Referral Agreement (Broker-to-Broker) — Hawaii Edition Template

Referral fees are a core revenue stream in real estate — but they are legal only when paid between licensed brokers. Every state's license law prohibits paying referral fees to unlicensed persons, and in transactions involving a federally related mortgage loan, RESPA Section 8 (12 U.S.C. § 2607) prohibits kickbacks and unearned fee-splitting for settlement-service referrals — with an exemption at 12 U.S.C. § 2607(c) that permits cooperative brokerage and referral arrangements between licensed real estate agents and brokers. The practical rule: broker-to-broker referral fees are fine; anything else needs scrutiny. And because a referral fee is a commission-sharing promise, the statute of frauds in most states means an unwritten referral deal is an unenforceable handshake.

This 4-page Referral Agreement locks the arrangement down in writing: identification of referring broker and receiving broker (with license numbers and states), the referred client's identity and the scope of the referral (buy-side, sell-side, or both; geographic area; property types), the referral fee as a percentage of the receiving side's gross commission (or a flat amount), when the fee is earned and payable (at closing, out of escrowed commission), treatment of multiple transactions by the same referred client during a defined capture period, a no-brokerage-services acknowledgment by the referring broker in the destination transaction, status updates, and governing law.

The included notes cover interstate referrals (fee must generally be paid broker-to-broker through the licensee's own broker), states with specific referral disclosure requirements to clients, and the RESPA boundaries for anything touching settlement services beyond brokerage. Template for drafting purposes — not legal advice.

About this Hawaii Edition: Every form names the brokerage firm, acting through its principal broker, as the contracting party and routes compensation through the firm, consistent with Hawaii's real estate license law (HRS Chapter 467) and the Hawaii Real Estate Commission's rules. Dual agency is permitted only with the informed written consent of both seller and buyer, so the agency consent document is drafted as a true disclosure-and-consent with an express opt-out and dated signature lines. The seller disclosure is built around HRS Chapter 508D (the mandatory seller disclosure statement, with its timing, update, and rescission mechanics) and adds island-specific items such as leasehold versus fee simple, lava zones, flood and tsunami zones, and cesspools. Electronic signatures are addressed under Hawaii's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act; because Hawaii has no dedicated broker lien statute, the compensation forms rely on contract remedies and escrow instructions. No association forms are reproduced.