Co-marketing with lenders: what RESPA allows

What Section 8 prohibits

• Referral payments: no one may give or accept a fee, kickback or thing of value under an agreement or understanding to refer settlement service business.
• Unearned splits: no one may give or accept a share of a settlement charge except for services actually performed.

The rule covers both sides, the giver and the taker. Regulation X says the agreement does not have to be written or spoken. It can be shown by a practice, pattern or course of conduct, and a thing of value received repeatedly and connected to the volume of business referred is evidence of one.

RESPA is federal law, so it applies in every state. State law can be stricter, and your broker’s policy can be stricter still.

What counts as a thing of value

Regulation X defines the term broadly. It includes money, discounts, trips, payment of another person’s expenses, and free or reduced-rate services. Everyday examples from a lender, title company or other settlement provider:

• Paying for your ads, or more than its share of a joint ad.
• Buying leads for you, or paying for your portal advertising.
• Lunches, event tickets and gift cards.
• Paying for your CRM or a data subscription.
• Desk or office rent that is not at market rate.

Whether one of these is a violation depends on the facts, mainly whether it is given under an agreement or understanding to refer business. Small size is not a defense. The CFPB’s RESPA Section 8 FAQs, issued October 7, 2020, say, “There is no exception to RESPA Section 8 solely based on the value of the gift or promotion.”

What is allowed

• Payment for goods or services actually provided: the payment has to bear a reasonable relationship to market value. Under Regulation X, any excess is not treated as payment for the goods or services.
• Normal promotional and educational activities: allowed only if they are not conditioned on referrals and do not defray expenses you would otherwise pay. NAR’s examples: a title representative presenting at an event, or branded pens and calendars, are fine. A title company reimbursing your open house lunch without marketing there is not.
• Referral fees between real estate brokers: the statute permits cooperative brokerage and referral arrangements between agents and brokers. Regulation X limits this to brokers acting as brokers, not arrangements with mortgage brokers.
• Affiliated business arrangements: if your brokerage has an ownership interest in a lender or title company, the statute allows the arrangement when it is disclosed to the person being referred with a written estimate of charges, that person is not required to use the provider, and the only thing of value received, beyond payments RESPA otherwise permits, is a return on the ownership interest. NAR’s example of what fails: paying agents, who are independent contractors, $20 per referral to an affiliated lender.

Co-marketing done right

NAR’s guidance is that a joint ad is permissible if each party pays its pro-rata share, tied to the space or advertising it receives.

• Measure the space: split the actual cost by each party’s share of the piece.
• Pay the vendor directly: each party pays the printer or publisher its own share.
• Document it: keep the invoice, a copy of the ad and the math.
• Keep referrals out of it: the split never depends on how much business you send.

Paying the vendor directly and keeping records are common compliance practices, not wording from the statute. Ask your broker what it requires.

A worked example: a postcard run costs $600. The lender’s panel takes one third of the card, so the lender pays $200 and you pay $400. If the lender pays $400 instead, it has covered $200 of your share. That extra $200 is the problem. You can price the mailings with the postcard and EDDM cost calculator before you split the bill.

Portal programs and marketing services agreements

Portal co-marketing: some advertising programs let a lender pay part of an agent’s ad cost and appear beside the agent. The same test applies. The lender’s payment has to match the exposure it actually gets. A program being offered does not make your arrangement compliant.

Marketing services agreements (MSAs): the CFPB’s FAQs say a lawful MSA is “an agreement for the performance of marketing services”, with payment reasonably related to services actually performed. Marketing is aimed at a wide audience. A referral is directed to a person. An MSA is unlawful when it pays for referrals, pays above market value, pays for services not performed or disguises kickbacks. MSAs draw scrutiny because a monthly fee can look like marketing on paper while it works as a referral payment.

Gifts, and why client gifts are different

Gifts between you and lenders, title reps or inspectors are judged by the same test, whichever way they go. NAR’s example: a lender’s contest that gives a cruise to the top-referring agent violates RESPA for the lender and the agents.

A closing gift to your own client is a different question. Section 8 targets payments for referrals of settlement business, and NAR says rebating commission to a consumer is permissible under Section 8. State rebate and inducement laws still apply, and paying an unlicensed person for referring someone else can raise license-law problems. See closing gifts: what to spend and what you can deduct and the closing gift budget tool.

Penalties and enforcement

• Statute: a fine of up to $10,000, up to one year in prison, and liability for three times the settlement charge involved.
• Prospect Mortgage (January 31, 2017): the CFPB ordered a $3.5 million penalty against the lender. Brokers and a servicer, including Keller Williams Mid-Willamette, paid $495,000 combined for accepting kickbacks.
• Freedom Mortgage and Realty Connect USA Long Island (August 17, 2023): consent orders of $1.75 million and $200,000, as reported by the ABA Banking Journal. The reported conduct included a free $300-a-month data subscription for agents, paid events, and marketing agreements, one of them paying a brokerage $6,000 a month, that were treated as disguised referral fees.
• Rocket Homes: the CFPB’s RESPA suit against Rocket Homes and Jason Mitchell Group, filed December 23, 2024, was dismissed with prejudice in late February 2025.

Federal enforcement is reported to have slowed in 2025. The statute has not changed, and private suits and state regulators remain. The CFPB’s Section 8 FAQs appeared to be still posted as of October 2026.

For the other rules on your ads, read real estate advertising rules every agent should know.

Common questions

Updated October 2026. General information for real estate professionals, not legal advice. Rules vary by state, MLS and brokerage, so check with your broker or an attorney before relying on it.