FAQs – RealtyPRO® Associate Referral Agents

When researching which license holding company/brokerage to hang or activate your license with, please get all the facts of the program first before joining. Our intention at RealtyPRO Network is to continuously provide you with the most value, professional image, and experience. If a company makes misleading claims that sound too good to be true, for example that it’s “easy” for you to personally list and sell properties without MLS access, but doesn’t provide you with the “how” to do it, or tells you on their website to first pay and join before they will email you the details, be leery of trusting them. We have been informed by many of our new members that there are such untrustworthy companies out there.

Only trust websites/companies that encrypt your information by either showing the “https” website name prefix (not just “HTTP” or “www”) or the closed lock symbol to the left of the website name in the address bar of your browser. An orange open lock symbol means the website is not encrypted with SSL and not secure. Please see the next question below for more info.

Yes. RealtyPRO Network is a professional company and takes the security of your information seriously. Therefore we DO NOT use PayPal for any payment transactions. We utilize the professional online banking company trusted by millions of legitimate online businesses – Authorize.net (a secure VISA owned company). Also, see our Authorize.net verification certificate above the online Associate activation form.

We have also taken additional steps to provide you an overall secure website with SSL encryption. Make sure that any companies’ websites that you visit take the security of your information seriously, by taking extra measures providing you with a secure SSL certified website. Look for the “https” prefix in your browser’s address bar rather than just “HTTP” or “www” before the website name. If the “https” doesn’t show up than look for the gray lock symbol to the left of the website address. That means the website is secure and encrypted for your protection. (An orange open lock symbol signifies that the website is not secure.) Also, see our SSL certification above the online Associate activation form.

Hang or activate your CA or FL real estate license with RealtyPRO Network as a RealtyPRO Associate (or Broker-Associate) referral agent. We are currently a Florida and California real estate license holding company/brokerage & worldwide real estate referral network, and rapidly expanding nationally into other states. Activating with us means that your real estate license will be officially active with the state (enabling you to legally make sales commissions) as a sales-associate under our brokerage. License activation has nothing to do with being or not being a Realtor. You will not be required to join or pay any Realtor association membership fees with RealtyPRO Network. (A Realtor is a registered service mark and member of NAR – The National Association of Realtors).

RealtyPRO Network is a nationally growing and trusted brokerage, so you can move to any state and we will still keep your real estate license active so you can make referral commissions from buyers and sellers anywhere, in any state. You will still be able to pass out your business cards to anyone. Obviously it wouldn’t make sense for you to be limited with a company just specific to one state (or even with the state name in the company’s name which would be confusing). You need to be part of one of the fastest-growing and trusted national real estate referral brands.

EVEN MORE IMPORTANT, we send referrals to experienced professional Realtors/Advisors, NO NEWBIES/NEW AGENTS like many other referral brokerages do in order to help them with their production quotas! And unless you or your referral already selected the Realtor/Advisor that your referral will utilize, we typically first speak with the Realtor directly and conduct a short interview to see if they are the right fit. Utilizing experienced Realtors who have been in the trenches and enabled to overcome the many increasing problems which stop closings these days, increases the odds that your referred transaction will actually close, the buyer or seller happy (with you too), and you the referral agent actually get paid. Even a 100% commission split of a failed referral transaction, because of an inexperienced Realtor, is ZERO dollars to you. That’s why it’s imperative that we utilize experienced professional Realtor/Advisors. Our names are on the line.

Next after passing your state real estate license exam, you need to find a brokerage to “hang” or activate your real estate license under. But first, you need to understand that in order to participate in hands-on full or part-time real estate sales you need to have at least 6-8 months of money saved up in reserves. That’s because it can take 6-12 months for you to make your first sales commission. Part of the reason is that you haven’t proved yourself, haven’t advertised long enough to everyone that you are a licensed agent (your own business), and nobody trusts you yet. Also, you have to pay to become a Realtor (a trademark and paid member of the National Association of Realtors/NAR, a real estate industry trade association) in order to access the MLS (Multiple Listing Service – the database of homes for sale), and will need to spend at least around $1000-$1500 per year just on that (local Realtor Board/Association costs vary).

That’s where RealtyPRO Network comes in, especially if you aren’t quite ready to become a Realtor. We are a fully licensed brokerage and the best and most cost-effective way for you to get started after you pass your FL or CA state real estate license exam. We enable you to hang or activate your license with us, but without having to pay to join an expensive local Realtor association (because we aren’t “Realtors”), which local brokerages require you to do. This also lets you immediately start advertising to everyone that you are an active agent, a RealtyPRO Associate. Most people have no idea the difference between an active licensed agent and the term Realtor. They associate them as one and the same, but they are not. Activating your license with the state and under a brokerage is completely independent of paying the NAR commercial trade association to become a Realtor.

So in order to be successful, it’s extremely important to start building professional business trust immediately after passing the state real estate exam and getting your real estate license. Now you won’t be a Realtor working directly hands-on with buyers and sellers. You’ll be referring them out to experienced Realtors/Advisors to handle the transaction. But this gets your real estate sales career started as if working with a team, and it associates your name with well known experienced and professional agents that build trust. You won’t even have to do any work, and will still be able to legally get paid a commission for these closed referrals just by holding an active real estate license under RealtyPRO Network. You can always move your license to another brokerage at any time when you are ready to be a full-time Realtor and engage in hands-on real estate sales.

It’s also important to immediately activate your real estate license with RealtyPRO Network after you pass the state exam because it starts the “experience” clock. Most states require at least 2 years of active license “experience” under a brokerage before you can get your broker’s license. The experience here just means an active license, not necessarily real-world experience in real estate sales. So don’t wait, activate with us now because as you know the time has a way of slipping by very quickly.

A RealtyPRO® Associate or Broker-Associate is an actively licensed sales-associate, not a Realtor. The term Realtor is the registered service mark, and a member of the National Association of Realtors – a paid membership-based real estate trade organization providing MLS access. Being a Realtor, or not being a Realtor, has nothing to do with your license activation status with your state or your ability to legally earn any kind of sales commissions (referrals included) when your license is activated under our brokerage. You are not required to be a Realtor to get paid referrals with RealtyPRO Network, therefore ZERO Realtor/MLS fees.

Holding an active real estate license = business opportunities. Hanging or Activating your FL or CA real estate license as a RealtyPRO® Associate referral agent enables you to save your hard-earned real estate license and professional status, legally get paid real estate commissions including buyer and seller referral commissions through our network. You also benefit from $1000’s of yearly tax deductions by being an active licensed agent (professional status on your tax returns – consult your tax accountant or CPA for more info). Also, you won’t have to pay thousands of dollars yearly to join a Realtor board and MLS. All local Realtor associations/boards require agents to join the Realtor board that the local brokerage they hang/activate their license with belongs to. Because we do not belong to a Realtor board (we are NOT Realtors), you won’t have to join a board either. Go to our How it Works page for more info.

Simply go to our Refer a Buyer or Seller Contact page and fill out the online form with the basic contact information for yourself, the customer referral, and Realtor Advisor (if you or the customer already selected one). Please also provide additional information regarding the customer’s specific needs and wants. Then click the Submit button and all parties will immediately receive an email to start the process. This is when we take over. If no Realtor/Advisor has been selected yet, we will select the most appropriate Realtor. We will then also get a signed referral commission agreement in place with that Realtor’s qualifying/managing broker, stating the exact referral commission, BEFORE the customer’s contact information is passed on to that Realtor.

Inactive license = No business or income opportunities!

Your real estate license is only valuable when it is active. Be ready at any time for your own sales commissions and to make referral commissions.

Save and utilize your hard-earned license! You spent a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money to get your valuable real estate license, so you should keep it active and able to generate referral income at any given opportunity.

Take your tax deductions with an active professional license/business – laptops, printers, tablets, office supplies and equipment, gift cards, etc. Especially helpful during the holidays.

For instance, didn’t you start to see your particular model and color of car everywhere BUT ONLY AFTER you bought it? It wasn’t that there were suddenly more of them, but just that YOU were now ready to be more aware of them. You changed your mindset. Similarly, after you become a RealtyPRO Associate referral agent, you will see those money-making referral opportunities everywhere, but now will be ready to immediately capitalize on them to make more income. But you will only benefit and make extra income if you are prepared with an active license.
If you only want to make commissions in the real estate industry as a buyer and/or sell real estate referral agent.
If you are only part-time or taking a break from full-time real estate sales and don’t want to pay the costly yearly Realtor and MLS fees, you should keep your license AND professional status held safe so you don’t lose it (and also retain the $1000’s in yearly tax deduction benefits on your tax returns from being listed as a professional with an active real estate license).
You need the state-required 24 months continuous experience as a sales agent qualification to get your real estate broker’s license and don’t want to join and pay the expensive Realtor board and MLS of a local brokerage.
You are moving or between brokerages but would like to keep your real estate license held continuously on active status for a time before paying your dues to a new Realtor association/board and MLS.
You want to make a commission on the purchase or sale of your own property and don’t want to have to join a local brokerage and be required to also pay to join the local Realtor board and MLS (required of those local brokerages). All local Realtor board/association rules require agents to join the board that the company they hang/activate their license with belongs to. You can get around their rules by hanging your license with RealtyPRO® Network (no Realtor Board or MLS requirement).

Go to our RealtyPRO Associate Benefits page see all the benefits of activating your real estate license with RealtyPRO Network.

Take our online real estate Continuing Education course immediately with our education partner. It’s easy and inexpensive online – just follow the simple instructions which will guide you.

Save your real estate license – Hang or activate your real estate license with RealtyPRO Network, the fastest growing real estate referral company/network, as a real estate referral agent. Make referral commissions simply by passing along referrals from your friends, family, colleagues, and former customers moving to, from, or within any state (not just the state you hold your real estate license in). Keep your professional status and take your yearly business tax deductions. 0 Realtor or MLS Fees!

Activate your Florida or California real estate license very easily online with our quick and simple form in just minutes. Simply go to the online real estate license activation form or click the orange button below to start. Upon submitting your license info, payment, and e-signature authorization, you will immediately receive confirmation emails. We’ll then verify that your license is current with the state after your payment fully processes. Your real estate license activation can take up to 72 hours, but typically between 24-48 hours (limiting factors are the time it takes to fully process your payment, and if the online state real estate licensing portal is down).

Your yearly dues and anniversary date are from the date we process your payment. We do not keep your credit card information. As a service to you, when your payment is first processed, our card payment processing partner Authorize.net creates what is called an automatic recurring billing “subscription” that will bill your card every year on your original payment date so that you do not have any lapse in active status, and don’t have to worry about it. You can cancel that service at any time. If for whatever reason you decide to deactivate your real estate license with us, please let us know immediately.

There is no obligation to keep your real estate license hung/activated with us for the entire year term. You can move your license to another brokerage (such as becoming a full-time Realtor) at any time. However, there are no pro-rated refunds. We also ask that you please notify us if you deactivate or move your license to another brokerage.

You can get paid a real estate referral commission for any closed real estate property sale (residential or commercial) or business sale, if you have a valid/current active Florida or California real estate license. The normal state DRE regulations apply as with any real estate licensee. You do not have to be a Realtor (a paid member of NAR) in order to be able to earn real estate commissions.

Simply go to our Refer a Buyer or Seller Contact page and fill out the online form with the basic contact information for yourself, the customer referral, and Realtor Advisor (if you or the customer already selected one). Please also provide additional information regarding the customer’s needs and wants. Then click the Submit button and all parties will immediately receive an email. If no Realtor/Advisor has been selected yet, we will select the appropriate person. We will then also make sure that we have a signed referral commission agreement with that Realtor’s qualifying broker, stating the exact referral commission %, in place BEFORE the Realtor/Advisor can start working with the customer.

How or when do I get paid?

We will immediately send you your commission check after we receive the gross referral commission check from the closing/title company or closing attorney. We must also have the final HUD settlement statement for the closed property (and contract if new construction). Most professional title or closing companies will no longer pay the sales-associate’s commission by check or wire-transfer directly. For proper professional reporting and tracking they have to pay the brokerage directly, and then we will pay you.

Yes, you can list your own property for sale and legally get paid a commission. But, very important – since you are not a Realtor (you do not belong to a Realtor Board or pay MLS participation fees) you can not list the property on the MLS system directly. You could personally manually list it for sale on Zillow, Trulia, or other 3rd party real estate websites for instance. But, the easiest and low-stress thing for you to do is just refer yourself to our Network, to utilize an experienced Realtor/Advisor to do all the work for you – listing paperwork, including it in the MLS and all other syndicated websites, advertising plan, post-card advertising, scheduling and making showings, writing contract(s), negotiation, closing, etc., etc. Then when it closes you will get paid a referral fee.

You can’t directly list a property on the MLS yourself since you are not a Realtor. But you can list it for sale on any other less effective third part real estate website (Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com, etc.). However, as a referral agent, you will be acting in a real estate referral the only capacity. This is a good thing because it means an experienced Realtor/Advisor will be doing all the work, and you will get paid a referral fee upon closing. If you or your customer referral already have or know of a Realtor/Advisor you would like to utilize, you can use them. It’s a very simple and easy process to refer a buyer or seller using our online form. See “How do I refer a buyer or seller?” above. After you submit the referral with the online form, we take over and create a signed referral commission agreement with that Realtor/Advisor’s qualifying/managing broker. Only then will they receive the customer/referral’s contact information to start working with them.

No, since you are not acting as a Realtor and do not belong to a Realtor Board or MLS, you can not access the MLS directly. You can always use a 3rd party site such as Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, etc. to search properties.

Most states require that you first gain experience by holding an active and valid real estate license for at least 24 months before you are eligible to take the real estate broker’s class and state exam. As a referral agent, you will only pay a small annual fee for continuous activation of your professional status, MUCH less than the cost of joining a local brokerage and paying a Realtor association to be a Realtor, paying MLS and MLS key fees, company franchise fees, desk fees, coordinator fees, the team splits, etc.

Yes absolutely! You will get paid a real estate referral commission on the completed sales transaction. However, you will not list or purchase the property directly.

This must first be set up with RealtyPRO® Network and the Advisor or Realtor you choose to use (or an experienced professional will be assigned to you).

Yes, you are able to send real estate referrals to other agents through RealtyPRO® Network anywhere in the USA, Canada (pretty much anywhere in the world) and get paid a real estate referral commission. This is because real estate referrals are technically brokerage to brokerage, not agent to agent. You supply us the referral through our online form and we’ll contact another brokerage in that referral’s area. This means you can live in any other state than where your license is actually held, and your referrals can be to, from, or within any other state too. (HINT: Utilize this ability to make referral commissions with family or friends living in other states.) This has nothing to do with license reciprocity between states since just making referrals is not considered actually practicing real estate in that other state. License reciprocity has to do with a state only requiring a current licensee from another state (with recognized reciprocity between the 2 states) to only have to pass that state’s license exam for licensure, bypassing the licensure class or parts of it.

You are a licensed RealtyPRO® Associate or RealtyPRO® Broker-Associate, as on your business cards. But internally at RealtyPRO Network both sales associates and broker sales associates are all collectively called RealtyPRO Associates.

Yes absolutely. You need to have an active and current (active: hung/activated under a brokerage; current: the required fees with the state and continuing education up to date) real estate license to be able to legally be paid real estate referral commissions.

No, that is illegal and you could be subject to prosecution and fines. To be able to get paid a real estate referral commission of any kind, you must hold an active and current real estate license. (Active: hung/activated under a brokerage; current: the required fees with the state and continuing education up to date). You can hang or activate your Florida or California real estate license with RealtyPRO Network, a real estate license holding company/brokerage and referral network. Currently, we are hanging/activating real estate licenses in both California and Florida. Zero Realtor or MLS fees.

Yes. In order for anyone to legally be paid a real estate referral fee or commission that person must hold a valid active real estate license, hung (or activated) with a licensed real estate brokerage company. You can take the real estate pre-license course online through us at your own pace, and MUCH less expensive online than actually going to a local class. Then after you pass the state exam and get your real estate license, hang or activate your real estate license with us as a RealtyPRO Associate referral agent.

Simple. Our brokerage does not belong to any Realtor board or association, therefore none of our agents are required to. Part of the general rules/bylaws of all Realtor Associations is that all agents must join the Association that the brokerage they have their license activated with belongs to. So that is also the difference between an agent and a Realtor. All Realtors are agents, but not all agents (our RealtyPRO Associates) are Realtors. A Realtor is a member of the National Association of Realtors, and the term Realtor is a registered service mark of the National Association of Realtors (just a trade association).

For Florida licensees the annual membership/activation is $149.95. For California licensees the annual membership/activation is $199.95. Sometimes we market membership sales and discount promo codes throughout the year.

The annual membership/activation keeps your real estate license active so that you are always ready to legally make referrals and be paid real estate referral commissions. It also enables you to take your business tax deductions each year (with an active professional license/business), especially helpful around the holidays. We’re striving to continue to keep the cost low, which covers our time, the administration and paperwork, tax forms, maintenance, liability, etc on our end. Our intention is to give as much value back to our agents as we can (the highest commission splits available with additional benefits in the works), and to help as many agents as we can become successful as referral agents.

Yes. Customer referrals are made and commissions get paid brokerage to brokerage, and then our referral agent is paid their split. But we do also have to have the commission agreement signed by the referred to brokerage’s qualifying broker prior to sending the customer referral’s contact information to them. This protects us to make sure we get paid.

Generally new home builders offer more commission than a standard referral. So you would get double the typical residential split on new home construction referrals. Sometimes you may have to visit the model home with the potential buyer to get them and your brokerage RealtyPRO Network, LLC registered with the builder’s in-house sales associate. The builder’s sales associate then takes over using their own complex contract and addenda; you as our referral Associate is then hands off. (This is builder specific: sometimes the Associate is allowed to just call and/or email in to the builder’s sales office/model home to register the buyer referral. If so the RealtyPRO Associate referral agent must document this by sending a follow-up email to the in-house sales agent as an e-paper trail confirming the conversation and verbal buyer and Associate/Brokerage registration).