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Real Estate Partner Program

Every property you refer becomes a lifetime lead source for your business.

Most short-term rental companies offer a one-time check for a referral. We were founded by a licensed California real estate agent who knows what you actually need is the listing when your client eventually sells, the early signal months before they decide to, and the kind of guest exposure that turns one referred unit into a recurring lead pipeline. The program below is engineered around those three things.

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The Program

Three things every other referral program forgets

A flat referral check is the floor, not the ceiling. The real value of partnering with us is the listing on the back end, the guest exposure in the middle, and the contractual protection underneath all of it.

01 First Call

Listing Lead Guarantee

When your referred client ever signals intent to sell, refinance, 1031 exchange, or otherwise transact on the property they referred, we notify you in writing within 5 business days. You get the listing. We decline to compete for it, even though our founder is licensed. We arm your listing presentation with a free, professionally-formatted Performance Pro Forma showing the property's rental history and projected buyer income.

How the broker-to-broker side works
In exchange, your broker pays an inter-broker referral fee of 25% of your side of the eventual transaction's gross commission, paid at close to our designated broker of record. That fee is the only thing we collect on the eventual sale — we don't try to keep the listing, we don't double-end the deal, and we don't refer the client to anyone other than you.

02 Guest Pipeline

Reciprocal Marketing

Your name and contact information reach every guest of every property you refer — in the home itself, in the post-checkout email, and as an opt-in question in our post-stay guest survey. Any guest who indicates interest in San Diego real estate is routed to you within 24 hours. One referred coastal unit puts you in front of hundreds of high-income travelers per year, for as long as we manage the property.

The specific touchpoints
The in-property placement is a designed tent card or framed welcome insert featuring your headshot, contact, and a QR code to your listings page. The post-checkout email includes a single-paragraph introduction to you as the local expert. The opt-in survey question reads: "Are you interested in learning about real estate in this area?" — opt-ins are forwarded the same business day.

03 In Writing

Contract-Backed Protection

Every commitment in this program lives in a written partner agreement, including the non-circumvention clause that prevents us from soliciting your client for any real estate services behind your back. It's the structural protection most short-term rental companies don't offer — because they never put their promises in writing.

What the non-circumvention covers
Our non-circumvention runs for the entire duration we manage the referred property and for 12 months after our management agreement ends. Within that window, Open Road Stays will not solicit your client for sales, purchase, or listing services. The protection is the agreement itself — signed, in writing, available to you before you ever refer a single client. We also disclose the partnership in writing to the client at signing so the structure is transparent to everyone involved.

Why It Works

We see seller intent months before any outside agent does.

Owners tell their property manager first when they're thinking of selling. Not because they want to — because they have to. They need to know how to handle existing bookings, whether to keep the property rentable through the sale, what their year-to-date numbers look like for the listing pro forma, and whether to sell as a furnished active rental or empty it out first.

Those conversations surface in our quarterly check-ins, in casual maintenance discussions, in offhand emails about future bookings. We hear the signal months — sometimes a year or more — before the property hits the MLS.

Every other agent in the market finds out when the listing goes live. You find out the moment we hear it.

The Mechanics

How a referral actually moves through the program

From the first introduction through the eventual listing, every step is the same way for every partner. No special handling, no shifting rules.

1

You introduce us to a prospective client.

Submit via the partner referral form on this page, or just send an email. Takes 30 seconds. We confirm receipt within one business day.

2

We meet your client.

Free Performance Pro Forma generated for their property. If they're a fit and they sign our management agreement, you're paid $250 within five business days.

3

The property goes live on Airbnb, Vrbo, and direct booking.

Your name, headshot, and contact info appear in our in-property welcome materials, our post-checkout guest emails, and our post-stay survey. We tell the client in writing that you're the referring partner.

4

90 days after the first guest stay, you're paid the remaining $500.

Property is live, generating revenue, and the relationship is real.

5

Quarterly through our management:

Any guest who opts in to real estate contact gets routed to you within 24 hours. You also receive our monthly San Diego short-term rental market brief, co-brandable for your farm.

6

Eventually, your client signals interest in selling.

We notify you in writing within 5 business days, generate a Performance Pro Forma for your listing presentation, and decline to compete for the listing. Your broker pays a 25% inter-broker referral fee to our designated broker at close. You earn your full side of a transaction you might never have seen otherwise.

What You're Paid

The math is straightforward

A fixed upfront fee that scales with your volume, plus a percentage on every eventual sale.

$750Base referral fee
$250
Paid within 5 business days of your client signing our management agreement.
$500
Paid 90 days after the property's first guest stay.
25%
Inter-broker referral fee from your side of the eventual sale — if and when your client transacts.

Partner

$750

Per Referral

Sign the agreement and you're in.

Preferred Partner

$1,000

Per Referral

Unlocked after 2 successful referrals.

Top Producer Partner

$1,500

Per Referral

5+ referrals or one full year in the program.

Top Producer Partners also receive an annual joint marketing piece and first look at any off-market properties leaving ORS management.

Included

What else comes with the partnership

Questions

Frequently asked

No. When you join the partner program, we sign a written agreement that bars us from soliciting your client for any real estate services during the time we manage the property and for twelve months after. Our founder is an agent personally, which is why the program exists in the first place — it's built around what agents actually need from a referral partner. But the protection is the written agreement. The agreement is real, signed by both sides, and yours to point at if you ever need to.
Your inter-broker referral fee is paid out of your side of the sale, which is yours regardless of where the buyer comes from. The 25% fee is calculated on your gross commission income from the listing side. As long as you represent the seller, you collect, and we collect our portion from your broker.
The $750 upfront fee is paid directly to you (in two installments) when your referred client signs our management agreement. The 25% inter-broker fee on the eventual sale is paid broker-to-broker at close — your broker pays our designated broker of record, and each broker handles the split with their respective agent from there.
Yes. This program is non-exclusive. We think we'll earn the bulk of your referrals on the merits of the program, not by demanding loyalty up front.
Yes. The program is open to any active California-licensed real estate agent. Top Producer benefits are unlocked by referral volume, not seniority.
Currently we focus on the San Diego coastal market — La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Coronado, Solana Beach, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, and adjacent neighborhoods. If you have a property outside that footprint, send it anyway — we'll either take it on or refer it to a trusted operator in the right market.
No fee is owed if the property can't be activated as a short-term rental — but you also won't be penalized for the introduction. We do our own due diligence on permitting, HOA, and zoning before signing anything. If a property doesn't work, we tell you and the client clearly.
If we've had contact with the client within the prior 12 months, the referral fee isn't owed. We do this to keep the program clean — but we make it transparent. When you submit a referral, we tell you within one business day whether the client is new to our system.

The Operator

Who you're working with

Open Road Stays was founded by Nick Jacobson, a licensed California real estate agent and the operator behind every short-term rental we manage.

Nick has been managing vacation rentals in San Diego for nine years, holds Superhost status on Airbnb and Premier Host status on Vrbo, and has personally hosted thousands of guests across the coast. He designed this partner program around the simple observation that property managers see seller intent months before listing agents do — and built it to make sure that signal reaches you first.

Every promise on this page lives in our written partner agreement. You can read it before you ever talk to us — request a copy below.

Move Forward

Ready to see how this fits your business?

Fifteen minutes is enough to walk through the program, answer your questions, and talk through any referrals already on your radar. Or read the actual partner agreement first — your call.

Schedule a 15-minute call