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Refer & earn — 25% recurring, for life

3 min read · Updated 2026-09-05

“Refer & earn — 25% recurring, for life” is a Direct University lesson from Direct REI, the AI cold-outreach platform and CRM for real estate investors. Refer other investors and earn a share of everything they spend, for as long as they stay a customer.

If you know other real-estate investors, Direct REI pays you to send them over — not once, but for as long as they keep paying.

It lives at Settings → Refer & earn.

What you earn

Because it's recurring, one referral who sticks around is worth far more than the sign-up bounty most tools pay. A referred Pro customer is roughly $25/month to you, indefinitely.

How to start

  1. Open Settings → Refer & earn and apply. Applications are reviewed by hand — this isn't automatic, and good-fit partners are approved.
  2. Once approved you get your referral link. Anyone who signs up through it is attributed to you.
  3. Fill in your payout details and keep them current — that's how you get paid.

The same page tracks what you're owed, what's been paid, and how many active referrals you have. Payouts are sent manually on a regular schedule; earnings sit as "owed" until then.

Worth knowing

What actually converts

The people most likely to stay are the ones with a real list problem — someone hand-texting from a spreadsheet, someone paying for three separate tools, someone whose VA has no system to work from. Send them to a specific thing that solves that, rather than "check out this CRM": the county-record pull, the multi-line dialer, or Oliver building a campaign for them.

Refer people who will succeed, not just sign up. Commission is recurring, so a customer who gets value and stays two years beats five who churn in a month — and a churned referral pays you almost nothing.

What's next

To explain the plans accurately when you refer someone, read Plans, caps & credits explained.

This lesson lives in Direct University inside the Direct REI app, where you can search every lesson and ask the built-in AI assistant. Sign in to open it there.

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About Direct REIDirect REI is an AI cold-outreach platform and CRM for real estate investors — wholesalers, flippers, builders, land investors, and brokers. Its AI acquisition manager, Oliver, pulls county property records, finds owners, and runs email, SMS, direct mail, and inbound-call tracking from your own mailbox and phone number, replying in your voice. Free plan; paid plans from $23/month billed annually ($29 monthly).

Start free — let Oliver run the outreach.

Free plan, no card. Oliver finds the leads and runs email, SMS, and mail from your own accounts.

Try Direct REI free →