One of the main benefits of joining a real estate license holding company is the ability to receive payment for your referrals to other real estate brokers. In Illinois, as well as most other states, the referral agreement is not between the brokers involved but between the sponsoring brokers. In order to make sure you get paid out for your referral, please follow the steps below when submitting.
1. Discuss the details with your referral
The first step is to get familiar with what your referral is looking for. Are they a buyer or seller, maybe both? What price range are they looking for or are there any specific needs they have such as commercial property or vacant land. The answers to these questions should be your guide when selecting a broker to refer them to.
2. Contact your chosen broker and agree to a referral fee
After you gather the information in step one, the next step is to contact the broker you are referring to and make sure they accept the referral and are a good fit for the people you are referring. If they are willing to work with them, discuss what fee you are willing to accept for the referral.
3. Fill out the referral submission form on our website
The last step in the process is to fill out our referral submission form. This form can be found on our website by clicking the “submit a referral” link in the header or footer of our webpage as shown below.
The referral submission form is broken in three parts that need to be completed.
Part 1 – Your information
Part one of the form is where you enter your information and the referral fee that you agreed to in step 2. The name and email entered here should match what was used when signing up for our license holding company. When entering the referral fee please make sure to indicate where it is a percentage of the commission received by the broker you are referring to (ex. 25% of commission received) or a flat fee (ex. $750).
Part 2 – Receiving brokers information
Part two of the form is used to enter the information of the broker you are referring to and are receiving the fee from. The “Broker Name” field is the name of the broker that you want to receive the referral. If you know the name and contact information of the managing broker of the other firm please enter it in the “Managing Broker Name and Email” fields, that helps us out when sending over the agreement for signature. If you do not know it, that field is optional
Part 3 – Referrals information
Part three is used to send us the information for your real estate referral to include in the referral agreement. Any information submitted here will be attached to the agreement when sent for signature. If the client is both a buyer and a seller you can select both here, no need for an additional submission. If you are asking for a different referral fee for buying vs selling, please add an explanation in the additional information. The additional information field is also used to for anything else that you would like the other broker to know, such as property or communication preferences of the client.
Concluding Steps
After the form is submitted, we will generate a referral agreement and send for signature by the receiving managing broker. Please note: agreements signed between you and the other broker are not enough. We require our agreement to be signed for all referrals we send out.
If you have any questions at all during the process, please reach out and we will walk you through the steps that need to be taken.