How much does LendingTree.com charge their lenders per lead? And how
much do they charge for each closed loan?

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Clarification of Question by brodeur-ga on 02 Aug 2005 13:46 PDT

I'd rather find out how much they charge per lead, than their
percentage of a closed loan.

Brodeur,

This is what the site says on the subject  (see my comments following):

From "terms of use":

"LendingTree does not charge you, the User, a fee to use our service.
LendingTree is paid a fee by participating Lenders for the goods,
facilities and services provided. Your use of this Web site and/or
LendingTree's services constitutes your agreement with this
compensation arrangement.  ...

"Find a REALTORŪ program LendingTree acts as a referring broker by
referring you to a local real estate broker, and for its services,
LendingTree receives a real estate brokerage referral fee of up to 35%
of the local broker's commission.
Your use of this Web site and/or LendingTree's services constitutes
your agreement with this compensation arrangement."

From "Lending disclosures":

"The loan request you submit is NOT an application for credit. Rather,
it is a request for a loan pre-qualification. You may have to complete
an application with a Lender before they will extend an unconditional
loan offer. A Lender you select may require you to pay an application
fee to cover the costs of an appraisal, credit report or other items.
The Lender will determine the amount of any such fees, and should
provide information to you regarding the refundability of any such
fees. LendingTree does not charge you the consumer, any fees for its
services. LendingTree receives its compensation from the Lenders for
the goods, facilities and services actually provided by LendingTree.
LendingTree's compensation varies by product, but will never exceed
$1,300 per loan request."

So apparently they charge lenders up to 35% of the latters' fees,
whereby one could imagine that the "up to" is applicable when 35%
would exceed $ 1300.
Listing with LendingTree is not a loan request.  It could be, that a
borrower had to make more than one request with different lenders,
resulting in fees from each of them.

I find it interesting that the first page mentions 16 million loan
requests and $ 109 billion in loans since 1998.  That gives an average
loan amount of $6,812,
less than the $7,500 minimum loan amount that appears elsewhere.
This suggests that a considerable number of loan requests do not
result in a loan  - or only after a second or third request by one
customer.

I hope this is of help.  If you have any questions, let me know.
Myoarin

Yes, I read that on their terms area too. They also stated in a press
release (located on their website somewhere) that they make the
majority of their profits from the percentage they charge on the
closed loans.

Now the real answer I'm looking for, is how much do they charge per lead?

Brodeur,
We may never know.  Did you see this in the FAQs:
"What are your closing costs?
Each Lender determines their own policy regarding closing costs.
Unfortunately, because LendingTree is not a Lender and is not involved
in the lending decision, we are unable to determine the amount of
closing costs or out-of-pocket closing expenses. If we are able to
match your request with a Lender, you may discuss your specific
situation with them once you are in contact."

Closing costs would be in addition to application fees.

Perhaps you also saw this page:

http://www.lendingtree.com/stm3/aboutlt/join-lender.asp?source=33989&siteid=&esourceid=33989

which also tells about how LendingTree gets paid.

But they are not talking about $ amounts, of course.

I don't know, nor know anyway to find out.

Good luck, Myoarin