RESPA Section 8 for Agents and Property Managers: 2026 Rules

RESPA Section 8 makes it illegal to give or accept anything of value for referring business tied to a federally related mortgage loan, and illegal to split a settlement fee with someone who did no real work.¹ Agents can still split commissions with other brokers, get paid fair value for work they actually do, and own part of a lender or title company if they follow the affiliated business rules.¹² Leasing commissions and management fees are generally outside RESPA, but state license laws often reach referral payments that RESPA does not.

What RESPA covers, and what it does not

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act is codified at 12 U.S.C. 2601 and following, and the CFPB implements it through Regulation X, 12 CFR part 1024. Both apply to "federally related mortgage loans," subject to listed exemptions.³ That term covers a loan secured by a lien on residential property designed for one to four families (condo and co-op units included) with a federal hook: a federally regulated or insured lender, federal insurance or assistance, intended sale to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae, or a creditor making more than $1,000,000 a year in residential loans.⁴ Almost every ordinary home purchase or refinance with a mortgage qualifies.

"Settlement services" include "services rendered by a real estate agent or broker," plus title work, appraisals, inspections, attorneys and loan origination.⁴ Regulation X adds homeowner's warranties and hazard insurance. The limit is in the definition's first line: a settlement service is one "provided in connection with a prospective or actual settlement," and settlement means executing documents "regarding a lien on property that is subject to a federally related mortgage loan."⁵

Sales agents vs property managers: where RESPA applies

For a sales agent, RESPA is a daily rule. Brokerage services are named settlement services, and agents sit at the center of the referral chain for lenders, title companies, inspectors and home warranty companies.⁴

For a property manager, the analysis starts from the definitions. Nothing in them treats a residential lease, a management agreement or a tenant placement fee as a service connected to the settlement of a mortgage lien.⁵ That is why leasing, management and renewal fees, and vendor arrangements like renters insurance referrals, are generally not RESPA questions.

That does not make a management company RESPA-proof. Section 8 says "no person" may give or accept a referral payment, and the CFPB's FAQs confirm it applies to any person, including corporations and partnerships.¹⁷ The referral only has to involve settlement service business on a federally related mortgage loan.² Managers walk into RESPA in a few common ways: a lender pays the firm for each tenant sent over for a home loan; the firm's brokerage side sells an owner's rental to a financed buyer; or an association manager steers buyers to a title company or lender and takes something in return. Owner refinances on non-owner-occupied rentals are usually business-purpose loans and exempt.⁶

Section 8(a): no paying or taking anything for referrals

The rule: "No person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback, or thing of value" under an agreement or understanding that settlement service business involving a federally related mortgage loan "shall be referred to any person."¹ Regulation X adds that a referral "is not a compensable service" and that a company may not pay another company or its employees for referrals.²

The definitions are broad. A thing of value includes money, discounts, stock, trips, services "at special or free rates," payment of another person's expenses, and rent based on the business referred. An agreement need not be written or spoken; it can be shown by "a practice, pattern or course of conduct." A referral is any action that "has the effect of affirmatively influencing the selection" of a provider by someone who pays for the service.² Regulation X's own example: a credit bureau that gives a lender a free fax machine in exchange for referrals violates Section 8, and so would copiers or printers.⁸

Gifts and events. The CFPB's Section 8 FAQs, issued October 7, 2020, say tickets, trips, meals or sponsorships given to referral sources in exchange for referrals violate Section 8(a), and "there is no exception to RESPA Section 8 solely based on the value of the gift or promotion."⁷ Regulation X does allow "normal promotional and educational activities" that are not conditioned on referrals and do not pay expenses the referral source would otherwise carry.² The FAQs apply that to agents directly. A title company charging all local agents fair market value for a continuing education course is more likely fine. Waiving the fee for agents who send referrals is likely not, and waiving it for every agent still likely fails because it pays a license expense.⁷ Gifts to consumers for their own business are generally allowed; rewarding a consumer for referring others is not.⁷

Section 8(b): splitting fees for no real work

Section 8(b) bars giving or accepting "any portion, split, or percentage of any charge" for a settlement service "other than for services actually performed."¹ Regulation X treats a charge for "no or nominal services" or a duplicative fee as unearned.² In Freeman v. Quicken Loans (May 24, 2012), a unanimous Supreme Court held that an 8(b) plaintiff "must demonstrate that a charge for settlement services was divided between two or more persons."⁹ A fee one company keeps for itself is not an 8(b) split.

Home warranties are the classic agent example. HUD's 2010 interpretive rule says a warranty company may pay an agent only for services that are actual, necessary and distinct from normal brokerage work, and not nominal or duplicative. Pitching a warranty to particular buyers or sellers, or handing out the company's brochures at an open house, is a referral, and paying for it violates Section 8.¹⁰ Inspection-type work, such as recording serial numbers and photographing covered items, may be compensable.¹⁰

The Section 8(c) exceptions agents rely on

Cooperative brokerage. Section 8(c)(3) protects "payments pursuant to cooperative brokerage and referral arrangements or agreements between real estate agents and brokers."¹ That is why a broker-to-broker relocation referral fee is legal under RESPA. Regulation X limits it to fee divisions "when all parties are acting in a real estate brokerage capacity" and excludes arrangements between real estate brokers and mortgage brokers.²

Payment for real work. Section 8(c)(2) permits payment "for goods or facilities actually furnished or for services actually performed."¹ If a payment bears no reasonable relationship to market value, the excess is not payment for services and can be evidence of a violation, and the value of the referrals "is not to be taken into account." An agent paid for an extra settlement service in the same deal must perform services that are "actual, necessary and distinct" from the agent's primary work.²

Your own employees. Regulation X permits "an employer's payment to its own employees for any referral activities."² But if an affiliate reimburses those bonuses, or pays your staff directly, that violates Section 8.⁸

Affiliated business arrangements. These exist when a person in a position to refer, or an associate, has an affiliate relationship with, or more than a 1 percent ownership interest in, a settlement service provider and refers business to it.⁴ Regulation X names real estate brokers and agents as persons in a position to refer.¹¹ The exemption has three conditions:¹¹¹

• Disclosure in the Appendix D format, on a separate piece of paper, describing the relationship and ownership percentage and estimating the provider's charges. It is due at or before a face-to-face, written or electronic referral. For phone referrals, the statute allows the written form within 3 business days, with a short verbal disclosure on the call.
• No required use of the affiliate.
• Only a return on ownership or franchise relationship, beyond otherwise permitted payments.

The Appendix D form tells consumers "YOU ARE FREE TO SHOP AROUND" and includes a signed acknowledgment.¹² Regulation X excludes any payment that varies with each owner's relative referrals. Its illustrations contrast dividends paid by share count, which are permitted, with dividends paid by business referred, which violate Section 8.¹¹⁸ Keep disclosure records 5 years.¹¹ States may impose stricter rules on these arrangements without being preempted.¹

Marketing services agreements and where the CFPB stands in 2026

A marketing services agreement (MSA) is a deal in which one company pays another, often a brokerage, to market its services. Federal guidance on MSAs has moved more than on any other Section 8 topic.

The 2020 FAQs are the CFPB's current view. MSAs "are not, by themselves, prohibited acts under RESPA or Regulation X." A lawful MSA pays for marketing actually performed, at a price "reasonably related to the market value of the provided services only." A referral is directed to a person, such as handing a client another provider's contact card; marketing is "generally targeted at a wide audience," such as a newspaper or website ad. An MSA is unlawful if it pays for referrals, pays above market value, pays for nominal or unperformed work, or disguises a kickback.⁷ Courts take the same market-value approach. In PHH Corp. v. CFPB, the panel held that Section 8 permits the captive reinsurance arrangement at issue if payments do not exceed reasonable market value, and the en banc court reinstated that holding on January 31, 2018.¹⁵

How MSAs go wrong. In a January 2017 action, the CFPB found that a mortgage lender paid real estate brokers fixed monthly MSA fees, from a few hundred dollars to over $20,000, while tracking each broker's "capture rate" of mortgage business and lowering or ending payments when it fell.¹⁹ The lender paid a $3.5 million civil penalty, and two brokers and a servicer paid a combined $495,000.²⁰

The 2023 platform opinion. It says a comparison-shopping platform operator takes an illegal referral fee when it non-neutrally uses or presents information about participating providers, that steers consumers, and the operator is paid at least partly for it. A higher fee from one participant can be evidence of a referral fee. A neutral display, such as ranking lenders by APR, is compensable, and a "warm handoff" of a consumer to the first lender that responds is a referral.¹⁶ Brokerages that buy or sell leads, or run "preferred provider" pages, should read it.

Status check. The May 12, 2025 withdrawal notice said the withdrawal "is not necessarily final" and that the CFPB would deprioritize enforcement of withdrawn guidance. It withdrew Circular 2024-01 on steering by digital intermediaries but not the 2023 RESPA opinion.¹⁸ The CFPB's withdrawn guidance page, last modified July 22, 2026, does not list the opinion, and its own page carries no withdrawal notice.¹⁴¹⁷ We found no later withdrawal in the Federal Register through October 7, 2026. The regulation itself has not moved: 12 CFR 1024.14 and 1024.15 show no amendments since January 1, 2017, where eCFR's version history begins.²¹

Penalties

Treble damages run on the whole settlement charge, not the size of the kickback.¹ "An error of legal judgment" is not a bona fide error.¹¹ The CFPB said in 2025 it is cutting its own enforcement to statutorily required areas, but private suits and state enforcement are written into the statute.¹⁸¹

State license law: paying people who are not licensed

RESPA's broker exception says nothing about unlicensed people, and RESPA does not reach leasing. State license laws fill both gaps.

• New York. Real Property Law § 442 bars a broker from paying any part of a commission for "any service, help or aid" in "buying, selling, exchanging, leasing, renting or negotiating a loan" unless the recipient is an associated licensed salesperson, a licensed broker, or a person regularly in the brokerage business in another state. A broker may share compensation with the buyer, seller, landlord or tenant in the deal, but not for licensed activity.²³
• Texas. Occupations Code § 1101.651(a) bars a broker from compensating anyone "directly or indirectly for performing an act of a broker" unless the person is a license holder or an out-of-state broker who does not negotiate in Texas. Broker acts include procuring "a prospect to effect the sale, exchange, or lease of real estate" and controlling rent collection from a single-family resident.²⁴
• Florida. Statutes § 475.25(1)(h) allows discipline of a licensee who pays an unlicensed person "for the referral of real estate business, clients, prospects, or customers," with an exception for brokers licensed elsewhere. Sanctions reach $5,000 per count, suspension up to 10 years, or revocation.²⁵

For managers, this is usually where the risk sits. A gift card to a tenant for referring a new tenant, a finder's fee to a contractor who sends an owner, or a split with an unlicensed lead source can be fine under RESPA and still violate state license law. See /states before launching any referral program.

What to do now

• List every payment, gift, desk rental and co-marketing deal with lenders, title companies, home warranty companies and insurers, and flag the ones tied to financed 1 to 4 family sales.
• For each, write down the service performed and how it was priced. If the price depends on referrals, end it.
• Keep MSAs in writing, priced at market rates, with proof of the marketing work. Never let a partner track its "capture rate" of your clients.
• Decline referral-linked gifts, trips, sponsorships and free license-required continuing education. No dollar amount makes them safe.
• For any ownership stake over 1 percent in a provider, use Appendix D on a separate page at or before each referral, never require use, pay returns by share only, and keep records 5 years.
• Confirm broker-to-broker referral fees go to licensed brokers acting as brokers.
• Check tenant and owner referral programs against your state license law.
• Train leasing staff that a lender offering to pay per tenant referred for a home loan is a RESPA problem, and add it to vendor onboarding.
• Put an annual review on your compliance calendar and recheck the CFPB's withdrawn guidance page.

For other federal rules see /federal, and for buyer broker pay after the NAR settlement see /guides/nar-settlement-rules-agents-2026. This article explains the rules and is not legal advice.