Referring a client moving to Kansas City
The referral fee is 25%, it is written into a signed agreement before your client is contacted, and it is paid broker to broker. My broker-in-charge pays your broker-in-charge, for your benefit - which is how Missouri requires it to work, not a house preference. I am Nataliya Hennings, REALTOR® with RE/MAX Innovations, licensed in Missouri, Kansas and Florida, working out of an office in the Northland at 3200 NE 83rd St. Send me the client and the timeline; I will send you the agreement. Direct line (816) 258-7356, Nataliya@NataliyaSells.com.
The rest is the detail you want before handing over a client you have spent time on: the terms, how the money moves, what I need from you, and where I am not the right person to take the file.
The terms
25%
Twenty-five percent, on a percentage basis rather than a flat fee, and the same number whether your client buys or sells. The agreement states whether the percentage is based on commission earned on the listing side, the selling side, or something else we write in - a field on the form, filled in before either of us signs, not decided at closing. If your client sells a Kansas City property and buys one, that is two sides and it gets written as two.
It is in writing, and it has an end date
The agreement commences on the date both agents sign and remains in effect until a date written into it, unless we agree otherwise in writing. It is not an open-ended claim on your client and it is not a claim on their next transaction. You pick a horizon that fits the move, and if the move slips we extend it in writing rather than argue about it later.
Nothing is owed unless something closes
No charge to you for sending a referral, and no fee if your client goes quiet, changes their mind, takes the other job, or decides to rent for a year. If nothing closes, nothing is owed - and you will hear from me that it did not, rather than being left to wonder.
How the money actually moves, and why that protects you
Broker to broker is statutory, not a formality
Missouri is explicit about who a licensee may pay. RSMo 339.150.2 provides that no real estate licensee shall pay any part of a fee or commission "to any person for any service rendered by such person… unless such a person is a licensed real estate salesperson regularly associated with such a broker, or a licensed real estate broker, or a person regularly engaged in the real estate brokerage business outside of the state of Missouri." That last clause is what makes your fee lawful: practicing in your own state, you are a person regularly engaged in the brokerage business outside Missouri. It is also why a check cannot come to you personally from me. My broker-in-charge pays your broker-in-charge for the benefit of the sending agent, and your brokerage handles its own split from there. Each RE/MAX office is independently owned and operated, so the paying entity is my brokerage, not a franchise network.
On the Kansas side, K.S.A. 58-3062(a)(4) likewise contemplates a licensee paying a referral fee to someone "properly licensed as a broker or salesperson in Kansas or another jurisdiction," and bars it only where the licensee knows the fee will result in a rebate. The mechanism does not change when your client crosses the state line.
Why we sign before I call your client
RSMo 339.160 bars anyone engaged in the business within Missouri from bringing an action to recover compensation for services in buying, selling, exchanging, leasing or renting real estate without alleging and proving they were licensed when the cause of action arose. Compensation disputes are unforgiving of people who did the work first and papered it afterwards, so the sequence is fixed: agreement signed by both agents, W-9 exchanged, then I contact your client. RSMo 339.800 separately confirms the designated broker's compensation may be paid by the seller, the landlord, the buyer, the tenant or a third party - where the commission originates does not change what is owed to your side of it.
The W-9
Your broker or accounting department completes a W-9 and returns it with the signed agreement, and my brokerage's W-9 goes out with the paperwork so your bookkeeper is not chasing it at closing. That is the most common reason a referral check is slow, and it takes five minutes to prevent.
What I need from you, in one pass
Gather this once and the file opens the same day. Anything you do not have is fine - write "unknown" rather than guessing, because a wrong price range costs your client more than a blank one does.
Your side
- Your name, office name, office address, city, state, ZIP and country
- Your email, direct and cell numbers
- Your referring office's Tax ID number, and the W-9
- Your broker-in-charge's name - that is who gets paid
Your client
- Names, current address, home, work and cell numbers, and email
- Whether they are buying, selling, or both
- How many adults and how many children are in the move
- Reason for the move - a corporate transfer, a job search and a family move run on different clocks
- Expected move date, and the date of the next home-finding trip if one is booked
The money and the property
- Price range, estimated down payment, and the monthly payment they are actually aiming at - the third number is the one that predicts what they buy
- Whether they have been pre-qualified, and the lender's information if so
- If they are selling: what they own, the estimated list price, and whether they must sell first
- Home style, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and any school requirement
- Whether they know the area at all, and any preferred area they have named
That last one matters more here than in most metros. Relocating buyers arrive with three or four place names a colleague gave them, and some of those names turn out to be in the wrong state for their commute.
What comes back to you
You lose visibility the moment you hand a client off, and that is the real cost of referring - not the split. So: receipt confirmed in writing when the signed agreement lands, a note on how the first conversation went, then an update at each milestone - search parameters set, offer written, under contract, inspection resolved, closed - plus a short check-in on a regular cadence while they are active, including the weeks nothing has moved. If your client stops responding, or changes direction entirely, you find that out from me rather than from a closed listing months later. You referred them; you keep the relationship, and you cannot do that on silence.
Why Kansas City is not a metro to hand off blind
Your client probably cannot tell you which state they are moving to
"Kansas City" is two states. Income tax, the city earnings tax, property tax assessment mechanics, seller disclosure practice, radon terms in the contract and down-payment assistance eligibility all change at State Line Road, and a client who accepted a job "in Kansas City" often does not know which side the office is on, let alone which side to live on. I hold both licenses, so that gets answered on the merits instead of around a license limit. The factual side-by-side is Move to KC's Kansas-or-Missouri comparison, how closing differs is their guide to the closing table on both sides of the line, and the decision itself is choosing your side of the line.
Most of these clients never stand in the house
The bulk of my practice is out-of-state buyers, including sight-unseen purchases: live video walkthroughs, inspections I attend with the buyer on the phone, and remote closings. That is a different job from local buyer work; the mechanics and the honest limits are in remote home buying in Kansas City and buying a Kansas City home from out of state. Before your client falls for a floor plan, point them at Move2KC's drive-time map - geography is the expensive mistake here, not the kitchen.
Northland, and Ukrainian and Russian
My office is north of the river, and Clay and Platte County - Liberty, Gladstone, Kearney, Smithville, Parkville - is where I have the most to add; see buying and selling in the Northland. I also work in Ukrainian and Russian, which is worth knowing if your client's household does the document-heavy part of a purchase in a second language; there is a Russian-language section of the research site and a page on how that works in the transaction. For a service member on orders, PCSing to Kansas City covers that timeline.
When I am not the right receiving agent
If your client's search is anchored deep in southern Johnson County or well south of the river and they need someone in that submarket daily, say so and I will tell you plainly rather than take the file and do a mediocre job with it. Same for commercial, farm and ranch, and anything outside residential resale and new construction. A referral you have to apologize for is worth less to both of us than one I decline. And so you have it up front: RE/MAX Innovations discloses an affiliated business arrangement with EverHome Title, LLC - your client is never required to use it and is free to select any provider.
How to send one
Call (816) 258-7356 or email Nataliya@NataliyaSells.com with your client's situation and your timeline, and I will send the referral agreement for signature. If you would rather read the substance first, the Kansas City relocation resource center indexes this site, and Move to KC's neighborhood profiles - roughly forty of them - is what I would hand your client while the paperwork moves. Office: 3200 NE 83rd St, Kansas City, MO 64119.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know I will actually get paid?
Because the obligation is not mine personally - it is between two brokerages, in writing, signed before I speak to your client. My broker-in-charge pays your broker-in-charge for your benefit, which is what Missouri requires anyway under RSMo 339.150. The W-9 is exchanged with the agreement rather than chased at closing, and the fee percentage and the side it is based on are filled in before either of us signs. If you want your broker to read the document before you commit to anything, ask and I will send it.
What if my client also has a house to sell before they move?
That listing is yours. The referral covers what happens in Kansas City; it has no claim on the property they are leaving and I have no interest in one. What I do need to know is whether they must sell first, because it changes the entire purchase strategy here - offer terms, timing, whether a sale contingency is realistic in the price band they are shopping. Tell me your list date and your read on the departure market, and I will sequence the Kansas City side around it instead of against it.
What if they end up buying on the Kansas side?
Nothing changes. I am licensed in both Missouri and Kansas, so the same agreement and the same 25% cover the transaction wherever in the metro it lands. This is worth checking with any receiving agent you consider, because a Missouri-only licensee whose client turns out to have a commute anchor in Overland Park has to hand them off again or work around the limit. K.S.A. 58-3062 contemplates referral fees to licensees in other jurisdictions, so the payment mechanism holds on that side too.
How long does the referral agreement run?
Until a date we write into it. The form states that it commences when both agents sign and remains in effect until a specified date unless otherwise agreed in writing, and I would rather you set that horizon than have it default to something open-ended. Match it to the move: a reporting date in ninety days is a different term than a client exploring a move next year. If the timeline slips - and relocation timelines slip constantly - we extend it in writing. It does not quietly roll forward onto their next purchase.
Do I have to be a RE/MAX agent to refer to you?
No. Any licensed agent or broker, any brand, any state. The statutory basis for paying you is that you are regularly engaged in the real estate brokerage business outside Missouri, not that we share a franchise. The paperwork is a RE/MAX referral form because that is what my brokerage uses; if your broker requires their own agreement instead, send it and I will take it to my broker-in-charge. What matters is that something is signed by both sides before I make contact.
What if my client wants to buy new construction here?
Same terms, no change to the fee, but there is one thing to warn them about before you hand off. Builders set their own agent registration rules, and some will not recognize an agent who was not disclosed at the client's first visit to the community. If your client is the type to wander into a model home on a scouting trip, tell them to call me first - it costs nothing and it protects the referral. What an agent adds on a new build is covered on using an agent for new construction.
Will you send referrals back the other way?
Yes, and I would like to. People leave Kansas City as often as they arrive, and I would rather send a departing client to an agent I have already worked a file with than pick a name off a roster. Tell me your market, your specialty and what a good client looks like for you, and I will keep it on hand. Reciprocal terms get negotiated the same way and put on the same kind of signed agreement - I would not ask you for something I was not willing to sign myself.