The best agent partners for a loan officer are the ones whose buyers need financing, who close consistently, and who haven’t settled on one lender. You can find them with transaction data: recorded sales and mortgages show who represented the buyer and who financed the loan. That turns “who should I call?” into a short, defensible list.
Why the usual approach wastes time
Most loan officers build agent lists from office rosters, open houses and social media. Those lists mix full-time producers with part-time licensees, and they say nothing about whether an agent’s buyers already have a go-to lender. You end up making the same pitch to people who can’t, or won’t, send you business.
Start with buy-side production
Agents who represent buyers influence the lender choice far more than listing agents do. Filter for buy-side deals in your area over the last 12 months, and set a minimum, say 10 deals, so you focus on consistent producers.
- Location: the cities or ZIP codes you lend in, by where the deals closed.
- Side: buy side, or all deals if you also want listing relationships.
- Time period: last 12 months for current activity; all time for long-term relationships.
- Minimum deals: high enough to skip occasional agents, low enough to include rising ones.
Look for agents without a favorite lender
Next, check how many loan officers each agent’s buyers used. An agent whose buyers went to eight different loan officers has no locked-in partner. An agent whose buyers mostly used one lender may be loyal there, and a harder first conversation.
Prepare one useful reason to talk
Before you reach out, open the agent’s profile and note something specific: their recent buyers, the price ranges they work in, or the loan types their clients use. A first message built on their business gets read; a generic “let’s grab coffee” usually doesn’t.
- Name something real about their recent business.
- Offer one concrete thing you do well for their kind of buyer.
- Ask a single, easy question, like a 15-minute call this week.
Keep it compliant
Partnering on service, education and co-marketing is normal. Paying for referrals, or giving anything of value in exchange for them, is not. Review RESPA Section 8 with your compliance team before you start any co-marketing arrangement. CFPB: RESPA Section 8 FAQs.
Where Broker Partner helps
Broker Partner in Homes AVM runs this whole workflow: search agents by area and buy-side deals, see how many loan officers each one uses, open their financing history, and send an invite that connects you when they join. See how Broker Partner works.
Keep learning
Continue with the next Broker Partner guide. How to read real estate agent production data