Homewood, IL

Occasionally I get requests from former clients to help them market their home or get out foreclosure or something else that I have no expertise in. Case in point, last night a gentleman called asking me to help me find a Realtor and attorney to handle his short sale. He's got a buyer in place, but no idea how to proceed. He is not in the area where any of the Realtors I know specialize in. How would I go about finding a partner to help me handle this transaction?

Of course, one solutions would be to start calling real estate local offices, but that opens me up to a potential waste of time and a chance to get an unqualified Realtor to market to my contact. I could, also, search through all the numerous blogs on ActiveRain, but that will take too long. There is always an opportunity to get a referral from one of the Realtors I know, but those always take days.

Can someone tell me what do I need to do to give away a perfectly good referral and potentially build a relationship in the process with a working RE professional?

The property is located in Homewood, IL.