On average 30 – 40 million Americans move each and every year. A common problem the 2 Million+ Real Estate Agents across the country face is how to service clients when they moved out of their market area. In or out of state, agents face the three primary issues.  

1. Find an agent in their client’s location that would deliver a similar level of service to their clientele, and, in effect, be an extension of their brand.

 

2. Negotiating a referral percentage where all parties are happy to work together. The negotiation process that has occurred can be time-consuming and laborious. Once the referral fee has been negotiated the referring agents would have to face the most significant issue..

 

3. Tracking the referral to ensure their client was satisfied and, once the transaction is complete, receiving payment once the deal was closed. To this point, there has been no way of knowing if the agent sold the referral a home or if they moved on to another agent. This hiccup has allowed thousands of referral fees to be lost, to the point where most agents don’t even bother referring clients to agents in their new location.

AgentSwap was created to bridge the gap between agents and allow for the first truly peer-to-peer real estate referral solution. The founder of Agent Swap, CHRIS NAME #TK, was born into a real estate family. Out of high school, Chris entered the family business, quickly rising to a top twenty agent in under six months. His passion for helping his clients drove him towards pursuing the top brokerage in the nation. Under the tutelage of the top agents in America, Chris began building systems and processes that continued to propel him forward.

It wasn’t until he moved to Florida that he learned of the massive referral gap in the real estate market. He was flooded with referrals from friends and colleagues but due to the size of Florida, he couldn’t service even half of the business that was being referred. The solution he discovered was simple, he began building a network of agents across the state and would broker the deal for them. But with limited time and the demands of assisting his clients he knew that there must be a better way. 

“What if I could have all the real estate agents in the country in my pocket, and I could refer to them in the simple click of a button?”

The question became, how many agents are leaving referral business on the table? Ultimately sacrificing their trusted clients to the whims of new markets and untested agents. Even with connections in other markets, the problem remains that there is no way to protect the referring agent’s profits without consistent, almost overbearing, follow-up. 

Real estate is a people business, and having the ability to find another agent across the country to extend your brand is invaluable. Imagine being able to find any agent in any market, and being able to refer your clients to a trusted agent — all while protecting your referral percentage. 

In the following pages, you’re going to see exactly how AgentSwap can grow your business, protect your clients, and ensure you receive your referral, all with minimal effort.

The current market is void of solutions that meet the needs of agents. There are four primary competitors to AgentSwap, but each of them misses the mark in significant ways. Below you can see the comparison to AgentSwap and grasp why our solution will be impactful.

 

1. Zillow Flex – Zillow is the top-rated search engine for real estate. It has a robust engine and convenient user interface consumers enjoy. However, when looking at their referral system they leave much to be desired. The primary issue is that Zillow Flex is in control of the leads the agent receives and charges a hefty transaction fee of 35%. While Zillow’s customer-facing product is user-friendly, the same cannot be said for their agent software. It is slow and difficult to navigate.

   Notes: Generates the leads, if you don’t follow their procedures you’ll lose the leads.

2. com – A direct competitor to Zillow. At this time they currently do not have a full-service product that compares to AgentSwap. They do offer a mechanism to purchase leads, but again, they charge a 35% transaction fee. Optcity – similar to zillow flex.
3. Agent Pronto – A consumer-focused referral service that puts the customer in charge of the process. Their service does allow for agents to receive leads, but they are not true referrals. Their transaction fees are also up to 35%.
   Notes: Consumer-focused

4. Referral Exchange – This is a full-service referral company. While this may sound ideal, the company controls the referral and lead nurture process. Instead of speaking directly to qualified leads, they will hand the agent a client that has been “warmed up” via a generic process, which will damage the agent’s long-term brand. Their service is restricted in features and charges monthly fees on top of transactional fees up to 35%.

   Notes: common thing with all of the products is that they are lead generation services. The beauty of agent to agent is that it continues the relationship from client to agent. The leads won’t just be warm, they’ll be hot. Their expertise is lead generation, they scrub the leads with a call center. 

The beauty of AgentSwap is that it is a peer-to-peer referral system with low transactional costs that allows the agent to monitor the process and get paid quickly. Let us show you how we do it. 

When you look at the AgentSwap solution, a question may linger in your head, “How big is the problem? Don’t agents work within brokerages in order to have brand consistency and allow for easier referrals?” It’s an honest question, and in order to provide an answer, we need to pull back and look at the market. 

On average over 30 million Americans move each year, according to the American Community Survey in 2020. That number does not include those who purchase second homes or investment properties. Additionally, AgentSwap has plans to expand to the global market which would profoundly expand that number. 

The over two million Licensed Agents in America will refer two clients annually, on average. And that referral number is using outdated referral methods. It is not a significant leap to make that agents, when properly equipped with AgentSwaps technology, will make substantially more referrals due to better client outcomes and increased profits. 

This brings s back to the question of in-house referrals, and while they do occur the tendency for most agents is to refer clients to an online search engine. It’s simply too difficult to refer clients, even when the local agent you’re referring to is under the same brand umbrella. The in-house software is difficult to use, and even when used properly there is no innate way to ensure the referral fee is delivered, leaving the agent in the same boat asking “why bother?”

If AgentSwap can assist even 10% of the market in their transaction that would translate into an additional $1,312,5000,00 in agents’ pockets annually (assuming an average referral fee of 25%). Clients will be happier because they are dealing with a local agent who has similar values to their prior agent. Referring agents will be motivated to refer, and the referral will go to motivated local agents instead of whoever has the best marketing. 

AgentSwap is the solution we have been waiting for to connect agents across the United States.