Frequently asked questions.

A broker of record is the licensed individual or entity legally responsible for supervising all real estate activity conducted under a brokerage's license. Every state requires one. The title varies — designated broker, employing broker, broker in charge, managing broker, principal broker, qualifying broker — but the role is the same: hold the license, supervise the activity, sign off on the compliance.

If your company buys, sells, leases, or facilitates real estate transactions in a state, you typically need an active broker of record in that state. Operating without one exposes the company to fines, cease-and-desist orders, license suspension, and in some states, criminal penalties.

Three common triggers:

1. You're expanding into a new state. Standing up your own licensed brokerage entity in a state takes months. License Link can build it faster than you can do it in-house.
2. You're a non-brokerage business that needs a licensed brokerage layer to operate. Common for title companies, mortgage lenders, home equity platforms, iBuyers, proptech platforms, lead generation services, and corporate real estate teams.
3. You're between brokers. Your current broker of record is leaving and you need continuity coverage to keep the brokerage operating without lapse.

Mostly terminology. "Broker of record" is the colloquial term used across the industry; "designated broker" is the specific term used by Texas, Arizona, Washington, and several other states. "Employing broker" is the Colorado term. "Broker in charge" is South Carolina. "Principal broker" is Oregon. "Managing broker" is used in Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, and elsewhere.

The license-holding role is conceptually the same across all these terms — only the regulatory label changes.

No. We don't take property management engagements, and we don't intend to.

Property management is a distinct regulatory and operational discipline that involves trust-fund liability, lease administration, tenant litigation exposure, and a very different compliance profile from transactional brokerage work. We've made a deliberate choice to focus on transaction-heavy operators — title, mortgage, lending, home equity platforms, iBuyers, proptech, lead generation, institutional investment, corporate real estate, and commercial transactions — where our experience and infrastructure are best suited. For property management broker-of-record needs, we refer to specialized providers.

We serve six broad segments:

1. Title, Mortgage & Lending — title agencies, mortgage lenders, home equity investment platforms, and other settlement service providers needing RESPA-aware brokerage support.
2. PropTech & Real Estate Software — software platforms, listing platforms, agent workflow tools, and AI-native real estate products needing the licensed brokerage layer.
3. Institutional Investment & Operations — iBuyers, institutional SFR, BTR developers, short-term rental operators at scale, and fractional ownership platforms.
4. Corporate Real Estate — multi-state corporate teams expanding their real estate footprint.
5. Capital Markets & Commercial — PE-owned RE operations, M&A advisors, development companies, and commercial brokers needing cross-state coverage.
6. Lead Generation & Referral Platforms — platforms operating in the lead-routing and referral space, where RESPA-aware structural work is load-bearing.

The unifying thread is transactional real estate work at any scale, across any state, with audit-ready compliance posture.

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) governs how settlement service providers — title companies, mortgage lenders, real estate brokers, and others — interact, refer business, and structure financial arrangements. Section 8 of RESPA prohibits unearned fees and kickbacks. Affiliated Business Arrangements have specific disclosure and structural requirements.

For a title company, mortgage lender, home equity platform, lead-gen platform, or other settlement-services-adjacent operator that needs licensed brokerage support, structuring that relationship without triggering a RESPA violation matters a great deal. License Link builds brokerage arrangements designed to slot into RESPA-compliant operations rather than around them.

We are not legal counsel; complex RESPA questions should be reviewed by qualified attorneys familiar with your specific situation.

Lead generation platforms — including agent-matching services, mortgage marketplaces, AI-driven lead routers, and real estate-adjacent fintech tools — face specific RESPA and state-licensing exposure that generic broker-of-record providers often don't address.

License Link supports this segment with structural attention to how the platform is licensed, how compensation flows between the platform and the parties it routes to, and how state-by-state lead-aggregation rules apply. We work with your counsel on the structural design rather than retrofitting a generic broker-of-record arrangement that doesn't fit the operating model.

This is a segment where the regulatory environment is less well-trodden than retail residential brokerage, and the wrong structure can convert a SaaS revenue model into a RESPA exposure. We've operated in this space and know what holds up.

Sometimes, depending on the state and the structure of the deal. The cleanest path is usually a cooperative arrangement with a licensed broker in the target state, structured in a way that respects each state's cross-broker cooperation rules and protects all parties' licensure status. License Link can help structure that arrangement and place the appropriate licensed broker.

The exact mechanics depend on the state and the transaction; we walk through what's possible during a scoping conversation.

Not directly. License Link does not operate a national listing brokerage that takes REO inventory across states.

Where we can help is when a bank, servicer, or institutional asset manager wants to stand up their own licensed brokerage to manage dispositions in-house. We build and operate that brokerage on their behalf — entity formation, broker of record placement, MLS memberships, written policies, and ongoing compliance supervision — and we can manage disposition activity through that licensed structure once it's running.

If you're looking for a brokerage to take REO listings directly under its own license, that's a different model than ours.

Title companies that want to add a brokerage arm — or that want to support a parent's real estate operations under license — face a specific challenge: structuring the brokerage relationship so it doesn't violate RESPA's referral and unearned-fee rules.

License Link builds the licensed brokerage entity for the title company in each state, with one of our licensed brokers placed as the supervising broker of record. The title company maintains its independence as a settlement service provider; the brokerage entity is operationally and financially separate. We work with your counsel to document the arrangement, structure the financial relationship (including any compliant Affiliated Business Arrangement or Marketing Services Agreement), and maintain ongoing operational separation.

Similar structural considerations apply. Mortgage lenders that want to facilitate real estate transactions adjacent to their lending business need brokerage coverage that fits inside RESPA. License Link builds the licensed brokerage entity for the lender; the mortgage lending business operates as a separate settlement service provider with appropriate disclosures and financial separation.

We help mortgage lenders expand their service footprint without inheriting brokerage operations directly, while keeping the RESPA perimeter clean.

Most iBuyer, SFR institutional, and BTR operators touch real estate transactions in ways that legally require licensed brokerage activity in each state they operate. MLS data feeds, RESO records, and transaction execution all flow through active brokerages.

License Link builds and operates the licensed brokerage entity that sits underneath your operation. For high-volume operators, we can also run the operational machinery — listings, acquisitions, MLS memberships, supervisory documentation — through the licensed structure we maintain for you.

Short-term rental and fractional ownership platforms acquire and dispose of properties in ways that require licensed brokerage activity. License Link supports the acquisition and disposition side for these operators across the states they operate in.

We do not cover the property management side. STR and fractional operations often include property management activity (managing bookings, tenants, owner relations); for that piece you'll want a specialized PM broker. Your licensed brokerage covers the transactional layer cleanly while the management piece sits separately.

Onboarding timelines depend on the state and on the complexity of the arrangement. Some states with reciprocity and streamlined registration can be activated in a few weeks. Others with mandatory pre-license education, exams, and entity-formation timelines can take longer.

We give honest, state-specific timelines during scoping rather than a generic claim. The realistic envelope is 3–10 weeks for most states once paperwork is in motion, not 3–10 business days.

Yes. In many engagements, the client company already has agents who hold their own licenses; License Link places a supervising broker, builds written policies and procedures, runs periodic audits, and maintains ongoing oversight. The agents work under the supervising broker of record's supervision in compliance with state law.

This is real supervision — not a name on a license. State commissions expect actual oversight, and that's what we provide.

An MSA is a written agreement under which one party (often a real estate brokerage) provides marketing services to another (often a settlement service provider like a title or mortgage company) in exchange for fair-market-value compensation. Properly structured MSAs are permitted under RESPA; improperly structured MSAs can be construed as illegal referral arrangements.

The key compliance factors are: (1) the services actually performed must be real and substantive, (2) the compensation must reflect fair market value rather than referral volume, and (3) the arrangement must be documented in a way that survives regulatory scrutiny. Recent CFPB and state enforcement actions have made MSAs a higher-risk arrangement than they used to be; consult counsel before structuring one.

A standby broker is a licensed broker designated to step in if the seated broker of record becomes unavailable — through resignation, illness, license issue, or other interruption. State commissions don't tolerate brokerage operations without an active supervising broker; if your sole broker steps away, the entire brokerage is non-compliant until coverage is restored.

License Link's Broker Assurance Plan maintains standby coverage as a contractual continuity service, so a personnel change never puts the brokerage at risk.

"Renting a license" — also called a courtesy license or paper broker arrangement — typically means a broker lets a company use their license in exchange for a fee, without providing genuine supervision. These arrangements often violate state real estate commission rules and can result in license suspension for the broker and cease-and-desist orders for the company.

License Link builds and operates a real licensed brokerage for the client, with actual supervision: written policies and procedures, periodic compliance audits, agent training, complaint response, and direct accountability to state regulators. State commissions can distinguish between paper arrangements and genuine supervisory relationships; we operate firmly in the second category.

Yes. Corporate and brokerage entity formation in any state — including registered agent service, ongoing maintenance, and the regulatory filings required to keep the entity in good standing — is part of what we do. We can form just the entity if that's what you need, or roll it into a full licensing and supervision engagement.

We don't do property management broker-of-record work — across any segment, at any scale. We don't represent individual home buyers or sellers as a retail brokerage. We don't operate as legal counsel — RESPA and state real estate commission issues should be reviewed by your attorneys. We don't sell financial products, originate loans, or provide title insurance. We don't take equity-for-services engagements in lieu of cash compensation. We don't take engagements that would compromise the regulatory perimeter we operate within.

All 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The depth of activity varies by state — some states are core markets where we run substantial transaction volume; others are coverage states maintained for client expansion. We can give you state-specific operational detail during scoping.

Reach out through the contact page for a scoping conversation. The first call covers the regulatory perimeter you operate within, which states you need coverage in, what your structure needs to look like, and what timeline you're working against. We share an honest assessment of fit before we pitch an engagement.