Referral Agreement (Broker-to-Broker) — New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire Edition: Every form names the brokerage firm, acting through its principal broker, as the contracting party and acknowledges delivery of New Hampshire's mandatory brokerage relationship disclosure, consistent with RSA Chapter 331-A and the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission's rules. New Hampshire permits disclosed dual agency with written informed consent and also authorizes designated agency, so the consent document covers both regimes. New Hampshire has no comprehensive property condition disclosure statute; the seller disclosure is built first around the statutory pre-contract disclosures (water supply, sewage disposal, insulation, and the radon, arsenic, and lead notices under RSA 477) and then adds a clearly labeled voluntary general-condition section. Closing-related forms are drafted around attorney and title-company closing practice. Electronic signatures are addressed under New Hampshire's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. No association forms are reproduced.