Most agents have clients who mention relocating, but they never follow up. Susan posted two Instagram story templates, three clients responded, and she submitted all three referrals in under five minutes each. Here's what the templates look like, what to do when someone responds, and how GiveReferrals makes the handoff fast and trusted.
Susan is not someone who often thinks about referrals.
She's a working agent. She lists homes, manages clients, answers calls at 7pm, and gets to everything else when she can. Referring clients to agents in other markets has always been on the list of things she should probably do more of. Right next to "update my bio" and "respond to those Google reviews."
But last month, Susan did something small. She posted two Instagram story templates to her account. Not a big campaign. Not a content strategy. Just two clean graphics that said, essentially: relocating? I know good people.
Three clients responded.
By the time it was over, Susan had submitted three referrals, made three introductions, and set up three clients with vetted agents they could actually trust. If all three close, she'll earn ~$10,000 in referral fees. For posting two Instagram stories.
Here's what actually happened, step by step.
Most agents have clients who are moving. More than they realize.
Relocation, retirement, job changes, a kid leaving for college that finally gives parents permission to downsize. These conversations happen all the time. The client mentions it. The agent files it away. Then the client finds an agent somewhere else on their own, usually through a Google search or Zillow, and the referring agent never hears about it again.
The reason this keeps happening is not that agents don't care. It's that there's no trigger. No moment that says: right now, tell your people you can help with this.
Having a Canva template solves that part of the problem. They're designed for Instagram stories. The format is intentional because stories are low-commitment. No one expects a story to be polished. They appear, they get seen, they expire. The message lands without feeling like a promotion.
Susan posted two. Her clients saw them. Three responded.
You can use the same templates here: grab the free Canva templates. They're already formatted for stories and built around a message that feels like something an agent would actually say, not something that looks like an ad.
The templates are a starting point. What matters is that you post something. Your clients need to know that when they say "we're thinking about moving to Denver," you are not just going to shrug. You have a system.
This is the part that used to be the hard.
A client responds. They're relocating to Austin. They want to know if you know anyone. And in that moment, most agents are stuck. Who do you actually know in Austin? Are they good? Would you trust them with your client? With your reputation?
Most of the time, the answer is some version of: post in a Facebook group, scroll through 75 responses, pick someone based on nothing, and hope it works out.
That's not a referral strategy. That's a guess with extra steps.
GiveReferrals solves this specific problem. Every agent on the platform has been vetted. Every market is capped at 2 to 5 agents. When Susan's client said they were relocating, she didn't scroll through Facebook comments. She went to GiveReferrals.com, searched the destination market, and found an agent who had already been reviewed and accepted onto the platform. An agent with verified reviews, a professional profile, and a clear communication commitment.
The search took less than a minute. She knew exactly who she was sending her client to.
Once Susan found the right agent, she submitted the referral directly through the platform. Name, contact info, a quick note about what the client was looking for. The form took about 90 seconds.
That's the number that matters most to a busy agent. Not the potential income. Not the long-term relationship. The immediate friction. If it takes 45 minutes to figure out how to submit a referral, most agents never do it. If it takes 90 seconds, it gets done between calls.
After she submitted, GiveReferrals handled the intake on the other side. The receiving agent was notified. The introduction was made. Susan could see the status of the referral in her dashboard without having to follow up manually or wonder whether anyone had actually made contact with her client.
For an agent who doesn't have time to manage a referral process, that visibility matters. She knew it was moving. She didn't have to babysit it.
GiveReferrals facilitates the referral. It does not replace the relationship.
After submitting, Susan sent a short text to her client. Something like: I found a great agent for you in Austin. Her name is [Name], she's been vetted, and she's going to reach out to you. Here's her contact.
That introduction is what closes the loop. The client goes into their first conversation with the new agent already trusting them, because someone they trust just said they were worth trusting. That's the difference between a warm referral and a cold lead. That's why agents who receive referrals through GiveReferrals close at 40% or more, compared to around 5% on cold internet leads.
The platform creates the infrastructure. Susan created the warmth. Both matter.
The referral fee in a standard agent-to-agent referral is 25%, paid at closing, broker to broker. That's industry standard. What's not standard is having any confidence that the agent you're referring to will actually take care of your client.
When you refer someone through a Facebook group, you have no accountability structure. If the agent ghosts your client, or gives them bad advice, or closes the deal badly, there's nothing you can do. You made a recommendation you couldn't stand behind.
GiveReferrals changes that dynamic in three ways.
First, the vetting. Agents apply to be on the platform and roughly 80% are declined. The ones who are accepted have demonstrated that they're serious, professional, and committed to treating referred clients well. This is not a directory. It's a curated network.
Second, the market cap. Two to five agents per market. When a market is full, it's full. That scarcity means the agents on the platform have something worth protecting. They're not one of hundreds competing for attention. They're one of a small handful trusted with referrals in their market and they want to maintain that spot.
Third, the tracking. Once a referral is submitted, it lives in the platform. Both agents can see the status. There's a record of the introduction, the follow-up, and eventually the closing. Nobody loses track of it. Nobody claims they didn't receive it.
Susan didn't just make three introductions. She made three introductions she could stand behind. That's a different thing entirely.
She posted two templates. That's it. Two story posts and a caption that reminded her clients she was the person to call when someone they knew was moving.
The rest was a process. One that took about five minutes per client and required no chasing, no Facebook scrolling, and no hoping for the best.
The templates are free. Posting them takes 30 seconds. If one person in your network responds and eventually closes on a $450K home, that's $3,375.
Most agents have at least one client a year who moves out of their market. Probably more. The only difference between an agent who earns referral fees and an agent who doesn't is whether they have a visible system and a trusted platform to route referrals through.
Susan has one now. You can too.
Submit your first referral free at givereferrals.com. No monthly fee until your first referral is assigned.
Get more tips and tricks to giving more referrals with our Refer with Confidence Playbook. It includes text scripts, social media posts, and a deep dive on where your referrals are hiding.
