What Hard Money Referral Programs Actually Pay
If you send investor clients to a hard money lender, you have probably been offered a “referral program.” What you have probably not been offered is a number.
Most programs in this category advertise the relationship and hide the compensation until you are in a conversation. That is a deliberate choice, and it works, because it is hard to compare something you cannot see. So we went and collected the ones that do publish, and put them side by side.
What published programs pay
These are figures the lenders themselves publish on their own websites, as of August 2026. Verify them before you rely on them — programs change, and the terms attached to a headline rate change more often than the rate does.
| Lender | Program | Published rate |
|---|---|---|
| Accolend | Realtor referral | 0.15% of loan amount |
| Accolend | Broker program | 1–2% of loan amount |
| Easy Street Capital | Real estate agent referral | 0.50% per closed DSCR loan |
| The Hard Money Co. | Referral program | $750 flat per funded referral |
Two things jump out.
The spread is enormous. On a $400,000 loan, 0.15% is $600 and 2% is $8,000. Same introduction, same work on your side, thirteen times the difference. If you have been accepting the first program you were offered, that is what it may have cost you.
Percentage and flat-fee programs cross over. A $750 flat fee beats 0.15% on any loan under $500,000, and loses on anything above it. If your clients buy small residential investment property, flat may serve you better. If they buy multifamily, percentage almost certainly does.
The headline rate is not the deal
A published percentage tells you less than you would think. Four things move the real value more than the rate does.
1. Is it capped?
A generous percentage with a low cap is a flat fee wearing a costume. “Up to 2%” with a $2,500 ceiling is a $2,500 program the moment your loans exceed $125,000. Ask for the cap in writing. If the answer is vague, treat it as capped.
2. Who actually pays it?
This matters more than the number. Compensation paid from the lender’s side costs your client nothing. Compensation added to the borrower’s closing costs is your client paying for your referral — and they will eventually work that out.
Ask directly: “Does this come out of the borrower’s costs, or yours?” A program that cannot answer plainly is answering.
3. What happens to your client afterwards?
This is the one almost nobody checks, and it is worth more than any percentage point.
When you refer a borrower, does that lender then market to them directly? Do they solicit the next deal without you? If the agreement is silent, assume yes — and it is not hard to find people in this industry stating openly that they consider a referred borrower fair game afterwards.
Run the arithmetic. A 2% program that takes your client is worth one payment. A 0.5% program that returns them to you on every future deal is worth a payment every time that investor buys, and investors buy repeatedly. The lower rate wins on any horizon longer than a single transaction.
Ask for the non-solicitation clause. Ask how long it lasts. Ask what your remedy is if it is breached. Get all three in writing. Here is ours, for comparison.
4. What is the actual close rate?
A high rate on deals that never fund is worth nothing. A lender who declines most of what you send, or who takes months, is expensive regardless of the percentage — because every dead file cost you a client relationship you spent years building.
What we pay
We will publish our own number on the fee schedule rather than make you ask for it. It is not there yet, and we are not going to invent one to look good in a comparison table we wrote ourselves.
What we can state now is the rule behind it: our compensation never exceeds yours on a deal you bring. If a lender pays less than expected on a transaction, the shortfall comes off our side before it comes off yours. That is a term of the partner agreement, not a courtesy.
And the second one, which we think matters more: your borrower stays yours, including when they come back to us directly on a later deal. That is written down, it survives the transaction, and it is published in full.
Before you sign anything
- Get the rate and the cap, in writing
- Confirm who pays it — the lender, or your client
- Read the non-solicitation clause, or confirm there isn’t one
- Ask what happens if your borrower contacts them directly next year
- Check your own licensing obligations and your brokerage’s policy on outside referral compensation before accepting any of it
That last point is not boilerplate. Referral compensation rules differ by state and by what kind of licence you hold, and a business-purpose loan on non-owner-occupied investment property is treated differently from consumer credit. Confirm your position before the money is on the table, not after.