Referrals. It’s the nine-letter word that’s music to every real estate agent’s ears. As mentioned in our Referral Report, “Agent-to-agent referrals are a foundational piece of the real estate industry. They are a source of passive income for those who send them. They are a key source of sales volume for those who receive them.” Joining a real estate referral network creates opportunity for agents to grow their business and help their clients in more ways than one.

If you nod your head to any of the six scenarios listed below, it may be time to consider joining a referral network.

• You’d like to create a new source of passive income. As an agent or broker, you never want to leave money on the table. If you have specific leads you know you can’t service (e.g., buyer contacts from an open house, internet leads), use your trusted network to connect them with an agent. For example, one of the agents in our network is also in the military full-time, so he uses ReferralExchange as a source of passive income for clients he doesn’t have time to assist.

• Your company referral network requires too much work with uncertain results. We hear it time and time again from agents that they send out a referral and lose track of it almost immediately. Did the transaction even close? Was the client happy? These questions go unanswered far too often. Make sure your referral network is transparent and offers some type of system (e.g., a CRM) to track the entire process.

• You have leads, clients or contacts who don’t match your price range, specialization or market area. Have a lead with a price point too low? Desired location too far away? Don’t automatically throw those leads out. Not every lead or referral that comes your way is going to fall in your wheelhouse. See if you can find those leads an agent and earn a referral fee. One of our tech-savvy agents generates leads from her Instagram page. Often the buyers relocating to her area don’t have an agent to sell their house, so she submits them into our network to help on both sides.

• You are retiring or going part time, but would like to continue generating income from your network. Just because you may be retiring doesn’t mean your friends, family, and past clients stop buying or selling homes. You’ve likely spent a good portion of your real estate career establishing and maintaining a loyal client base and network. Use your referral network to connect them with the best in their market. They get a good agent to assist them and you collect a referral fee. It’s a win-win. There’s an agent in our network who calls us her “retirement fund.” She submits leads/referrals she can’t or won’t service, lets us take it from there and we let her know when the transaction has closed.

• You’re generating more leads from your online marketing than you or your team can handle. Newsletters, blogs, email marketing, online advertising, social media, etc. – these are all great sources of generating leads, but there are only so many hours in the day and only so many members on your team. Take time to evaluate which leads are worth your time and make the most sense for you to work. Submit the remaining leads into your referral network to see if there’s an agent who can service them. We always say, even a small referral fee is better than no referral fee at all.

• You have personal referrals you want to place with a capable, proven agent. Our Referral Report found that “Many agents’ primary concern when referring out business is maintaining the reputation they’ve worked to establish with current and past clients.” Make sure the referral network you join has proven, qualified agents you know will take care of the client. Most of our agents have more than eight years of experience, over $5 million in sales or have completed 20 real estate sales transactions within the last 12 months. Simply put, they are true referral experts.

Your real estate business is bigger than you think. ReferralExchange matches your clients with 3 great agents and pays you a 25% referral fee at closing.