Broker takes 2 points, lender takes 1.5, on one DSCR cash-out

Test it by asking for the term sheets, named lender on each, and the list of lenders he holds a broker approval with. A broker who genuinely shopped four has four emails. A broker approved at one place will get vague about which entity quoted what. Also ask him directly whether he's receiving a rebate from the funding lender in addition to your 2 points, because on business-purpose entity paper he generally can take both, and the rate you were quoted may be bought up above the lender's par pricing to fund that rebate. That's a normal structure and it's still information you're entitled to before you sign a fee agreement.

2 points plus a junk-fee-sized processing charge on a $480k file is at the high end of what brokers charge on DSCR, though I'd stop arguing about it for a second, because your prepay is worth several times the fee difference. 5-4-3-2-1 means a sale in year two costs you 4 percent of the balance. On roughly $480k that's around $19,000, which is the entire fee stack again. Getting him to shop a 3-2-1 or a 3-year step-down instead is a bigger dollar win than talking him from 2 points to 1.5, and some lenders will price a shorter prepay for 25 to 50 bps on the rate. Run that comparison against your actual hold, not against the 30-year amortization.

One more thing to pin down in writing: whether the prepay is calculated on the original balance or the current balance, and whether a partial paydown triggers it. Those two details vary lender to lender and change the number materially. Get the answer from the lender's own docs rather than the broker's summary.