What we required of the agent we sent you
If we introduce you to a real estate agent, this is what that agent had to do before we would send them anybody. We publish it so you can check it rather than take our word for it — and so that an agent who has not done these things cannot claim they have.
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- The four things, before a single introduction — Click the firm name on the sheet, type your own over it, and print.
- What we do after you are introduced — Then removal from the panel.
- What none of this means
- Why the panel is not published — An agent on one of our panels has been trained and certified by us to handle what a divorce sale involves that an ordinary sale does not.
- And the part where we are paid — If you are introduced to another agent — anywhere outside Fairfield County, Connecticut and Palm Beach County, Florida — and that sale completes, their brokerage pays a referral fee out of their own commission — and our founder receives a share of it.
In this subject 6
The four things, before a single introduction
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- The four things, before a single introduction — Click the firm name on the sheet, type your own over it, and print.
- What we do after you are introduced — Then removal from the panel.
- What none of this means
- Why the panel is not published — An agent on one of our panels has been trained and certified by us to handle what a divorce sale involves that an ordinary sale does not.
- And the part where we are paid — If you are introduced to another agent — anywhere outside Fairfield County, Connecticut and Palm Beach County, Florida — and that sale completes, their brokerage pays a referral fee out of their own commission — and our founder receives a share of it.
In this subject 6
Four questions to ask a real estate agent — one printable page, carrying our mark and address, with room for the client to write the answers down.
Click the firm name on the sheet, type your own over it, and print. Your browser makes the PDF; nothing is uploaded and nothing is tracked. It is free, and it is free whether or not you are certified.
Hand it to a client before they ask you for it. One of the four is “how many of these have you done?” — a question about you. Giving someone the test is a stronger position than sitting it unprompted. Open the sheet →
What we do after you are introduced
The bar to get in matters less than what happens next, and this is the part almost nobody does.
- We will email you at seven days and ask two questions: did they get in touch, and how did it go. We will ask you, not them. An agent who did not call will say they did.
- We will ask again at six months — how did it go with the house.
- None of that has run yet, because we have not made a referral yet. We are writing it in the future tense on purpose. The day the first introduction goes out is the day it starts, and we would rather say that than describe a machine that is not switched on.
- We read the public deed records on any property we referred. A transfer of title is a public record, so we do not need anybody’s cooperation to know what happened, and we do not announce which day we look.
- We tell agents all of this before they join. An audit somebody knows about works better than one they do not, and we would much rather have agents who return calls than agents we have caught.
A written warning first. Then ninety days during which they stay listed and receive nobody. Then removal from the panel.
Two things skip all three.
The first is a closing we find in the public records that they did not report. That ends it the same day.
The second is a complaint from a client that we investigate and substantiate. We investigate first — a complaint is not a finding, and a divorce sale has two people in it of whom at least one is often unhappy however well the agent behaved. But where we look into it and the complaint stands up, the agent loses the certification itself, not only the place on the panel. They may no longer describe themselves as Cusp Certified, and they cannot be referred anybody.
We publish that because it is the thing almost nobody publishes. A credential that cannot be taken away is a graphic. If you have dealt with an agent we introduced you to and it went wrong, tell us — we would rather hear it from you than read it in a deed record.
If we remove an agent while you are mid-sale, you keep them — pulling your agent in month two of a listing would harm you rather than them. The exception is anything to do with your safety, where we will call you.
What none of this means
What we can honestly tell you
- Their license was active and clear on the date we checked it.
- They have closed at least six sales in two years.
- They are well reviewed by the people who have used them.
- They have been told, in writing, what an automatic order is.
- They did not pay to be on our list, and they cannot. Certification is open to any licensed agent who passes; a place on the small panel we actually refer to is separate, scarce, and filled by the order in which people certified. A panel starts at two and gains a place for every six genuine inquiries a year, never exceeding the ceiling published for a market of that population — two, three, four or five seats by size, with the largest counties split into named sub-markets so a seat means the same thing everywhere. Some agents license our mark for their own marketing, annually — that buys a graphic and buys no preference here of any kind.
What we cannot
- That they will be good for you. We checked a license, counted six sales, read a rating and asked twenty questions. None of that is the same as being right for your situation.
- That they are the best agent in your area. We have no way of knowing that and neither does anybody who claims it.
- That you should use them. Meet them, and if they are not right, tell us and we will find somebody else. That costs you nothing and it costs us nothing.
Why the panel is not published
There is no page here listing the agents by name. A panel is small — two to five in a county — and we make each introduction ourselves, to one named person, because that is the only way we can stand behind who you are sent to.
An agent on one of our panels has been trained and certified by us to handle what a divorce sale involves that an ordinary sale does not. The automatic order that takes effect the moment a petition is filed and bars either spouse from selling or encumbering the property. Who can actually sign when the deed and the decree disagree. What an opinion of value is worth when one spouse asks privately to move the number. How to carry two clients who are not speaking without ever carrying a message between them. Why the closing date is a tax decision rather than a scheduling one. And the places a client’s new address leaks when there is a protective order in force.
Most agents have never heard of the first item on that list. That is not a criticism of them — nobody teaches it. It is the reason the training exists and the reason a panel is filled from the people who have done it rather than from whoever was available.
The agent pays nothing for the training. It is free to take, free to sit, and free to sit again as many times as they like. A place on a panel cannot be bought at any price, by anybody. No agent has ever paid us to be listed, ranked or recommended, and none can.
Being introduced to one of our trained agents costs you nothing additional. You are not charged for the introduction, and the commission you negotiate is between you and them. If and when the sale closes, the agent’s brokerage pays us a referral fee out of their own commission — it is never added to what you pay. Everything about how we are paid is on one page.
An introduction is not a commitment. You are given a name, you meet them, and if they are not right you say so and we find somebody else. Nobody is charged for that and nobody should feel awkward about it.
The professional directory works differently, and deliberately. Every attorney, mediator, financial analyst and therapist on this site is listed publicly and free, with their name and their contact details, whether they have heard of us or not. Nobody pays to be there and nobody can.
And the part where we are paid
If you are introduced to another agent — anywhere outside Fairfield County, Connecticut and Palm Beach County, Florida — and that sale completes, their brokerage pays a referral fee out of their own commission — and our founder receives a share of it. It comes out of their commission and is never added to what you pay.
So we earn something when a house sells and nothing when it does not, which means the advice to wait, or not to sell at all, costs us money. We give it anyway, on the page that comes first, and that page has no form on it and asks you for nothing.
No agent has ever paid us to be listed, ranked or recommended, and none can. Everything about how we are paid is on one page.