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Ethical "Affiliated Businesses"? Or Bilking & Kickbacks. Title Companies Watch Out!
I don't get something. "Affiliated" businesses and how they are legal.
FIRST OF ALL LETS DEFINE RESPA? 
Respa's website says "RESPA is about closing costs and settlement procedures. RESPA requires that consumers receive disclosures at various times in the transaction and outlaws kickbacks that increase the cost of settlement services."
Could a Realtor that is in "partnership" with a Title company, please help me understand why it is ok to skirt around this law? More frequently I am finding large real estate companies "partnering" with settlement companies and doing so in a manner that technically gets them around the kickback laws.
One AR blog even lists as a reason to join XYZ company:
13.     Does the company own affiliated businesses?
           Do the agents share in this?
So the law was designed to stop Real Estate Agents from getting a $100 or $200 incentive to drive business to a particular Title company. Yet that doesn't stop the "brilliant" realty firms that found a loophole around this.
This is the loophole: 
The agent becomes a tiny % part owner in the settlement company. I don't have the exact details (maybe somebody can post a response and spill the beans) but this part ownership is a legal way for them ... more

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