How Real Estate Referral Rewards Can Help Boost Referrals

Jan 14, 2025 | Business Insights

Get more referrals with strategic real estate referral rewards and detailed approaches for the best times to use a reward incentive. 

Key Takeaways:

  • Importance of Referrals: Referrals build trust and credibility, offering reliability that cold approaches lack, which is particularly valuable in competitive fields like real estate.
  • Realtor recommendation incentives: A referral rewards program incentivizes introductions of new clients through gifts or other benefits, fostering client satisfaction and business growth.
  • Strategic Reward Timing: Rewards can be given at various stages, including contract signings, home anniversaries, holiday seasons, open house events, and after home inspections, to strengthen relationships and encourage referrals.
  • Personalized Gift Giving: Thoughtful, high-value, and personalized gifts—such as gourmet baskets, wine, or customized email invites—can leave a lasting impression and encourage clients to recommend the agent.
  • Boosting Engagement and Success: Property referral programs help agents maintain a competitive edge by deepening client relationships, increasing referrals, and ultimately leading to sustained success in the real estate market.

Referrals, as we all know, are often quite useful as they are a sense of shared confidence and leverage of credibility that already exists between individuals. This type of personal endorsement, may it be for a service or product, is a sense of reliability that cold approaches cannot approach. Even in real estate, the network of trust created by a referral reduces the need for aggressive advertising – while fostering a reputation of excellence – which can lead to sustained success in a competitive market. But, to get genuine referrals that transform into a successful deal is not as easy as one may think. Luckily, there are approaches agents can take to boost the system of referral in the form of real estate referral rewards.

Property referral programs are not new to the competitive world of selling and buying houses. In fact, up to 82% of real estate sales comes from referrals, friends and clients for developed businesses. In this blog, we’ll help you discover ways to boost referrals through strategic real estate referral rewards that make all the difference.

What is a real estate referral rewards program?

As suggested by the name, a real estate referral rewards program is a system whereby a direct incentive is offered for the introduction of a new client in the property buying and selling game. Rewards and referrals go hand in hand, and the incentive is useful for either (or both) the client or / and the property agent. After all, both referrals and rewards end in happier clients and good business. Successful collaboration between these incentives often result in more leads and a successful property business.

The reward can be a gift of appreciation or an encouragement of some sort, but it is not limited to the buying or selling of a house. While closing a sale is largely of the reasons to make use of the reward system, other appropriate instances also include:

  • Contract signings
  • Home anniversaries
  • First – year check ins 
  • Holiday seasons 
  • Open house invitations 
  • Home inspections

All of the above are examples of times where an appreciation gift may be applicable when in the real estate sector. These gifts can be tiered based on the intent and the occasion. For example, you can use a shareable giveaway link for a coffee to entice the right clients to attend an open house, while offering a gift of higher value to a client when closing a deal. Read on for a more detailed look at times where realtor recommendation incentives can be beneficial.

An infographic with the best times to send  real estate referral rewards

Uses cases for property referral programs

Asking for a referral or simply receiving one for your efforts as a real estate professional typically comes after you have displayed some sort of intent that leads to a happy customer. There are times when you should ask for a referral (like when you have made a client happy) and others where the referral simply happens all by itself. Here we look at some of these instances where real estate rewards can be useful:

Dream – home purchases

A closing gift is often customary in real estate. This is especially true when it comes to helping your client find their dream home. The process is generally not a short one and if you handle it in the right way, you can create a lasting impression that leads to a successful referral. An appropriate gift in this case can be a well-curated, gourmet gift basket!

Pro tip: as the client is making a large purchase, it would be appropriate that the gift is in line in terms of value. Make this show of appreciation one that is memorable and personalized to your client as this will create the right perception to boost your reputation as a real estate agent. Consider sending your client a gift link to choose their own gift from a pre-curated collection of items. This list can be chosen based on preference, your budget or items you know your client would like (such as a house warming gift!).

Keys with a red ribbon to signify a home purchase

Home anniversaries / First – year checks

By celebrating the home anniversary of a client, you are showing that your dedication and efforts as a real estate professional go beyond a sale. This thoughtful gesture can deepen your relationship and inspire them to recommend you to others. A bottle of wine will be considered appropriate gestures of care / real estate recommendation gifts for home anniversaries and first-year checks.

Holiday seasons

While it may not necessarily be common to send a gift to a client over the holidays, it can also be very useful in terms of building a strong client base. The holiday season can create some unique opportunities for a real estate agent. For example, as the holiday season approaches many people shift their focus to settling down in their current locations and celebrating. This means there are both fewer listings and a smaller pool of interested buyers. The decrease in demand can make the competition for a dream home easier as well as the sale of a house too! Sending a holiday gift, such as a Christmas cookie gift box, as part of realtor recommendation incentives will help keep you at the forefront of a client’s mind and set you apart from the competition.

Pro tip: use a personalized email gift invite when sending a holiday gift as you can customize the email to include a specific holiday themed background from various pre-loaded options. Include a thoughtful message and you’re sure to create memorable property referral programs.

Open – house invitations

An open house can be a major benefit to a real estate agent as it helps pique the interest of a prospective buyer by giving them a look at their potential home. A little incentive as part of realtor recommendation incentives, such as a free coffee, can help get potential clients through the door when selling a house. The reward can also be a gesture of appreciation to a high-valued interested party as the intent can help sway their decision to make a purchase.

A real estate agent showing a family around in an open house

Home inspections

Another occasion to include in a real estate referral rewards program in a home inspection. You can go the extra mile with a seller if a home inspection comes back with repairs. By sending a gift of acknowledgement as part of your realtor recommendation incentives (like a chocolate gift box) you – as a real estate professional – are demonstrating your care and thoughtfulness for your client’s required efforts.

Giftsenda: the real (estate) game changer!

Property referral incentive programs help you maintain long-term engagement with clients. By staying top-of-mind, a property agent increases their likelihood of being recommended when the opportunity arises.
Giftsenda is the perfect way to streamline property referral programs as the entire process can be handled for you, giving you added time to focus on more pressing matters. By integrating your CRM or Zapier with the platform, you have all the required information at your fingertips as well as the ability to create triggered workflows that automate specific tasks, such as sending holiday gifts and other realtor referral rewards to clients. Moreover, a structured referral program on the Giftsenda platform helps you track and measure the effectiveness of your referral efforts, allowing you to fine-tune your approach for even greater success. Like we said – game changer, right?

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