Referral Agreement (Broker-to-Broker) — Oregon 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 Oregon Edition: Every form has been redrafted around Oregon's real estate license law in ORS chapter 696, including the Initial Agency Disclosure Pamphlet requirement (ORS 696.820), the statutory duties of seller's and buyer's agents (ORS 696.805 and 696.810), and Oregon's "disclosed limited agency" regime (ORS 696.815), which replaces dual agency and requires written consent from both the seller and the buyer. The seller disclosure, addendum, counteroffer and buyer agreement forms are built around the statutory Seller's Property Disclosure Statement (ORS 105.462–105.490) and the buyer's five-business-day revocation right under ORS 105.475, while the listing, buyer, referral and termination forms rely on Oregon's statute of frauds for broker compensation agreements (ORS 41.580) and Oregon's Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (ORS chapter 84). The independent contractor and team agreements track Oregon's independent contractor standard (ORS 670.600) and the principal broker / associated broker supervision structure, and the commission disbursement form addresses the commercial real estate broker lien under ORS 87.925 et seq.