External referrers are named on the transaction and paid out of the referral commission you entered in Sale Info. Answers to the common questions about adding referrers, their addresses, and who escrow pays.
How many external referrers can one transaction have?
Up to five on the same side. Enter the total referral commission once in Sale Info, then set the number of referrers in the Referral Commissions section and divide the total between them by percentage or dollar amount.
Where does the referrer's mailing address come from?
From their contact record on the transaction. When the referrer is added as a contact, their address fills in automatically. That also means a wrong address is fixed on the contact, not retyped on the commission form — update the contact, then re-enter commissions so the CDA picks it up.
Will escrow pay the referrer directly, or send the money to us?
Whichever your location's Commission & CDA Settings say. The referral payability setting has two positions: on, and the CDA instructs escrow or title to send referral money to your brokerage for you to disburse; off, and each referrer gets their own payable line and escrow pays them directly. It's set per location, so two of your offices can behave differently.
Does the referrer's address print on the CDA?
Yes, below their name in the payables section — when your location has referrers paid directly. That's the address escrow will mail the check to, which is why it's worth checking before the CDA goes out.
Is there a report of who we paid referrals to?
Not as a single list. No report today totals referral payments by payee. The Commission & Closings report is the practical answer — filter it to your closing period and read the referral commission column transaction by transaction. If you're doing this for 1099 season and it's painful, tell us at help@paperlesspipeline.com. It's come up before, and hearing it again matters.
How do I tell an external referral from an in-house one in a report?
By whether an agent's name appears next to the amount. In the Commission & Closings report, an in-house referral shows the referring agent's name alongside the referral amount. An external referral shows the amount with no agent name.
Can I pay an outside referrer and an in-house agent on the same transaction?
Not through the Referral Commission field, which holds one referral per transaction. The workaround, and where the whole answer lives, is on the Referral Commissions FAQ.
A referral comes off the top of the gross commission, and where you enter it decides whether everything else on the form calculates correctly. Answers to the common questions about entering a referral, splitting it, and finding it in your reports.
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An external referrer is a brokerage, agent, or partner outside your company that earns a piece of the deal. Name them on the transaction, split the referral between them, and tell escrow who to pay.
Still Have Questions?
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