Invoicing for Real Estate Professionals
How agents, brokerages, transaction coordinators and property managers can bill with Billed: one-off invoices for referral fees and services, recurring invoices for monthly fees, and card, PayPal or check payments recorded against each invoice.
Key Takeaways
- Bill one-off work, such as a referral fee or a transaction coordination fee, as a normal invoice with a due date and any supporting document attached.
- Bill fixed monthly charges, such as a desk fee, with a recurring invoice that's sent automatically or saved as a draft for you to check.
- Clients can pay by card through Stripe or through PayPal from the invoice, and you can record checks as offline payments.
- Referral fees between real estate professionals can be restricted by law, so check the rules before you invoice one.
What you can bill with Billed
Real estate professionals send different kinds of invoices. An agent or brokerage may invoice another brokerage for a referral fee after a closing. A brokerage may bill its agents a monthly desk or technology fee. A transaction coordinator bills an agent or brokerage per file, and a listing agent may bill a seller for marketing costs agreed in the listing agreement. A property manager may bill an owner a monthly management fee.
Billed handles each of these as an invoice. You can save the services you bill, such as a desk fee or a coordination fee, and pull them into invoices, set a due date, add discounts and saved tax rates, and attach files to an invoice, such as a referral agreement. For charges that repeat on a schedule, Billed's invoice software page says its recurring invoices let you choose "the billing frequency (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly)," and how many invoices to send or to send them indefinitely. The same page says "Billed creates the invoices automatically and either sends them or saves them as drafts for you to check."
Worked example: a referral fee invoice
These are sample figures. Agent A refers a buyer to Agent B at another brokerage, and the two brokerages agree in writing on a referral fee of 25% of the buyer-side commission. The home sells for 450,000.00, and the buyer-side commission on the closing documents is 2.5%, or 11,250.00. The referral fee is 25% of 11,250.00, which is 2,812.50.
Agent A's brokerage creates an invoice in Billed to Agent B's brokerage with one line: "Referral fee, 25% of buyer-side commission on [property address], closed [date]", 2,812.50. It sets a due date, attaches the signed referral agreement, and sends the invoice by email. If the brokerage has connected Stripe or PayPal, the invoice has a pay button; Billed marks the invoice paid when the client pays by card through Stripe. If the other brokerage pays by check, the payment is recorded as an offline payment, and Billed can send a payment receipt. If it isn't paid by the due date, it shows as past due in Billed's invoice reports, and you can send a payment reminder.
The 25% and 2.5% are examples, not suggested rates. Take the rates from your own agreements and the closing documents.
Worked example: a monthly desk fee
A brokerage charges each agent a desk fee of 250.00 a month (a sample figure). It saves "Desk fee" as a service, creates a recurring invoice for each agent that bills monthly with no end date, and chooses whether each month's invoice is sent automatically or saved as a draft to check first. Billed keeps each recurring profile's invoices and payments together. Any extra charge in a month, such as a one-off transaction fee, goes on a separate invoice.
Referral fees and the law
In the US, Regulation X under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) says: "No person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback or other thing of value pursuant to any agreement or understanding, oral or otherwise, that business incident to or part of a settlement service involving a federally related mortgage loan shall be referred to any person" (12 CFR 1024.14(b), as published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov). Among the exceptions it lists is "A payment pursuant to cooperative brokerage and referral arrangements or agreements between real estate agents and real estate brokers", which it says "refers only to fee divisions within real estate brokerage arrangements when all parties are acting in a real estate brokerage capacity".
State license law and your brokerage's policies can also limit who can pay or receive a referral fee. An invoice doesn't make a fee allowed, so check the rules where you work, and ask your broker or a lawyer if you're not sure.
Monthly charges that change
A recurring invoice bills the same charges on a schedule. If a monthly charge depends on that month's numbers, such as a management fee worked out as a percentage of the rent collected, check each draft before it's sent, or create the invoice each month.
Challenges Real Estate Businesses Face
Referral fees agreed by email with no invoice, so neither brokerage has a clear record of what's owed and when it was paid
Monthly desk or technology fees billed by hand each month, with no easy way to see which agents haven't paid
Transaction coordination fees paid informally, with no invoice showing which property and file they were for
Marketing costs agreed in a listing agreement but never invoiced, with the receipts scattered across email and phones
Tasks and the Billed feature for each
| You bill | In Billed |
|---|---|
| Referral fee | One invoice |
| Desk fee | Recurring invoice |
| Listing costs | Expenses, then invoice |
| Check payment | Offline payment |
Invoicing for Real Estate
Invoices for referral fees and services
Create an invoice with your logo and business details, pull in services you've saved, set a due date and attach supporting files, such as a referral agreement, then send it by email.
Related Invoice Templates
Invoice templates related to this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
When this isn't for you
Does your brokerage or property management system already bill referral fees, coordination fees and monthly charges? Then keep those invoices where they are.
Start Invoicing With Billed
Set up your account and send your first invoice with Billed.