Selling your mortgage trail book. What it's worth, and to whom.
Whether you are winding down, raising cash, or just testing the market, a mortgage trail book for sale is only as valuable as the data behind it. Here is how Australian trail books are valued, what buyers actually scrutinise, and how to get your numbers sale-ready before you go to market.
How a trail book is valued.
Australian trail books sell on a multiple of annual trail income — typically somewhere around 1.5x to 2.5x ex-GST, though the band is wide and buyers price the quality of the cash flow, not just its size. The drivers are run-off rate, lender concentration, the average age of the loans, and how clean and verifiable the loan-level data is. Get a quick estimate with the trail book valuation calculator, then read how to value an Australian trail book for the full method.
The five things a buyer scrutinises.
- Clean, loan-level data — not just a headline trail figure, but a per-loan breakdown that reconciles to aggregator statements
- A low, stable run-off rate — the slower the book decays, the more each dollar of trail is worth
- A diversified lender spread — heavy concentration in one or two lenders is a discount, not a feature
- Few loans inside the clawback window — recently-settled loans carry both clawback and refinance risk
- Evidence of retention — a book whose owner stays in front of clients holds its value after the handover
Two of these — run-off and lender concentration — do most of the work on price. See what run-off rate means to a buyer and how lender concentration moves book value.
One upload turns your statement into the numbers a buyer asks for.
Trail AI ingests your aggregator statement and produces a sale-value PDF with A–E loan grading, clawback exposure, lender concentration, and a defensible valuation — the evidence a buyer needs to make an offer with confidence. Reconcile first, resolve any missing trail commission, then take a clean book to market.
Selling a trail book — common questions
- How much is a mortgage trail book worth?
- Australian trail books are typically valued as a multiple of annual trail income (ex-GST), commonly somewhere around 1.5x–2.5x. The exact multiple is driven by run-off rate, lender concentration, the average age of the loans, and how clean and verifiable the data is. A stable, diversified, well-documented book sells at the top of the range; a concentrated or ageing one sells below it.
- Where do I find trail book buyers in Australia?
- Buyers are usually other mortgage brokers, broker groups, and aggregators looking to add recurring income, plus a handful of specialist trail-book acquirers. Most deals happen through aggregator networks and broker-to-broker introductions rather than a public marketplace, which is why having sale-ready numbers matters before you put the word out.
- What documents do I need to sell my trail book?
- At minimum: recent aggregator commission statements, a loan-level list with balances and trail rates, the lender split, and a clear picture of run-off over the last 12–24 months. A valuation report that grades the loans and quantifies clawback exposure and lender concentration makes the book far easier for a buyer to price and trust.
- How do I get my trail book sale-ready?
- Reconcile your statements so the loan-level data ties out, resolve any missing trail, document your run-off, and produce a valuation that a buyer can verify. Trail AI ingests your aggregator statement and generates a sale-value PDF with A–E loan grading, clawback risk, and lender-concentration penalties — the numbers a buyer asks for, in one upload.