Is Bird Dogging Ilegal in Texas?

[Luis Herna]

Since launching our website and Facebook group, the number of requests has skyrocketed. Buyers and sellers are lining up for deals. While we primarily focus on the Texas/Oklahoma market, apparently receiving a commission for finding deals or bringing investors without a real estate license could be illegal. What if we charge a consultant or marketing instead of finders fee? Can we avoid any legal litigation here? any advise?

[Evan Polaski]

@Luis Herna, while I am not overly certain about TX's nuances, but they sound similar to Ohio, if you are collecting a commission, whether a fixed amount or a percentage of sales price, you are brokering deals and require a license.

In my market the grey area solution is, like Daniel noted, actually close on the deal in a dual closing transaction, or formally assign the contract with an assignment fee tied to it.  But even this, as noted, is explicitly allowed in Ohio, but rather open to interpretation.