This checklist organizes business and compliance questions; it does not approve a market or replace legal, regulatory, association, insurance, privacy, or brokerage advice.
Review the sequence from intake to closure
A referral exchange can look simple on the surface: one Realtor submits an opportunity and another Realtor accepts it. The risk lives in the transitions. The reviewer needs to know what the system stores at intake, what a potential receiving Realtor can see, when a client is identified, which agreement is in force, and what happens after acceptance.
Ask for a step-by-step demonstration using synthetic data. The system should make it clear when the record is only a fit check, when consent and agreement review are pending, when private client information is released, and when the receiving side becomes responsible for the next action.
Do not approve the workflow from screenshots alone. The operating rules, permissions, audit trail, error states, and escalation process matter as much as the interface.
Who is allowed to send, receive, and approve referrals?
- How license or registration status is collected, reviewed, and refreshed.
- Whether the participating Realtor is authorized by the brokerage for this workflow.
- How language ability, service area, property type, and capacity are represented without exaggeration.
- What happens when a Realtor changes brokerages, markets, teams, or license status.
- Who can view private client information and at which stage.
- Who can approve exceptions, reroute an opportunity, or close a disputed record.
- How test, demo, suspended, and unverified accounts are prevented from entering live routing.
How does the exchange protect client information and consent?
The reviewer should see a deliberate boundary between matching information and identifying information. Language, broad market, property type, and timing may support a fit decision without exposing a client’s identity. Names, contact details, documents, financial circumstances, and detailed notes need a separate release decision.
Confirm what the client is told, which party is identified as the recipient, what categories of information will be disclosed, how authorization is recorded, and how the system handles a declined or withdrawn referral. Review whether the process matches the brokerage’s service agreements and privacy procedures.
The platform should collect the minimum information needed for each stage and should not place private client details in analytics, support logs, public pages, AI prompts, or general marketing tools.
Which agreement, disclosure, and remuneration rules control?
A platform label such as “accepted” should not replace the approved referral agreement. The broker should identify the authorized form, required parties and signatures, referral scope, term, remuneration method, payment trigger, invoicing path, and what happens when the receiving relationship or transaction changes.
Review how the system describes fees. Public or in-product wording should not imply that payment is automatic, guaranteed, immediate, or owed outside the approved brokerage process. Required client disclosures and brokerage approvals should be visible at the right stage.
If the exchange will operate across provinces, states, or countries, treat each launch market as a separate review. A form or rule from one jurisdiction should not be silently reused as universal authority.
How are acceptance, response windows, and status updates governed?
- What facts a receiving Realtor sees before deciding fit.
- How long the receiving side has to accept or decline and what happens after expiry.
- Whether accepting unlocks private information automatically or only after a separate approved checkpoint.
- Which stage labels are available and what evidence supports each change.
- What the referring side may see without exposing confidential client conversations.
- How stale, duplicate, conflicting, no-response, and no-match records are handled.
- Who can correct an error without deleting the original audit trail.
What records exist, who owns them, and how long are they kept?
Map every record category: participant profile, fit brief, consent evidence, agreement snapshot, contact release, status history, remuneration record, support issue, and operational log. Identify the business owner, access rule, retention decision, correction process, export process, and deletion or legal-hold boundary for each.
A good audit trail is not a data hoard. It should preserve the decisions needed to explain what happened while keeping analytics and operational logs free of unnecessary personal information.
The broker should also know which provider stores each category, where the provider operates, who has account access, and what happens if the platform or brokerage relationship ends.
What happens when the referral goes wrong?
Wrong fit or no response
Define who can close or reroute the opportunity, what the referring side sees, and whether private information must be restricted again.
Client complaint or withdrawal
Define who receives the complaint, who stops contact, what evidence is preserved, and how the brokerage and privacy owner are notified.
Agreement or remuneration dispute
Preserve the reviewed agreement and status history, prevent automated changes to balances or payment claims, and route the matter to the authorized brokerage reviewers.
Security or privacy concern
Stop the affected workflow, preserve redacted evidence, limit further access, and follow the assigned incident and legal process instead of deleting the record impulsively.
Approve a small pilot with explicit stop conditions
A broker does not need to approve every market and use case at once. Start with one defined market-language cohort, named operators, verified participants, an approved agreement path, and clear support coverage.
Set stop conditions before the pilot: referral intake failures, unauthorized contact release, missing consent evidence, unverified participants, unresolved disputes, or provider outages. A pause should preserve the audit trail and prevent new routing without erasing existing responsibilities.
Measure service quality as well as volume: response time, fit declines, no-response rate, contact success, support load, complaints, and whether referring Realtors receive useful updates.
Where LingoLead fits
LingoLead’s current operating direction separates public early access, operator qualification, private referral review, contact release, status updates, and referral-token rules. Public signups do not automatically enter the exchange, receive a lead, or activate routing.
Before any market opens, LingoLead still needs the applicable brokerage, legal, privacy, provider, support, and operating approvals. This checklist is intended to make those decisions visible instead of hiding them behind a general platform sign-up.
FAQ
Can a broker approve the platform once for every market?
The product and technical controls can be reviewed broadly, but market-specific agreements, disclosures, permissions, and operating responsibilities still need the appropriate local review.
Should accepting a referral automatically reveal client contact details?
Not unless the approved workflow has already satisfied the required consent, agreement, eligibility, and disclosure checkpoints. Acceptance and contact release should be distinct decisions when needed.
What should a broker see in the audit trail?
The minimum useful sequence includes fit review, acceptance or decline, required consent and agreement evidence, contact release, status changes, support issues, and the final outcome.
Does this article approve LingoLead for brokerage use?
No. It describes the review packet a brokerage should require. Actual use remains subject to the brokerage’s own approval and the applicable market rules.
Key takeaways
- Review the full referral sequence, not only the fee or matching screen.
- Separate fit-check information from identifying client information.
- Define participant eligibility, permissions, agreements, disclosures, and status rules.
- Assign owners for records, incidents, disputes, provider access, and rollback.
- Start with one approved cohort and explicit stop conditions.
Sources and further reading
- BC Financial Services Authority: Referrals GuidelinesBC guidance on referral remuneration and disclosure duties.
- BC Financial Services Authority: Consumer Guide to ConfidentialityBC guidance explaining the duty to protect client information.
- Real Estate Council of Alberta: Real Estate Act RulesAlberta rules covering client confidentiality, written service agreements, and referral disclosures.
- National Association of REALTORS: 2026 Code of EthicsCurrent U.S. REALTOR ethics and professional-duty reference.
- National Association of REALTORS: International Referral FormA public example of the parties, term, signatures, and payment fields used in a referral form.
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