If a real estate professional is unable to assist a client in buying or selling, finding a referral can still help their client and earn them a commission too.
Indeed, a real estate pro’s referral network can make up a portion of their yearly income. Forty-two percent of real estate professionals say they earned between $10,000 to $50,000 from fees for referrals last year, according to
The Agent-to-Agent Real Estate Referral Economy 2018, released by ReferralExchange, a referral service. Up to 2 percent of real estate professionals even said they earned between $100,000 to $500,000 from referrals alone.
Here’s a closer look at the breakdown of agent earnings from referrals, according to the report:
“Referral networks offer two distinct points of value to agents: They provide a reliable source for referring prospects and clients out to other qualified agents, and they also provide a solid source of inbound referral business,” according to the report.
Eighty-three percent of more than 1,800 real estate professionals surveyed said they belong to a network for referrals. Agents say they tend to receive more referrals than they send out to others in the industry. Sixty percent of real estate pros say they receive more than five referrals per year, according to the 2018 study.
Not all referrals may end up in a closed transaction. But about 38 percent of real estate professionals said that more than 20 percent of the referrals they received or sent to others did end up closing.
Source: “The Agent-to-Agent Real Estate Referral Economy 2018,” Referral Exchange (2018)
