loan officers say: LendingTree leads are shared with multiple lenders who all receive the same contact information at the same time. This creates immediate competition. The borrower gets calls, texts, and emails from 5+ lenders within minutes of submitting the form.

For loan officers, this means the first to respond typically wins. From r/loanoriginators (March 2025): leads are "split 5 ways and the lenders calling on the leads are all using" speed-to-lead systems.

The reality: LendingTree works if you have the infrastructure to compete on speed. That means auto-dialers, instant text/email follow-up, and a team that can handle high volume. For loan officers with call center operations and dedicated speed systems, LendingTree can produce results at a lower cost per lead than Bankrate.

For solo LOs manually dialing from their CRM hours later, the competition is overwhelming. You're not in a conversation — you're in a race. And without the right infrastructure, you'll lose more often than you win.

Results depend entirely on your systems and speed. Same 100 LendingTree leads: one LO with auto-dialers and instant follow-up closes 2-3. Another LO calling manually closes 0.

Best for: Call center operations with speed-to-lead systems and volume capacity.

Brand recognition: LendingTree has been in the mortgage space for 20+ years. Consumers know the name. That's worth something — just not to you, because you're paying for leads on their platform instead of building your own brand.

NerdWallet

What it is: NerdWallet started as a financial comparison site selling mortgage leads through rate tables. In Q4 2024, they acquired Next Door Lending, a Michigan-based mortgage brokerage with 61 sponsored loan officers and roughly $514 million funded in the prior 12 months. Purchase price: $1 million cash plus a $3.5 million performance earnout through 2028. They rebranded it "NerdWallet Mortgage Experts."

NerdWallet is now both a lead marketplace AND a mortgage brokerage competing directly with the lenders who used to buy leads from them.

What this means: NerdWallet CEO Tim Chen said the acquisition lets them "provide mortgage shoppers with more hands-on guidance" and "build deep and reoccurring relationships with consumers and take more market share while improving mortgage unit economics."

Translation: instead of just selling leads, NerdWallet can now originate the best loans themselves and sell the rest to other lenders.

Here's the part that should make you pay attention: Jonathon Haddad, the chairman and CEO of AIME (Association of Independent Mortgage Experts — the broker industry's own trade association), was one of Next Door's owners. The broker industry's association leader sold his brokerage to a lead generation company.

Pricing: Not well-documented from the loan officer side. Less transparent than Bankrate/LendingTree pricing.

What loan officers say: Sparse. NerdWallet doesn't come up in r/loanoriginators discussions as often as Bankrate or LendingTree. That may change now that they're competing directly as a lender.

The reality: NerdWallet has strong brand awareness from TV and billboard advertising. That drives consumer traffic. But they haven't publicly stated whether they still sell leads in all states or cherry-pick the best consumers for their own origination. The direction is clear: vertical integration.

This is the Zillow playbook. Master customer acquisition. Then originate the loans yourself.

Best for: Lenders willing to test a platform that may be evaluating whether you're worth more as a customer (buying leads) or as a competitor (losing access to their traffic).

Zillow

What it is: Real estate platform that launched mortgage lending in 2019. Now offers both a lead marketplace AND competes directly as a lender.

Pricing: Reported range of $75-$150 per lead for rate table leads. Pricing varies by market and exclusivity.

Exclusivity: Zillow offers exclusive rate table leads in some markets.

What loan officers say: The big concern is that you're competing for leads on a platform that also runs its own lending operation (Zillow Home Loans). You're paying to advertise on a site where the house is also playing.

The reality: Zillow has massive consumer traffic — it's the default platform for home shoppers. That's powerful. But ask yourself: would you buy leads from a platform that's actively competing with you for the same borrowers?

Results will vary based on your market, rates, and whether Zillow prioritizes its own lending operation over its advertising partners.

Best for: Lenders comfortable competing directly against the platform itself, or operating in markets where Zillow Home Loans has less presence.

Credit Karma

What it is: Free credit score service. Consumers checking their credit during the home shopping process get matched with mortgage offers.

Lead type: Earlier in the funnel. Someone checking their credit score isn't necessarily ready to apply for a mortgage tomorrow. But it's a high-intent signal — people checking credit before buying a house.

What loan officers say: Not heavily discussed in LO communities. Less data available on performance.

The reality: Credit Karma leads are speculative. The person is thinking about a major purchase, but timing is uncertain. You're paying for earlier access, which means longer nurture cycles and less predictable conversion timelines.

Best for: Lenders with strong nurture systems who can stay in touch over weeks or months until the borrower is ready.

Mortgage Research Center (MRC) / ICanBuy

What it is: Cost-per-click model (not cost-per-lead). Traffic from 60+ publisher partners. Powers Veterans United, a major VA lender.

Pricing: CPC model means you pay for clicks, not leads. Can be more cost-effective if your landing pages convert well.

Exclusivity: You're bidding for clicks, not buying leads directly.

What loan officers say: Better performance in niche segments — VA, FHA, first-time buyers. MRC's partnership with Veterans United gives them credibility in the VA space.

The reality: CPC models reward lenders who can convert traffic efficiently. If your landing page converts at 20%+, you're getting leads cheaper than buying them directly. If your landing page converts at 8%, you're paying more.

Best for: Lenders with strong landing pages and niche targeting (VA, FHA, first-time buyers).

Aged Lead Providers (Aged Lead Store, etc.)

What they are: Leads that didn't convert for the original buyer. Resold at steep discounts — as low as $0.25-$1.25 per lead from providers like Aged Lead Store.

Why they're cheap: These borrowers have been contacted by multiple lenders already. They either closed with someone else, stopped shopping, or weren't qualified in the first place.

What loan officers say: Aged leads work if you have a massive volume play and a team that can handle high rejection rates. You're buying at a discount because most of these leads are dead.

The reality: This is a numbers game. Buy 500 aged leads, maybe 10-20 respond. Of those, 2-3 close. If your math works at that ratio, aged leads can supplement your pipeline. But don't expect miracles.

Best for: High-volume operations testing low-cost supplemental lead sources.

When Your Lead Provider Becomes Your Competitor

NerdWallet and Zillow both followed the same playbook.

Step 1: Build a platform that attracts millions of consumers shopping for homes and mortgages.

Step 2: Sell leads to lenders. Collect revenue. Learn the economics.

Step 3: Realize you're sitting on the most valuable asset in the mortgage business — customer acquisition — and selling it instead of keeping it.

Step 4: Start originating loans yourself.

Now you're competing with the lenders who were paying you for leads.

This isn't theoretical. Zillow launched Zillow Home Loans in 2019. NerdWallet bought a mortgage brokerage in 2024 and rebranded it NerdWallet Mortgage Experts.

Both companies control massive consumer traffic. Both companies used to just sell that traffic to lenders. Now they're keeping the best loans for themselves.

Here's what that means for you:

Your lead provider isn't just a vendor. They're a potential competitor. (For a deeper look at why exclusive mortgage leads solve this dependency problem, see how first-party generation works.)

They control the traffic. They control the consumer relationship. They know the economics better than anyone because they've been watching lenders buy leads for years.

If a company you depend on for leads decides to vertically integrate, you lose your lead source AND gain a competitor simultaneously.

The mortgage business is simple: you need people in the door. You can have the best rates, the best service, close on time every time — doesn't matter if you can't get clients in the door.

Customer acquisition is the business.

Everything else is execution.

The companies that figure out how to bring people in the door hold all the power. They can choose to sell you leads. Or they can choose to keep those customers and originate the loans themselves.

As a mortgage lender, your job isn't just to do loans. It's to figure out how to get people in the door without being dependent on companies that could become your competition.

That's not paranoia. That's what already happened.

NerdWallet didn't acquire a mortgage brokerage to diversify their revenue. They did it because they saw the margin on origination and realized they were leaving money on the table.

Zillow didn't launch a lending operation to help lenders. They did it because they controlled the traffic and decided to keep it.

The pattern is clear: platforms that master customer acquisition eventually realize they don't need to sell leads. They can originate the loans themselves.

If you're buying leads from a platform with massive consumer traffic, ask yourself: how long until they decide to compete with you instead of selling to you?

And what's your plan when that happens?

The Real Math: Cost Per Lead vs. Cost Per Funded Loan

Here's the problem with most "where to buy leads" articles: they tell you cost per lead and stop there.

Cost per lead is a vanity metric. It's meaningless without conversion data.

What matters is cost per funded loan.

Let's do the math across three real scenarios:

Scenario 1: Shared aggregator leads (LendingTree, etc.) at $75-$150 each

• You buy 100 leads at ~$100 average = $10,000 spent
• Shared with 5+ lenders. You're in a race to call first.
• Industry conversion for shared aggregator leads: 0.5-2%
• At 1% = 1 funded loan
• Cost per funded loan: $10,000
• This is where most LOs live — and most don't even track it.

Scenario 2: Premium aggregator leads (Bankrate) at $120-$200 each

• You buy 100 leads at ~$150 average = $15,000 spent
• Higher intent consumers, fewer competing buyers than LendingTree
• Strong operations conversion: 3-5%. Average operations: 1-2%.
• At 4% (strong ops) = 4 funded loans
• Cost per funded loan: $3,750
• Better — but you're still building Bankrate's brand, not yours.

Scenario 3: First-party exclusive leads at $30-$60 each

• You generate 100 leads from your own marketing at ~$50 average = $5,000 spent
• Exclusive to your brand. No competition. The borrower expects your call.
• Paid conversion: 2-5%.
• At 3% = 3 funded loans
• Cost per funded loan: $1,667
• And this is only counting paid ads. When you add organic leads (5-12% conversion) and referral leads (30-50%+) to the mix, your blended cost per funded loan drops to $1,200-$2,000 — and for top performers, below $1,000.

Notice what's actually happening here. The conversion rates between Bankrate and first-party paid aren't dramatically different — both can hit 3-5% with the right systems. The real difference is cost per lead. $150 vs $50. That gap compounds fast.

100 leads at $150 = $15,000. 100 leads at $50 = $5,000. Same conversion rate, same number of funded loans — but you kept $10,000.

Now add what the math doesn't show: every dollar spent on Bankrate builds Bankrate's brand. Every dollar spent on your own marketing builds yours. The first scenario ends the moment you stop paying. The second creates compounding equity — brand impressions you own, organic traffic that grows, referral networks that multiply.

This is why cost per lead comparisons miss the point. And it's why cost per funded loan is the only metric that matters.

What Nobody Tells You About Buying Mortgage Leads

1. You're Building Someone Else's Brand

When a borrower searches "mortgage rates" and finds Bankrate, Bankrate captures the brand impression. When that borrower submits the form, you pay for the lead — but Bankrate keeps the brand equity.

You funded the traffic. They own the asset.

If you spent that same budget on your own Google Ads, those clicks would be people who saw YOUR brand, YOUR message, YOUR landing page. Some convert immediately. Some come back later. Some refer a friend.

That's the difference between renting and owning your customer acquisition.

2. The Consumer Experience Problem

When someone fills out a form on LendingTree, their contact information gets sold to 5 lenders simultaneously.

Within 10 minutes, they're getting calls, texts, and emails from multiple lenders they've never heard of.

Most consumers don't realize this is how it works. They thought they were requesting one quote. Now they're annoyed.

That's the experience you're stepping into. You're not calling a warm lead. You're calling someone who's already frustrated and screening calls.

Compare that to a lead from your own website: they submitted YOUR form. They expect YOUR call. There's no confusion, no competition, no annoyance.

3. Speed to Call Is Everything — And Most LOs Lose

Leads contacted within 5 minutes are 21x more likely to convert than leads contacted after 30 minutes.

The industry average response time for bought leads? 42 hours.

By the time most loan officers call, the lead is cold. Someone else already made contact, built rapport, and moved the conversation forward.

If you're manually dialing from your CRM, you're losing. The lenders winning with bought leads have auto-dialers, instant multi-channel follow-up (call + text + email in under 5 minutes), and teams dedicated to speed.

Unless you have that infrastructure, buying leads is paying for leads you'll never convert.

4. The Trigger Lead Ban Just Eliminated a Major Supply Source

The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (signed September 2025, effective March 2026) bans credit bureaus from selling trigger leads.

Trigger leads were one of the most common sources in the industry. Borrower gets their credit pulled for a pre-approval, and within hours, 5 other lenders are calling because the credit bureau sold that alert.

Borrowers hated it. Now it's illegal.

That means less supply in the third-party lead market. Higher prices. More competition for what's left.

The lenders who were already building their own lead generation systems? They're fine. The lenders who were 100% dependent on bought leads? They're scrambling.

The Alternative: Generating Your Own Mortgage Leads

Most loan officers treat lead generation like a light switch: turn on the ads, get leads. Turn off the ads, leads stop.

That's the rental model. And it works — until it doesn't.

The lenders who survive long-term build owned channels:

• SEO and content marketing — rank for the searches your borrowers are making. When someone finds your site organically, they're not a lead yet. But they're raising their hand. Capture that interest with a calculator, pre-qualification form, or rate quote tool.

• Referral relationships — agent referrals close at 40-60%. Client referrals close at 50-70%+. These leads cost almost nothing and convert at 10x-30x the rate of bought leads. The catch? Referrals take relationship-building, consistency, and time.

• Your own paid ads — instead of buying leads from Bankrate, run your own Google Ads to your own landing pages. Same cost per click. Except now the lead is exclusive, you control the message, and you're building your brand instead of theirs.

• Email marketing to your database — every loan officer has a list of past clients, old leads, and referrals that never closed. Most of those lists sit untouched. Email them once a month. Market updates. Refinance opportunities. Homebuying tips. This is your lowest-cost lead source, and most LOs ignore it.

The difference between these strategies and buying leads?

Buying leads is transactional. You pay, you get a lead, it converts or it doesn't, you pay again next month.

Generating your own leads is compounding. The blog post you write today might rank in six months. The email you send this week might generate a referral in three months. The ad you run today builds brand impressions that pay off next quarter.

Over time, the cost per funded loan drops. Way down.

That's the advantage most loan officers don't see because they quit after 90 days.

The Hybrid Approach: Owned Channels + Bought Leads

Here's the reality: you don't have to choose.

Most successful loan officers use both.

They buy leads for immediate pipeline. They build owned channels for long-term sustainability.

The bought leads keep the business alive today. The owned channels build leverage over time.

Eventually, the owned channels produce enough volume that bought leads become optional instead of necessary.

That's when you stop being dependent on Bankrate and start controlling your own pipeline.

How to Decide: Should You Buy Mortgage Leads in 2026?

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you have the infrastructure to compete on speed? If you're manually dialing leads 2 hours after they come in, you're going to lose. Bought leads require speed-to-lead systems: auto-dialers, instant text/email, multi-channel follow-up. If you don't have that, save your money.

2. Can you absorb $100-$250 cost per lead and still make your margins work? Run the math. $150/lead at 3% conversion = $5,000 cost per funded loan on premium leads. $100/lead at 1% on shared leads = $10,000 per funded loan. If your margins support that, fine. If not, you're burning money.

3. Are you building anything that lasts? Buying leads builds nothing. Stop paying = zero. If you're not simultaneously investing in owned channels (SEO, referrals, your own ads), you're renting your entire business.

4. How long until the trigger lead ban raises prices? March 2026. Supply contracts, prices rise, competition increases. If you're already seeing cost per lead creep up, it's going to get worse.

If you answered no to most of these, buying leads probably isn't your best play.

If you answered yes, buy strategically — test one source, track cost per funded loan (not cost per lead), and use the cashflow to fund your owned channels.

Final Thought: Renting vs. Owning Your Pipeline

Buying mortgage leads works. Plenty of loan officers build businesses on bought leads.

But it's renting. You're paying for access to someone else's audience, on someone else's platform, with someone else's brand.

Every dollar you spend builds their equity, not yours.

The lenders who make it long-term build owned channels. They might buy leads to supplement. But they're not dependent.

The question isn't whether buying leads is right or wrong. The question is: what are you building that lasts?

Related Reading:

• Why Mortgage Leads Ghost You (And What to Do About It)
• Expert Tools and Strategies for Finding Better Mortgage Loan Leads
• The Best Mortgage Lead Generation Software for Lenders
• Mortgage Lead Generation: The Complete Guide