If you do work with a referral service, never ever ever pay the bulk of the money until the placement occurs. Otherwise, you could be out tens of thousands of dollars.
This goes for agencies too, however, I've often seen referral fees in the high thousands, low tens of thousands range. All referral services do is match you with an expectant mom. If the mom chooses to parent, you're out the money, period, end of sentence. Even if you do part with money at the match when using an agency (and I don't think that you should part with too much of it then) you at least get that money to "roll over" to the next match.
Good luck!
