Q: “Denise, I have a business associate (previous career, not in real estate) who has sent me five new clients over the last six months. I have sent a nice card with a coffee gift card each time, but I think I should do something more as a thank you. But I have never had this “problem” before so I don’t know what is appropriate. What do you think?”

A: That is indeed a great problem to have! Restaurant gift cards are very popular. If you are going to go that route, make sure you put enough on the card to pay for dinner and dessert for two people minimum.
If you share a special interest with this person (such as the outdoors, gardening, book club, etc) you can give a gift card or an item that honors that dual interest.

You can even do what I call the stair step approach where you provide a special gift for five referrals, ten referrals, etc. So you might have something like what we have outlined above for the five referral level. At ten maybe they get a special local photo book or tickets to a show. Define those levels and have two to three options per level so you can choose what works best.

I do recommend that you chat with your accountant regarding how deductible different gifts are so that you can choose wisely.