How to Handle Request for Referral Fee from Non Licensee

An agent cannot pay a referral fee to a non-licensee.

In between listings yesterday, I grabbed a call from a woman asking for a referral fee if she referred her friend to us to buy a home. Somewhere, from somebody, she heard that a Sacramento Realtor might pay her big bucks to refer a buyer. I don’t get many odd calls like this, but I get plenty of peculiar calls. Most of the time I hear my husband chuckling away in the other room at some of the conversations. This caller wanting to request a referral fee felt a bit odd. My husband laughed pretty loudly at this one, so I thought I would share.

The first thing I asked: Do you have a real estate license?

No, she says, I do not. I just want you to pay me a referral fee. How much do you pay?

Me: To an unlicensed person, maybe I would give you a $25 gift certificate. We are not allowed to pay referral fees to unlicensed individuals. It is against the law.

Why do you have to tell anybody about the referral fee? she continued. It would just be between you and me.

Don’t you love it?

Me: “Because it doesn’t change the fact that paying a referral fee to an unlicensed person is against the law and I would be putting my license in jeopardy. My real estate license is far too precious to put it at risk.”

She signed. Obviously, she wasn’t getting through to my thick skull. I could hear those thoughts in her sigh.

Me: “You know what? You can continue to call real estate agents and eventually you’ll find a crooked agent who will do exactly what you want, so maybe that’s the path you should follow. Just keep calling. You’ll find a crook. But I am not a crook.”

Maybe you could give me a really nice present, she suggested, because my birthday is coming up in January.

Where do these people find me? Oh, right, the internet. My team member Barbara Dow took over. They agreed on a $25 gift certificate.