Abstract:
A computerized system and method are presented for allowing a real estate agent to directly enroll a buyer in a destination real estate market after referring the buyer to a receiving agent. After affirmation by the buyer, the system provides the buyer with listing information obtained through the MLS of the destination real estate market. The referring agent continues to participate in the buyer&#39;s real estate research through the system, while also being eligible to receive a referral fee paid by the receiving agent. The computerized system maintains a list of certified agents able to receive a referral. Only those agents that have contractually agreed to pay a referral fee for clients obtained from other agents through the system and who meet certain performance minimums in the system will be certified.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/768,137 (the &#39;137 application), filed on Apr. 27, 2010, which in turn claimed priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/214,781, filed on Apr. 28, 2009. The &#39;137 application is also a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/403,385, filed on Apr. 12, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/187,207, filed on Jul. 1, 2002 and which itself claimed priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/359,804, filed Feb. 26, 2002. The &#39;137 application is also a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/999,299, filed on Dec. 4, 2007. Each of these related applications is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Real estate listing data is created by real estate agents and brokers when they obtain a listing. This data is then shared with other agents, brokers, and potential buyers through agreements with a multiple listing service. These multiple listing services also allow the sharing of this data with the public over the Internet subject to certain conditions. 
         [0003]    One embodiment of the present invention allows a referring agent to directly enroll the buyer in another real estate market by using a computerized system to refer the buyer to a receiving agent. After the buyer affirms their relationship with the receiving agent, the system immediately provides the buyer with listing information obtained through the MLS of the receiving agent. The referring agent can continue to participate in the buyer&#39;s real estate research process using the system, while also being eligible to receive a referral fee. The buyer benefits by having access to the MLS data in the destination market without having to investigate and select a new real estate agent on their own. The receiving agent receives potential buyers through their willingness to meet performance criteria in the system and pay the referral fee. In some embodiments, the consumer being referred by the referring agent to the receiving agent may also be a seller of real estate instead of a potential purchaser. 
         [0004]    In one embodiment, the computerized system will associate a potential buyer with a brokerage institution broker. In this way, the system can allow buyers to access listing data under common MLS rules. The brokerage institution may receive the referral fee paid by the receiving agent. This fee may be shared with the referring agent. 
         [0005]    In one embodiment, the computerized system maintains a list of agents that have contractually agreed to pay a referral fee for clients obtained from other agents through the system. Only those agents that have contractually agreed to the referral fee arrangement and who meet certain performance minimums in the system will be certified. In another embodiment, the originating real estate agent works within the system with a single lender or loan officer. The system may limit the potential receiving agents to those agents in the destination area that are working with lenders affiliated with the referring lender. In another embodiment, a receiving lender is also assigned to the buyer if the referring lender is not able to make loans in the destination area. 
         [0006]    The parties using the system can communicate with each other and monitor a buyer&#39;s use of the system. Specifically, the destination and referring loan officers and agents, along with strategic business sources, can communicate with the buyer through the system, track the buyer&#39;s use, and can share notes about the buyer with one another. Furthermore, contact details for these parties are shared with the buyer during use of the system. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing a computerized system in use with a buyer, an agent, a lender, and a strategic business source. 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing the referral of a buyer from a referring agent to a receiving agent, along with related lenders and listing data. 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing the relationship between a brokerage institution operating the computerized system and two institution brokers working with two multiple listing services. 
           [0010]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of the computerized system  10  in communication with the parties identified in  FIG. 1 . 
           [0011]      FIG. 5  is a schematic representation of financial institution hierarchy. 
           [0012]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram showing a server computer operating a web server to present interfaces over the World Wide Web. 
           [0013]      FIG. 7  is a flow chart showing the referral process used by an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 8  is a flow chart showing the receiving agent assignment process used by an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 9  is a flow chart showing the receiving lender assignment process used by an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Basic Configuration 
       [0016]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing a buyer  20 , an agent  30 , a lender  40 , and a strategic business source  50  that are connected through a computerized system  10 . The buyer  20  can include anyone generally interested in acquiring real estate, regardless of whether that person or entity will purchase or otherwise complete the real estate transaction. The agent  30  in the context of this disclosure is a representative or agent of the owner such as a real estate agent, or someone such as a buyer&#39;s representative who provides the buyer with the opportunity to purchase the real estate, or the like. A lender  40  is anyone who can provide access to funds, whether it is for debt or equity. Examples include banks, loan officers, venture capitalists, or the like. 
         [0017]    A strategic business source  50  can be any party that may be of use to the buyer  20  in addition to the agent  30  and lender  40 , such as a moving company. Alternatively, the strategic business source  50  may be any party who would be willing to recommend that buyers  20  participate in the system  10  with a particular lender  40  or a particular agent  30 . In most circumstances, the strategic business source  50  is not another agent  30  or lender  40 . 
         [0018]    In the primary embodiment discussed below, the buyer  20  is a potential purchaser of real estate, the agent  30  is a real estate agent or a real estate broker, the lender  40  is a mortgage loan officer, and the strategic business source  50  is a party who is known by the buyer  20  or would be of use to the buyer  20 . In some jurisdictions, a distinction is made between an agent who is licensed to sell real estate, and a broker who is allowed to operate their own real estate brokerage and hire additional agents to help sell real estate. Most MLS organizations require that their participants be real estate brokers, with agents subscribing to the MLS listing data through their relationship with a broker. 
         [0019]    The computerized system  10  includes a set of software instructions and/or interfaces stored on a non-volatile, non-transitory, computer readable medium  2  for execution on a digital processor  4 . The digital processor  4  is preferably a general purpose CPU, such as those manufactured by Intel or AMD. In the preferred embodiment, the computer program is stored on a tangible memory device  2 , such as a hard drive or some form of non-volatile memory chip, which is electronically accessible by processor  4 . To operate the software stored in memory  2 , the software can be loaded by the processor  4  into faster, but volatile RAM  6 . Data operated upon by the software can also be stored in non-volatile memory  2  and retrieved into RAM  6  for analysis, recording, and reporting. The computer system  10  further includes a network interface  8  to communicate with other computerized devices across a digital data network. In one embodiment, the network is the Internet, and the network interface  8  includes TCP/IP protocol stacks for communicating over the network. The network interface  8  may connect to the network wirelessly or through a physical wired connection. Instead of being a single computer with a single processor  4 , the computerized system  10  could also be a network of computers all operating according to the instructions of the computer program. 
         [0020]    The buyer  20 , agent  30 , lender  40 , and strategic business source  50  preferably communicate with the computerized system  10  through a wide area network such as the Internet. This can be accomplished by using the computer program to operate a web server, which requires the buyer  20 , agent  30 , and lender  40  to access the program through a web browser operating on a local computer attached to the Internet. The buyer  20 , agent  30 , or lender  40  identify themselves to the web server through a log-in process, and the web server presents to the browser a interface that is specific to the user logging in. 
         [0021]      FIG. 1  also shows the associations or affiliations that are established between each of the parties  20 - 50 . These affiliations are shown in thick, solid lines using the format normally used for entity relationship diagrams in database design. In one embodiment, each buyer  20  in the system is typically associated with a single agent  30  and a single lender  40 , while the agents  30  and lenders  40  can be associated with multiple buyers  20 . Each agent  30  in turn is often associated with a single lender  40 , while a lender  40  is usually associated with multiple agents  30 . Since each agent  30  using the system  10  is frequently associated with only a single lender  40 , buyers  20  brought into the system  10  by such an agent  30  are automatically associated with that lender  40 . While this association exists through the agent  30 , the link between the buyer  20  and the lender  40  is shown directly as a dashed line in  FIG. 1 . In other embodiments, the buyer  20  can be associated with more than one agent  30  or lender  40 , such as in the referral embodiment described below in connection with  FIG. 2 . 
         [0022]    As for strategic business sources  50 , it is not necessary for any strategic business sources  50  to be involved in the relationship between the buyer  20 , seller  30 , and lender  40 . Consequently,  FIG. 1  shows that it is always possible to have zero strategic business sources  50  associated with a party. Furthermore, it is possible for each buyer  20 , seller  30 , and lender  40  to be associated with multiple strategic business sources  50 . In one embodiment, each strategic business source  50  can be affiliated with only a single lender  40 . 
       Referral Network of Qualified Agents 
       [0023]    A buyer  20  may select an agent  30  for a variety of reasons—a family relationship with the agent  30 , a widespread favorable reputation, or the recommendation of a friend. In some circumstance, the agent  30  that a buyer  20  desires to work with does not work in the geographic area where the buyer  20  is hoping to purchase a home. This issue can be seen in the schematic drawing of  FIG. 2 , in which a particular buyer  22  would naturally select agent  32  (the “referring agent”) to assist in their home purchase. The agent  32  is associated with a particular MLS that allows that agent  32  to share local listing data  72 . While this listing data  72  contains properties that are listed for sale in a first geographic area (the “origination area”)  70 , the buyer  22  actually desires to purchase property is in a second geographic area (the “destination area”)  80 . If the buyer  22  were to simply select the agent  32  as their agent for the computer system  10  (and agrees to enter into a legal relationship with that agent  32 ), they would be granted access only to the origination area listing data  72 . 
         [0024]    In order to solve this dilemma, one embodiment of the present invention allows the referring agent  32  to refer their buyer  22  within the computerized system  10  to a receiving agent  34  that is associated with an MLS in the destination area  80 . Once the referring agent  32  associates the buyer  22  in the computerized system  10  with the receiving agent  34 , and the buyer agrees to that relationship, the buyer  22  can be granted full access to the destination listing data  82  in the computerized system  10 . During this use, the referring agent  32  and the receiving agent  34  can communicate with the buyer through the system  10 , and can share notes about the buyer  22  with one another. Furthermore, contact information about both the referring and the receiving agents  32 ,  34  are shared with the buyer  22  during use of the system  10 . 
         [0025]    In one embodiment, the receiving agent  34  is selected from a network of agents  36  maintained by the computerized system  10  that have contractually agreed to pay a referral fee to obtain clients from others in the system  10 . In another embodiment, only those agents  34  that have contractually agreed to the referral fee arrangement and who meet certain performance minimums in the system  10  will be certified as part of the network  36  who can receive referrals. 
         [0026]    In yet another embodiment, the referring real estate agent  32  works within the system  10  with a single referring lender or loan officer  42 . If the lender  42  working with the referring agent  32  is authorized to make loans in the destination geographic area  80 , the lender  42  remains the exclusive lender working with the buyer  22  in the system  10 . If the referring lender  42  is not able to make loans in the destination area, a receiving loan officer  44  that can provide such loans is associated with the buyer  22  in the computer system  10 . The destination lender  44  and the original lender  42  can communicate with the buyer through the system  10 , and can share notes  13  about the buyer  22  with one another and with the referring and receiving agent  32 ,  34 . Furthermore, contact information about both the referring and the receiving lenders  42 ,  44  are shared with the buyer  22  during use of the system  10 . 
         [0027]    The system  10  can select the receiving agent  34  and the destination lender  44  (if needed) based on pre-established criteria. The system  10  may select the receiving loan officer  44  based on the financial institution  60  that employs the referring loan officer  42 . If that financial institution  60  has loan officers able to provide loans in the destination area  80 , the system  10  will select a receiving lender  44  from that financial institution, and then select a certified receiving agent  34  working in the destination area  80  that is already associated in the system  10  with that receiving loan officer  44 . If the referring lender  42  does not work with a financial institution  60  that can provide loans in the destination area  80 , the system  10  may select any receiving loan officer that can provide such loans as the receiving lender  44 . 
         [0028]    In other embodiments, the system  10  does not select the receiving agent  34 , but rather presents a list of qualified agents in network  36  for selection by an individual using the system  10  (such as the referring agent  32 , the referring lender  42 , the buyer  22 , or a strategic business source  50 ). For instance, the referring agent  32  may be able to select a receiving agent  34  to receive the referral from a list of those agents working in the destination area  80  that work with a receiving lender  44  that is associated with the same financial institution as the referring lender  42 . If no such agents exist, the system  10  may present the referring agent  32  with a list of all qualified agents in the network  36  that have access to the destination listing data  82 . Once the referring agent  32  selects the receiving agent  34 , the receiving lender  44  associated with the agent is also associated with the buyer  22 . Upon the buyer  22  closing on a property in the destination area  80 , the receiving agent  34  will pay a referral fee for the referral of buyer  22 . 
         [0029]    Yet another embodiment of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 3 . In this embodiment, the system  10  is operated by or for the benefit of a real estate brokerage institution  90 . This brokerage institution  90  may be a corporation or other entity that has real estate brokerage capabilities across the country. In  FIG. 3 , these capabilities are provided by broker/agents  38  that work for or on behalf of the institution  90 . It is not necessary that these institution brokers  38  be legal employees of the brokerage institution  90 , only that they work on behalf of the institution  90 . These institution brokers  38  are members of their local MLS organizations, such as MLS  1  ( 92 ) and MLS  2  ( 94 ) shown in  FIG. 3 . Other agents and brokers  30  who are also members of the MLS  1  ( 92 ) or MLS  2  ( 94 ) are also participants in the computerized system  30  even though they are not affiliated with the brokerage institution  90 . 
         [0030]    In one embodiment, the system  10  will always associate a buyer  20  with a brokerage institution broker  38  in order that the system  10  may allow buyers  20  to access the listing data provided under the MLS rules. In addition, the system  10  will also associate the buyer  20  with an agent  30  (i.e., the receiving agent  34 ) who will help the buyer  20  investigate and purchase real estate. This agent  30  may or may not work with the brokerage institution  90 . In some cases, the institution brokers  38  serve both roles, and individually help the buyer with all aspects of the real estate purchase transaction. In order to ensure that the institution brokers  38  are sufficiently busy, the computerized system  10  may even show a preference for designating institution agents  38  as the receiving agent  34 . 
         [0031]    One benefit of having the computerized system  10  operating on behalf of a brokerage institution  90  is that the institution  90  is legally able to receive referral fees for the referral of the buyer  22  to the receiving agent  34 . In one embodiment, the institution  90  receives the referral fee and shares a portion of the fee with the referring agent  32 . In situations where there is no referring agent, the institution  90  is able to receive the entire referral fee. 
         [0000]    Communications with the Buyer 
         [0032]    As explained in the patent applications that were incorporated by reference above, and as shown in  FIG. 4 , one of the benefits of the computerized system is the ability to provide real estate listing information  11  to the buyer  20  based upon buyer specific information  12  stored in the system  10 . At the same time, the system  10  allows the seller  30  and the lender  40  to simultaneously monitor and assist the buyer  20  in his or her use of the system  10 . For example, the seller  30  is able to correspond with the buyer  20 , lender  40 , and the strategic business source  50 , through the computerized system  10 . The seller  30  may also share notes  13  regarding the buyer  20  with the lender  40  and strategic business source  50 . Similarly, the lender  40  and strategic business source  50  can contact the buyer  20  and seller  30  and share notes  13  with the seller  30 . The buyer  20  can also use the system  10  to contact the seller  30 , lender  40 , or strategic business source  50  to ask questions or to provide information. 
         [0033]    In order for the communication  16  with the buyer  20  to be relevant and useful to the buyer  20 , the party  30 ,  40 ,  50  that is making the communication will need information about the buyer&#39;s current status in evaluating items. Consequently, the system  10  tracks activity information and buyer notes  17  concerning the properties that the buyer  20  reviews. The system  10  also allows the buyer  20  to store certain items or properties in a notebook for later review. 
         [0034]    The buyer contact manager software  14  helps to manage these communications. In one embodiment, this software component  14  uses prompts  15  to encourage communication with the buyer  20  on a timely basis. By dividing the prompts between the various parties  30 ,  40 ,  50 , the buyer contact manager  14  can ensure that the communications do not overwhelm the buyer  20 . In the referral embodiment above, it is possible that the receiving agent  34  does not want to immediately participate in the communications with the buyer  22 . For example, the buyer  22  might not be considered a “hot” prospect—i.e., their use of the system indicates that they are not nearing a purchase decision. In these cases, it is possible to design system  10  to avoid prompting any communications between the receiving agent  34  and the buyer  22  until the buyer&#39;s use of the system shows an increased likelihood of desiring to purchase a property in the near future. Alternatively, the communications could still be prompted, but only infrequently. 
         [0035]    To ensure that the lender  40  and the buyer  20  communicate with each other, one embodiment of the system  10  does not allow the buyer  20  to utilize the system  10  until the lender  40  submits the buyer  20  to system  10  for activation. When new buyer specific information  12  is entered into the system  10 , the alerter  18  sends an alert  19  to the lender  40  to notify the lender  40  that a new buyer  20  is awaiting activation. When a lender  40  logs into the system, a list of buyers  20  awaiting activation will appear, together with each buyer&#39;s corresponding agent  30  and any corresponding strategic business sources  50 . The lender  40  will then determine whether to reject, amend or submit the buyer  20  for activation. This decision can be based on financial information related to the buyer  20 , and the buyer&#39;s desired price range. The lender  40  can also amend the search criteria stored in the buyer specific information  12 , such as raising or lowering the maximum price of the item based on the buyer&#39;s financial information. If the buyer  20  is accepted by the lender  40 , the lender  40  will submit the buyer  20  for activation and await official activation of the buyer  20  by system  10 . 
         [0036]    In a referral situation shown in  FIG. 2 , there may be two lenders  42 ,  44  associated with the buyer  22 . In this case, the system  10  can be designed to allow either or both of these lenders  42 ,  44  to submit the buyer  22  for activation. Alternatively, the system  10  could be designed to remove the requirement for activation by a lender  40  altogether. In one embodiment, the choice as to whether lender activation is required can be left up to the lender institution that engages the referring lender  42 . 
         [0037]    Once the buyer  20  is activated, the system  10  will generate item information  11  for the buyer  20  about items available for purchase, such as real estate listing information. The financial parameters established by the lender  40  can be used to control the properties available for search on the real estate listings database. If the buyer  20  wishes to increase this price point for any reason, the buyer  20  must request this change from the lender  40  as some embodiments prevent the buyer  20  from increasing the price point on their own. 
       Financial Institution 
       [0038]      FIG. 5  shows a single financial institution  60  that has numerous lenders  40  within their organization that are using the system  10  simultaneously. This lender institution  60  is divided into a business hierarchy, which in this case divides the entire institution into four divisions  62 . These four divisions  62  are each divided into separate regions  64 . Each region  64  is likely to contain a plurality of branches or offices  66 , with each branch  66  in turn employing a plurality of loan officers  40 . In  FIG. 5 , Loan Officer  1  works for the Second Branch  66  of the Third Region  64  of the North Division  62  of the Lender Institution  60 . This Loan Officer  40  works with three real estate agents  30 . The third agent  30  (labeled “Agent  3 ” in  FIG. 3 ) has signed up three buyers  20  to be associated with that agent  30  in the computerized system  10 . Each of these three buyers  20  is also associated with Loan Officer  1  automatically by the system  10  as a result of the association maintained between agent  30  and loan officer  40 . 
       Implementation of System  10   
       [0039]    The computerized system  10  is capable of storing information about all of the parties  20 ,  30 ,  40 ,  50  that use the system  10 . In the preferred embodiment, this information is stored in a database  110  operating on one or more server computers  100 , as shown in  FIG. 6 . The information stored about the parties  20 ,  30 ,  40 ,  50  can be set according to pre-defined fields in a database table (or database objects in an object-oriented database environment) within the database  110 .  FIG. 6  shows the database with tables or objects for buyers  112 , agents  114 , and lenders  116 . Relationships between these entities  112 - 116  as well as the other entities in the database  110  are represented in  FIG. 6  using crow&#39;s foot notation. It should be noted that  FIG. 6  shows that it is possible for a buyer  112  in the database to be related to multiple agents  114  and multiple lenders  116  to reflect both referring agents  32  and lenders  42  as well as receiving agents  34  and lenders  44 . It is also noted that the agent entity  114  includes a “qualified status,” indicating whether a particular agent is qualified to be part of the network of agents  36  that can receive referrals through the computerized system  10 . 
         [0040]    The database  110  can also keep track of referrals that have been made between agents  30  regarding particular buyers  20 . In addition, the system is able to keep track of closed purchase transactions made by buyers  20  that have been the subject of referrals. This allows the system database  110  to also track referral fees that may be due as a result of these referrals. The tracking of referrals, transactions, and referral fees is shown as a single entity  120  in database  110 . This should not be taken to indicate that this data would in fact be implemented as a single database table or object, but merely to indicate one or more database entities are created within database  110  to track this information. Furthermore, none of the entities shown within database  110  in  FIG. 6  should be considered to show actual implementation details of the database  110 , since it is well within the scope of the art to implement this type of data using a variety of entity architectures. 
         [0041]    The database  110  also tracks specific geographic locations  122  serviced by the agents, and the location specific listing data  124  for each location  122 . Furthermore, the database  110  stores information about the interrelationships between the lenders  40  and institutions  60  in the lender hierarchy  116 . 
         [0042]    The database  110  is used by a web server  130  operating on one or more of the server computers  100  to generate the various interfaces used by the system  10 . In particular, web programming  140  exists that define how to create a buyer interface  142 , an agent interface  144 , a lender interface  146 , and a strategic business source interface  148  using the data in the database  110 . This programming  140  allows the web server  130  to transmit over the World Wide Web  150  a buyer interface  162  that can be seen by a browser operating on a computer  160  for the benefit of a buyer  20 . Similarly, the web server  130  can manage an agent interface  172  on browser operating on an agent computer  170 , a lender interface  182  on browser operating on a lender computer  180 , and a strategic business source interface  192  operating on a strategic business source computer  190 . 
         [0043]    In the preferred embodiment, the type of information stored about each party  20 ,  30 ,  40  (i.e., the system “profile” for each party) is flexible, and can be varied depending on the needs of the users. For instance, a particular lender  40  (or lending institution) may wish to track particular information about their buyers  20  that is not desired by another lender  40 . For example, one lender may wish to track a buyer&#39;s current interest rate on their existing mortgage loan for the purpose of future advertising campaigns, while another lender may not desire to track this information. The system  10  is flexible enough to allow these variations. 
       Referral Process 
       [0044]      FIG. 7  shows a flow chart for the referral process  200  used by an embodiment of the present invention. This process  200  starts at step  202  by created a network  36  of qualified agents  30  that are able to receive referrals of buyers. In one embodiment, agents  30  in the system  100  are allowed to participate in the network  36  only when they have signed a written referral agreement. This referral agreement is a binding legal contract that requires that the receiving agent  34  share a portion of the commission they receive through a referred buyer  22  as a referral fee. In addition, the agents  34  may agree to meet certain performance requirements with respect to the use of the system  10 , in particular as it relates to new referrals. For example, agents may agree to accept and contact referred buyers within a particular time period of the referral, to make timely contact with the buyer  22  when they receive prompts  15 , and to keep current all of the relevant data within the database  110 . If an agent  30  fails to meet these requirements, the agent  30  will not be selected as part of the network  36 , or will be removed from the network  36 . 
         [0045]    At step  204 , a buyer  22  in the referral process indicates a desire to search for real property in the destination area  80 . In most cases, the buyer  22  indicates this desire to a referring agent  32 , who may be a friend, relative, or another individual known to the buyer  22 . This agent  32  serves as the entry for the buyer  20  into the system  10 . This is true even though the agent  32  cannot assist the buyer  20  in the purchase of their desired real estate in the destination area  80 . In some circumstances, the buyer  20  turns not to a referring agent  32 , but to another party using system  10  such as a lender  40  or a strategic business source  50 . To allow for these circumstances, one embodiment of the invention allows any of an agent  30 , a lender  40 , or a strategic business source  50  to serve as the referring party. If the referring party is a lender  40 , they are the referring lender  42  shown in  FIG. 2  (the strategic business sources  50  are not shown in  FIG. 2 ). 
         [0046]    At step  206 , a referring party such as agent  32  or lender  42  enrolls a buyer  22  into the system  10 . The computerized system  10  then establishes at step  208  an association between the buyer  22  and the referring party (such as referring agent  32  or lender  42 ) in the database  110 . If the referring party is a lender  42 , there may not be a referring agent  32  per se. If the referring party is an agent  32 , however, the system may automatically assign the lender that works with that agent  32  as the referring lender  42 . 
         [0047]    At step  210 , the system assigns a receiving agent  34  for the destination area  80  to the buyer  22 . In some embodiments, this assignment process is accomplished through a selection of the receiving agent  34  by the referring party from a plurality of agents in the referral network  36 . In other cases, the system  10  may assign the institution broker/agent  38  that is working in the destination area  80  as the receiving agent  34 . In still further cases, the receiving agent  34  is selected according to the financial institution  60  associated with the receiving lender  44  that is working with the receiving agent  34 . The details of how the receiving agent  34  is assigned are described below in connection with  FIG. 8 . The system  10  also determines whether the referring lender  42  can handle the lending needs of the buyer  22  for the destination area  80 . If not, a receiving lender  44  is assigned at step  212 . This process is described in more detail in connection with  FIG. 9 . 
         [0048]    Once the receiving agent  34  is associated with the buyer  22  and this is acknowledged by the buyer  22 , the system  10  allows the buyer  22  to access the listing data  82  for the destination area  80  (at step  214 ). Alternatively, access to this information could be withheld until the receiving lender  44  initiates activation, as described above. At this time, the referring and receiving agent  32 ,  34 , the referring and receiving lenders  42 ,  44 , and any related strategic business sources  50  are able to communicate with each other and the buyer  22 , and are able to share notes  13  entered into the system  10  about the buyer. The buyer contact manager software  14  can also prompt these parties to contact the buyer  22  according to its internal programming. This communication occurs at step  216 . 
         [0049]    When the buyer  22  closes on a property in the destination area  80 , the receiving agent  34  will enter that data into the system  10  at step  218 . In order to ensure that the system  10  is notified of real estate closings, the system  10  may also allow the buyer  22  to enter information about the closing. In fact, where allowed by local law some embodiments of the present invention will incentivize the buyer  22  to enter this information by offering a monetary reward or other gift after the buyer  22  notifies the system  10  that they have closed on a property using the assistance of the receiving agent  34 . 
         [0050]    Assuming the receiving agent  34  has received a commission on this sale, the referral agreement will require the receiving agent  34  to share a portion of that commission as a referral fee. In one embodiment, the management of the system  10  is performed by a brokerage institution  90  that is legally allowed to receive a referral fee. In these cases, the institution  90  will share the referral fee with the referring agent  32 . In cases where there was no referring agent  32  (i.e., the buyer  22  was entered into the system  10  and referred to the receiving agent  34  by a lender  42  or a strategic business source  50 ), the brokerage institution  90  that manages the computerized system  10  will earn the entire referral fee. 
         [0051]    In some embodiments, system  10  can track these referral fee payments, and can even initiate transfers of the referral fees to the appropriate bank accounts. In other cases, the payment of the referral fee takes place completely outside the computerized system  10 , either through another automated process or through a manual process. In these other cases, the computerized system  10  may prompt the receiving agent  34  to pay the referral fee. The payment of this referral fee is accomplished in step  220  of  FIG. 6 . At this point, the referral process  200  is complete. 
         [0052]    One process by which the receiving agent  34  can be selected and assigned to the system  10  in step  210  is shown in flow chart  300  in  FIG. 8 . The first two steps  302  and  304  of this process  300  is to establish the network  36  of potential receiving agents, and to actively monitor the network  36  to remove those agents  30  that do not meet the performance criteria described above. To enter the pool, an agent  30  must sign a referral commission agreement and attend training on use of the system  10 . The monitoring step  304  allows the system  10  to remove any agent  30  from the network  36  who does not respond timely to referrals, maintain the database  110 , or otherwise falls short of the minimum performance standards for the referral network  36 . 
         [0053]    The system  10  is designed so that multiple criteria can be used to select which agent  30  will be assigned as the receiving agent  34 . The various criteria can be chosen by the financial institution  60  that pays for marketing opportunities provided by the system  10 , and therefore could vary from situation to situation. Alternatively, the system  10  could be established to use only one of these criteria. Step  306  selects the appropriate criteria, and then implements the various criteria (seen in  FIG. 8  as steps  308 - 318 ). In each case, these criteria  308 - 318  determine the subset of agents  30  that may be selected as the receiving agent  34 . If more than one agent  30  meets that criteria, the system could let the referring agent  32  or the referring lender  42  select the receiving agent  34 . Alternatively, the buyer  22  could be given the ability to select the receiving agent  34  from the available options. In some cases, the criteria  308 - 318  are designed to rank potential agents (such as by performance score in criteria  312  or last agent selected in criteria  316 ). In these circumstances, the criteria  308 - 318  ensure that only a single agent will be selected without the need for one of the parties to manually select the agent. 
         [0054]    In step  308 , the receiving agent  34  is selected from those agents  30  that are working with the MLS in the destination area  80 , that met the minimum performance criteria in step  304 , and that have entered into a binding referral fee agreement. In step  310 , the receiving agent  34  is selected from those agents  30  who are associated with lenders  40  that work in the same financial institution  60  as the referring lender  42 . In this step  310 , it is not necessary for the lenders  40  to be formal employees of the financial institution  60 , only that the lenders  40  have some formal relationship to the institution  60 . In this way, the buyers  22  that had a relationship with a financial institution  60  before the referral will be able to maintain that relationship after the referral while working with the new receiving lender  44  and agent  34 . 
         [0055]    In step  312 , the system  10  monitors the performance of agents  30  and lenders  40  using the system. A system that performs this type of monitoring is described in one of the co-pending application that was incorporated by reference above. The performance score would ideally indicate which agent  30  has performed in a way that would maximize the chance that a buyer  22  will use the agent  30  to close on the sale or purchase of real property. For example, the performance score might measure an agent&#39;s closing percentage, the agent&#39;s previous use the system  10  to communicate regularly with buyers, or even a customer satisfaction score. Step  312  scores this performance, and assigns the highest performing qualified agent as the receiving agent  34 . Alternatively, step  312  could grade the agents  30  into a hierarchy, such as classes that are assigned a letter grade. Step  312  would first attempt to assign a “class A” agent  30  as the receiving agent  34 . If no class A agents existed within the destination area  80 , a class B agent  30  would be assigned. 
         [0056]    In step  314 , the system  10  gives preference to brokerage institution agents  38 . This step  314  can be designed to provide a minimum workload to institution agents  38 . If an agent  38  in the destination area  80  is below this workload, the system  10  can assign incoming referrals to that agent  38 . If the agent  38  is above the minimum workload, the system  10  may instead rely upon one of the other processes  308 - 312 ,  316  for selecting a receiving agent  34 . 
         [0057]    In step  316 , the system  10  alternates between qualified agents. The system  10  could use a straight round-robin technique, where every qualified agent is referred a buyer  22  in turn. Alternatively, this technique  316  could use a weighted system, giving preferences to some agents while still ensuring that all qualified agents eventually receive a referral of a buyer  22 . For example, preferences could be given to brokerage institution brokers  38 , or to agents  30  that score well under step  312 . 
         [0058]    Although these criteria  308 - 316  are shown as separate paths in the flow chart shown in  FIG. 7 , it would be well within the scope of this embodiment to combine multiple criteria together to select the receiving agent  34 . For instance, the list of agents could be narrowed according to criteria  310 , then further narrowed to require a performance cut-off score according to criteria  312 , and then a single agent could be selected from the group based on the date of their last referral as determined by criteria  316 . 
         [0059]    In each of these steps  308 - 316 , the system  10  might return a single agent as the receiving agent  34 , or may return multiple agents. If necessary, step  318  allows an individual using the system (such as the referring agent  32  or lender  42 , or a strategic business source  50 ) to select the receiving agent  34  from the list of qualified agents returned from these steps  308 - 314 . Once a particular receiving agent is selected, that agent is given the opportunity to accept or decline the referral in step  320 . If the agent rejects the referral, the process returns to step  306  to select another agent among the qualified agents in the destination area. If the selected receiving agent accepts the referral, the process of assigning a receiving agent ends at step  322 . The system database  110  tracks the referral to a particular agent. However, only after the receiving agent  114  accepts the referral is the database  110  altered to associate the buyer  112  to the agent  114  in such a way as to allow the buyer  112  access to the location specific listings data  124  associated with the receiving agent&#39;s location  122 . 
         [0060]      FIG. 9  show a process  400  for assigning the receiving lender  44  (as discussed above at step  212 ). The first step  402  is to ascertain the identity of the referring lender  42 . The referring lender  42  can be the lender who entered the buyer  22  into the system  10 . Alternatively, the referring lender  42  can be the lender who is associated with the referring agent  32  or the referring strategic business source  50  who entered the buyer  22  into the system  10 . It is possible that the buyer  22  entered their own data into the system  10 , in which case there may be no referring lender  42 . 
         [0061]    The next step  404  is to determine whether the referring lender  42  can handle the loan for the buyer  22  in the destination area  80 . If this is determined to be so, no receiving lender  44  is assigned (step  406 ) since the referring lender  42  can handle all of the duties of the receiving lender  44 . If the referring lender  42  cannot handle the loan, step  408  determines whether the financial institution  60  for which the referring lender  32  works can handle the loan for the buyer  22  in the destination area  80 . If so, another lender  40  who works with that financial institution  60  will be assigned as the receiving lender  44  in step  410 . If not, or if there was no referring lender  42  determined in step  402 , any lender  40  in the system that makes loans in the destination area  80  can be assigned to the buyer  22  at step  412 . The process  400  ends at step  414 . 
         [0062]    The present invention has now been described with reference to several embodiments. The foregoing detailed description and examples have been given for clarity of understanding only. Those skilled in the art will recognize that many changes can be made in the described embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, the above description explains that a referring agent  32 , lender  42 , or strategic business source  50  can enter a buyer  22  into the system and initiate the referral to a receiving agent  34 . It would be within the scope of the present invention to allow a buyer  22  to manually enter him or herself into the system without the help of a third party. The selection of the receiving agent  34  can still follow the logic of  FIG. 8 , with the referral fee in this case being earned completely by the brokerage institution  90  operating the system. 
         [0063]    Because alternative embodiments are possible, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the exact details and structures described herein, but rather by the appended claims and equivalents.