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To do this type of work, does a RE Referral Agent needs to be Licensed in every state or country to legally accept referral fees? My Location is in PA.
Last edited by curious2012; 03-10-2012 at 06:19 PM..
As 2B said, to offer referrals to other agents for a referral fee, you would need to be licensed in only one state. Also, your broker would actually receive the referral fee and distribute it to you minus their fee depending on your employment agreement.
To do this type of work, does a RE Referral Agent needs to be Licensed in every state or country to legally accept referral fees? My Location is in PA.
Referrals (also known as "bird dogging") is a private agreement between the realtor and the person doing the referring. Back in the day when I was a licensed realtor, I offered a referral fee to people for recommending me to others. Unless it is part of a REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION, the board of realtors does not govern it.
To my knowledge, every state in the US requires that only a licensee of the state where the land is sited may receive a commission for acting as a broker or agent. Likewise, every state recognizes that a licensed broker may receive a referral commission from another licensed broker of the state where the property is located.
What 20yrsinBranson wrote is now an illegal act in every state that I know of. A bird-dog fee is considered a commission if the payment to the bird-dog was/is dependent upon the outcome of the transaction in every state I know of.
What 20yrsinBranson wrote is now an illegal act in every state that I know of. A bird-dog fee is considered a commission if the payment to the bird-dog was/is dependent upon the outcome of the transaction in every state I know of.
As long as there is no written agreement, a REALTOR can do whatever they want with their money. If the monetary payment is not contingent upon a purchase, but rather just the referral of the person then it is not considered a commission, since according to the law, a commission is paid when a REALTOR finds a person who is "ready, willing and able" to buy. Ninety percent of home sales are based upon referrals. It is naive to think that of the thousands of referrals that occur on annual basis that money never changes hands.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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It's actually legal in CA to pay a finders fee provided the recipient does nothing that would require a real estate license to earn the fee. Pretty much "Give me the name and contact information, and I'll take it from here" sort of thing.
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