Get Your Unfair Share of the $1.3B Agent-to-Agent Referral Opportunity

WELCOME to the more than 1,000 new TwentyPercenters who joined last month! And thanks to our long-time subscribers for sharing these posts with your fellow real estate ninjas!

“Start it like you’re gonna finish it.”

– June Jumper

Summer camp for me was a visit to my Aunt June’s dairy farm in Mississippi. We’d rise early for breakfast and then bring in the cows. I would slop feed into the troughs with my cousin Greg while my uncle James Royce managed the milking. Chores were nonstop until noon. And we didn’t always approach them with cheer. June would sometimes scold us when we loafed, “Start it like you’re gonna finish it.”

Most farm chores can’t be half done. The milking isn’t done until the last cow leaves the barn. Turns out, lots of life’s opportunities are the same.

Many of you joined us at Family Reunion in Anaheim. You made a huge investment of time and money in your business. Did you complete the task?

One of the most direct financial rewards agents can get from these learning events is agent-to-agent referrals. You connected with dozens of fellow agents from around the world. You traded business cards and made promises to stay connected. That job isn’t done until you cement those referral relationships, add them to your database, and put them on a follow-up campaign.

What’s at stake? A share of the more than $1.3B in agent referrals paid. The 2022 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reported that 6% of buyers and 5% of sellers found their agent by referral. With 5 million transactions at an average price of $386,000, that equates to over $222 billion in referral sales volume. Making some conservative assumptions around average commission rates and, say, a 25% average referral fee, you get $1.3 billion in commissions.

A  2018 survey  by ReferralExchange in partnership with CRS stated the “close rate of a typical referral, whether inbound or outbound, hovered around 50% for the majority of respondents.” So more than twice that much income was in play!

Now is the time to follow up. Cement those relationships with a follow-up card or call. Get permission to add them to your monthly agent-to-agent campaign. And then stay in touch so you’re always top of mind.

The good news is most of your competition won’t. That $1.3 billion won’t get divided evenly. The agents who work those relationships get the vast majority of referral income. Why shouldn’t that be you?

Over a decade ago, my wife Wendy attended her first Family Reunion in New Orleans. On the flight home, she wrote 100 handwritten notes to the agents she met there. She recalls going to the mailbox and expecting it to be full of notes and cards. She got exactly one from  Lisa Archer , in Charlotte, NC. Over the years, as much as 25% of our production at  Papasan Properties Group  has come from agent-to-agent relationships!

Go to your calendar and block an hour to start following up with the agents you met. This is how you get your unfair share!

Finally, a quick ask. Our training team asked me to share this  four-question, flash survey.  We’ll use the results to curate better content in our training and in this newsletter. Thanks!

One question to ponder in your thinking time: How can I bring value to my agent database so they always think of me for referrals?

Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan

Co-author of The One Thing & The Millionaire Real Estate Agent ​