The quick read: We found no published source that sets a normal broker fee for commercial bridge loans. Published ranges are broader: NerdWallet's business-loan broker guide lists "~1% to 15% of loan amount," and NerdWallet and Bankrate put residential mortgage broker pay at about 1% to 2%. On a $5 million bridge loan, 2% is $100,000 at closing and 3% is $150,000, and a borrower charged the same rate again on the takeout refinance pays it twice.
What matters more is what the fee does to a deal. This page follows one illustrative deal through both stages a bridge borrower pays for, the $5 million bridge and the fixed-rate loan that takes it out. Every number is arithmetic on stated assumptions, not a quote or a lender offer, with formulas shown so you can rerun them.
What do published sources actually say a commercial mortgage broker fee should be?
Published sources give broker-fee ranges for business loans and for residential mortgages, but we found none that states a norm for commercial bridge loans, so a 2% or 3% bridge fee has no published benchmark of its own. A 2% fee sits at the top of the residential band and inside the much wider business-loan range.
Table: Published broker-fee figures and what they cover
| Source (date on page) | What it covers | Figure as published |
|---|---|---|
| NerdWallet, business-loan broker guide (updated Aug. 11, 2026) | Business loans generally; not specific to commercial real estate | "~1% to 15% of loan amount" |
| NerdWallet, mortgage broker pay guide (updated March 19, 2026) | Residential mortgages | "around 1%-2% of the loan value," paid by the borrower or the lender |
| Bankrate, mortgage broker guide (updated Oct. 31, 2025) | Residential mortgages, in the cases where the borrower pays | "1 to 2 percent of the loan principal" |
| Commercial bridge loans | Short-term commercial real estate loans | No published norm found in any source we read |
| Brokerage (YieldStack, publisher of this page) | YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender. | It costs Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is paid only at closing. |
The business-loan range is written for business financing in general, so its 15% top end says nothing specific about a $5 million bridge on an apartment building, and the other two figures describe home loans. Each shows only where a bridge fee sits against loans that are not bridge loans. For how fee agreements are structured, see the commercial mortgage broker fee explainer, and for broker pay across loan types this year, see how much a commercial mortgage broker should charge in 2026.
What does a 1%, 2% or 2.5% broker fee cost on a $5 million bridge loan?
On a $5 million bridge loan, a 1% broker fee is $50,000, a 2% fee is $100,000, a 2.5% fee is $125,000 and a 3% fee is $150,000, each paid at closing in this example. On an illustrative purchase with a $1.25 million down payment, those fees equal 4% to 12% of the equity the buyer brings.
Assumptions (hypothetical unless a source is named):
Purchase price: $6.25 million (hypothetical)
Bridge loan: $5 million, or 80% of the price, the top of the 65% to 80% LTV or LTC range that NerdWallet's commercial bridge loan guide (updated Feb. 19, 2026) says bridge lenders tend to offer
Down payment: $1.25 million
Other closing costs: excluded
Formula: fee = loan amount × fee rate; cash to close = down payment + fee
Table: Broker fee on a $5 million bridge loan (illustrative)
| Fee rate | Fee at closing | Cash to close | Fee as a share of the down payment | Net proceeds if the fee is paid from the loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.50% | $25,000 | $1,275,000 | 2.0% | $4,975,000 |
| 1.00% | $50,000 | $1,300,000 | 4.0% | $4,950,000 |
| 2.00% | $100,000 | $1,350,000 | 8.0% | $4,900,000 |
| 2.50% | $125,000 | $1,375,000 | 10.0% | $4,875,000 |
| 3.00% | $150,000 | $1,400,000 | 12.0% | $4,850,000 |
Moving from a 1% fee to a 2.5% fee adds $75,000 of cash at closing on the same loan. At the hypothetical coupon in the next section, that is about 2.3 months of interest. For the lender-side fees that sit alongside a broker fee, see the bridge loan fees and closing costs guide.
How much does a broker fee add to your cost over a 12- to 24-month hold?
A broker fee paid at closing adds its rate divided by the years you hold the loan to your annual borrowing cost, so a 2% fee adds 200 basis points a year on a 12-month hold and 100 basis points a year on a 24-month hold, before any interest is counted.
Formula: added cost per year = fee rate ÷ years held
Formula: simple all-in annual cost = (interest paid over the hold + fee) ÷ loan amount ÷ years held
To put a coupon on it, this example uses SOFR of 3.87% on Sept. 23, 2026, from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED data, plus a HYPOTHETICAL 4.00% spread. We found no published 2026 bridge spread to cite, so replace it with the one in your term sheet. The result, 7.87%, sits inside the "6% to 14% or more" range NerdWallet's bridge guide gives for commercial bridge loan rates. Interest-only on $5 million at 7.87% is $32,792 a month, or $393,500 over 12 months and $787,000 over 24 months.
Table: Broker fee as a yearly cost over the hold (illustrative; HYPOTHETICAL 7.87% coupon)
| Fee rate | Added per year, 12-month hold | Added per year, 24-month hold | Simple all-in cost, 12 months | Simple all-in cost, 24 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.50% | 50 bp | 25 bp | 8.37% | 8.12% |
| 1.00% | 100 bp | 50 bp | 8.87% | 8.37% |
| 2.00% | 200 bp | 100 bp | 9.87% | 8.87% |
| 2.50% | 250 bp | 125 bp | 10.37% | 9.12% |
| 3.00% | 300 bp | 150 bp | 10.87% | 9.37% |
A bridge repaid in 12 months carries the entire fee in one year. Lender points, exit fees and other closing costs are left out; the short-term bridge loan cost guide shows how to annualize a full quote. A year earlier, SOFR was 4.12% (Sept. 23, 2025, same FRED series), so the same spread would have meant an 8.12% coupon and $1,042 a month more interest. The rate move landed on the takeout instead.
Can you roll the broker fee into the bridge loan instead of paying cash?
You can roll a broker fee into a bridge loan only if the lender allows it and its leverage limit leaves room for a bigger loan, and a deal already sized at the lender's maximum has no room, so the fee comes out of your cash at closing or out of the loan proceeds you planned to use.
Formula: gross loan needed to net $5 million = $5 million ÷ (1 − fee rate)
To net the same $5 million after the fee, the loan has to be $5,050,505 at 1%, $5,102,041 at 2% and $5,128,205 at 2.5%. On the $6.25 million purchase, that is 80.81%, 81.63% and 82.05% of the price, each above the 80% top of the range NerdWallet's bridge guide describes. We found no published source on whether bridge lenders let borrowers finance a broker fee, so ask the lender directly before counting on it.
Paying the fee from loan proceeds is the same money by another route: a 2.5% fee takes $125,000 of the $5 million, and that gap in the purchase price comes from your own account.
Why can a bridge borrower end up paying a broker fee twice?
A bridge loan is short-term debt meant to be repaid by a sale or a refinance, so a borrower who uses a broker to place the takeout loan can owe a second percentage fee, charged on whatever balance the stabilized property can support at that day's rates.
We found no published data on how often borrowers use the same broker for the bridge and the takeout, so treat the second fee as a question for your fee agreement, not a given. As of late September 2026, rates make the second stage the harder one. The 10-year Treasury yield was 5.18% on Sept. 24, 2026, against 4.16% on Sept. 24, 2025, according to the U.S. Treasury's daily par yield curve, so, at constant spreads, the fixed-rate takeout costs more than a year ago even though the floating bridge costs less.
Takeout assumptions:
Bridge payoff: $5 million, the same loan as above
Takeout rate: the 10-year Treasury's 5.18% plus a HYPOTHETICAL 1.62-point spread, or 6.80%
Amortization: 30 years
Minimum DSCR: 1.25x, the minimum amortizing DCR on Freddie Mac's fixed-rate loan term sheet (a program with a $10 million minimum loan, cited only for the ratio)
Stabilized NOI: $460,000 (hypothetical)
Formula: maximum loan = (NOI ÷ 1.25) ÷ annual loan constant, where the constant at 6.80% over 30 years is 0.078231
The most that NOI supports at 6.80% is $368,000 ÷ 0.078231, or $4,704,016, which leaves $295,984 of the $5 million payoff for the sponsor to cover in cash. At a year-earlier takeout rate of 5.78% (4.16% plus the same spread), the constant is 0.070258 and the same NOI supports $5,237,867, a $237,867 cushion. To refinance the full $5 million at 1.25x and 6.80%, the property would need $488,944 of NOI, 11.3% more than the $439,110 it needed a year earlier. Dollar figures are computed unrounded; the rounded constants reproduce them within $30.
Table: Broker fees across both stages of one bridge deal (illustrative)
| Fee rate, both stages | Bridge fee ($5 million) | Takeout fee ($4,704,016) | Total broker fees | Cash in at the takeout (shortfall + fee) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.50% | $25,000 | $23,520 | $48,520 | $319,504 |
| 1.00% | $50,000 | $47,040 | $97,040 | $343,024 |
| 2.00% | $100,000 | $94,080 | $194,080 | $390,064 |
| 2.50% | $125,000 | $117,600 | $242,600 | $413,584 |
| 3.00% | $150,000 | $141,120 | $291,120 | $437,104 |
The takeout fee has nowhere to go but cash in this example: the loan is already capped by the 1.25x test, so adding the fee to the principal would push coverage below the minimum. Moving from 1% to 2.5% at both stages costs $145,560 more on this one property.
Is there an official cap on what a broker can charge on a commercial loan?
We found no official cap on broker fees for a conventional commercial bridge loan; the closest published regulatory yardstick is the SBA's limit on what agents may charge applicants on SBA loans, which shows how high one federal program lets a percentage fee go but does not govern a bridge loan.
SBA's Standard Operating Procedure 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025, says a fee charged to an applicant as a percentage of the loan may not exceed "3 percent on loans of $50,000 or less," 2 percent up to the first $1 million, and "0.25 percent on the portion over" that amount, and that "The maximum fee that may be charged in the aggregate to an Applicant on a percentage basis is $30,000." Reading the 2 percent tier as covering the first $1 million of a larger loan, a $5 million SBA loan reaches the $30,000 ceiling: $20,000 on the first $1 million plus 0.25% of the remaining $4 million, or 0.60% of the loan.
A 2% fee on a conventional $5 million bridge loan is $100,000, more than three times that ceiling. The SBA limits do not apply to that bridge loan, so this is a benchmark, not a finding that the fee breaks a rule.
What should you ask before agreeing to a 2% or 3% bridge broker fee?
Before agreeing to a 2% or 3% bridge broker fee, get five things in writing: the fee in dollars, the balance it is charged on, when it is due, whether it applies again to the takeout refinance, and the exit assumptions behind the deal, because each one changes what the placement actually costs you.
- The dollar figure. Ask for the fee in dollars on your actual loan amount, not only as a percentage. On $5 million, each point is $50,000.
- The base. Ask whether the percentage applies to the initial funding or the total commitment, including a renovation holdback funded later.
- The timing. Ask whether anything is due before closing. NerdWallet's business-loan broker guide tells borrowers to "Avoid brokers who ask for fees upfront."
- The takeout. Ask whether a second fee applies when you refinance out of the bridge, at what rate, and get the answer into the engagement letter.
- The exit math. Ask what rate and coverage test the takeout will be sized on, and rerun the two-stage table with your own NOI. The bridge loan terms guide covers extension terms if the takeout falls short.
How do you get lenders competing for a bridge loan and its takeout?
You get lenders competing for a bridge loan by putting one complete file, with the purchase price, the business plan and the takeout you expect, in front of several lender types at once, and by settling the broker fee in writing before the deal is shopped. YieldStack is a commercial mortgage brokerage, not a lender.
It costs Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is paid only at closing. One submission is matched against 20,000+ loan programs. Every credit decision is made by the lender; YieldStack arranges the introductions and negotiates on the borrower's side, and no loan, rate, or closing is guaranteed.
Submit your bridge deal and review the offers that come back.
The bottom line
A 2% or 3% broker fee on a commercial bridge loan has no published norm we could find to measure it against: the published ranges are residential, about 1% to 2%, or cover business loans broadly, ~1% to 15%. The arithmetic is clear. On a $5 million bridge, 2% is $100,000 and 3% is $150,000 at closing, 8% to 12% of a $1.25 million down payment, and a 12-month hold carries the whole fee in one year. Charged again on the takeout, the same rate nearly doubles total broker fees in this illustration, while a 5.18% 10-year Treasury (Sept. 24, 2026) makes that takeout harder to size. Ask for every fee in dollars, at both stages, before you sign.