Broker tools
What does your loan processing actually cost per file?
Most broker shops have never computed their per-file processing cost. A salaried processor is not just a salary: it is payroll taxes, benefits, software seats, and a fixed monthly cost that does not fall when volume does. This calculator computes the real number, finds the volume where a salaried desk beats a per-file fee, and stress-tests both structures against a slow quarter. Sometimes the answer is that your in-house desk is the cheaper structure; the calculator will tell you that too.
A 28% load for payroll taxes, benefits, and software is added automatically.
Typical contract processing runs about $695 to $1,295 per file depending on loan type.
What your processing actually costs
- True cost per file today
- $347
- $6,933 per month fully loaded, spread across 20 files
- Annual cost at your volume
- $33,280
- 8 files a month, whoever bears the cost
- If borrower-paid third party
- $0
- of that cost stays on your side of the ledger, when the lender permits the fee
Break-even for the salaried desk: 7.0 files per month. Above that, in-house costs less per file than a $995 contract fee. At your desk volume, keeping the salaried processor is the cheaper structure per file. The remaining argument for outsourcing is fixed-cost risk, below.
Slow-quarter stress test, volume down 40%: the desk still costs $6,933 a month, so per-file cost rises from $347 to $578. A per-file or borrower-paid structure falls with volume instead. This fixed-versus-variable difference is what squeezed shops with salaried desks when volume dropped in 2022.
Prints as a one-page summary you can put in front of your broker-owner.
How the borrower-paid structure works
Federal loan originator compensation rules prevent a brokerage from charging the borrower separately for its own in-house processing labor, so that cost comes out of the shop's revenue. A bona fide third-party processing company's fee can, in many cases, appear on the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure as a borrower-paid item instead. Typical contract processing runs about $695 to $1,295 per file depending on loan type.
Whether and how a third-party processing fee can be charged to the borrower varies by wholesale lender and by state. Some lender guidelines restrict or prohibit it, and disclosure treatment differs. Confirm with your lender's compliance desk before quoting a borrower-paid fee on any file. This tool models economics only; it is not legal or compliance advice.
The fixed-cost question behind the arithmetic
The per-file comparison is only half the decision. A salaried desk is a fixed cost: when volume drops 40 percent, the desk still costs the same each month, so the per-file cost climbs exactly when revenue falls. A per-file or borrower-paid structure falls with volume instead. That difference is what squeezed shops with salaried desks when volume dropped in 2022, and it is why the break-even number matters less than how far above or below it your slow quarters run.
If you are weighing the broker channel itself, our page on what mortgage brokers do and who pays them covers the other side of the desk, and the county rate tables show what borrowers in your market actually paid.