I have a buyer who is very interested in buying a minor to moderate rehab property for himself to live in. I have a RE agent with a property that may be what he wants. I need some advice on how to handle this deal. If I just hand over the buyer to the RE agent and can she compensate me for the referral? I don't think that's legal. The other senario is that I put the house under contract and then assign the contract to my buyer with a assignment fee built in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Your going to have to put the house under contract and assign it to your buyer, like you mentioned to get paid. Since he's not looking to flip the home you should be able to profit without it being your typical wholesale deal.
I would still try and negotiate a better price so when the guy see's it on the MLS or see's the flyer he doesn't think you "screwed" him. Retail buyers don't have the same mentality as investors and typically don't like people making money on a deal.
Jeff is right, you're going to have to put it under contract and then assign it or do a simultaneous closing.
Legally a licensed agent can't pay you a referral fee unless you are a licensed agent as well. I'm sure this may be determined what your state laws say and I'm sure you or they could call it a "marketing" fee or something else to get away with it tho. :-)