The Referral Network Privacy Notice

Notice

At The Referral Network we care about your privacy and take our responsibility to protect it very seriously. Therefore we take all steps we can to assure that we are protecting your privacy and using the information you give us in a respectful and thoughtful manner in order to best serve you.

Please read this policy in its entirety so that you are aware of how we plan to deal with your privacy as well as the personal and/or confidential information that you submit or give us any any manner, including, but not limited to; through our websites, via email, in a phone conversation or in person. We want our relationship to be one of mutual trust and want to be sure that you are 100% comfortable with our policies.

By accepting this Privacy Policy as and the Terms of Use when you register, you hereby expressly give The Referral Network, as well as it's parent company, owners as well as related companies, your consent to collect, store, use and disclose your personal information and identity as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance for new users and for all other users, forty (40) days after it is first posted on this web site.

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time. When, and if, this happens, we will post the revised Privacy Policy on this website so it is available for your review at anytime 24/7, just like the current policy. We urge you to check the Privacy Periodically so you will be aware of any changes or revisions to the policy. Changes to the privacy policy will be effective immediately upon acceptance for new users and for all other users, forty (40) days after the revised Privacy Policy is posted on this site.

If you have any questions on our Privacy Policy, or any of our policies, please contact us. Why do we collect information about you and how do we do it?

In order to best serve you and to respond to your requests for information as well as your questions we must have some information about who you are, what you are looking to do with regard to real estate and when you are looking to do something. The information we gather and collect may come about as a result of one of the following actions by you:

  1. Accessing our website
  2. Registering on our website
  3. Making an inquiry through our website, email, telephone, via postal mail or in person
  4. Communicating with one of our agents or affiliates through live chat, the website, via email, telephone, postal mail or in person.

What information do we collect about you?

Here's the Stuff you will know you are giving to us

The information we will collect about you will vary depending on the way in which you choose to use our site and work with us. However it will always be very apparent to you what information we are getting from you because you will be giving it to us; either by filling out a form, answering a question or having a discussion with one of our agents or affiliates via live chat, through the website, via email, postal mail, telephone or in person. Some of the information we gather about you may include, but is not limited to:

  1. Your name, address,zip code, phone number, email address, log-in ID and password
  2. What your intentions are with regard to use of our site (buying a home, selling a home, leasing a home, etc.) as well as the time frame in which you may be considering doing something
  3. If you are currently working with an agent and if so the identity of the agent.
  4. Your likes and dislikes with regard to homes or property you are looking for or are interested in. This would include, but not be limited to, the geographic location, price range, size of home or lot, price range, amenities desired etc. Information such as this could be gathered from your search criteria as well as the listings that you choose to save into your account or email to another (when you email a listing to someone through our website your email, including any message, will be retained by the system).
Here's the information that you may not realize will be gathered

In an effort to improve the effectiveness of our web site as well as our marketing and advertising efforts, we gather various "useage" data so that statistical reports can be prepared to help us improve what we do. The information gathered for these purposes is not so much about your identity as your usage and what brought you to us. The type of data that will be collected for this will include, but not be limited to:

  1. The domain name through which you gained access to our Web Site
  2. The precise time and date that you entered our site and length of time you spent on our site
  3. The URL of the web page through whcih you linked to our web site
  4. The Public IP address of the server accessing our web site in some instances

In addition we use "cookies" to store indentifiable (non-personal) information to track you as you use our Site as well as when you link to other sites from our site. These "cookies" will make it easier for you to login and to make your use of the site easier.

Who will we share your personal information with?

At The Referral Network we care about your privacy and take our responsibility to protect it very seriously. Therefore we strive to be good stewards of the information you have intrusted to us and to use it only to help provide the service, information and products to you that we feel you are looking for and fits your desires.

Related to providing services and information to you

In an effort to serve you and provide you with the information you want we will need to share some or all of your personal identifying information with others. The following are some of the situations, but not necessarily all of them, that this information will be shared:

  1. With our brokers, agents and affiliates so that they may respond to your requests for information, a showing request, a listing request, etc. In this case the information will only be shared with an agent or broker that is licensed with us, or with an affiliated individual or company that has a business relationship with us which includes an agreement regarding our privacy and usage policy on data obtained from us.
  2. With the MLS provider as required in order to submit a listing to the MLS, to use the auto-prospecting features of the system or as described above, to comply with MLS rules.
  3. With companies that may be a susidiary of ours, or not, for services that are necessary for the ongoing operation of our business. This may include, but not be limited to the following services:
  4. Autoresponder operations
  5. Website design and management
  6. Data programming and processing services
  7. Lead generation and management systems
  8. Verification of the validity of our data and updating the same

When outside companies are used for the above services, and your personal identifying information is shared with them it is only done so with the company agreeing not to use the data for any other purpose other than to fulfill their services for us.

Related to other services you may be interested in

We may also share your information with companies that are a subsidiary of ours, or with non-related companies that we have marketing agreements with to help offer you the services we feel you may be interested in with regard to your real estate transaction. This may include, but not be limited to:

  1. Mortgage companies, banks and other lenders
  2. Title Insurance Companies
  3. Home Inspection Companies
  4. Surveying and engineering Firms
  5. Termite Inspection and Pest Control Companies
  6. Moving Companies
  7. Insurance Companies
  8. Local businesses in the area of you are moving to or from that provide services and/or products either relative to your housing transaction or to living in the community.

Related to assisting you with buying or selling a home

In addition, when working with you in the capacity of a real estate agent, our agents may assist you with varous aspects of the transaction (such as working with your lender, utility companies, home inspection companies, appraisers, title company, etc.) that could involve them giving out your personal identifying data. Legal Stuff about third party companies

It is important to remember that when you select a third-party company to work with (such as mortgage company, title company, etc) it is important you review their Privacy Policy as it will be different than ours and The Referral Network is not liabile in any way for how your private and confidential information is handled by another company, even if you found that company through our website or as a result of using our services. It is also important to note that when you go to other websites from our website in many cases you are going to a third-party and even though the site may still look like the The Referral Network site, it is not our company providing the service. In these instances the company we have sent you to is always readily indentifiable and you should review their privacy policy and terms of use policy prior to giving them any information. Legal Stuff about when we will give out your information for Legal reasons

Circumstances may arise whereby we will have to give out part or all of your information for legal reasons. This could be a rsult of (but not limited to) one of the following reasons:

  1. We have received a subpoena requesting information
  2. We are responding to a court order
  3. The information has been requested by law enforcement officials
  4. The information has been requested by our MLS provider or the National Association of REALTORS(R)
  5. If we feel, in our sole discretion, that we need to disclose such information to bring legal action against someone that we feel is interfering with or causing injury to us, our rights, our property (including, but not limited to intellectual property), our users, clients, employees, associates or anyone else that feel could be harmed or injured by such activities.

More Legal Stuff

If after reviewing our Privacy Policy you do not wish to share your information with us you may still be able to access part of our site without providing information but what you will have access to will be very limited. If you do register with us or establish an account you can delete your account at any time and upon deletion of your account we will stop sharing your information however due to requirements we have outlined above your information may have to be retained by us for a period of time for compliance issues prior to deleting your information from our database.

Also, we hate SPAM but we may occasionally use your email address to send you information or tell you about products or services we feel you may be interested in. It is important to note that when we do this the email will always contain a link you can click on to "opt-out" of receiving emails of that type. We will never email you with offers or information that we do not feel is relative to the reason you visited our site.

This Privacy Policy is posted on the site you are accessing. Your continued use of the web site confirms your acceptance of this policy, as well as your agreement to our use of your data and other personal information described herein. Furthermore you do hereby authorize us to use your date and personal information as described in this policy as well as the terms of use and authorize us sharing it with third-parties as disclosed in those agreements.

If you ever have questions on this or any other policy please contact us: