# Client Referral Program — 1.5% on Closed Deals

We pay our existing clients to refer the next ones. We do not pay other agents anything, ever.

The referral economics in Costa del Sol real estate are usually backwards. Volume agencies pay "introducer fees" of 0.5-1.5% to other brokers, finder networks and concierge-style middlemen, then charge the client more to cover it. That structure quietly inflates commission rates and creates a layer of incentives that has nothing to do with the actual buyer's interest. Muse Marbella runs the opposite model: the only people we pay to refer business are the clients who have already worked with us and seen the work first-hand. The rate is 1.5% of our commission on the closed transaction, paid in cash to the referrer or — increasingly the popular choice — donated to a charity in the referrer's name.

This page covers exactly how the program works, what we explicitly do not pay for, and the limits we put on the program to keep it from turning into farming.

## The headline number

**1.5% of our commission** on the closed transaction, paid to the referring client within 30 days of completion at the notary.

Worked example. You are a previous Muse client. You introduce a friend who, eight months later, buys a €4.2M villa we have on a seller-side mandate. Our commission on the sale is 3.5% of €4.2M, which equals €147,000. Your referral fee is 1.5% of €147,000 — €2,205 — payable to you in cash or as a donation to a charity you name.

A second example. You introduce a seller who lists a €9M villa with us and closes at €8.1M. Our commission is 2.5% (off-market track), which equals €202,500. Your referral fee is 1.5% of €202,500 — €3,037 — same payment options.

The fee is 1.5% of our commission, not of the property price. We are explicit about that because some other agency programs quote the headline ambiguously and the actual payout ends up being a fraction of what the referrer expected. The full fee schedule, including how this interacts with the commission band, is on the [pricing transparency page](/pricing-transparency).

## How payment works

Once the deal closes at the notary and our commission lands in the firm's account, we invoice you (or initiate the charity donation) within 30 days. Three payment routes are available; you choose at introduction or any time before the deal closes.

**Cash payment.** Standard bank transfer to an EU bank account in your name. We send you a one-page payment summary identifying the referred client (or a coded reference, if the introduced party prefers anonymity), the closed property, the gross commission, and the 1.5% calculation. Spanish tax reporting on the receipt is the referrer's responsibility; we issue a Spanish-tax-compliant invoice if requested.

**Charity donation in your name.** We make the donation directly to a registered charity you nominate. Receipt and acknowledgment letter come back to you for your records (and your own tax purposes, if applicable). The donation lands at the gross 1.5% amount with no deduction — we cover the wire fee. Several of our largest referrers prefer this route because it avoids the Spanish income-tax treatment of cash referral fees and converts the payment into something with personal meaning.

**Split.** Half cash, half donation. Same mechanics as above, paid in two equal tranches.

We have a small list of charities our clients have donated through previously — typically Marbella-area children's-cancer charities, Costa del Sol food banks, an Andalusian environmental foundation, and one international medical organisation. We do not steer clients toward specific charities; if you nominate one we have not used before, our finance assistant verifies it is a legitimate registered entity and then processes the donation.

## The 12-month attribution window

A referral is attributable to you for **12 months from the introduction**. The clock starts the day we are first introduced to the new contact (email, phone, or in-person — whichever comes first) and ends 12 months later. If the introduced party closes a transaction with us at any point in those 12 months, the referral fee is yours.

The window is deliberately wide because HNW buyers and sellers often take six to fourteen months between first conversation and signed reservation. A 90-day window — common in lower-end agency referral programs — would exclude most of our actual closings.

After the 12-month window expires, no fee is payable on subsequent transactions by the same introduced party, even if the relationship is clearly traceable to your original introduction. We do this to keep the program administratively simple and to avoid disputes over multi-year attribution chains. If you introduce someone in May 2026 and they sell a property through us in August 2028, that 2028 transaction does not generate a referral fee — but if they buy in March 2027, the March 2027 transaction does.

The introduction must be documented to count. A forwarded email with a one-line note ("introducing my friend John — looking at Sierra Blanca") is sufficient. A verbal mention at a dinner party is not — we have no fair way to administer attribution without a written record, and we will tell you the same thing if you ask us to retroactively credit a "remember when I mentioned you to my neighbour" referral. Document the introduction at the time. We will confirm receipt within one working day.

## What we do not pay for

**No broker-to-broker referral fees.** Other Marbella real-estate agencies, finder networks, "property-search concierge" operators and the various intermediary roles that have sprouted up around the high-end market — we pay none of them anything to send us deals. This is a structural decision, not a cost-control measure.

When a buyer arrives via a broker who expects a referral fee from us, that broker has a financial interest in steering the buyer toward whichever agency pays the highest fee, not the agency that will deliver the best outcome. We would rather lose those deals than be part of that incentive structure. In practice, we lose perhaps 5-10 buyer-side opportunities a year because of this — most go to agencies that pay 0.5-1.5% kickbacks to introducer networks. We are at peace with the trade-off. The full reasoning sits in the [philosophy manifesto](/muse-philosophy-manifesto).

This rule does not apply to lawyers, tax advisors, family offices and similar advisory professionals — those relationships are covered separately on the [professional partnerships page](/professional-partnerships), and the principle there is the same in the other direction: no fees flow either way between Muse and the advisor. Pure introduction in both directions, based on quality of fit.

**No paid introducer-affiliate websites.** We have repeatedly declined invitations to list on "exclusive HNW property finder" portals that take a 1-3% override on any transaction sourced through them. The override comes out of our commission and ultimately out of the client's pocket. We prefer to invest the same money in direct marketing, multilingual staff, and the [Marbella office locations](/offices) where clients can meet us in person.

**No staff-referral kickbacks.** Notaries, abogados, gestorías, mortgage brokers, surveyors, architects, builders and any other professional we may recommend during a transaction — we receive nothing from them when we send work their way, and we send them nothing when they send work our way. This is identical to the policy in [pricing transparency](/pricing-transparency); the referral page exists in part to make the consistency explicit.

## The five-per-year limit

Each existing client may refer a **maximum of five new contacts per calendar year**. The limit is in place to prevent the program from becoming a farming operation — there is a real risk, in any client-incentive structure, of turning helpful introductions into spreadsheet exercises.

In practice no individual client has ever come close to five referrals in a year; our top referrer in any 12-month period has been three. The cap is conservative and rarely binding. It exists primarily to allow us to politely decline if we ever start seeing the pattern shift toward volume over fit.

If you have a unique situation — for example, you sit on the board of a multi-family office and would naturally introduce ten of the principals over the course of a year — the cap is negotiable. Have a conversation with Max Bykov, get a written exception in advance, and proceed.

## How to refer (the three-step process)

**Step one.** Send a written introduction. The simplest version is an email with the introduced party copied, one or two sentences of context ("Sarah is selling her La Zagaleta villa; she would value a conversation about the off-market option"), and our address (max@musemarbella.es or info@musemarbella.es). A WhatsApp group with the three of you works equally well. The introduction is what starts the 12-month attribution clock.

**Step two.** Pick your preferred payment route — cash, charity, or split — and let us know either at the time of the introduction or any time before the deal closes. If you have not chosen by the time of closing, we default to cash and process accordingly.

**Step three.** When the deal closes, we send you a one-page payment summary within 30 days and process the payment or donation per your election. That is it. The introduced party does not see the payment summary unless you choose to share it.

If you have multiple introductions in flight, we maintain a simple tracker accessible through your existing point of contact at the firm. A more formal client-side referral dashboard is on the 2026-2027 product roadmap (working version sits at /referrals/dashboard but is not yet open to the full client base).

## Frequently asked questions

**Is the 1.5% rate negotiable?**
No. The flat rate exists to keep the program simple and prevent the kind of bilateral haggling that creates resentment. Every referrer earns the same percentage; the absolute amount varies with transaction size. We chose 1.5% as a number that meaningfully recognises the value of a closed introduction without absorbing so much of our commission that it distorts our incentives on the underlying transaction.

**What if the introduced party already knew Muse separately?**
This is a real edge case and we handle it case-by-case. If the introduced party has been on our buyer mailing list for years but had never engaged, and your introduction is what triggered the actual conversation, the fee is payable. If the introduced party already had an active mandate with us at the time of introduction, the fee is not payable on that specific transaction (a different transaction inside the 12-month window would still qualify). We will tell you in writing within five working days of the introduction whether it qualifies, so there are no surprises later.

**Can I refer myself for a future transaction of my own?**
No. The program is for introductions of new contacts. Repeat-client pricing on your own transactions is handled separately and typically takes the form of a small commission reduction on the second and subsequent transactions, agreed at mandate signing.

**What if the introduced party explicitly asks me not to receive a referral fee?**
We respect their preference. If the introduced party tells us at any point during the process that they would prefer the introducer not be compensated, we honour the request. We will tell you directly that the introduction was made but the fee will not be paid. This is rare — fewer than one in twenty referrals — but we have had it happen twice and we handled it the same way both times.

## Become a referrer

If you are an existing client and would like to make an introduction, the simplest path is to email Max directly (max@musemarbella.es) with the introduced party copied. If you are not yet a Muse client and arrived at this page anyway, the entry point is either the [buyer guide](/buyer-guide-2026.html), the [list your property page](/list-your-property), or a visit to one of our two [Marbella offices](/offices) — the team can walk you through what becoming a client looks like, and the referral program kicks in automatically once your own first transaction has closed.

A client-side dashboard for tracking your active introductions, attribution windows and pending payments is in development for late 2026. Until then, our finance assistant maintains a simple shared tracker on request. Email info@musemarbella.es with subject line "Referral tracker" and we will set it up within two working days.



## Related Reading

- [Pricing Transparency — Every Fee We Charge | Muse Marbella](/pricing-transparency)
- [Professional Partnerships for Lawyers and Family Offices | Muse Marbella](/professional-partnerships)
- [The Muse Team — Founder-Led Boutique Marbella RE | Muse Marbella](/muse-team)
- [Muse Marbella Philosophy & Founding Principles | Muse Marbella](/muse-philosophy-manifesto)
- [Security & Privacy Policy — GDPR, AML, Off-Market NDA | Muse Marbella](/security-privacy-policy)
- [Visit Our Marbella Offices — Two Locations | Muse Marbella](/offices)
- [Muse Marbella Buyer Guide 2026](/buyer-guide-2026.html)
- [Q4 2026 Marbella Luxury Real Estate Market Report | Muse Marbella](/articles/q4-2026-marbella-luxury-market-report)