Referring leads to your mortgage adviser: how to keep track of the commission

You keep track of the commission on leads you pass on to your mortgage adviser by agreeing in advance what counts as a referral, what the adviser reports back and when commission is due. For each referral, record the date, client, adviser, status and amount. Without those agreements, the lead drops out of sight once it leaves your agency.

How many estate agents offer mortgages

A quarter of Dutch estate agents offer mortgages. In our own measurement of 4,025 estate agency websites on 23 August 2026, that was 25.2% of agencies. The real share is probably higher: we only looked at what agencies show on their website, and not every agency mentions there that it offers mortgages.

The arrangements vary widely:

Estate agents also link from their site to 59 mortgage firms, of which 57 do not appear as estate agents in our data. So there is a steady flow of clients between agent and adviser, and part of it crosses the boundary of the agency's own business.

Why a referral drops out of sight

A referral drops out of sight because the lead leaves your own system. You send a name and phone number on by email or message. The adviser books a meeting in their own diary, and the outcome sits in their system, not yours.

Agency software does not help here. Realworks has eight APIs, but no API for the sales instruction or the commission. A referral with a fee attached therefore does not exist there as something you can manage.

With an in-house mortgage service this seems less of a problem, because nothing leaves the business. Even so, if nobody records which agent brought the client in, you do not know which branch is feeding the mortgage revenue. That matters more once a referral counts towards a branch's revenue target or a bonus scheme. Then everyone wants to know whose referral it is.

Why fewer clients get referred

The number of referrals often falls without anyone noticing. Two causes keep coming back. Buyers arrive at the viewing better prepared, and have sometimes already had the conversation about what they can borrow. And new agents think about viewings and sales, not financing. They do not always know what to say when the client replies that they already have an adviser.

Yet the question costs nothing. If the client says no, the conversation picks up where it left off. If the client says yes, the odds are good that it pays off. An adviser who works with KeyVue sees an extremely high conversion rate: almost everyone who has a first meeting after a referral goes on to take out the mortgage. Those who drop out usually already have an adviser through family, or there was no rapport.

There is also an argument beyond the commission. A buyer who has already spoken to an adviser knows what a higher bid costs per month. That bid is more reliable, for you and for the seller.

You only see whether your branches ask the question once you count referrals per branch. A branch that sells twenty homes and refers one buyer does not stand out in a revenue overview. Set sales and referrals side by side for each branch and discuss the difference every month, against a target you agree with the branch.

What you agree with the adviser in advance

Put the agreements on paper before the first lead goes across. Negotiating afterwards over a mortgage that has already completed costs more than it yields.

Also ask the adviser to add a short note to the lead after every meeting. An agent who refers a client and hears nothing back does not refer the next one.

The validity period is the one most often forgotten. A buyer who is referred now and only finds a home eight months later is still your referral. That happens more often than it used to: many buyers want to know what they can borrow before they start looking. Agree a period, for example twelve months, and write it down.

Also agree what happens with a client who comes back years later, for example for a renovation. Do they count as a referral from the agent who sold the home, or as the adviser's own client? There is no right or wrong answer, only an agreed one.

What you record for each referral

Record enough for each referral to settle later without argument. This is the minimum set:

With the referring agent and the branch included, you see not only what the referrals deliver together, but also which branch refers consistently and which leaves it on the table.

How to settle the commission

Settle on the basis of one overview that both parties know. Each period, send the adviser your list of referrals with their last known status, and have them fill in the outcomes. Whatever has since completed and falls within the validity period, you invoice.

Three things make that run smoothly:

• Work with a fixed period, monthly or quarterly, so that open items do not quietly age.
• Keep referrals that dropped out in the overview, with the reason. They tell you whether you are passing on the right clients.
• Compare conversion per adviser if you work with more than one firm. An adviser who rarely reports back is also an adviser you have less visibility on.

What the Wft requires

What you pass on to the adviser determines whether you fall under the Wft (Dutch Financial Supervision Act). According to the AFM (Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets), in its publication on intermediation (publicatie bemiddelen, September 2014), merely passing on contact details is not intermediation. Contact details are name, address, place of residence, phone number and email address.

If you pass on more, such as a date of birth, income or purchase price, then according to the AFM it does count as intermediation. The same applies if you pass on clients under an arrangement and get paid for it: to the AFM, a lead fee indicates that such an arrangement exists. Anyone who acts as an intermediary in mortgage credit needs an AFM licence.

The fee itself is subject to the commission ban (article 86c BGfo, the Decree on the Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings). Paragraph 1 prohibits a financial services provider from receiving or paying commission for intermediation or advice on mortgage credit. Paragraph 2(e) exempts commissions that an intermediary or adviser, not being a lender, pays to another intermediary or adviser. A fee from a bank or other lender is not covered by that exemption.

What does that mean in practice? Limit what you pass on to contact details, unless your agency holds a licence itself, and be open with the client that you are referring them and whether you receive a fee for it. This is not legal advice: have your arrangement with the adviser reviewed by a Wft lawyer.

Also ask the client's permission before you pass on their details, and record that you have that permission. It avoids argument if they later ask how the adviser got their number.

The same works for fellow estate agents

The same approach applies to leads you pass on to a fellow estate agent, for example a seller outside your area. The agreements on reporting back, validity period and fee are the same; only the outcome is a signed sales instruction rather than a completed mortgage.

How to set the return from referrals against that of your other lead sources is covered in which lead source wins the most sales instructions. Mortgages as a growth route, alongside a new branch or an acquisition, are discussed in new branch or acquisition.

In KeyVue you refer leads to an adviser or colleague. The adviser works in KeyVue too and reports back there, and you track the commission per referral. That is part of the subscription; the prices are on the pricing page. How a referral runs through KeyVue, and how you see it per branch, is on the referrals page.

Frequently asked questions