Childcare Providers Are Sending Families to Agents — Here's How to Get in the Loop

Every week, daycare directors across the country have the same conversation: a parent walks in, tours the facility, and mentions they just moved to town — or they're about to.

That parent needs a home. And right now, most agents have no idea that conversation is happening.

Childcare providers sit at one of the most reliable intersections of life change and real estate need. Young families expanding, relocating for work, or upgrading from a starter home all share one thing in common: they're actively searching for childcare at the exact moment they're making housing decisions.

Why Childcare Providers Are Untapped Referral Gold

The numbers tell the story. According to the National Association of Realtors, families with children under 18 accounted for 29% of all home purchases in 2025 — and they bought homes at a median price 12% higher than the overall market median. These aren't bargain hunters. They're motivated buyers with timelines.

Childcare providers — daycare centers, Montessori schools, preschool programs, nanny placement agencies — interact with these families during their most transition-heavy years. A family enrolling a child in a new daycare is often simultaneously:

• Relocating from another city or state
• Upgrading from a condo or apartment to a single-family home
• Moving to a better school district before kindergarten enrollment
• Downsizing after a divorce and re-establishing a household

Each of these scenarios is a real estate transaction waiting to happen. And the childcare provider hears about it first.

Building the Partnership

The approach mirrors what works with other professional referral partners, but with one key difference: childcare providers aren't in the real estate ecosystem. They don't get pitched by agents regularly, which means the field is wide open.

**Start with value, not an ask.** Offer to create a "New Family Welcome Guide" for the facility — a branded resource covering neighborhood highlights, school ratings, parks, pediatricians, and local family-friendly businesses. Include your contact information as the local real estate expert, but make the guide genuinely useful. Directors will hand these out because they make *their* facility look good.

**Sponsor family events.** Many daycares host seasonal events — fall festivals, holiday parties, summer picnics. Sponsoring these (even modestly, at $200-500) gets your name in front of exactly the demographic you want, in an environment built on trust.

**Create a reciprocal loop.** When you work with relocating families, recommend quality local childcare. Providers notice when referrals flow both directions. One agent in Charlotte reported that after consistently referring families to a local Montessori program, the director began mentioning her by name to every touring family that mentioned needing a home.

The Nanny Agency Angle

Don't overlook nanny placement agencies. These businesses serve a higher-income demographic — families spending $40,000-80,000 annually on full-time childcare. When a nanny agency places someone with a relocating family, that family almost always needs housing. A single partnership with a busy agency can generate 3-5 qualified referrals per quarter.

Making It Systematic

Like any referral partnership, consistency matters more than the initial introduction. Build childcare providers into your quarterly touchpoint calendar:

• **Monthly:** Share a brief local market update relevant to families (school district news, new park openings, family-friendly development projects)
• **Quarterly:** Drop off updated welcome guides and a small staff appreciation gift (coffee cards work)
• **Annually:** Co-host a "New to the Neighborhood" event targeting recently enrolled families

The Competitive Advantage

Here's what makes this strategy particularly powerful in 2026: almost nobody is doing it. Agents have saturated the mortgage lender, title company, and financial advisor referral channels. Childcare providers remain nearly untouched.

The agents who move first on this will own the relationship. And in a market where every lead costs more than it did two years ago, a warm referral from a trusted childcare provider — someone a parent sees every single day at drop-off — converts at a rate paid advertising can't touch.

Start with the three daycare centers closest to your geographic farm. Introduce yourself. Bring the welcome guide. And watch what happens when a provider who talks to relocating families every week finally has an agent to send them to.