For Realtors · September 1, 2026 · 8 min read
Last Tuesday, a client sat in my Bel Air office and told me she'd been working with three different agents across two states for the past four months.
Not by choice.
She started with a Maryland realtor in Baltimore County who handed her off to "someone I know" in York County when her job transferred. That Pennsylvania agent gave her a list of Delaware contacts when her company changed the assignment again. Nobody talked to each other. She's exhausted, her timeline is shot, and she landed in my chair because her sister said, "Just call Katrina and see if she can cover all of it."
I can. I'm licensed in Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania, and Delaware specifically because the Baltimore-Washington corridor doesn't respect state lines, and neither do my clients' lives. But here's what bothers me: two of those agents could have sent her to me from the start, collected a referral fee, and given her a seamless experience. Instead, they did what most of us do when a client's need crosses a border we don't cover.
We wing it.
I've been on both sides of this. Twenty-plus years in education taught me that handoffs fail when there's no shared language, no mutual accountability, and no follow-up. Real estate referrals are no different.
Here's where they usually die:
You don't know who to call. You've got a Rolodex full of Maryland agents, maybe a few DC contacts from a conference, but when someone needs to sell a house in Lancaster County or buy in New Castle County, you're Googling. That's not a referral system. That's a coin flip.
You're not sure what the fee split should be. Is it 25%? 35%? Do you even ask? I've had agents tell me they skipped sending a referral because they were embarrassed they didn't know the etiquette. Meanwhile, NAR's referral best practices are published and pretty straightforward, but nobody reads them until after the awkward conversation.
You lose track once they cross state lines. If you're a Harford County realtor and you send someone to a DC agent, do you check in? Do you know if they closed? Most don't. The client feels abandoned, and you've torched goodwill for a fee you'll never see.
You don't trust the agent on the other end. This is the big one. You've built a reputation in Anne Arundel County or Charles County. You're not handing your client to a stranger who might ghost them or, worse, blow up the deal and make you look bad.
I get it. But here's the thing: your client is going to move forward with or without you. If you don't have a solid regional network, you're not protecting them. You're just removing yourself from the process.
I didn't get my multi-state licenses because I love paperwork. I did it because my clients commute from Harford County to DC, inherit property in Delaware, retire to York, and buy investment houses in Baltimore City. The I-95 and Route 1 corridors are one market with four sets of regulations.
But not every agent can or should be licensed in four jurisdictions. That's fine. What you can do is build a referral network that works like a teaching team, where every person knows the curriculum and the handoff is clean.
Here's how I vet and manage mine:
If I'm sending a client to a Pennsylvania realtor, I need to know they understand York and Lancaster markets the way I understand homes for sale in Harford County. Not just "I cover that area." I mean: Do they know the school districts? The commute times to Hunt Valley or Baltimore? The zoning quirks that might kill a hobby farm dream?
I send a handful of scenarios before I send a client. If their answers are generic, I keep looking.
I use a standard 25% referral fee for out-of-state or out-of-region partners, 20% if we're both working adjacent Maryland counties and I'm staying involved as a consultant. I put it in writing using the Maryland REALTORS® referral agreement template and make sure we're both clear on who's doing what.
No surprises. No "I thought you were handling that" three weeks before closing.
When I send a referral, I ask for updates every two weeks. Not because I don't trust the receiving agent, but because my name is attached. If the client texts me in a panic, I want to know what's happening before I respond.
I also copy myself on the intro email and ask both parties to use me as a courtesy CC for major milestones. It takes five extra seconds and saves relationships.
A Baltimore County realtor sending someone to Washington DC needs to know that DC has a First-Time Homebuyer Credit with different rules than Maryland's programs. A Maryland agent handing off a Delaware transaction better know that New Castle County's transfer taxes can surprise buyers if nobody prepped them.
I keep a shared Google doc with my co-op partners listing the weird stuff: county-specific seller disclosures, transfer tax splits, title company preferences, average days-on-market by ZIP. It's not sexy, but it's the difference between a smooth close and a client who never refers anyone again.
You don't need four state licenses to do this right. You just need intention.
Find two or three agents per adjacent region. If you're a Pennsylvania realtor in York County, you should have at least two trusted Maryland contacts in Harford and Baltimore Counties, and one in Baltimore City. Interview them the way you'd hire an assistant. Check their reviews, their average days-to-close, whether they answer texts.
Formalize it. Send an email. "I'd like to build a referral partnership. Here's how I work, here's what I expect, here's the split I'm proposing. Interested?" Most agents will say yes because they need the same thing you do.
Track it. I keep a simple spreadsheet: client name, receiving agent, date referred, status, close date (if applicable), fee received. When I'm deciding who to send the next one to, I look at the track record.
Give before you get. I've sent a dozen referrals to a Cecil County agent who hasn't sent me one yet. That's fine. She's great at her job, her clients are happy, and eventually someone in her sphere will need my coverage area. Referrals aren't transactional. They're relational.
We're in a weird market. Rates hit yearly highs last week, inventory is finally climbing, and buyer hesitation is real. People aren't just shopping locally anymore. They're expanding search radiuses, considering commutes they wouldn't have two years ago, exploring counties they've never heard of.
If you can't serve that, you need a partner who can.
And if you can serve multiple regions, you need to be the kind of agent other professionals trust enough to send their clients to. That means communication, clarity, and follow-through.
It also means recognizing that the Baltimore-Washington corridor is one messy, beautiful labor market that sprawls across Harford, Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel, Montgomery, and Prince George's Counties in Maryland, bleeds into DC, reaches up into York and Lancaster in Pennsylvania, and touches New Castle County in Delaware. We're all working the same population. We might as well work together.
The referral you didn't send me last month? It cost you money, sure. But it cost your client more.
She spent weeks with agents who didn't know her full situation, couldn't answer questions outside their coverage zone, and left her piecing together advice from three people who never spoke. She lost time. She lost trust. And when she finally got to someone who could help her across the whole region, she was already burned out.
You don't owe me referrals. But your clients deserve a clean handoff when their needs outgrow your license footprint.
If you're a Maryland realtor, a DC agent, or licensed in Pennsylvania or Delaware and you don't have a regional co-op network yet, start building one today. Send three emails. Find three people who serve the areas you don't. Write down the fee split. Stay in touch.
And the next time someone says, "I'm moving to Delaware but I love working with you," you'll have an answer better than "Let me Google someone for you."
If you're looking for a multi-state partner or you want to talk through how to structure a co-op referral system that actually works, reach out. I'm happy to share templates, horror stories, and the names of agents I trust in regions I don't personally cover.
Because a good referral isn't just a fee split. It's a reputation on the line. And in this business, reputation is the only inventory that matters.
Katrina Kirton Sherrod, REALTOR® · Samson Properties · Licensed in MD, DC, PA & DE · 443-616-9770 · Katrina@kkstherealtor.com
“The best time to buy a home was five years ago. The second best time is after we talk.” — Every honest realtor, eventually