How To Do Performance Based Real Estate Lead Gen Legally?

matt3

Member
Jun 15, 2009
660
9
18
Curious how you guys would set this up... Apparently any referral based commish to non licensed brokers is illegal for commercial leasing. I'm not well versed in commercial real estate.

So far I have:
  • Flat cpl (sucks because some deals are 2k, some 40k)
  • New Corp, sales based marketing consultant for percentage of overall sales

I'm sure there are creative options I'm not thinking of, or don't have experience with.

What would you do?

Inb4 go see an attorney... What is the right type of attorney to inquire about structuring this properly? (RE, Internet, OP is a peasant - better Arron Kelley up ho??)


TIA!
 


Have them give you a gift?

Repeatedly for the next few years?

I think that would be a great idea for a one off deal. However, I'd like to make this a long term partnership, and be conscious of any repercussions for the licensees.
 
Yep, all deals I've seen this way for real estate and legal were to do marketing expenses rather than straight up leads. However, if you are serious about commercial RE just get licensed so you can set yourself apart.
 
Adjustable marketing budget. If client owes your X, next monthly's budget increases by X. Something along those lines... You can figure it out from here. (Don't forget to run it past a lawyer)

Carry on...​

is indenting your text the cool thing to do so people can recognize it's you right away?
 
emV4Hl1.jpg
 
I'm working with licensed brokers... That's the problem. If they get caught paying referral fees to non licensed persons, their license can get revoked.

It's legal to buy leads at a flat cpl. It is not legal to pay a company or individual a percentage of a sale (I.e.- a referral fee) So, this is where the performance based stuff gets gray. To me it's not a referral fee the way I would structure it. But from what I hear, if they get audited by the organization that governs licenses, this can be a big deal.

Have them pay me for traffic? I'm not following you here... (Wouldn't that be flat cpl?)
 
You structure it as a "marketing fee" which realtors are allowed to pay (like a newspaper ad or a billboard would be), The problem that arises, is if you are doing it as a %, which looks more like a fee-split with a non-licensed realtor (a big no-no in their world, main reason they get busted), so it's best to avoid doing it as a %, and just charge a once-a-month marketing-fee that is the equivalent of what your revshare % dollar-amount would have been.

Alot easier to do if you trust the realtor a lot, as its easy for them to burn you, but you always have the hole-card to play of reporting them for inappropriate fee-splitting arrangements to their local licensing board
 
Have you considered becoming a licensed broker? If there is a lot of money to be made here it may be worth it.
 
Good luck getting a large fee. Most leads take months if not years to close. Just charge a per lead fee or a monthly fee for a certain amount of leads.

BTW most agents suck at internet lead closing. Work with people that already have a pipeline system in place.
 
Ive looked into this model a bunch, and whether it be legal or real estate, you can't be paid the referral fee. It must be a licensed individual. Now how he pays you I don't know.

Rusky is right, the model is a pain in the ass.

Only way I have ever seen it work is where the individual paying your the referral fee is a client already. Trust is big in the model you suggest.