Getting Commissions for Referrals as a Real Estate Agent

Real estate has gone global. As a consequence, you may find more clients looking to purchase properties outside of your home state. Maybe they want to purchase a vacation home — or maybe they are interested in a real estate investment. Either way, it is a good time to look into referrals.

How Do Referrals Work?

Everyone has done a referral on an informal basis and often for free. You know that someone else does commercial real estate while you do residential real estate, so you refer commercial customers to them. But by formalizing this agreement on a more global scale, you can start earning referral money, too.

Many real estate agents or real estate companies will offer referral money, such as a percentage of the sale, for real estate agents who are able to refer them additional business. Referrals are great if you have customers who are frequently looking for out-of-state properties that you cannot help them with.

How Do You Start Referring?

You can look into either individual real estate companies who you know do business in an area, or you can work with a third party referral network. A real estate agent lead service can do the work for you: this service connects you to real estate agents in other areas and even tracks your referral income for you.

Apart from that, you can bill yourself as an all-in-one resource and start advertising yourself as a resource for out-of-state properties. You can forward clients to the applicable parties and make sure that the clients are satisfied with the end results.

What Are the Benefits of Referring?

Referrals work both ways. By joining a referral network or establishing referral relationships, you can also make sure referrals will come back to you. You can become their resource if their clients are interested in buying properties in your area, and, in so doing, you can significantly extend your reach and your advertising.

And, of course, referrals are almost passive income. By connecting one person to another, you can get a middleman fee, and you will be able to increase your income without increasing the amount of work you have to do.

Real estate is a high word-of-mouth industry, and developing your network and your advertising is always beneficial. By starting to refer people in other areas of the country, you can expand into other areas and build your client base.


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