Mortgage lead companies are responsible for generating mortgage leads and providing them to mortgage selling companies. Leads are nothing but queries from people who wish to obtain mortgages. Mortgage selling companies are always on the lookout for good leads from mortgage lead companies.

Mortgage lead companies have different means of operation. They may operate either through telemarketing (call centers) or through websites. Leads that they provide may be exclusive or non-exclusive. Exclusive leads are those meant for only a single company, while non-exclusive leads may be repeatedly sold to a number of companies. Of course, the former cost more. Leads must also be fresh, i.e., they must be newly introduced into the market of mortgages.

Telemarketing mortgage lead companies have a success ratio of 8 to 10%, which means for every 100 leads they provide, 8 to 10 have a chance of closing successfully. Call centers rely on personally calling people from a particular list, which they may have obtained from a cell phone company. When they find a person interested in acquiring a mortgage, they record their contact details and information on credit history, mortgage requirements, etc. These are then forwarded to the mortgage company, who follow up on the case.

Mortgage lead companies working out of call centers charge anywhere between $35 to $65 per lead sold, irrespective of whether it closes or not. If working on an hourly basis, then they may charge $25 per hour. Outsourced business to Asian call centers may cost much less. Mortgage companies are contracted with call centers throughout the world and they get leads once a week, typically on Mondays. There may be an average of 25 leads per week. Some call centers also provide a hot-transfer service, in which the call of a potential mortgage buyer is directly forwarded to an official in the mortgage company.

Websites working in the mortgage-lead generation business are also tremendously busy portals. These have their own mortgage calculators, which pre-qualify mortgage queries. According to this, people are made to fill online application forms, which are then sold to mortgage companies. Mortgage lead generation websites are contracted with particular mortgage companies, just like call centers.

Lead generation websites may charge on a monthly or annual basis. The charges depend on the nature of the website. However, there is widespread skepticism among mortgage companies regarding lead generation websites. A large number of them are sham websites and provide fabricated lists.

Mortgage lead companies are the backbone of the mortgage selling business. Every mortgage company is affiliated with several lead generation companies so that its staff can be free to do documentation work on the mortgages and not take the trouble of marketing.