Office Policy Manual Guide - Mississippi Association of REALTORS

What is PermittedRegulation X specifically permits:• Payments for services actually rendered by attorneys, title companies, lenders, and realestate brokers and also for real estate agents "pursuant to cooperative brokerage andreferral arrangements or agreements."Key Referral Fee Reminders• Don't pay referral fees to providers of settlement services other than pursuant to a referralagreement with another real estate broker. RESPA generally forbids paying someone forthe mere referral of business.• No "gifts" or fees may be given to individuals who refer business to settlement serviceproviders.• When someone performs a service, that party should be paid a fee that is reasonablyrelated to the benefit received. He or she should not be given an excessive payment thatblatantly announces itself as a reward for steering business in the direction of a certaincompany.• Don't ask for or receive fees for referring business. There is a statutory exemption forbroker-to-broker referrals and agreements between brokers and agents. Therefore a realestate licensee should never ask to receive or accept fees for referring business unless hehas an established written broker-to-broker or broker-to-sales agent fee arrangement.No licensee shall knowingly pay any part of a fee, commission, or other compensationreceived by such licensee in buying, selling, exchanging, leasing, auctioning, or rentingany real estate except to an oth er licen see th rou gh th e licen see‘s respon sible broker.For more information on RESPA referral fee regulations, refer to Section 8 of RESPA (12U.S.C. 2607).3.47