HUD shares Toll's RESPA concerns

"Real estate marketing agreements look a lot like captive reinsurance agreements which looked a lot like sham affiliated business arrangements." --Erin Toll, director of the Colorado Division of Real Estate, speaking at a RESPRO seminar in New Orleans.

RESPRO reports today that "HUD officials share her concerns that marketing agreements as currently implemented violate the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or RESPA."

See Inman News story on the marketing agreement that sparked Toll's interest in the issue.

First American Residential Group Inc. allegedly paid RE/MAX International more than $2.4 million over four years to market and promote First American services to RE/MAX franchisees. RE/MAX sued when First American terminated the agreement because of warnings from Toll about "the potential illegal nature of such agreements," lawyers for First American said.