A real estate agent referral through Very Best Real Estate works like this: you call me, I learn where and what you’re buying or selling, and I introduce you to an independently licensed agent who works that neighborhood and price range. You interview them and decide. It costs you nothing, and I stay on as your contact.
The call is where most of the matching gets done.
What happens on the first call
The first call is with me directly. For a simple purchase it can be a short conversation. An estate with three siblings and a house full of furniture takes longer, and that’s fine.
These are the things I ask about, more or less in this order:
- Where the property is, down to the street if you’re comfortable sharing it, or where you hope to buy.
- What kind of home it is: a detached house, a condo, a townhome, acreage, a house with a rental unit in the basement.
- A rough price range. I don’t need bank statements. I need to know which agents work at that level.
- Your timing, and what is driving it: a job start date, a school year, a lease ending, an estate that needs to settle.
- If you’re buying and selling at the same time, which you’d rather do first.
- How you like to communicate. Some people want a text every evening. Some want one call a week and no surprises.
- What happened the last time you worked with an agent, good or bad.
- Anything unusual: a tenant in place, a divorce, a property held in a trust, a house that needs more work than it appears to.
That last question changes the match more often than any other. A house with a tenant on a month-to-month lease, or a sale that needs a court’s approval, calls for an agent who has done it before and won’t learn on your time.
How agents are chosen for a specific neighborhood and price range
By hand, and by conversation. No score or algorithm decides who gets your name. I start with agents in the Homexa® network, which includes 300+ agents across 25 states, and I look at a handful of practical things.
Where they actually work
A Washington broker license is good anywhere in the state. In practice, most agents know a handful of areas well, so I look for agents whose recent listings and sales sit in or near yours and who know its particular quirks: side sewers on old Seattle lots, school boundaries that split Sammamish, lahar maps in the Puyallup valley, the separate listing services used in Clark County and Spokane.
The kind of work they do best
Some agents are at their best with listings: pricing, preparation, marketing, handling several offers at once. Others are strongest with buyers, especially first-time buyers who want every step explained. Some are good with estates, relocations, or military moves. I try to match the work as closely as the zip code.
Price range and property type
A one-bedroom condo in Belltown and a waterfront house on Mercer Island are different jobs, with different buyers and different inspectors. So are a rambler in Spokane Valley and ten acres with a well outside Battle Ground. I look for someone who handles your kind of property regularly.
Whether they have room for you
A strong agent who is already stretched thin won’t serve you well. I ask about their current workload and if your timeline fits their calendar.
License and standing
Every agent I introduce holds an active Washington real estate license, which I check through the Department of Licensing’s public lookup. You can look anyone up there yourself, and I’d encourage it. The Journal walks through how to look up a Washington real estate license, including where past discipline shows up.
A conversation about you
Before I introduce anyone, I talk with them about your situation, with your permission, so your first meeting doesn’t start cold. The agents I introduce are independently licensed and work under their own brokerages. They aren’t my employees, and I don’t rank them.
The introduction itself
Usually I introduce one agent. If you’d like to compare, I’ll introduce two and tell each of them that you’re talking to someone else. I send a short note to both of you so everyone starts with the same facts, and then the agent reaches out on the schedule we discussed.
Treat the first meeting as an interview. Ask how they would price your home or run your search. Ask how often you’ll hear from them, and who else on their team you’ll deal with. Ask to see the agreement they’d want you to sign, and read how it ends.
In Washington, a seller signs a listing agreement with the agent’s brokerage, and a buyer signs a written buyer brokerage agreement, also with the brokerage. Both run for a stated term, so read how and when each one ends. You’ll also receive the state’s pamphlet on the law of real estate agency. You sign nothing with me. If you’re buying, what a Washington buyer agreement has to say is worth reading before that first meeting.
What happens if the fit is wrong
It happens. Sometimes personalities don’t mix. Sometimes an agent who looked right on paper turns out to be slower to respond than you need, or more cautious than you’d like. Call me, tell me what isn’t working, and I’ll look for someone else.
If you haven’t signed anything with the agent, changing course is simple. If you have, the way out runs through that agreement and the agent’s brokerage. I’ll help you think it through and suggest how to raise it, but I can’t cancel another brokerage’s contract for you. For sellers, how to get out of a listing agreement in Washington covers the usual ways a listing ends early.
Why it costs you nothing
Plainly: when a transaction I referred closes, the agent’s brokerage pays a referral fee to my brokerage, LPT Realty. Referral fees between brokerages are standard practice in real estate, and they are how agents who move clients between cities and states are paid for the introduction.
The fee comes out of the commission the agent’s brokerage earns. It isn’t added to your side of the closing statement, and you never pay me directly. If nothing closes, no fee is paid. Commissions themselves are set by agreement between you and the agent’s brokerage and are negotiable, and a referral doesn’t change what you’re allowed to negotiate. If you want to ask the agent about the referral, go ahead. They’ll know about it.
What I don’t do
I don’t sell contact details to lead companies, and I don’t send your name to a crowd of agents to see who calls first. Nobody can promise you a sale price or a closing date, and I won’t. The choice of agent stays with you. My part is bringing you someone worth meeting.