One referral paid more than my last four months of analysis
I have been circling deals without doing one for a while, which people here know. This isn't a deal. It's the first money the license has produced and the mechanics surprised me enough to write it up.
A former coworker's parents were selling. 4,100 square feet, waterfront-adjacent, the kind of house where the buyer pool in my metro is maybe forty people a year. I know that market the way you know a neighborhood you drive through, which is to say not at all. Three years ago I'd have taken the listing anyway and done a bad job of it.
Instead I referred it to an agent who does that band exclusively. Referral agreement signed through my broker before any introduction, 25% of her side. She listed at $3.49M, took 71 days, closed at $3.35M. Her side was 2.25%, so $75,375. My 25% was $18,844, less my brokerage split, and I netted a bit over $13k for two phone calls and a signature.
What nearly broke it: the parents wanted to skip all of it and sell to a neighbor's friend who'd expressed interest at $3.1M. My contribution was pointing out that $390k of price difference buys a lot of inconvenience. The specialist ran a private preview to her own list and two of the four offers came from people who'd never seen it publicly.
What I'd keep: signing the referral before the introduction. My broker was clear that the agreement has to exist first, and referral arrangements and what a license lets you get paid for vary by state, so that's a conversation with your own broker rather than something to copy from a forum post.
What I'd change: I asked for 25% because that's the number I'd read. I had no idea whether 30 or 35 was available.