--- title: How to track referral partners and referral credit | inflooens url: https://www.inflooens.com/guides/tracking-referral-partners/ description: How a mortgage lender should record which partner sent each borrower, measure partner production and keep the relationship, without paying for referrals. --- Guide # How to track referral partners, *and who sent each loan.* Record the referral partner on the loan itself, at the moment the lead is created. Everything else follows from that one habit: each partner’s production becomes a list of real loans, a fading relationship shows up before the referrals stop, and the history stays with the lender when a loan officer leaves. “Credit” here means knowing who sent the borrower. It never means paying for the referral, which federal rules prohibit. [See Partner Hub](https://www.inflooens.com/partner-hub/) By Amit Ghole, President and CTO, inflooens · November 13, 2026 · General information, not legal advice. Where it lives today ## Three places the partner list usually sits Each one works for the person who keeps it and for nobody else. In a spreadsheet Someone keeps a list of agents and a tally of deals. It is out of date the day after it is updated, and it knows nothing about the loans. In a loan officer’s head and phone The loan officer knows who sent what. The lender does not, and when the loan officer leaves, the knowledge leaves. In a CRM, apart from the loan The partner is a contact in one system and the loan is a file in another. Connecting the two is somebody’s monthly report. What good looks like ## The partner on the loan, not beside it Six things change once attribution is a field on the loan. Kept apart from the loan Recorded on the loan Who sent this borrower Kept apart from the loan Asked at closing, or worked out later from memory. Recorded on the loan Chosen when the lead is created, and shown on the loan from then on. What a partner has sent Kept apart from the loan A tally someone maintains by hand. Recorded on the loan The loans themselves, listed against the partner, with each one’s status. How the relationship is going Kept apart from the loan Known to one loan officer. Recorded on the loan On the record: its stage, when you last spoke, and when the next contact is due. When a partner goes quiet Kept apart from the loan Noticed after the referrals have stopped. Recorded on the loan Flagged after a set period without contact, while there is time to call. The firm behind the agent Kept apart from the loan Not tracked. Each agent is a separate line. Recorded on the loan Agents roll up to their brokerage or builder, so production can be seen by firm and by office. When a loan officer leaves Kept apart from the loan The partner list goes too. Recorded on the loan The partners, their history and their attribution stay on the lender’s record. What to measure ## Four numbers per partner All four come free once the partner is on the loan. None needs a separate report. Referrals received How many borrowers each partner sent in a period. Count introductions, not only closed loans. Referrals funded How many of those closed. A partner whose referrals do not close needs a different conversation from one who sends few. Time since last contact The earliest warning you will get. Relationships fade quietly before the numbers show it. Production by firm Which brokerages and builders are rising, steady or slipping, across all their agents. The line not to cross ## Track the referral. Do not pay for it. Knowing who sent a borrower and keeping that partner informed are ordinary relationship work. Giving a partner something of value for the referral is a different matter, and the rule is short enough to read in full. Every lender [Regulation X, 12 CFR 1024.14: prohibition against kickbacks and unearned fees](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-X/part-1024/subpart-B/section-1024.14) No person may give or accept a fee, kickback or other thing of value under an agreement that settlement service business will be referred. A referral is not a compensable service, apart from the exceptions the same section lists, such as payment for services actually performed. Sources checked on November 13, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, and your own counsel and compliance team decide how they apply to you. Questions to ask any vendor ## Before you buy a partner tool Including ours. The first question decides most of the others. 1. 1 Where is the referral partner recorded: on the loan itself, or in a separate system? 2. 2 Who enters it, and at what point? Can it be left blank? 3. 3 Can we see every loan a partner has sent, with its current status? 4. 4 Do partners roll up to a company, with production by firm and office? 5. 5 How does a partner learn where their client’s loan stands, and what can they see? 6. 6 When a loan officer leaves, whose record is the partner on? How inflooens does it ## Partners sit on the same record as the loan Stated in full on the Partner Hub page. **Attribution** The loan officer chooses the referral partner while creating the lead. The partner is shown on the loan as its referral partner. **Each partner** Owner, stage, timeline, deals, production and tasks in one view, next to the loans they sent. **Quiet partners** A partner who stops responding is marked dormant after a set window, and returns to active on any real contact. **The firm** Company Hub adds the firm-level view: funded referrals by firm and by office. Company Hub is in preview. **The partner’s view** Real estate agents are notified at loan milestones and can read the notes a loan officer shares with them. The app for agents and referral partners is rolling out. **When someone leaves** Partners, their history and their referral credit stay on the lender’s record, not in a loan officer’s personal CRM or inbox. [Partner Hub](https://www.inflooens.com/partner-hub/) Straight answers ## Questions about referral partners **How should a lender track referral partners?** On the loan. The partner who sent the borrower should be chosen when the lead is created and shown on the loan from then on. That makes each partner’s production a list of real loans, not a tally kept by hand. **What does referral credit mean?** In this guide it means attribution: recording which partner sent which borrower. It does not mean payment. Federal rules prohibit giving or accepting anything of value for the referral of settlement service business. **Can a lender pay a real estate agent for referrals?** Regulation X, at 12 CFR 1024.14, says no person may give or accept a fee, kickback or other thing of value under an agreement that settlement service business will be referred. This is general information, not legal advice. Ask counsel before any arrangement with a referral partner. **What should a lender measure about a referral partner?** Referrals received, referrals funded, the time since you last spoke, and production by the partner’s firm. The time since last contact is the earliest warning that a relationship is fading. **What happens to referral relationships when a loan officer leaves?** If the partners are known only to the loan officer, they leave too. If each partner, their history and their attribution are on the lender’s own record, the lender still has the relationship and its history. **How does inflooens track referral partners?** In Partner Hub, which is part of the same record as the loan. The loan officer chooses the referral partner while creating the lead, and that partner is shown on the loan. Each partner has their referrals, loan status and production in one view. Company Hub, the firm-level view, is in preview. More guides ## Keep reading - [Mortgage CRM vs POS vs LOS](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/mortgage-crm-vs-pos-vs-los/) - [How many tools a loan officer uses, and what they cost](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/mortgage-tech-stack-cost/) - [Mortgage pull-through and lead conversion benchmarks](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/mortgage-pull-through-benchmarks/) - [Two-way sync with your LOS: what it should mean](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/encompass-two-way-sync/) - [Loan officers on personal phones: what it costs](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/loan-officers-personal-phones/) - [Twelve questions to ask a mortgage AI vendor](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/mortgage-ai-vendor-questions/) - [What an AI agent should be allowed to do on a loan](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/ai-agent-permissions-mortgage/) - [Who should hold a lender’s loan data?](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/loan-data-ownership/) - [How to pilot new software while under contract elsewhere](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/pilot-mortgage-software-under-contract/) [All guides for lenders](https://www.inflooens.com/guides/) ## See a partner’s book. Thirty minutes. A partner, their referrals and the loans behind them. [Book a demo](https://outlook.office.com/book/inflooens@inflooens.com/) [info@inflooens.com](mailto:info@inflooens.com)